Hi all,
Just looking for some advice from yourselves as I am torn between a couple of systems, The Fujifilm XT5 (Or potentially the SX20) and the Canon R8.
I'm mainly a hobby photographer and enjoy taking macro shots, but want to improve my gear. I come from using a very old crop sensor DSLR (12mpx), so either would be a vast improvement, but not sure how much better a FF sensor will be.
I would be looking to take macro photography but then also landscape, wildlife and travel photography (with a bit of general photography too) with this system, so want a system which is fairly light to carry around. I may do a little low light stuff too.
The reason I am torn is because while the XT5 on paper is superior, would the full frame R8 sensor produce vastly better results? Just from looking on the sample galleries here, the R8 looks much cleaner, whereas the Fuji always seems to have some motion blur, slightly out of focus and a fair amount of noise. Is this because the galleries are in different conditions? if anyone has used these systems, then any advice would be warmly appreciated.
I would be pairing them with either the 65mm or 100mm Laowa macro lens (so approx same field of view), a kit zoom and telephoto zoom later on.
Thanks in advance.
We hobbyists can sometimes get so focused on IQ potential that we can overlook lenses, controls/handling and specific features available in one system vs. another may matter far more for our long term satisfaction.
If I were in your situation, I'd make a spreadsheet including the key specs/features I cared most about and then list out the cost and weight of the body and all the principal lenses I'm like to want to acquire and use now and in the foreseeable future.
There are, notable, a couple
huge differences between the XT5 and Canon R8:
(a) IBIS — XT5 has it, R8 doesn't. If you've never had IBIS and mainly shoot from a tripod, you might not care (or you simply might not know what you're missing and could potentially ditch your tripod completely). But if you're ever shooting unstabilized lenses handheld at static subjects or shooting unstabilized lenses with video, this could be a fairly important consideration tipping you in favor of the XT5.
(b) controls/handling/ergos/shooting experience.
- XT5 has traditional film-era dials plus modern dials; R8 has modern dials only
- XT5 has an AF joystick, R8 doesn't
- R8 has a meatier grip that is more comfortable usable with longer and heavier lenses, XT5 has a sleeker/smaller grip that is less comfortable with longer and heavier lenses. If you're shooting off a tripod, this probably doesn't matter. But if you're going handheld, it might matter a lot. There are add-on grips for the XT5, but you should consider how much closer these get you to the handling you're looking for and at what cost.
- XT5 has one of the best EVFs available on the market today, the R8 has a rather lower-end/minimally-spec'd EVF that isn't anywhere near as good
(c) max burst rate and buffer — R8 has 6fps max, Fuji 15fps. Do you need high frame rates for the nature shooting you'll do?
(d) megapixels — XT5 has 40, better for cropping and getting more megapixels on subject for distant wildlife; you're going to have bigger file sizes to deal with; and those 40 MP are going to be noiser on a per-pixel basis which tempts many people into spending more time in post massaging the noise/sharpness/details. R8 has 24, nicer-to-deal-with file sizes, lower noise per pixel so you may be less likely to fall down noise/sharpness/detail rabbit holes in post, but you'll have less cropping latitude.
(e) in-camera focus stacking — R8 has it, XT5 doesn't (although it can do focus bracketing). Not sure if this matters to you or not, but it's something many macro shooters like.
(f) RAW vs. JPEG.
- Fuji JPEGs vs. Canon JPEGs — One of the reasons some people choose Fuji is their film simulation JPEGs. Likewise, some people idealize "Canon colors" and won't be happy with anything else.
- If you're a RAW shooter, there's the Fuji X-Trans vs. Canon Bayer sensor issues — Some Lightroom RAW photographers still aren't always satisfied with the results they get from the Fuji X-Trans sensor when shooting landscape/foliage, particularly if they like to sharpen their images. Many end up using an alternative RAW developer (Iridient X-Transformer) for demosaicing and capture sharpening, then export the DNG to RAW which adds an extra step to your workflow. Not everyone notices or cares, but some do it's worth mentioning and you doing some more sleuthing if this is a potential bother for you. There are no such concerns with the Canon.
(g) Lenses! The lenses available for each system are very different. You really should spell out exactly which specific lenses you want down the road (not just "a kit lens" or "a telephoto zoom") because they could lead you down very different paths. For example, you may find you really, really like the Sigma 18-50mm f2.8 lens because it's so small, light and useful. There's really no equivalent on the R mount.
In the end, both are amazing cameras. So it's almost impossible to make a well-informed recommendation about which would serve you best — you need to consider more of the factors above and decide how much they matter to you. Additionally, these cameras handle
so differently in the field that you should try to get into a store and play with each of them with representative lenses mounted to see what it's like to have them in your hands, play with the controls, feel the weight, and so forth.
