Way Too Soon: A Canon EOS R5 Mark III Wishlist

Yeah, this. I can shoot a wedding on two batteries on my mk2 - that can be 5,000 images, easy. And the active cooling in it is pretty good.
I know for video shooters, they want more, but for photos it's a masterpiece.
It does crash and the focus needs an update, but we're one firmware update from perfection.
Overall, I agree. I would still like a few improvements across all Canon cameras such as a screen that flips up and not just out and up. Having a screen that flips up would be nice for macro work.
 
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Canon haven't been prompt to move to "new" standards. They could have avoided a lot of the "overheating" issues in the R5 if they used v2.1 standard and have external recording avoiding the need to use the CFe card slot heaters.

CFe v4 is also not needed for speed - unless the standard provides some level of lower heat generation which I think is unlikely.

Page 1187 of the advanced user guide shows that 8k30raw (8k60 light raw) "only" needs 400MB/sec and higher. Even if the R5iii had 8k60 raw then it still wouldn't exceed the 1400MB/s sustained write speed of the current fast CFe v2 cards. Mind you, the capacity of the cards would need to be huge and expensive. Cheaper to have external recording eg USB-C thunderbolt 4 drives in that case.
If the card can write the data more rapidly, then it should be inactive for longer periods of time in between files. That should allow more time for the card to cool down.
 
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Thanks for your thoughts. My calculation is (shooting in cRAW):
Picture size ca. 50 MB
Transfer ratę 2.0 (sustained): 1500 MB/s
That would allow for 30 fps, which is precisely what the R5II is capable of with electronic shutter. There must be some penalty for file system overhead etc. With the current 4.0 standard 30 fps should be absolutely doable, however. Maybe I have gotten some numbers wrong, so please correct me if so.

Even without CFexpress 4.0 I would expect a premium body to write to two cards in parallel.

Another point, though, was how the body handles buffer full situations. Instead of throttling it just pauses.
TL:DR shooting cRaw @ 30fps iss 228 images (~7 seconds) with 134 seconds to empty the buffer. How long are you shooting bursts?
If you want unlimited continuous shooting then I suggest you shoot 8k30 raw with fast shutter speed and use frame grabs.

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For the R5 (I could't find the R5ii comparison) mechanical shutter (14 bit). The file size is approximate and influenced by a number of factors.
The R5 ES is 12 bit but R5ii ES is 14 bit.
RAW: 47.5MB
CRAW: 22.3MB
JPEG: 12.4MB
HEIF: 13.1MB
The buffer/grtansfer rate/write speed is potentially double for cRaw vs raw.
Yes, there would be an overhead for conversion to cRaw (or jpg/heif) but when you consider that the raw image is already processed for viewing in the rear screen or EVF or for AF processing then I assume that the overhead for conversion would not be significant.

The Digital Picture's R5ii review said the following:
The Lexar 1TB card allowed the R5 II to continuously capture 161 images, for an over 5 second duration, and the buffer was fully written to the card in 10 seconds. A Nextorage 512GB B2 SE card enabled 155 continuously captured images in each test, and the buffer completed writing in 14 seconds. A Sabrent 1TB card enabled 157 continuously captured images in each test, and the buffer completed writing in about 11 seconds. Those are best-case numbers, and we don't create black images
With an exposure and scene creating a considerable amount of detail, the R5 II continuously captured 95-122 images at 30 fps, still meeting or exceeding its rating.
Need a deeper RAW buffer? Shoot in the CRAW format. Using the lexar card, the R5 II continuously shoots at 30 fps for 228 CRAW frames with a black image (14 seconds to empty the buffer) and for 214-228 frames with a detailed image.

The R5/R5ii does record in parallel (excluding high data rate video) but limited to the slowest card ie the USH-II SD card. Moving to dual CFe cards removes this limitation.
 
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TL:DR shooting cRaw @ 30fps iss 228 images (~7 seconds) with 134 seconds to empty the buffer. How long are you shooting bursts?
If you want unlimited continuous shooting then I suggest you shoot 8k30 raw with fast shutter speed and use frame grabs.
As ever, it's about balancing the system: we have internal bandwidth, CFe interface bandwidth, processing power, and battery consumption {edit:} and likely more.

