Image quality

The EOS R5 churns out lovely images with tons of detail. Out-of-camera JPEG.
ISO 100 | 1/100 sec | F11 | Canon RF 24-105mm F4L @ 43mm

Key takeaways:

  • High resolution sensor provides plenty of detail in Raw and offers competitive noise performance at higher ISO values
  • Default JPEG parameters produce excellent detail at low ISO values
  • Higher ISO JPEGs show a bit less detail than competitors, but with lower noise levels as well

Studio scene

Our test scene is designed to simulate a variety of textures, colors and detail types you'll encounter in the real world. It also has two illumination modes to see the effect of different lighting conditions.

Recent Videos

Raw

At 45MP, the EOS R5 is the highest-resolution Canon camera we've seen for quite some time, and that puts it up squarely against some really capable competition. There are just bags of detail everywhere you look. The EOS R5 has an AA filter; it still shows plenty of moiré here but perhaps a hair less than the competitors in other spots. As ISO values climb, the EOS R5 really looks to hold its own up to ISO 12800. By ISO 25600, it starts to lose ground to the Nikon, but is just slightly better than the Panasonic. We'd probably not bother going much higher than that.

JPEG

Moving over to JPEG, the EOS R5's default sharpening parameters look good, and its files have a ton of fine detail while looking reasonably crisp. It looks to be using finer radius sharpening than any of the other offerings here, and holds onto even the tiniest details impressively well. Color response is hard to fault, but that's largely true of the competitors here as well. At higher ISO values, the Canon tamps down on grain moreso than the other options, though some details start to go a bit mushy. But there's really not a whole lot to separate this particular crowd, with the Nikon, Sony and Panasonic looking to have a bit more perceived detail that's likely just due to the extra grain. The Canon is also doing a good job of preventing color spread while preserving saturation at higher ISO values.

Shutter modes

We'll look at the difference in quality between the mechanical and fully electronic shutter modes on the following page, but it's worth calling out that there's a third, electronic front curtain shutter (EFCS) mode to help ensure sharp results at slower shutter speeds.

Unfortunately, there's no automatic option to switch to full mechanical shutter mode at faster shutter speeds when EFCS won't provide you any benefit; what matters though is that EFCS can make your bokeh look downright unpleasant at those higher shutter speeds, so if you're planning on shooting a fast aperture lens in bright light, remember to switch to the full mechanical shutter yourself.