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R5 or R6?

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jmike72

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Hi,

Have an EOS RP and thinking in upgrading, but have an existential question 🤔

I shot birds, landscapes and macro, not professionally, but some pictures end up printed and hang in my walls.

I'm inclined to the R5 for the 45mp, but on the other hand the R6 is less 1000€ I could use on some glass. I have the RF 24-105 F/4, RF 600mm and considering the 70-200 F/4, so the savings from the R6 are almost half the price of this lens.

Question is, buy the R6 and 70-200 F/4 now or buy the R5 and wait some time before buying the 70-200? For the R5 would also need to buy a cfexpress card though...

While I know this will be a personal choice, what you guys recommend and why?
 
jmike72 said:
Hi,

Have an EOS RP and thinking in upgrading, but have an existential question 🤔

I shot birds, landscapes and macro, not professionally, but some pictures end up printed and hang in my walls.

I'm inclined to the R5 for the 45mp, but on the other hand the R6 is less 1000€ I could use on some glass. I have the RF 24-105 F/4, RF 600mm and considering the 70-200 F/4, so the savings from the R6 are almost half the price of this lens.

Question is, buy the R6 and 70-200 F/4 now or buy the R5 and wait some time before buying the 70-200? For the R5 would also need to buy a cfexpress card though...

While I know this will be a personal choice, what you guys recommend and why?
Click to expand...
This a choice between two excellent alternatives. I went for R5 for cropping poweer. I have had zero regrets. I would wait for lenses particularly if you already have EF comparables for your needs. The R5 is absolute joy to use but I keep the EOS R I got a year before to check out the mirrorless bodys. The EOS R is very good camera but not suited for high speed action and has less sophisticated autofocus. I will continue to use the EOS R along side the R5. Others will differ
 
jmike72 said:
Hi,

Have an EOS RP and thinking in upgrading, but have an existential question 🤔

I shot birds, landscapes and macro, not professionally, but some pictures end up printed and hang in my walls.

I'm inclined to the R5 for the 45mp, but on the other hand the R6 is less 1000€ I could use on some glass. I have the RF 24-105 F/4, RF 600mm and considering the 70-200 F/4, so the savings from the R6 are almost half the price of this lens.

Question is, buy the R6 and 70-200 F/4 now or buy the R5 and wait some time before buying the 70-200? For the R5 would also need to buy a cfexpress card though...

While I know this will be a personal choice, what you guys recommend and why?
Click to expand...
focus on glass. It will have a bigger impact on your photography than a body will. Also the R5 has been out a bit now, id say a Mark II is in the works i would wait for that because then either you get the Mark II or get a much cheaper R5. Just my two cents. If i have a choice between glass or body I will always choose glass first.
 
Thanks, have an older M6 I use when hiking in the mountains, so I don't carry too much weight and neither risk an expensive fall 😅, so I'm considering selling the RP as I don't need a 2nd FF camera.

Have a few EF lens, like a Tamron 90mm macro and the 70-210 F/4, so can wait for glass and these are some points extra to the R5.
 
One of the reasons to change is glass as the RP can't handle some higher ISO needed at times with the RF 600.
 
jmike72 said:
Hi,

Have an EOS RP and thinking in upgrading, but have an existential question 🤔

I shot birds, landscapes and macro, not professionally, but some pictures end up printed and hang in my walls.

I'm inclined to the R5 for the 45mp, but on the other hand the R6 is less 1000€ I could use on some glass. I have the RF 24-105 F/4, RF 600mm and considering the 70-200 F/4, so the savings from the R6 are almost half the price of this lens.

Question is, buy the R6 and 70-200 F/4 now or buy the R5 and wait some time before buying the 70-200? For the R5 would also need to buy a cfexpress card though...

