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
Ed D said:
Moving to mirrorless......... At last my Canon EOS R7 has finally arrived after a six month wait.:-)
My apologies to all for the bad weather. Looking forward to using it.
Ed
Brilliant news and I hope you are settling down nicely with the R7.
My humble apologies for the late reply, but things haven't been as good here as they should be.
Snap away, and share any experiences no matter how positive or negative they may seem.
Will do Mike. I truly hope things are getting better for you. Hopefully, I will be able to use the camera in "anger" soon on Wildlife.
Got this shot during an astrophotography session earlier this month. :-)
Canon R7, Canon EF 100-400 Mk1, Canon 1.4 Teleconvertor. Used Lunar 11 rule. Started at ISO 100, F11 and 1/100 sec shutter and tweaked from there. :-)
Check out the EXIF information, that should tell you more eg aperture, ISO, White balance. I was given an old small leica D. It has a button that switches from Auto to the most rent thing I last set (SAP or M) and is hugely annoying as I find myself switching modes without meaning to. Keep up the good work and if you can find a third party book about your camera that will help too. Most of all just enjoy the results good or bad. They all teach you something.
Beachwalker - My favourite occupation as I love exploring my home county and photographing its beauty.
That is a really superb photo of the moon. The next time I photo the moon I might try your settings. The settings I use give a more silvery aspect and tend to be a faster shutter speed, typically 1/500 or faster. The lens is the EF Mk2 100-400 and apart from the EF/RF adaptor, nothing else.
The main reason for the faster shutter speed is to avoid camera shake, though modern cameras in association with image stabilisers is the thing it used to be, and if I wasn't so lazy, a tripod with remote shutter release....
I used to use a Canon 70D for all my photography and still do connected to a Telescope for my Astro work. I have the R7 now and with the extra megapixels I can crop in and not loose too much detail. I always use daylight white balance and shoot in Raw or in the case of the R7, C-raw. I have watched many a youtube video on how to get the colour from the moon. Am hoping to get out soon and start learning how to get some reasonable pics of wildlife. Looking forward to next year and, on that note, a very merry Christmas to everyone here on the forum and a Happy New Year when it comes. :-)
Ed D said:I used to use a Canon 70D for all my photography and still do connected to a Telescope for my Astro work. I have the R7 now and with the extra megapixels I can crop in and not loose too much detail. I always use daylight white balance and shoot in Raw or in the case of the R7, C-raw. I have watched many a youtube video on how to get the colour from the moon. Am hoping to get out soon and start learning how to get some reasonable pics of wildlife. Looking forward to next year and, on that note, a very merry Christmas to everyone here on the forum and a Happy New Year when it comes. :-)
The wonderful thing about photography is the wide scope and such amazing differences that are achieved just by different settings, no matter how small or big. For me, it also shows how fascinatingly the human eye (and many other creatures, from a survival perspective) in conjunction with the brain can also make changes to what we see and perceive.
It certainly shows the world is not black and white, there are many different shades of........
Two questions about the R7, if I may.
1) The on/off/video switch. Compared to the D series, the switch appears much smaller.
Do users have any problems using the smaller switch?
Do users find themselves accidentally pushing it so far that it engages video?
2) Tracking. Canon make a big song and dance about the AI capability of its tracking software. I've also reading it had machine learning capabilities.
Any R7 users actually use this technology? Does it work?
90% luck, 5% field craft, 5% camera skills.