Well, I've finally done it, and ordered a new Canon R5.
Some of you may have seen my comments about looking into new cameras and gear in another post, A couple of days by the River Deben in Suffolk, and my apologies to Dave for the unintended hijack so I've set up a new thread to keep folks updated.
To continue from my comments, as many of you will be aware, I've been grounded by my falling apart body, but i've nothing but praise for the nurses, consultants, doctors and anyone else involved it working hard to resolve the situation.
We've all heard the old saying, the devil makes work for idle hands, well, include computer and mouse into that, and I've been researching into mirrorless cameras, which is the future, whether we like it or not.
Me, I'm intrigued and like the concept, but not the costs.....
Why the Canon R5?
Well, first and foremost, my son said go for it!
Some of you may be aware his partner walked out on him eighteen months ago, which almost rendered him homeless. While we would happily have taken him back, after a chat with my wife, his mother, I gave him a large chunk of my savings and agreed to be guarantor for his mortgage. I never gave any repayment terms, but he did ask how much, and has transferred some of the money back to me, enough to cover the R5.
I've been using Canon cameras for many decades, and I feel they are on a par with Nikon and the other big brand names, the only problem is, if you change to another brand, then you need to change all your lenses and other associated kit as well.
My research started with the cost of upgrading and also, many camera manufacturers also offer conversion kits, or adapters, so you can use your existing lenses on the new breed of cameras.
Also, my research shown that could I use my existing lenses, the cable and wireless remotes would work, so will the Speedlite flashgun. The only extra items required are the lens mount adaptor, and the memory cards, which are still the existing SD Card, or, the faster and more capable CF Express card, whereas the 5D4 will use a Compact Flash card.
Also, the battery pack for the R5 is the same is the 5D4, which I understand is the same as the 5D3.
This appealed.
However, the cost was still going to be steep.
My local postie, who we had for 20+ years, a very friendly chap, I never realised he did wedding photography, and offered to show me his cameras, which are Nikon, and how he managed to make the change to mirrorless.
We both agreed, Nikon, Canon or any of the other big names, you can't really go wrong.
After a very interesting three hours and numerous cuppas, and some time handling his cameras in the garden, and to play safe, I sat down to use them rather than stand and risk falling or dropping them, I was nicely impressed with what I saw.
There are some trade offs and caveats with electronic view vs live view, but I'm not one to be negative. Obstacles are there to be beaten, not beat you.
The one big downside, if it is a downside, is video. The final quality is good, however, when panning a moving subject, there is a noticeable lag. But then I don't do much video, and to be honest, my current 5D4 has some lag, because that in video mode uses the large TTF screen and not the optical viewer, which is live view.
I said obstacles are to be beaten, not beat you.
The video quality is superb, and a bigger plus, the electronic viewfinder shows the same as the large TTF screen, but the big bonus with the EVF, is you block out all the viewing intrusions that using a TTF screen came impose.
There will be more to this no doubt, as I start a new journey mirrorless, and I will be happy to share.
However, it is costly, and to make things more costly than desired, my nearest emporium haven't stock of the R5, so I've had to order from elsewhere, and not being able to go far, that means no trade in of my 5D4, which if I'm honest, I am reluctant to part with.
The new camera is on order, and should be with me in the next couple of days, all I need is for my leg to sort itself out.
Mike
Flickr: Peak Rambler
The USB connector is a standard USB-C one - not sure there is a Micro-USB-C. Micro-USB normally refers to the previous version (B) that can only be plugged in one way (USB-C is reversible). I can't remember what cable mine came with - I seem to have a drawer full of various USB cables! Both my desktop & laptop both have USB-C ports making connection simple with straight leads so I've never had any concern. The use of USB-C is necessary for the battery charging feature (older versions wouldn't supply sufficient current via the port to charge the camera battery).
One other thing I meant to comment on - the file sizes are big, so make sure you have plenty of storage, it doesn't take long to fill up hard drives. Pictures are bad enough, but video is humungous. Last summer, doing all the slo-mo insect videos (4k @100fps) filled up 3.5TB (yes, Tera Bytes!) of disk space. Never ending expense this hobby!
