Yesterday (or actually two days ago now, if I end up finishing writing this post tonight) marked a year since I got an R5 as the successor for my 7D. Its funny how, earlier this evening, I'd been wondering: "Hah... I wonder what day exactly it was that I got my new camera last new year... I'm sure it was around this time of year-ish"
This is a follow-up to my earlier posts a week in, and a few months in.
Key Points:
* Overall, I ended up filling 2x 256GBmemory cards (give or take) this year with this camera - Which also means, I've quickly burned through half a TB of disk storage (vs under/around 150 GB a year previously)... More on this in a bit
* By and large, it has now ended up becoming my daily driver. While initially it was just to get used to it under different lighting conditions, later the increased image quality + better performance in a wide range of lighting conditions was a major drawcard.
* I've been on two multi-day trips with this camera now, so can say quite a bit more about how it handles for such usage
* In terms of battery life - I've got a total of 3 batteries, though in practice, I've only really needed 2 (with the third coming into its on those occasions where I'm too lazy to charge the one in use (and forgot to charge the other one, which had gone flat a while earlier). For typical cycles, they usually average around 400-600 (centered around 550 ish), though sometimes that figure can be as high as 1100 - 1300. Lowest would've been around 250 - 300 ish.
* The improved light gathering capabilities have really come in handy with the increased major Aurora storms this past year, meaning that I've been able to see + capture Aurorae for the first time in my life
Main Learnings Since My Last Update
* 1) Ultimately, I've had to disable that ISO wheel (i.e. the mode selector dial). It's happened twice that I've been in a hurry to take a few quick snaps in some low-light / marginal lighting scenario, only to find that the camera really struggling with exposure (i.e. pathetically slow shutter speeds, which cause lotsa problems), and then only finding out like half-way through those shoots that the ISO had gotten bumped from Auto to like 100-ish. Argh!
Unfortunately, this has proven to be too much of an unreliable footgun, so I've had to disable it. The downside though is that I can't just enable it again when in Manual Mode (which is really the only place I'd really use it), OR have it so that it only triggers after I've locked the other parts of the exposure
* 2) When getting storage-strapped, it's better to just shoot video footage, as those files are relatively smaller while offering more bang for buck (i.e. they will capture the general ambience even better, by being able include sound and more than a single vantage point per file, thus better capturing the experience)
* 2b) However, there are 3 major limitations to the video recording capabilities that make me kindof hate using it:
i) The video auto-focus is extremely unreliable. Everything in the scene can be static, but suddenly it will just randomly decide to refocus on something the background, then start tracking that... Thus, while you might start the clip in focus, it randomly go *out* of focus, rendering the entire video just a completely blurry OOF useless was of space. This *HAS* unfortunately spoiled a whole bunch of videos that I thought I'd done a good job to line up and capture...
Oh, and the only way to refocus is to use the rear LCD screen. You cannot use the usual thumb-joystick to direct where the camera focusses (i.e. to quickly correct the focal point that got lost due to the random focus loss bugs). This is quite annoying as having AF during video recording was a major factor for why I decided to go with a mirrorless camera
ii) There is an annoying "lockout period" after using the video record function. As a result, for about 2-10 seconds after stopping video recording, you cannot take any further still snaps anymore. This again *HAS RESULTED IN QUITE A FEW LOST SHOTS*
Even more infuriating is that then it's still not always 100% clear whether recording has actually started or not, causing a bunch of clips to also get not-recorded as expected
iii) The stupid situation with needing to either be in "C3" mode (or to toggle between the "Stills" modes and the "Video" modes) to be able to set a whole bunch of the settings that would be used the next time the Record button is pressed. Oh, and you need to use those modes to be able to configure what you want your white balance or exposure to be - i.e. instead of taking what you were using as the basis for any video you record when pressed the Record button, it instead always defaults to what is stored in those modes...
Thus, many of my videos now include a 1-2 second intro section where the wrong exposure is used (and while I can't adjust the white balance easily, so they all just ended up being tinted in the way I prefer to reduce blue casts in exchange for greater warmth)
* 3) My wireless remote work does work with this camera too. (I wasn't sure if it would)
That said, but unless I remember incorrectly, you can only really use it when you've put the AF Drive mode in Timer / remote-control one, which by necessity ha a time delay on it.
* 4) I end up spending a lot of time cycling the rear LCD on and off. I've found that ultimately, I do end up shooting using that instead of the EVF, especially when taking shots from moving vehicles, as it's a bit quicker to line up shots without the EVF blinking on and off at critical moments (and also, allows pulling the LCD out at an angle for more convenient viewing in some cases - namely when shooting stuff that's close to the ground.
As a result, I'm a lot better at being able to blindly point this camera at a target, adjust the zoom, and then take a bunch of quick snaps in succession (while not being able to see what's going on due to BOTH screens not unlocking / rebooting in time), and with surprisingly good accuracy most of the time. This problem of having to wait for the camera to reboot from sleep is a major pain with this camera when doing random occasional snaps throughout a car ride or something
* 5) For rear LCD shooting, you really need to disable the Image Review period, while when using the EVF you want it set to show (otherwise quickly checking if the exposure was OK is a major muscle-memory tease. That it can't remember / let me decide separately for the two modes is a pain.
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