Canon R5 review coming from the 5d4 and R6
I did a brief review of the R6, but I have migrated to the R5 after deciding the R6 was not working for what I do. If you wanna check out that review, you can find it in this forum.
So let me explain. I am a full time photographer. I own a commercial studio and I photograph portraits, pets, weddings and occasional events. We specialise in wall prints.
I got the R6, and it is an OUTSTANDING camera. It is basically the same as the R5 except for a few things like better build , better EVF and the sensor. So why change?
I found the megapixel count a bit too low for what I do. What I do requires substantial cropping to fit photos into the wall collections I sell. I routinely sell 40x40 prints that obviously require cropping to get them square. Also, since having 30 Mpx on the 5d4, I deliberately shoot very loose to allow me tilting and versatility in post. I was running out of data when cropping. Before anyone says that this would be a non issue if I was shooting better…. You would be right, but the trouble for me is that I embraced the higher pixel count in recent years, and it’s a hard habit to break plus it is a nice luxury.
Also despite 20 mpx being more than fine I had got used to looking at higher resolution photos with the 5d4 which is 50% bigger than the R6. They higher res photos looks sharper and they have a crisper look when looked at on the computer screen. It’s hard to go back.
This is the sort of printing that I do. Mannequin is there as a reference for size.
Excuse crappy phone photo. The centre photo is 40x40.
The annoying thing for me is , when I got the R6 my wife asked …”is that the “best” one?”. I said no… it’s kinda the second best one… She then asked “why not get the better one?” I told her piously I didn’t need it. I shoulda listened to her. Lol
Just to be clear…. MO the R6 is more than fine for pretty much anything. I used it for weddings and headshots and I loved the file sizes. An absolute pleasure to post process a lot of files. In the end I was using R6 for events and the 5D4 for the studio which seemed stupid especially since I do quite a bit of pet photography and the Animal eye AF is genuinely a game changer.
So with that preamble out of the way, here are my thoughts on less discussed topics based on my limited experience so far. I will not bang on about the well-worn path of specs. I have photographed a couple of weddings, done some portrait sessions and fiddled around with it for fun.
Colour
I use Lightroom and PS. The colour sucks if you shoot raw and use the Adobe profile, which you are stuck with if you use Adobe. The skin tones come out kinda yuck and have a tinge of green. If you run a raw file through the Canon Digital Photo Professional software, the difference is massive. Sadly, Canon DPP is the worst software known to man if you do volume photography, so that was a non-starter. For doing one photo I might put it through DPP and finish is it LR and PS. After a bit of research, I found Colour fidelity profiles which are the camera profiles missing in Adobe ( Camera Faithful, Camera Portrait etc) which are excellent. Not quite a good as DPP but clients would never notice the difference. It’s really worth the 25 bucks if you like the traditional canon look as a starting point.
I am led to believe that C1 is vastly superior to Lightroom. However, I just do not have the time or inclination to learn something new. Plus, I have a portfolio catalogue in Lightroom that I have developed over the years. So changing is a non-starter for me personally.
Unedited....I would not deliver this. Left is adobe standard right is when run through DPP. Obiviously there is a bit going on in DPP but the skin tone difference is pretty dramtic.
AF
This has been discussed to death, but I will throw in my two cents. The eye AF is unbelievable for both humans and animals and is truly a game changer. It is honmeslty like cheating and another skill in photography that has been stripped away and made aceessible to everyone.
I love it for headshots…. Stick your camera on a tripod, and you do not have to worry about focus. Hardly arduous in terms of focusing requirements , but it enables you to interact with your subject rather than having your face squished up to a camera. It is not perfect though. When you get a number of people in the frame, it does get a bit cumbersome with it picking up different people. I actually go back to single point and either move that around with the joystick or using the touch and drag on the screen (which is awesome once you get the feel of it.)
That aside, it really is extraordinary. I no longer feel compelled to take 5 photos if I am shooting shallow to make sure I get something in focus.
EF 50mm 1.2 at 1.2. Not the sharpest lens in the world, but at least they were all in focus.
Build and Ergonomics.
I like the feel of it better than the R6 in a way that is impossible to articulate in text, but I like it less than the 5D3 and 5D4. Why they did not keep the body the same as the 5D Series, I am not sure. I am SO used to the layout and size of the 5D4 that it feels a little small and cramped …. I am still bumping buttons which is irritating. Furthermore, I wish they had retained the row of buttons for ISO, WB etc….. I am so used to them, I still look for them when I am under pressure working.