While I know this will be a personal choice, what you guys recommend and why?
Click to expand...
EF glass is a little cheaper if you are okay with adapting. But of course, the advantage with the RF 70-200mm f/4 is its tiny size, which I would be tempted with also if I didn't have a 70-200mm f/2.8 II that is task sharp on my R5. Then again, the EF f/4 without IS is also really cheap and sharp and you have in-body IBIS with the R5 so you also get that as an option if you'd consider it.

You're probably also going to like the additional cropping ability with the R5 and your 600mm.

Honestly, I didn't want to spend as much on the R5, but now that I have it, I'm glad I did. You can use your SD cards on the R5. The only thing you won't be able to do is record 8K raw, 8k ALL-I, and 4k at 120fps.
draacor said:
focus on glass. It will have a bigger impact on your photography than a body will. Also the R5 has been out a bit now, id say a Mark II is in the works i would wait for that because then either you get the Mark II or get a much cheaper R5. Just my two cents. If i have a choice between glass or body I will always choose glass first.
Click to expand...
The R5 hasn't even been out a year. The 5D Mark IV was released in 2016 so there's a good chance an R5 II won't be out for at least more than 3 years based on that release cycle.

That's a long time to wait.
 
jmike72 said:
Hi,

Have an EOS RP and thinking in upgrading, but have an existential question 🤔

I shot birds, landscapes and macro, not professionally, but some pictures end up printed and hang in my walls.

I'm inclined to the R5 for the 45mp, but on the other hand the R6 is less 1000€ I could use on some glass. I have the RF 24-105 F/4, RF 600mm and considering the 70-200 F/4, so the savings from the R6 are almost half the price of this lens.

Question is, buy the R6 and 70-200 F/4 now or buy the R5 and wait some time before buying the 70-200? For the R5 would also need to buy a cfexpress card though...

While I know this will be a personal choice, what you guys recommend and why?
Click to expand...
I had a Nikon Z6 24mp. After I had it for a bit, I wished I had gotten the Z7 instead, at 45mp (or 47mp?).

I hadn't made a substantial investment in Nikon glass yet, and I wanted to go for a high-res body either way. So in the end I decided to go with Canon and then the R5 as I really wanted the croppability. Zero regrets and I have since been buying up all the great RF L glass :)
 
Last edited:
rmexpress22 said:
jmike72 said:
Hi,

Have an EOS RP and thinking in upgrading, but have an existential question 🤔

I shot birds, landscapes and macro, not professionally, but some pictures end up printed and hang in my walls.

I'm inclined to the R5 for the 45mp, but on the other hand the R6 is less 1000€ I could use on some glass. I have the RF 24-105 F/4, RF 600mm and considering the 70-200 F/4, so the savings from the R6 are almost half the price of this lens.

Question is, buy the R6 and 70-200 F/4 now or buy the R5 and wait some time before buying the 70-200? For the R5 would also need to buy a cfexpress card though...

While I know this will be a personal choice, what you guys recommend and why?
Click to expand...
EF glass is a little cheaper if you are okay with adapting. But of course, the advantage with the RF 70-200mm f/4 is its tiny size, which I would be tempted with also if I didn't have a 70-200mm f/2.8 II that is task sharp on my R5. Then again, the EF f/4 without IS is also really cheap and sharp and you have in-body IBIS with the R5 so you also get that as an option if you'd consider it.

You're probably also going to like the additional cropping ability with the R5 and your 600mm.

Honestly, I didn't want to spend as much on the R5, but now that I have it, I'm glad I did. You can use your SD cards on the R5. The only thing you won't be able to do is record 8K raw, 8k ALL-I, and 4k at 120fps.
draacor said:
focus on glass. It will have a bigger impact on your photography than a body will. Also the R5 has been out a bit now, id say a Mark II is in the works i would wait for that because then either you get the Mark II or get a much cheaper R5. Just my two cents. If i have a choice between glass or body I will always choose glass first.
Click to expand...
The R5 hasn't even been out a year. The 5D Mark IV was released in 2016 so there's a good chance an R5 II won't be out for at least more than 3 years based on that release cycle.