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Find me on Flickr / All about your camera - The Getting off Auto Index
Our herring gulls are red listed birds. Think about that the next time you hear some flaming idiot calling for a cull of them.
TJS said:I'm slightly wary of joining this debate, it's reading a bit like a Canon owners club at the moment, but there are other very good mirrorless systems out there for much much less money and physically much smaller.
Firstly, Trevor you're always welcome to join in, I and everyone else will know your comments will always be constructive.
Further, the title is mirrorless, not Canon or Nikon Mirrorless, and while I am Canon along with others, I have had a chance to play with a couple of Nikon's, and fine cameras they are, along with the fact, there will be those out there reading, and may be considering/fearing the change, who don't use Canon or Nikon, but may be your camera or camera manufacturer or another brand.
So your input will be just as valuable as anyone else, and not forgetting, it's not just about the camera, but also tips and tricks that may be unique to mirrorless.
So please feel more than free to join in.
Unknown said:
It is a micro-c to micro-c lead!
The R5 has arrived, unpacked and battery packs on charge. Using the 5D4 battery pack, menus, continue to follow the Canon format, and set up how I want to start off with, though no doubt as I explore more with the menus, things will change as to how they suit me.
Cards in situ and formatted. The Canon downloader software, which is my preferred option to download photos, had to be updated to accommodate the R5. That came as no surprise, I've had to do the same with each camera upgrade and still is an easy and quick process via the Canon Support webpages, with a plus. This time it retained my preferred settings as to file allocation and file numbering.
The menus are very much on a par to the Nikon's I played with on Sunday, which is no surprise, but a lot to explore, and play with. Thank goodness for digital, or I'll be needing a mortgage to pay for endless rolls of film and developing.
I just need to get out and play with the camera properly, and the forecast for the weekend is looking good.
TJS said:I'm slightly wary of joining this debate, it's reading a bit like a Canon owners club at the moment, but there are other very good mirrorless systems out there for much much less money and physically much smaller. As some of you may know I use a Lumix G9 Micro 4/3 camera with 100-400 and 12-60 Leica lenses and use the 100-400 for 90% or more of my photography. This gives me very good results with some limitations coming from the smaller sensor size, mainly about low light situations at high ISO (DXO Photolab 5 takes most of the noise out at high ISO) and the focusing being a bit slow in low light with little contrast plus less resolution from the smaller sensor but I've learned to live with this. A very high percentage of my best photo opportunities come in good light. However there are some big positives, the crop factor gives me a 200-800 telephoto reach with focusing down to just over 4 feet for macro work. The smaller sensor with 20 MP gives fast burst rates (less data to handle) and the possibility of something that full frame cameras haven't sorted out yet - Pre-Burst (Pro-Capture on OM system cameras) where you can take pictures before fully pressing the shutter button by the camera buffering with shutter held half way and recording once fully pressed and keeping a number of frames from before pressing capturing any earlier action. Great for birds and butterflies taking off with open wings. The Lumix G9 and some but not all the OM System cameras have this and possibly some Fuji cameras. For anybody not committed to an expensive DSLR system Micro 4/3 could be worth a look. Good luck, Trevor
By all means chip in with your experiences , its an open forum. My choice with the Canon mirrorless was governed by the number of Canon lenses I have. One other factor which played a part in my final choice was size - though unlike yourself I didn't want anything smaller as I feel the need for something large in my hands, with buttons big enough for me to use etc. But the more we all talk about them the more help we are to people who are on the cusp.
TJS said:One advantage of mirrorless that hasn't been mentioned so far, and I find it an important one for wildlife photography, is the ability to shoot silently without doing anything more than switch to electronic shutter, which I use virtually all the time anyway, and still have use of the view finder. There is a tiny bit of sound if you use constant autofocus, but not really noticeable. Also the effect of any EV adjustment is seen live in the viewfinder.
That is very true about the quietness of the shutter. it's amazing how much quieter not having the mirror the camera is. Even quieter than the 5D4 when using the large TTF screen, which disables the mirror.
I guess for me, I've seen mirrorless as the big sister to compacts, with heaps more pluses, which are generally quiet, with the option to have a shutter sound or not.
As for enjoying the new camera, definitely enjoying it already.