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
Unknown said:
Whilst waiting for the rest of family to get their lazy backsides out of bed, I decided to watch a bit of a video by Mr Paton.
First aspect that surprised me was that I, like Duade, use my left eye to focus with view finder. I never realised this, until Duade pointed out that one niggle of his was the control stick thingy was on the right side of camera, and he kept hitting his nose when using. However, not a problem for me. I am not a pro photographer like him, resetting the camera as I focus. I'm probably like the rest of us mere mortals: set the focus and values first, then shoot.
Second, he was saying he found the photos acceptable but made the point that the weather was overcast. Seriously! I would give my right arm to get the quality of shots he was getting on an overcast day. I reckon he had a much better lens than I have. Plus the camera itself is possibly a step change above Canon 80D in terms of image quality.
I was fascinated to see the tracking moving around and focusing on a bird's eye.
Ah the joys of being left side dominant in a right side dominant world....
I too use my left eye more than the right, and I have to say, until it was once pointed out to me many years ago when trying out a new SLR, yes, a film camera, before, and even since, knowing what I know, it's still never been an issue.
Incidentally, the SLR was the Minolta Dynax 7000i, which was to replace a Praktica BC1, which replaced a Zenit E, a proper old style SLR, and a good one to cut ones teeth on.
Ed D said:Angus, The R7, RF-EF adaptor and EF lenses are my choice at the mo and that is what i am using. I think it is the lens that makes the difference. I am certainly no expert. I would like to try the RF 100-500 lens but at the moment I have no funds to buy one. I have looked at renting one but the price is too steep for me for a short rental period. To me, mirrorless is the way forward. :-) Ed
What lenses do you currently use?
Its worth remembering that with WEX you get a weekend rental for the price of a day rental midweek - so £89 for a 100-500 lens from Friday to Monday. Though I agree the 100-500 lens is an expensive lens but I have several friends with one and it is excellent and weighs next to nothing. I don't have one either but I do have a 300 f2.8 EF lens which with a 1.4 TC is effectively a 42 f4 lens and I am reluctant to give up that much light for the sake of an extra 80mm though obviously its much lighter. If it is reach you are after you could consider hiring the RF 600 of 800 F11 lenses. They do have their limitations but price point and weight give them some advantages too. I have the 800 f11 and find it totally adequate when I want that extra reach along as it isn't too gloomy - although I do use a full frame camera which is better at handling higher ISOs.
I too use the Canon EF-S 15-85 lens, I find it an excellent general purpose piece of kit. My other favourites are the Canon 70-300mm f4 - 5.6 L is, and the Canon 100mm f2.8 L is macro. They work nicely for the type of photography I like.
Billysdad said:I too use the Canon EF-S 15-85 lens, I find it an excellent general purpose piece of kit. My other favourites are the Canon 70-300mm f4 - 5.6 L is, and the Canon 100mm f2.8 L is macro. They work nicely for the type of photography I like.
The EF-S 18-55 is a nice lens to use.
For those with full frame mirrorless cameras, the frame settings will auto default to the cropped sensor setting with full frame being greyed out as unselectable.
But you can still use the EF-S 18-55 lens.
For me, the thing about a top quality lens, like a Canon L series, is that you will have it forever and it will always improve the performance of an average camera model. Lenses do get upgrade but on a fairly irregular feature. Camera bodies however get upgraded almost every year. With what I have learned over the last 11 years since I retired is that I would rather have the better quality lenses first and then worry about the camera body afterwards.
Bobs_Retired said:End Of Quote (manually inserted due to rubbish software
Hey Bob. If you want to quote someone (like I just have) if you use the reply button at the bottom of their post, then rich formatting, you can the highlight the passage and click quote, and it puts it into your reply box.
And I agree with the lenses being the better investment :o)
PimperneBloke said:Hey Bob. If you want to quote someone (like I just have) if you use the reply button at the bottom of their post, then rich formatting, you can the highlight the passage and click quote, and it puts it into your reply box.
Yes I did that but it doesn't always work, which was why I did the manual. You can see in lots of posts that Quoting doesn't always work.
Bobs_Retired said:
PimperneBloke said: Hey Bob. If you want to quote someone (like I just have) if you use the reply button at the bottom of their post, then rich formatting, you can the highlight the passage and click quote, and it puts it into your reply box.
As Bob says, it doesn't always work.
There may be more reasons, but I think two of the key issues are:
I've had to do a similar thing with this reply which includes two sets of quotes. What I do is grey out the quoted text so that it is clear where the quote is and where my reply is.