When I have new gear, like in this case the Canon EOS R, I like to try it in as many situations as possible to really get to know the camera. So I took it with me when we visited a water polo game in Ludwigshafen.
When entering the venue I started to have big doubts about bringing just this camera. It was way darker than I expected. In order to get usable shutter speeds for this sport, I ended up in the region between iso 10.000 and iso 25.600. Not ideal and I feared that focus acquiring would suffer, something that the 1Dx surely does in such conditions. This actually turned out to be no problem at all. Focusing was very quick and very decisive. Finding the focus mode was a bit more difficult though. Face detection was most of the time not feasible. In itself, I preferred the zone focusing but I wish I could change the size of the zone. It was simply just a bit too large.
The biggest surprise came when I started processing the files. The colors hold up very well at higher iso values. And most importantly, stay consistent. This makes processing so much easier.
All in all the camera was performing much better than I expected. Can’t wait for a version that is more sports-focused, should be great!
As a former high school water polo player and now 73-year-old 5DIV owner, I am impressed by these pictures given the high ISO needed to deal with the dim lighting. I am seriously considering selling the 5DIV but I will hate to give up the GPS.
Hello Robert, thanks for the compliments. Although I very much enjoyed shooting water polo with the R, it sure wasn’t easy. Not sure if I would give up a 5DIV for that. Can’t wait for a sports camera version of the R though 🙂