That's a long time to wait.
Click to expand...
thats not necessarily true anymore. The R was released in 2018 and the R5 was released less than 2 years later. If we were to follow that im willing to bet the R5 replacement will be sometime in 2022. thats really not that long from now. I feel like hte mirrorless market moves at a faster clip than traditional DSLR. Not to mention that when the R1 eventually comes out it could also affect the cost of the R5.
 
draacor said:
jmike72 said:
Hi,

Have an EOS RP and thinking in upgrading, but have an existential question 🤔

I shot birds, landscapes and macro, not professionally, but some pictures end up printed and hang in my walls.

I'm inclined to the R5 for the 45mp, but on the other hand the R6 is less 1000€ I could use on some glass. I have the RF 24-105 F/4, RF 600mm and considering the 70-200 F/4, so the savings from the R6 are almost half the price of this lens.

Question is, buy the R6 and 70-200 F/4 now or buy the R5 and wait some time before buying the 70-200? For the R5 would also need to buy a cfexpress card though...

While I know this will be a personal choice, what you guys recommend and why?
Click to expand...
focus on glass. It will have a bigger impact on your photography than a body will. Also the R5 has been out a bit now, id say a Mark II is in the works
Click to expand...
In the works? Well, there's always a next camera in the works, but the R5 was announced just 7 months ago, and is still in short supply. The gaps between models in the 5D series have been 3 years (5D to 5DII), 3 1/2 years (5DII to 5DIII), 4 1/2 years (5DIII to 5DIV), 4 years (5DIV to R5). The chances of an R5II being available in under 2 1/2 years are slim to none.
draacor said:
i would wait for that because then either you get the Mark II or get a much cheaper R5.
Click to expand...
If you're prepared to wait several years.
draacor said:
Just my two cents. If i have a choice between glass or body I will always choose glass first.
Click to expand...
 
draacor said:
rmexpress22 said:
jmike72 said:
Hi,

Have an EOS RP and thinking in upgrading, but have an existential question 🤔

I shot birds, landscapes and macro, not professionally, but some pictures end up printed and hang in my walls.

I'm inclined to the R5 for the 45mp, but on the other hand the R6 is less 1000€ I could use on some glass. I have the RF 24-105 F/4, RF 600mm and considering the 70-200 F/4, so the savings from the R6 are almost half the price of this lens.

Question is, buy the R6 and 70-200 F/4 now or buy the R5 and wait some time before buying the 70-200? For the R5 would also need to buy a cfexpress card though...

While I know this will be a personal choice, what you guys recommend and why?
Click to expand...
EF glass is a little cheaper if you are okay with adapting. But of course, the advantage with the RF 70-200mm f/4 is its tiny size, which I would be tempted with also if I didn't have a 70-200mm f/2.8 II that is task sharp on my R5. Then again, the EF f/4 without IS is also really cheap and sharp and you have in-body IBIS with the R5 so you also get that as an option if you'd consider it.

You're probably also going to like the additional cropping ability with the R5 and your 600mm.

Honestly, I didn't want to spend as much on the R5, but now that I have it, I'm glad I did. You can use your SD cards on the R5. The only thing you won't be able to do is record 8K raw, 8k ALL-I, and 4k at 120fps.
draacor said:
focus on glass. It will have a bigger impact on your photography than a body will. Also the R5 has been out a bit now, id say a Mark II is in the works i would wait for that because then either you get the Mark II or get a much cheaper R5. Just my two cents. If i have a choice between glass or body I will always choose glass first.
Click to expand...
The R5 hasn't even been out a year. The 5D Mark IV was released in 2016 so there's a good chance an R5 II won't be out for at least more than 3 years based on that release cycle.

