18-Month Review of the R5 from a studio photographer

When I got the R5 about 18 months ago, I wrote a review in this forum with some initial thoughts and why I got rid of the R6 and replaced it with the R5. You will find it if you troll through the reviews in this forum.

So, I am a full-time portrait photographer with a busy studio with 2 staff and a bunch of subcontractors.

For context, what our studio does is essentially three genres. 1) Headshots and Commercial portraiture, 2) Boudoir and fine art nudes, and 3) Pet Photography. Weird collection of specialties, but it works for me.

I am about to do my final wedding ever ( a happy day ). I still do some events, but I spend almost 80% time in the studio. But it is a fantastic wedding and event camera. I can't fault it... especially with the RF lenses available.

What I do is not terribly demanding, but I need a primary camera that always works, is reliable and has excellent image quality.

So I will run through the important things ( to us ) for what we do in the studio and when on location.

Boudoir

Pets

Headshots

Image Quality.

Really good. Obviously. All cameras are now excellent, so that's not a talking point. If I take the time to create a custom white balance for every session, I find that this is the difference between good and excellent photos on the R5. Skin tones are bang on when I do that.

There was a problem for a long time for those of us that use adobe products where the camera colour profile was unavailable for raw files.

This was the source of much swearing, arm-waving, and teeth-gnashing until I found and purchased 3rd party colour profiles. Before anyone says that the Canon DPP Software creates perfect photos, you are correct. However, try managing and processing any volume photography, and the thought of using DPP will make you want to set your car on fire. I know that Capture one is fantastic, but our procedures are baked in, and I want to avoid training people with new software.

I updated Lightroom the other day and noticed there are now camera profiles. Thanks Adobe for being so fast 🙄

Handling.

I still wish it was the size of the 5D cameras. I think it is a bit small. But I do have really big hands.

Reliability.
This is the most important thing when working professionally. The last thing you want to be worrying about is weird problems like lockups, glitches, file corruption etc. I don't know how many photos I have taken. But it must be way over 100,000. I can honestly say that I can not recall a single major problem where I had to pull the battery or any mechanical problem.

We take this for granted and should congratulate Canon on creating such reliable tools.

Eye AF

I have a love-hate relationship with the eye AF. Lemme explain a bit more.

Headshots. When I do headshots, I typically shoot on a tripod at F8 to F11 ISO 100 1/250th. I do this so that the photos are sharp from nose to the back of the head for easy extraction in Photoshop. Also so I can kill all ambient light so I do not have hideous mixed lighting. In this scenario, lights are on in an office or studio . The eye AF is perfect...never misses. Sidenote .. I use the RF 24-105 lens for all this work, and it is REALLY good.

Boudoir. I keep it quite dim in the studio as I like to shoot at F1.2 to 2.0. So it's pretty dark as I am shooting pretty wide open and I do not want to contaminate the studio strobes with overhead lights. In this situation, it's really hit-and-miss. It will grab hair, noses etc. I don't complain as it is asking a lot from the camera to even achieve focus, but the point is, I can't rely on it in dim conditions. I probably should get an ND filter, but I am a creature of habit and also, I like it to be darker for this sort of photography so the clients feel less exposed.

Events: It's OK. TBH you are better off just using single point if there are multiple people in the photos. But.... it is cool when you use a wide lens on a dancefloor and stick the camera above your head and take super random shots.... it usually grabs someone, and you get some pretty interesting action photos.

EF-RF Adaptor.

Zero issues. Works perfectly. I am still using the ancient EF 50 1.2 ( I like how that old lens looks with its quirks..even though I hate the Chromatic aberrations), and it now makes that old lens way more usable. Hits focus all the time.

Pets / Animals

This is big. I photograph pets in the same manner as I shoot Headshots. Except there is drool, you get covered in hair and sepnd all your time on floor.
This really blows me away... what used to be hard to do is now considerably easier from the technique aspect. The trick with saleable pet photos is you need the eyes sharp the vast majority of the time. Typically you are really close, sitting on the ground, camera in one hand, treat or squeaky thing in the other. For the AF to be able to grab the eye is impressive.

Lights

I use all Godox lights. Don't judge me; they work great. I only use strobes and zero natural light. Last count, I have 8 lights and what seems like 4000 modifiers.

Zero issues with compatibility with the controller. Works like a champ.

I photographed 142 headshots on location in a day. My assistant helped them pick out the photos thy liked in real time.

Dials.

I do not see this mentioned that often, but that extra control dial is gold. To have ISO , SS and Aperture all there is awesome. If I use a RF lens I assign Kelvin WB to the contol ring , and can adjust everything I need with tactile controls in real time. It's awesome.

Custom Buttons.

There is a million ways to configure the camera. My advice (based on my failures ) is set it up to what you are used to, then add the changes you want one at a time so you learn it properly.

Tethering with a cable.

As mentioned, I use Adobe products. Once you get it all set up ( which is super tedious but not a Canon issue) , it's really good and just works. So no complaints there.

Compressed Raw.

I have looked at both full raw and compressed raw for way too long side by side... I can not see a difference. Maybe there is, but it's invisible to me. So I live in CRaw.

This is actually a great feature. That space adds up. I know storage is cheap ... but SD storage on working drives is not.

EVF.

I hated it at first. I thought I would never get used to it. But I actually now like it. The best thing is you can review photos in the EVF. I need reading glasses, and I can not shoot with glasses on, so it saves me the pain of constantly taking them on and off.

What annoys me:

WiFi. This still sucks. It drives me slightly insane that my crappy earphones will connect every time to my iPhone but when I connect to an Ipad it's about as reliable as 3 dollar Rolex from Thailand. I use this all the time when doing on-location headshots, If I want to avoid taking a computer and fiddle about with tethering. Every time it's a crapshoot if it will connect.

