Canon EOS R6 for triathlon photography
I’ve had my Canon EOS R6 for a bit over a month now. It had been put through its paces shooting a bit of surfing and doing a bunch of event coverage (both photo and video) for the Northern Beaches Council “Taste of the Beaches” events. It had performed flawlessly, and I’m already considering buying a second R6 body. However, I hadn’t yet had a chance to let it rip in the sport where I really got my first start in sports photography: Triathlon.
The Warringah Triathlon Club contingent. EOS R6, Canon 16-34mm f/4 @ 16mm f/5.6.
My favourite triathlon weekend each year is the Triathlon NSW Club Championships in Forster. It’s the one time of the year when everyone competes to earn points for their club against all the other clubs from around NSW. It is a huge event, with 1000+ competitors and some 200+ volunteers. My local triathlon club, Warringah Triathlon Club, turned up to the event with a monster team of 149 competitors and 30 volunteers, and I was there to capture all the action.
I shot photos at a few different spots throughout the day to give me a few different perspectives. I stared down on the beach to capture the start of the women’s race, and then made my way out onto the bike course. After that it was out onto the very scenic run course and then to the most exciting spot, the finish chute!
Thoughts on the Canon EOS R6 for triathlon photography?
In short, the R6 is exceptional. The image quality is great, but that really isn’t surprising as it has been great in all of Canon’s prosumer/professional DSLRs and mirrorless cameras for many years.
The place where the R6 really stands out is the exceptional auto-focus performance. I shot using a mix of single-point AF, and eye-AF (there is more information in this article describing how I’ve set up my R6 to be able to utilise both AF modes with just the push of a button). I had been skeptical about how the eye AF would perform in a triathlon setting where athletes are wearing helmets on the bike (often with sunglasses or an acrylic visor) and then wearing caps/visors on the run, but I was pleasantly surprised. If they weren’t wearing dark sunglasses, it picked up their eye with ease. If they were wearing sunglasses, it just reverted to the tracking the head instead, which in most cases is more than adequate for a triathlon setting. The only time I used single-point AF was when I was tracking panning shots on the bike, where it just couldn’t pick up the eye and would sometimes revert to tracking part of the wheel or the pedal stroke, which could throw off the overall sharpness of the image a bit. I shot approximately 1700 photos throughout the day, and the “keeper” rate was far higher than with previous bodies thanks to the AF improvements. My 5Dmk3 has been a great camera, but there is no denying that it can sometimes struggle with AF with a fast moving subject like a triathlete on a time-trial bike.
Club legend Geoff Thorsen still ripping along at 76 years of age! This is one of the few scenarios where I switched from eye-AF to single point AF. EOS R6, Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 85mm f/4
I was also pleasantly surprised with the battery life. Some commentators had cited some pretty horrible battery life measures in the vicinity of 400 shots, but that was a long way from the reality of what I’ve experienced. At Club Champs I shot 1700 photos with two batteries in the battery grip, and it was still showing over 40% battery life remaining. That mean’s I’d be getting well over 3000 shots on two sets of batteries, which is perfectly fine by me!
The finish chute is always has the best energy! It doesn’t matter whether you’re the first competitor to cross, or the last, you can guarantee that there will be a bunch of club mates there to cheer you along! EOS R6, Canon 16-35mm f/4 @ 22mm f/5.6.
What would I change on the R6 for triathlon photography?
The R6 is a great camera for triathlon photography, but it isn’t perfect. One thing I would definitely recommend all shooters invest in is a battery grip. Triathlon is a very vertical sport to shoot, so a grip with a second set of buttons is pretty much essential if you don’t want to be contorting your arm for every vertical shot. Even shooting horizontally, I find that a grip provides a more stable platform to rest my hands on. The R6 is a beautifully compact body, but that doesn’t necessarily equate to a good thing for individuals with larger hands…I tend to find my pinkie finger hanging off in space without a battery grip, which ends up being surprisingly tiring after shooting for 6+ hours. The ability to double your time between battery swaps is an added bonus. The Canon BG-R10 battery grip for the R6/R5 is disgustingly expensive (approx $AUD540) for what it does, but unfortunately at the moment there aren’t any third-party options available.
The other thing I will change in the future is moving to some RF lenses. My EF lenses work flawlessly with the EF-RF adaptor, and both the 70-200 f/2.8 IS II and my 16-35 f/4.0 IS are able to utilise the full high-speed shooting afforded by the R6 (some other lenses, including some third party lenses, can only work at 7 or 8 fps). However, there is no doubt that adding an adaptor to the setup changes the weight balance. The 70-200 f/2.8 with an adaptor feels exceptionally heavy when compared to the R6 body, and the 16-35 ends up being surprisingly long once you’ve got an adaptor on it (this is actually a problem for me for video shooting, because the centre of gravity is too far forward to balance the R6 on my gimbal when it has the adapted 16-35 on it!). Once I upgrade my spare body to an RF mount body I’ll probably end up selling all my EF glass (aside from my Sigma 150-600 which I’m happy to keep as an adapted lens) and upgrade to RF glass.
Final thoughts….is it worthwhile upgrading to the R6?
Yes, absolutely, if your finances allow it. The AF performance of the mirrorless bodies is so far ahead of anything I’ve experienced with my previous DSLRs, that I just can’t imagine going back now. In fact, it feels a bit odd to pick up my 5Dmk3 and shoot with it now which is why I will be upgrading it to a second R6 body in the very near future.
My personal feeling is that the R6 is a great middle-ground for sports photographers that can’t justify spending an absolute bucketload of cash on a 1DXmkIII (or the upcoming R3) and don’t really have the need for the higher megapixel count of the R5. The video capabilities of the R6, particularly with the in-body image stabilisation, also make is a great stepping-stone for photographers that are looking to add video capabilities to their repertoire (I’ll write about my experiences with shooting video on the R6 in a separate blog). Serious agency sports photographers will probably opt to stay with the bombproof 1DXmkIII until an equivalent mirrorless body is available, but for the vast majority of sports photographers I think the R6 is a great option, loaded with great features at a reasonable price point.