That's a long time to wait.
Click to expand...
thats not necessarily true anymore. The R was released in 2018 and the R5 was released less than 2 years later. If we were to follow that im willing to bet the R5 replacement will be sometime in 2022. thats really not that long from now. I feel like hte mirrorless market moves at a faster clip than traditional DSLR. Not to mention that when the R1 eventually comes out it could also affect the cost of the R5.
Click to expand...
 
draacor said:
rmexpress22 said:
jmike72 said:
Hi,

Have an EOS RP and thinking in upgrading, but have an existential question 🤔

I shot birds, landscapes and macro, not professionally, but some pictures end up printed and hang in my walls.

I'm inclined to the R5 for the 45mp, but on the other hand the R6 is less 1000€ I could use on some glass. I have the RF 24-105 F/4, RF 600mm and considering the 70-200 F/4, so the savings from the R6 are almost half the price of this lens.

Question is, buy the R6 and 70-200 F/4 now or buy the R5 and wait some time before buying the 70-200? For the R5 would also need to buy a cfexpress card though...

While I know this will be a personal choice, what you guys recommend and why?
Click to expand...
EF glass is a little cheaper if you are okay with adapting. But of course, the advantage with the RF 70-200mm f/4 is its tiny size, which I would be tempted with also if I didn't have a 70-200mm f/2.8 II that is task sharp on my R5. Then again, the EF f/4 without IS is also really cheap and sharp and you have in-body IBIS with the R5 so you also get that as an option if you'd consider it.

You're probably also going to like the additional cropping ability with the R5 and your 600mm.

Honestly, I didn't want to spend as much on the R5, but now that I have it, I'm glad I did. You can use your SD cards on the R5. The only thing you won't be able to do is record 8K raw, 8k ALL-I, and 4k at 120fps.
draacor said:
focus on glass. It will have a bigger impact on your photography than a body will. Also the R5 has been out a bit now, id say a Mark II is in the works i would wait for that because then either you get the Mark II or get a much cheaper R5. Just my two cents. If i have a choice between glass or body I will always choose glass first.
Click to expand...
The R5 hasn't even been out a year. The 5D Mark IV was released in 2016 so there's a good chance an R5 II won't be out for at least more than 3 years based on that release cycle.

That's a long time to wait.
Click to expand...
thats not necessarily true anymore. The R was released in 2018 and the R5 was released less than 2 years later. If we were to follow that im willing to bet the R5 replacement will be sometime in 2022.
Click to expand...
Well, that's one view. I highly doubt it, but neither of us knows. I'm going by the history of Canon's 5 series (they've said that the R5 is the successor to the 5DIV). Things could change drastically, but I wouldn't bet on it. What's more likely is that they will continue to bring out firmware updates for the R5 (and R6) for the next couple of years.
draacor said:
thats really not that long from now. I feel like hte mirrorless market moves at a faster clip than traditional DSLR. Not to mention that when the R1 eventually comes out it could also affect the cost of the R5.
Click to expand...
--
As the length of a thread approaches 150, the probability that someone will make the obvious "it's not the camera, it's the photographer" remark approaches 1.
Alastair
http://anorcross.smugmug.com
Equipment in profile
 
Last edited:
For me it was easy, I went with the R6 for one simple reason, I DONT crop. I do my framing with the camera/zoom. I average about 2-3 crops a year. The difference in price paid for most of my RF 70-200 f4, like others have said its the GLASS.
 
draacor said:
rmexpress22 said:
jmike72 said:
Hi,

Have an EOS RP and thinking in upgrading, but have an existential question 🤔

I shot birds, landscapes and macro, not professionally, but some pictures end up printed and hang in my walls.

I'm inclined to the R5 for the 45mp, but on the other hand the R6 is less 1000€ I could use on some glass. I have the RF 24-105 F/4, RF 600mm and considering the 70-200 F/4, so the savings from the R6 are almost half the price of this lens.

Question is, buy the R6 and 70-200 F/4 now or buy the R5 and wait some time before buying the 70-200? For the R5 would also need to buy a cfexpress card though...