Converting the RAW image data (as in: from the uncompressed internal format - straight out of the sensor) to even the losslessly compressed .CR3 images costs computational power and battery power. cRAW and HEIF/JPG even more so. But storing the now smaller compressed images to the CFe or SD card will cost less power than the larger CR3 image (less data = less toggles = less power). It also costs less bandwidth & time to store a smaller image on the memory card.
However, the CFe interface bandwidth may not be the limiting factor. Only Canon knows what the limiting factor is, but my suspicion is on the processing power.

In Ye Goode Olde Days, the rule of thumb was that a 1 MIPS cpu needed 1 MB of RAM and 1Mbit/s of I/O bandwidth.

I had a similar problem in trying to optimise the transfer time between my main NAS and the backup server (disks) on my local 1Gbps LAN. It turned out that telling SSH to turn off GZIP compression of the in-flight data was a major win, because the GZIP algorithm is such a CPU hog. It was better to accept that more bytes were sent on the cable that trying to compress them and then send fewer bytes.
 
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If the card can write the data more rapidly, then it should be inactive for longer periods of time in between files. That should allow more time for the card to cool down.
I believe that there would be additional heat for the higher data throughput though I am uncertain that it would correlate to double.
One of the primary concerns of the R5 "overheating storm-in-a-teacup" was the recovery times (refractory period?) between recording sessions. The R5 wasn't good at getting rid of heat.
Clearly the fan grip for the R5ii helps in this scenario. Smallrig was supposedly going to quickly bring out a fan to the back of the body (rear screen swung out) but has only recently done so.
The OP seemed to be saying that they were doing a lot of bursts so there would be a lot of cumulative heat buildup.
 
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As ever, it's about balancing the system: we have internal bandwidth, CFe interface bandwidth, processing power, and battery consumption {edit:} and likely more.
Indeed, always a tradeoff but also includes component costs.
Converting the RAW image data (as in: from the uncompressed internal format - straight out of the sensor) to even the losslessly compressed .CR3 images costs computational power and battery power. cRAW and HEIF/JPG even more so. But storing the now smaller compressed images to the CFe or SD card will cost less power than the larger CR3 image (less data = less toggles = less power). It also costs less bandwidth & time to store a smaller image on the memory card.
However, the CFe interface bandwidth may not be the limiting factor. Only Canon knows what the limiting factor is, but my suspicion is on the processing power.
The CPU must generate a lowish resolution jpg for every file to be able to display it in the EVF/rear screen including the picture style and white balance. I am not sure where it is stored as I don't think it is in the .CR3 file but it must be somewhere to allow review in-camera.
 
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The eye-controlled AF isn't as good as I expected. I used the original one from decades ago and it was better! Don't know if the calibration is not done properly (original version did not even require calibration!). This was the feature that made me upgrade from MK I but I have to admit the AF has improved in MK II. So since this is a wish list, hoping the AF gets even better. Take a lesson from Canon's history. The 1Ds II was the best AF ever made. Not the fastest mind you but more hits than the faster MK III that came after it. No point making a faster but less reliable AF. For those of you confused as I was, this means that MK III was faster when focus was nailed but MK II had higher focus rates albeit milliseconds slower.

And yes a better articulating screen please! Again, old cameras from other brands already have it!
 
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Indeed, always a tradeoff but also includes component costs.

The CPU must generate a lowish resolution jpg for every file to be able to display it in the EVF/rear screen including the picture style and white balance. I am not sure where it is stored as I don't think it is in the .CR3 file but it must be somewhere to allow review in-camera.
There are no less than TWO jpg files embedded in the CR3 file (at least for my R3). A smaller jpg for previews on the camera, and one larger (~2Mpix) for non-camera previews. They are quite obvious if you use the Canon DPP software, as viewing a single CR3 file will go in three stages: low-quality JPG, less low-quality JPG, and then finally the full quality RAW. It's only at after the RAW has been rendered that you can rely on the histograms and blown high/low-lights.
 