Bitching aside…. The extra wheel is 24K gold. Makes you wonder why it was not implemented sooner. To have dedicated wheels for aperture, SS and ISO is so so so good. If I use the one and only RF lens I have, I assign Kelvin WB to the control ring, and you then have the perfect rig. You can dial all the settings in perfectly in real time, and you are golden.
One thing I have done that people may find useful is I have programmed the star button to change from eye AF to single point and the button next to it to change from single shot to servo. It saves you going into menus and allows you get in and out of focus modes when you need to which is useful for events.
In terms of the C modes…. I have c3 setup for the studio with certain settings and a custom WB. As an aside, using the first curtain shutter allows you to use 1/250th with strobes… while this is a minimal increase, it is actually quite a big difference for what I do.
C1 I have set up exactly like I had the 5d4 in aperture priority ( For events I am a massive AV shooter ….don’t judge me) with a minimum SS of 250 for shooting events. That way if I need to get back to what is familiar, I can do so super quickly.
Flash Exposure
Something I never see mentioned is how well it calculates flash when in ETTL mode. I dunno what they have done, but this is working better than ever, I do a LOT of bounce flash to either enhance light or to fill. In fact, if I am indoors and not using window light or candles I use it ALL the time. It just seems to get it right the vast majority of the time. Remarkable really. I am using the original Canon 600 EX flash if that is of any interest.
This venue was like the bat cave due to rain and they could not have it outside. Bounced the strobe of the celing and this was pretty much out of camera.
EVF
I rambled on about this in my last review I will not bang on about it too much… I don’t think I will ever like the EVF more than an OVF. But this one is nicer than the R6 when in the highest setting. Pity it chews batteries. The EVF is fine in nice light, but truly sucks in dim conditions. I think I need to simply get over it and just accept it is what it is considering the substantial benefits that the EVF gives you, such as real time exposure (gold if you shoot natural light) and the histogram.
Battery Life.
It really is not as bad as people make out. For reference, I did a wedding last week for 8 hours , took 1500 ish photos, did all the usual chimping and showing people the back of the screen and I went through 2 and a half batteries.
EF Lenses.
Zero problems. Work just as well with the adaptor. People say it breathes new life into old lenses. I think that is a bit of an overstatement…. But the IBIS and better focusing does mean you get sharper photos…. No question. Aside from that, the photos look the same to me. I think it’s a great result that Canon allow you to migrate from your existing system with zero issues and something that never Canon ever seems to get credit for. Truth be told if I had been forced to start again I probably would have had a close look at Fuji just because of cost.
File Size
This greatly worried me which is why I went for the R6 originally. I have been shooting in CRAW and the files seem fine. If there is a difference between that and full Raw I can not see it. My main concern was slowing down the system when editing an event. But If I am patient and allow Lightroom to render 1:1 previews, it’s actually fine. I think the new adobe updates have been a big help there.
Original ..as you can see I would never make it as a wildlife photographer. All i dd was point the camera at the bird and it picked it out.
Substantial crop and still looks good IMO . That is a lot of data getting deleted.
Complexity.
This is a serious camera with pretty much unlimited combinations to configure it. This is going to sound super dumb….. But I actually find it can clutter your thinking when shooting. Rather than solving a problem simply ( which is really what photography is ….. Problem-solving) I find myself thinking about the camera. I guess eventually it will all become second nature. So I have figured out what works for me and leave it at that. In essence, I have dumbed it down so I do not have to think about it too much. If you are like me where tech fascinates you IMO you need to be mindful you do not let that get in the way of shooting . I dunno if that makes sense.
To drift of on a tangent …. I went back and used a 5d2 for something …. It was such a pleasure to use…. Super simple and I actually like the clunk of the shutter. I think it’s the simplicity I like. Like it enough to use it all the time??….. God no …. But fun to revisit for personal use.
Studio shot
Flip Screen
I only use it for video. For some reason I find it really difficult to compose with the camera away from my face. I just find it unnatural which is pretty lame considering I use my camera phone every day. Maybe I just need to practice.
IBIS.
This however is solid gold. You know those dudes who can hand hold at shutter speeds half the focal length or less …. That is NOT me. I like to be 2x the focal length or higher for most things…I really am a lousy hand held shooter. The difference you get in sharpness can not be underestimated. I really need to remember this capability and do some slow shutter speed stuff for creative motion blur. Super useful for photographing things that do not move and you want to keep your ISO down.
