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In the interests of science I decided to go to the local show and see how my new 100-500mm would perform for the day. I did break down in the end and take the 70-200mm f2.8 with me, but stuck it out and kept the 100-500 on all day. At times I knew I could have swapped over and the 70-200 would have done what I needed, but the extra reach of the other was just enough to make it a good choice overall and it gave it a really good test out.
Of course I also decided to do this on an insanely (for the UK) sunny and hot day and utterly frazzled myself in the process (I had planned on going today as well to the second day but after scorching the top of both hands and with the heat honestly taking some of the fun away I decided not to risk it).
I also found out that Mirrorless cameras get HOT. Granted I was only shooting stills not video; and it took until the early afternoon (ergo the hottest part of the day) with concentrated sun for the camera to start blinking a heating warning light at me. It kept going though and 5-10mins turn-off had it settle down and not flag any warnings further. I know that heat issues can build up from constant video shooting, but it was a little surprise to see it with stills. I suspect if it were not such a hot day with the sun beating down it would have been fine.
Also I remain impressed at the performance of this camera in such light - harsh light like this was a bit of a killer for my 7D. Yes it would perform but I'd have to fight highlights and darks and often it was hard to make the right call on which to focus on considering that I could easily end up with super noisy key areas that were dark because of shadowing; or super blown out highlights. The R6MII just continues to blow me away in how outstanding a camera it is. Sure its still harsh light and I've no bounce flash or reflector to push up the darks, so it still suffers from the same issues, but the results are more than practical enough to work with.
But enough rambling time for photos!
And a challenge - can you work out what's missing in these two photos
As always any comments/critique is most welcome and encouraged
100-500mm performance opinions
1) It's sharpness even wide open is perfectly good. Sure top end prints and lenses with less focal range can beat it; and stopping down a bit helps. However the wide open results are still perfectly sharp and crisp.
2) It's focusing speed is good, certainly the limiter switch is worth enabling if you're not doing any close-up work
3) I did forget that it had IS and kind of wish there was a quick IS on/off that wasn't on the switch that I could flick. Partly because IS can help with smoother handholding at the long end; which I find can be a boon even if your shutter speed is more than fast enough to counter standard handshake
4) The zoom lock. Honestly I found myself using this quite a bit. When walking and moving I wanted it on because the lens WILL move if angled up or down; however when shooting I found it much easier to take the lock off for faster easier zooming. You can still zoom with the lock on, it just takes more force and thus is a bit slower to make big jumps (depending on your strength).
5) Focusing ring - I feel like this is in an annoying spot. It's sort of in the area where your hand ends up holding the lens so its easy to bump. It's also not in an easy spot to access with fingers for fine adjustments. I wish it was in front of the zoom ring so you could naturally hold the camera by the zoom ring and then reach forward with fingers to adjust the focus manually if required
6) The long end did make me reach for shots on the other side of some arenas, though with the smaller aperture and range this did mean that sometimes the backgrounds of those shots were more busy than they'd likely be with a wider aperture prime. Of course a wider aperture prime has its downsides - its a prime so its useless for any closer shots, and they cost way more.
Of course I also decided to do this on an insanely (for the UK) sunny and hot day and utterly frazzled myself in the process (I had planned on going today as well to the second day but after scorching the top of both hands and with the heat honestly taking some of the fun away I decided not to risk it).
I also found out that Mirrorless cameras get HOT. Granted I was only shooting stills not video; and it took until the early afternoon (ergo the hottest part of the day) with concentrated sun for the camera to start blinking a heating warning light at me. It kept going though and 5-10mins turn-off had it settle down and not flag any warnings further. I know that heat issues can build up from constant video shooting, but it was a little surprise to see it with stills. I suspect if it were not such a hot day with the sun beating down it would have been fine.
Also I remain impressed at the performance of this camera in such light - harsh light like this was a bit of a killer for my 7D. Yes it would perform but I'd have to fight highlights and darks and often it was hard to make the right call on which to focus on considering that I could easily end up with super noisy key areas that were dark because of shadowing; or super blown out highlights. The R6MII just continues to blow me away in how outstanding a camera it is. Sure its still harsh light and I've no bounce flash or reflector to push up the darks, so it still suffers from the same issues, but the results are more than practical enough to work with.
But enough rambling time for photos!
And a challenge - can you work out what's missing in these two photos
As always any comments/critique is most welcome and encouraged
100-500mm performance opinions
1) It's sharpness even wide open is perfectly good. Sure top end prints and lenses with less focal range can beat it; and stopping down a bit helps. However the wide open results are still perfectly sharp and crisp.
2) It's focusing speed is good, certainly the limiter switch is worth enabling if you're not doing any close-up work
3) I did forget that it had IS and kind of wish there was a quick IS on/off that wasn't on the switch that I could flick. Partly because IS can help with smoother handholding at the long end; which I find can be a boon even if your shutter speed is more than fast enough to counter standard handshake
4) The zoom lock. Honestly I found myself using this quite a bit. When walking and moving I wanted it on because the lens WILL move if angled up or down; however when shooting I found it much easier to take the lock off for faster easier zooming. You can still zoom with the lock on, it just takes more force and thus is a bit slower to make big jumps (depending on your strength).
5) Focusing ring - I feel like this is in an annoying spot. It's sort of in the area where your hand ends up holding the lens so its easy to bump. It's also not in an easy spot to access with fingers for fine adjustments. I wish it was in front of the zoom ring so you could naturally hold the camera by the zoom ring and then reach forward with fingers to adjust the focus manually if required
6) The long end did make me reach for shots on the other side of some arenas, though with the smaller aperture and range this did mean that sometimes the backgrounds of those shots were more busy than they'd likely be with a wider aperture prime. Of course a wider aperture prime has its downsides - its a prime so its useless for any closer shots, and they cost way more.
![[No title]](/data/xfmg/thumbnail/34/34070-2a43e701f983f62ada1c66a54d00be4e.jpg?1734164507)
![[No title]](/data/xfmg/thumbnail/34/34069-7b423c5bb5d324f4d924cf839cc122b3.jpg?1734164502)
![[No title]](/data/xfmg/thumbnail/41/41821-2e92de82ffc4cd2d520a8fa10fb8b6a5.jpg?1734176138)