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Wish list:

WAY MORE BUFFER SIZE! It takes only a couple of seconds of full-speed shooting to completely fill the buffer, needs to be at least 4x larger.

Dual cfex slots, SD is long in the tooth IMO.

do something about the overheating issue
 
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Wish list:

WAY MORE BUFFER SIZE! It takes only a couple of seconds of full-speed shooting to completely fill the buffer, needs to be at least 4x larger.
Bryan's (the Digital Picture) review has 3.1 seconds of ES shooting @30fps = 93 images. 8 seconds (230 images) using mechanical shutter @ 12fps.

If you want 4x buffer then that is a max of >350 images per burst. Is it realistic to review that many images?
With each image is ~50MB so a 1TB card would handle 57 bursts before being filled. What size cards are you using??

Using cRAW would give you a higher number of images per burst and double your card's image capacity. Have you tried it?
do something about the overheating issue
What overheating issues are you having? High rate video recording or ?
There shouldn't be any restrictions based on heat for still shooting or lower bit rate video unless used in extreme conditions.

Similarly, with the overheat menu setting turned off and the fan grip, you should avoid any video overheating.
 
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There are no less than TWO jpg files embedded in the CR3 file (at least for my R3). A smaller jpg for previews on the camera, and one larger (~2Mpix) for non-camera previews. They are quite obvious if you use the Canon DPP software, as viewing a single CR3 file will go in three stages: low-quality JPG, less low-quality JPG, and then finally the full quality RAW. It's only at after the RAW has been rendered that you can rely on the histograms and blown high/low-lights.
it would be nice if the "blinky lights" for blown highlights that are visible in the jpg/in-camera reviews were based on the actual raw image but that is 8 bit kpg vs 14bit raw. I believe that the HEIF file is 10 bit (and half the file size of jpg) so it would get closer to accuract.
 
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Bryan's (the Digital Picture) review has 3.1 seconds of ES shooting @30fps = 93 images. 8 seconds (230 images) using mechanical shutter @ 12fps.

If you want 4x buffer then that is a max of >350 images per burst. Is it realistic to review that many images?
With each image is ~50MB so a 1TB card would handle 57 bursts before being filled. What size cards are you using??

Using cRAW would give you a higher number of images per burst and double your card's image capacity. Have you tried it?

What overheating issues are you having? High rate video recording or ?
There shouldn't be any restrictions based on heat for still shooting or lower bit rate video unless used in extreme conditions.

Similarly, with the overheat menu setting turned off and the fan grip, you should avoid any video overheating.
I made a thread about it the other day. I can set in a temperature controlled room with the camera on and not shooting and get 3 bars on the temp gauge, this is a problem. One should not need the fan grip to simply use the camera regularly.

For the buffer, yes it is realistic to use that much, I do it regularly with my R1.
 
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If you want 4x buffer then that is a max of >350 images per burst. Is it realistic to review that many images?
With each image is ~50MB so a 1TB card would handle 57 bursts before being filled. What size cards are you using??
The R1 can basically just keep shooting in RAW (Canon's specifications indicate a burst of '1000 or more', the only format setting where there is a lower limit is RAW+HEIF). Personally, I usually shoot in bursts of ≤5 seconds but that's still up to 200 shots to review. I use FastRawViewer and don't find sorting through them too onerous. Having said that, if shooting events with faces there are several AI-driven tools to cull images, e.g. Narrative.
 
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I don't know about anybody else, but I would like to have the option to set one of the back buttons to manual focus momentarily. I do wildlife photography and sometimes the autofocus likes to lock on a nearby branch, leaf, or whatever, but not the critter I want to capture. Time is of the essences when shooting wildlife. Using the switch on the lens, movement of the camera lens costs valuable time. With the recent update to the R5mkII, it has only made focusing worse. A quick access to manual focus would help me make an adjustment to the focus needed to get the sharp picture.

Turn off AF start with the half press of the shutter button. Problem solved.

I've been doing it this way for years. You just have to get in the habit of pressing the back button every single time you want to AF, because the shutter half press no longer does it.
 
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