Tagging Photos with stars: This is so annoying. So when you star rate a photo, the rating only goes to one card. So you have to go into the yellow area in the menu and select which card you want as the playback card. In my case, I use the SD card for everything and leave the other card in the camera purley as a backup. Here's the extra problem. Turn the camera off, take the SD card out and copy the files, put it back in, and the playback will now be on the CF Express card..wh?? I have NFI. It's really easy to forget to go in and change it back. Why not just have the ratings go to both cards??

This is minor. Focus points.

You can set the number of focus clusters you want. I only want two. Eye AF and the smallest one. For some reason, you can not turn off the second smallest focus square. I have the star button and the button next to it to turn on and off continuous and the other to go from eye AF to single point. It would be nice to not worry about the box you do not want.

These are obviously first-world problems and I am nit picking.

Final Thoughts.

I think this is the ultimate all-rounder. It's fast enough for sports and wildlife if that floats your boat. The megapixel count is awesome if you are a cropper like me, IQ is beautiful, and you could probably hammer nails with it, and it would keep on trucking.

You can shoot anything with it .

When they bring out the R5II or whatever it will be called .... I cannot imagine needing more than I have with the R5. More megapixels would be a watse for me; it's hard to imagine the focusing getting any better.

Has it made me a better photographer? Yes and no. Obviously, a new camera does not make better photos. It is still all about problem-solving. But it does take away some of the technical considerations and allows me to concentrate on what I am doing, enabling me to get better photos. Especially true with photographing people. You can engage your clients and not worry about getting focus and that sort of thing.

I rate it 5 out of 5 Stars

I like to do reviews. I have learnt so much from the internet and forums.... my hope is that this helps someone.

Ps: I apologise for typos, grim Grammar and spelling errors.

Thank you for this extensive review and the interesting insights it gives!

One note:

I recently bought an iPad (my first private Apple device). The wifi connection sucks indeed, drives me absolutely crazy.

However, it seems to be an issue with iOS and the way it handles wifi connections and app access rights etc. Tried it once with my iPhone SE2022 from work, same issues. On Android, however, I've been using the wifi connections to Canon cameras for many many years without issues. Super stable. Maybe it makes sense to look for an Android tablet for your customer presentations.

Very nicely done!  Love your pics!

My review would be in lock-step with yours!

One note, I don't recall if you use back button focus.  If you want to change the appearance of the AF frame in the viewfinder, change your AF Method. 

Happy shooting!

R2

George Zip wrote:

Boudoir. I keep it quite dim in the studio as I like to shoot at F1.2 to 2.0. So it's pretty dark as I am shooting pretty wide open and I do not want to contaminate the studio strobes with overhead lights. In this situation, it's really hit-and-miss. It will grab hair, noses etc. I don't complain as it is asking a lot from the camera to even achieve focus, but the point is, I can't rely on it in dim conditions. I probably should get an ND filter, but I am a creature of habit and also, I like it to be darker for this sort of photography so the clients feel less exposed.

I own the 40mm Art and I've rented the RF 50mm f/1.2, and I found out the problem here is the RF L lens, not the body.  My Sigma 40mm Art and even the 50mm Art are focusing way more reliable in dim light.

I'm studying AF cases of the R5 now to see if this could improve anything.  I think anything prioritizing acceleration and deceleration should be avoided.

Thank you for a very detailed review. It confirmed to me that the R5 is a great camera and that it's not for my needs.

I do studio shoots as well, but my usual setup is different from yours.

Fantastic images, btw!

Interesting to hear your have no issues on iOS.

When I use the manual wifi connect process that you describe (instead of letting Canons App establish the wifi connection, after having connected via Bluetooth before), my iPad directly switches back to my home wifi, which has internet. I assume the reasoning is that the Canon wifi obviously has no internet connection and therefore the home wifi is strictly prioritized.

That makes the manual wifi connection method not usable for me. May I ask if you had a similar experience and if yes, how did you overcome the issue?

Thanks and happy holidays! 😊

Nice review!  When I moved from the 5DIV to the R5, I was a little apprehensive.  But, after I received the camera, before anything, I got the focusing set up for my liking.  I did the typical 2 button back button switch.  There's a photo of one of my granddaughters on my desk, so I stuck my Tamron 35-150 f2.8-4 on, hit the eye autofocus button and it locked onto the picture's eye immediately.  I was hooked!

I was also concerned about the EVF, but it's been fine.  I still prefer the OVF, but it's not as bad as I had thought it would be.

In hand feel is good because I also bought the Canon grip.  I've had grips on every camera I've owned in the last 8 years or so.  It's just a smidge off the great feel of my 5DIV, but still a comfortable camera.

All in all, it has been worth every penny.

David

You probably know this but if you want the camera to keep using the same type card, then don’t close the door when you take it out. Leave it open and then when you replace the card, the camera will remain on that card type.

I fixed the problem by bringing my own little wifi transmitter to the job. I keep the IP address static (in my case the iPad is always 168.1.1.111 or something like that).
So yeah. R5, little wifi thing plus power bank (lasts 48hr) and 12,9" iPad. It just works.
I don't know if it's important but I use the expensive wifigrip.

expro wrote:

You probably know this but if you want the camera to keep using the same type card, then don’t close the door when you take it out. Leave it open and then when you replace the card, the camera will remain on that card type.

In one of the recent firmware updates, a 'Priority card' option was added. Yellow Spanner, tab 1, 'Record func+card/folder sel.", scroll down to 'Record/play'.

That will make it switch back to the selected card as soon as it's back in the camera.

I don't think that will help with the situation described in the first port, but it might. It helps for my use case

Thanks. I noticed that come up and wondered what it was!