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
PimperneBloke said: I had checked about the adapter before buying. If there wasn't one I'd have probably gone for the D850, as that would still be a massive step up from the D5600. Interesting about the lens, I'll have a check on that when I'm home, thanks.
Your findings re adaptors backed up my research, which was why I was keen to get a definite answer from someone who has made the purchase.
Yes, you will find a lot of I think, very pleasant surprises.
My recent visit to Charlecote and chasing housemartins in flight was quite a pleasant surprise as far as any image drag on the EVF experienced, which was very little.I think, no make that, you are going to, really enjoy the new Nikon Z7ii.
Regarding a comment about the weight, I can't comment on your previous camera, but I do know from my experience moving from the Canon 750D to the 5D4 there was a notable weight gain on the 5D4, though I tend to feel the R5 is slightly lighter.
The respective body only weights are
I would imagine something similar for Nikon weight differences between full frame, cropped sensor and full frame mirrorless.
Do please let us know about the lens/shutter scenario.
Regarding the lens/shutter scenario, from what I can gather there is no protection for the sensor when changing lenses, so the advice appears to be point the camera downwards, don't do it in a desert, or in a breeze!
In other readings, I have discovered there is an option to switch to DX format, thereby increasing the focal range, but taking it down to 20mp ish from the 43 it has full frame. It also changes in the viewfinder the area of view. There is debate whether it's better to use DX, or just crop the full frame image. I haven't used it so can't comment, but if I can't see the subject without being if DX mode, how am I going to crop it?! (Unless I've misunderstood the concept, which is quite likely!!)
PimperneBloke said:
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On a Canon, when you look through the viewfinder you can press the magnify button and it magnifies your view. Press the magnify button a second time and it increases the magnification of your view again -great for distant subjects as it also helps ensure you have the subject in focus and not some stray branch etc.
As for crop format over full frame - its one way of helping to magnify the subject. As you say you can always crop the full frame shot later especially if you are going to crop quite tight for wildlife.. However, using crop format can be useful for composition purposes, especially if you don't use big zoom lenses.
TJS said:It's difficult contributing to this thread other than as an interested observer. I moved to mirrorless from another form of mirrorless, a succession of bridge cameras. Being fairly light, although the G9 weighs 658g with battery and card, and quite a bit cheaper than full frame it enabled me to get round the lens changing problem by waiting for a special offer and buying a second body. I do all my photography with 2 lenses, a 12-60 and 100-400 (24-120 and 200-800 full frame equivalent) and just leave the lenses in place. I did have a few problems with a few bits of dust before that, despite being careful.
I may have been a little uncomplimentary when I related mirrorless to compacts, but it was to try and use a comparison that many could relate to. As you rightly point out the same process has been used for a long time with bridge cameras. I have successfully used two bridge cameras many years ago and only changed them for more pixels as the tech progressed, and my desire to return to using a DSLR after many years previous using SLR's.
However, moving forward, it is a very similar process, and in my mind, the same. The only differences being there is one lens to cover a wide range of focal lengths vs one which uses dedicated focal lengths, and zooms.
Correct me if I'm wrong, disregarding the focal lengths, but a zoom lens is the same working process as a bridge camera.
In your case, you still have the ability to change lenses, with that in mind, bridge camera users inputs are just as valuable.
An interchangeable zoom lens is the same basic principle as the zoom lens on a bridge camera, but a zoom made for a DSLR or Mirrorless camera is generally higher quality simply down to the fact it has a much lower zoom multiple. Telephoto zooms are often only 4x zooms - 100-400mm, 150-600mm for example. Bridge cameras often have huge zoom ranges, 60x and higher. That means the lens will zoom between 20mm and 1200mm equivalent (longest focal length divided by widest focal length gives the multiplier). Basic laws of optics unfortunately, zooms are more complex designs and (generally) by default lower quality than a prime lens - and the higher the multiple the harder it is to make a lens decent throughout its range. There are of course exceptions - Canon famously make a 20x zoom for cine cameras which is 50-1000mm (used on wildlife shoots a lot). Don't go looking for a price unless you're sitting down though!
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