Animal eye AF works on rodents.
Noise.
Speaking of ISO…. I find this a little noisy. I think it is because Adobe sucks so much and the fact these are big files. I know this can be tidied up with 3rd party options but that is way too much work considering that regular people simply do not care or can even see the difference. . The funny thing is that I actually like how the noise looks.
Shot in Jpeg. High ISO. Looks pretty good ... well as good as it can look with hideous gym lights.
Compatibility with 3rd Party Stuff.
I use all Godox lights and the Godox wireless flash trigger. . Seems perfectly fine. Everything works as it did before. Having said that, do not read too much into this as I keep it pretty simple….. I mainly use manual settings and occasionally use TTL if I know I am going to be messing around with different aperture settings.
I do have a friend who is strictly a wedding shooter. She had some old triggers ( not sure what they were ) that did not work on the R5 but did work on the 5D4. . I gave her my old canon ST-E3-RT trigger to use and she is now motoring along fine for her backlit stuff she does. So it seems some ancient 3rd stuff can be problematic. Worth considering if you are looking at the R5 and you have ageing lighting triggers and receivers.
Random landscape from my afternoon walk. I would never make it as a landscape photographer but I do like the detail here.
Cards
Man, I wish that you did not have to use the CF Express card if you want to use two cards. They are expensive and not really required for stills shooters who wish to shoot redundant.
Small and Medium Raw
Urgh. I wish wish wish this camera had that long-standing feature. I do not understand why this would be omitted. Sure compressed raw is fine. But it would be so useful if you could natively shoot lower res raw files if you do not need the full file size.
Overheating.
Zero Problems and the most overhyped problem as it seems to only be relevant to the highest video settings.
Aspect ratio.
More gold. Because I live in portrait land and sell a lot of matted 8x10s in portrait boxes, I can shoot in in that framing. . The amount of times in the past where I kicked myself not leaving enough room for a 8x10 crop are too many to mention. This is super super super useful. There are limited default sizes but if you dig into the settings you can set the camera to be 8x10 plus other sizes…. It puts these blue lines in the EVF showing you where the crop is . The cropping shown is then transferred when imported into the computer. The data still exists from where it was cropped so if you do need that width for some reason it is still there. I hope that makes sense.
Classic 8x10 . 135 F2 at F2 and they were all in focus. Remarkable.
Video.
Looks awesome to me…. But I am a hack with video so I will not elaborate in this review.
Summary
What can I say other than it is a great camera. I mean really great. I honestly can not imagine ever needing anything better than this. I guess if they somehow improve the AF more using AI based on how you shoot would make it better.
Any gripes are really just personal and likely to be irrelevant to anyone else.
I am hard-pressed to think of a better all round camera. It really does everything amazingly well. You can do studio stuff, then take it to a sporting event and do that. I did just this when I got asked to photograph my daughter's netball game. Other than being bombproof like the 1dx series, I can not think of a weak point.
Makes me glad I stuck with Canon. Back when Canon was getting killed in the spec war with Sony making some incredible cameras and when Nikon came out with what I think is the best DSLR ever with the 850 I wondered if I would eventually change. As I said, I am glad I hung around, as I am still using all my glass and strobes and studio lights. Another aside…. These people who claim to change systems all the time…. How do they afford it??
The million-dollar question is does it make me a better photographer. The answer is no, of course not…. Gear does not make you better. What it does do though, allow me to do my job better and probably get shots that I would miss before. Especially with the insane frame rate for capturing decisive moments. In my world that is pretty basic with things like Confetti shots, bouquet tosses and stuff like that.
I look at it like this ….. If I can better serve my clients, which this camera actually does, then that is a good investment for me.
The other way to look at it , if you are a serious hobbiest this camera will bring you so much joy using it. Whether it be capturing things that were previously hit-and-miss like nature and action or just simply having fun experimenting with new technology.
tl;dr Summary:
Great camera , worth getting for pretty much anything.
Finally:
I hope this is of some help to someone. I like to write reviews as I have taken so much from the internet and I do like to give back a little.
As always, I apologise for any spelling or grammatical problems, I always seem to find some mistakes after I hit post. I would be a lousy editor. Also, I usually like to include more photos, but I have only had it a month or so I do not have a lot of photos to draw on that I can post publicly.
Any questions , please hit me up.
Random horse using animal eye AF.
Random plant in nice light
Cool vintage car.