While I know this will be a personal choice, what you guys recommend and why?
Click to expand...
EF glass is a little cheaper if you are okay with adapting. But of course, the advantage with the RF 70-200mm f/4 is its tiny size, which I would be tempted with also if I didn't have a 70-200mm f/2.8 II that is task sharp on my R5. Then again, the EF f/4 without IS is also really cheap and sharp and you have in-body IBIS with the R5 so you also get that as an option if you'd consider it.

You're probably also going to like the additional cropping ability with the R5 and your 600mm.

Honestly, I didn't want to spend as much on the R5, but now that I have it, I'm glad I did. You can use your SD cards on the R5. The only thing you won't be able to do is record 8K raw, 8k ALL-I, and 4k at 120fps.
draacor said:
focus on glass. It will have a bigger impact on your photography than a body will. Also the R5 has been out a bit now, id say a Mark II is in the works i would wait for that because then either you get the Mark II or get a much cheaper R5. Just my two cents. If i have a choice between glass or body I will always choose glass first.
Click to expand...
The R5 hasn't even been out a year. The 5D Mark IV was released in 2016 so there's a good chance an R5 II won't be out for at least more than 3 years based on that release cycle.

That's a long time to wait.
Click to expand...
thats not necessarily true anymore. The R was released in 2018 and the R5 was released less than 2 years later. If we were to follow that im willing to bet the R5 replacement will be sometime in 2022. thats really not that long from now. I feel like hte mirrorless market moves at a faster clip than traditional DSLR. Not to mention that when the R1 eventually comes out it could also affect the cost of the R5.
Click to expand...
If we all get a guess I am Canon owner back to 1991 and have upgrade many times. Four to five years is normal for most Canon models. That means 2024 or 2025 for the R5 and 2022-2023 for the EOS R mk II. Since the EOS is R does not have a number may change and it could a number in mark II upgrade. EOS R8/R9 or R10 are my number addition possibilities IMO for the mark II.
 
I have both and you can’t go wrong with either, they both have advantages in certain areas in my opinion.

I just came back from my first trip with them and I used them equally. It’s also the first time I noticed the difference in the EVF’s. Until this trip I had only used them in the not so bright cold NE winter but in sunny S Florida I could see how the R5 EVF was a little better, not that the R6 is bad just not as good.



Memory cards also cheaper for the R6. I only shoot stills and even the old UHS 1 cards are fast enough I never ran into a problem with the buffer. The CF express cards are still much more expensive than the SD but will come down in the future.



Don’t get hung up on megapixels it’s not that big a deal really. Before the R5 and R6 I was shooting the 5dsr and 1DX2 and I thought the files from the 1DX2 were better most of the time, and so far I don’t see much difference in the R5 and R6.

For about $1100 more than a R5 alone you could pick up a R6 and the RF 100-500. It’s a great combo and I definitely recommend it.
 
draacor said:
draacor said:
The R5 hasn't even been out a year. The 5D Mark IV was released in 2016 so there's a good chance an R5 II won't be out for at least more than 3 years based on that release cycle.

That's a long time to wait.
Click to expand...
thats not necessarily true anymore. The R was released in 2018 and the R5 was released less than 2 years later. If we were to follow that im willing to bet the R5 replacement will be sometime in 2022. thats really not that long from now. I feel like hte mirrorless market moves at a faster clip than traditional DSLR. Not to mention that when the R1 eventually comes out it could also affect the cost of the R5.
Click to expand...
In fairness, the R5 was not the replacement for the R. The R was Canon's first shot at getting something out into the FF mirrorless market. Many say it was a camera to stop the bleeding rather than really attack that market. The R5/R6 are those cameras now. And the R1 will probably be in the 1DX price bracket, so I doubt it will impact R5 pricing.

None of us know, but I'd be shocked if we saw the R5's direct replacement before 2023 given Canon's cadence of the last 15+ years. Given the short supply of the R5, I'd wager it will be next year before you even find it on sale for a discount worthy of holding out for. If you want this camera and can afford it, buy now and enjoy it. Just like every camera, the R5 will have its day when value plummets to a fraction of its intro price if you can wait wait long enough.
 
I jumped ship a little while ago

because of canon 's move towards lighter lenses than sony , or tamron, or sigma, or nikon...I had been using mostly ef glass on my sony a7riv.

I bought both 600 rf and an extender. to go from 2.3 kg ( 200-600 sony ! ) to 900 grammes is sheer wonder! (I still keep a sony a600 to use with the minolta af reflex mirror ( 500mm )

and no black out of the viewfinder as i had on an rp! The viewfinder is maybe better than the sony a7r4 ! tracking is NICE, even with the 600 and 800rf!

I think I'm buy the 100-500 rf at some point (it's jsut 100 or 200 gr heavier than the 800 rf

I'm waiting for third party lenses to go fully native ( rf ) . the 70-200 f4 ef l is very nice as it is; it can take the ef tc too...

I've followed a tutorial that tell you how to modify a viltrox adapter so you can use any ef lens on the rf extender . It works quite well with the tamron 18-400m for example. You can use it on lenses that cannot usually take a tc ( 85 mm f1.2 for example....

I've also found out how to reverse use a raynox dcr2025 as a wide angle attachment yesterday! so you go from 600 to 300 and from 800 to 400 with those 600 and 800 rf lenses!

there's a nice piece of advice somewhere to use macro extension tube ( rf af mount ) to shorten the minimum distance for close up birds on a feeding table!
 
Last edited:
davel33 said:
For me it was easy, I went with the R6 for one simple reason, I DONT crop. I do my framing with the camera/zoom. I average about 2-3 crops a year. The difference in price paid for most of my RF 70-200 f4, like others have said its the GLASS.
Click to expand...
It's great if you can, but that's not always possible. Specially for the wildlife guys.
 
rmexpress22 said:
davel33 said:
For me it was easy, I went with the R6 for one simple reason, I DONT crop. I do my framing with the camera/zoom. I average about 2-3 crops a year. The difference in price paid for most of my RF 70-200 f4, like others have said its the GLASS.
Click to expand...
It's great if you can, but that's not always possible. Specially for the wildlife guys.
Click to expand...
Yea I know and that's why I started with "For me it was easy", meaning it may not be for others :)
 
Both are fabulous cameras and you really can’t go wrong either way. When they were announced I completely dismissed the R6 because I thought 20MP wouldn’t be enough for bird photography. I ended up renting a R6 because R5 wasn’t available and I really wanted to try the animal eye AF and I ended up REALLY liking it. Later I rented a R5 and also really liked it but I did find that I was struggling with all the massive amount of data that 45MP sensor generates, especially with the electronic shutter. My gen 8 i7 computer with 16GB ram was also struggling some with the image editing of those big files. After the two rentals I really prefer the R6. The buffer seems like it’s unlimited in its capacity and the files are easily managed by my computer and it isn’t quite the storage headache of the R5, though even the R6 lets me amass lots of data in a big hurry. I rarely ever print anything beyond 11x17” and even that size is something I barely ever do. The vast majority of of my prints are 8x12” or smaller and by far most of my images are viewed on screens so I think a good bit of that extra resolution is wasted on me. Here the cost difference is $1400 and that would go a long way toward getting a nice lens.
 
rmexpress22 said:
davel33 said:
For me it was easy, I went with the R6 for one simple reason, I DONT crop. I do my framing with the camera/zoom. I average about 2-3 crops a year. The difference in price paid for most of my RF 70-200 f4, like others have said its the GLASS.
Click to expand...
It's great if you can, but that's not always possible. Specially for the wildlife guys.
Click to expand...
And parents with fast moving toddlers.
 
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