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
I'm terrible in that I will push my camera to and beyond its limits, photographic wise and not hapless handling. But there is no harm in that, there is always just that chance that I might just get that photo, even if it requires a lot of editing.
On my recent visit to Brandon Marsh, I had that opportunity, nicely long before sunrise, but there was enough light to see clearly what was out there.
However, what I did experience, was close to what I expected, but one I often wondered whether it would or not, be what would I see through the electronic viewfinder (EVF).
The image was very blurred, and to add to that, the slightest movement when following a pair of little grebes at the time, was dragging.
Before anyone thinks I'm being negative, far from it, I was deliberately pushing the limits to see what I could, and would expect, and being totally honest, while the autofocus appeared slow, the drag effect of the image in the EVF was of no surprise.
This was a totally different experience to night sky photography, where the image didn't take so long to become clear, but that to me is hardly surprising. With the night sky there are fewer colours, for the processor to sort through unlike low level daylight photography where a far wider range of colours require processing.
If I was to use the Canon 5D4 under the same conditions, the only noticeable difference would be, no drag effect in the viewfinder, because that is live viewing which does not require the intervention of a processor, that work is undertaken between the human eye and brain, whereas the camera it is an electric transferred image, ie akin to a TV monitor and requires a processor to sort and clear the noise from the image to be screened.
Add to that, the light was pretty low, and the 5D4 would more than struggle to get a photo that wouldn't be too dark to edit, so it confirms my initial suspicions.
Fascinating stuff to me, and a good positive experience whatever.
A quick post to etol the virtues of mirrorless photography.
The end of January, on a barn owl watching session, just as I got into the hide and opened the flap, what I thought was a buzzard flying in to the fence post. My camera wasn't ready, it was a case of grab, point, shoot and hope for the best, no settings checked.
Once I'd seen the settings, I then quickly set the camera to a more acceptable camera shake free shutter speed while accommodating the very much reduced light level, 1/50 sec, and those images were black!
The settings are as follows, but even the most ardent photographer would struggle to avoid camera shake with the shutter speed I had, so I can only think it must be down to the software employed for the image stabiliser.
Uncropped, with the following settings
Yes, it was the barn owl.
The barn owls, yes, more than one heard, were very vocal this particular morning. Noting the time and how light it was, I feared they would be tucked up in bed by the time I got in the hide, so you can guess my amazement that followed.
And with the photo cropped as much as I dare....
Michael B said:
Well caught.
What was the ISO?
Bobs_Retired said:
Thank you Bob.
ISO was 3200.
I will add, I've set the R5 to a max ISO of 3200, I find that many photos become too noisy using a higher ISO.
I must say I am getting more excited about moving to mirrorless. The barn owl photo is extraordinary given the low light conditions, its distance and the 1/3 sec exposure. Low light conditions tends to be more the norm. Saying that, it is actually sunny as I write, but destined to be gloomy for the next few days.
I've got my eye on the Canon R7, which also has IBIS. I'm holding off for a while, hoping Canon will fix some of the issues with regards the shutter i.e. rolling and shock.
90% luck, 5% field craft, 5% camera skills.
Unknown said:I'm holding off for a while, hoping Canon will fix some of the issues with regards the shutter i.e. rolling and shock
I'm curious what issues you are referring to here - rolling shutter is a "feature" of the electronic shutter on all mirrorless cameras, normally observed with fast moving objects and would be an integral part of the camera build (ie a next generation body may well improve things but I'm not sure a firmware update could make a difference). Conversely, shutter shock is a product of the mechanical shutter normally noticed on slow shutter speeds as the camera bounces when the shutter moves. On a mirrorless camera, the biggest cause of that - the mirror slapping up & down - isn't there so I'm surprised if it's an issue to be honest. Unless you're meaning something else?
___
Find me on Flickr / All about your camera - The Getting off Auto Index
Unknown said:
The 90D is a good camera, and as I understand it, the replacement for the 7D and 850D, two stalwarts into one, and from the little I've grasped, the R7 takes that stage one step further into the Mirrorless zone. With that in mind, I'd personally get in there, get that R7 on order.
If there is a problem the software will be rolled out, and so long as you register the R7 with Canon, they will let you know when there is an update, if there is one required. I've already had a software update on the R5, and it was easy to download and install.
When I moved from crop sensor to full frame, the 750D to the 5D4, I did notice a big change in how the 5D4 handled scenes I was familiar with, which I embraced rather than chastised. It didn't take long to settle to the full frame.
Likewise I noticed a similar change from the 5D4 to the R5, and I'm still finding many changes, but I'm comfortable with those changes. One of which I've found is with low light, the R5 performs perfectly, and at times, probably over perfectly in that I've restricted the ISO to a max of 3200 to reduce the noise.
PimperneBloke said:Just to pop a cat amongst the pigeons, I think I read somewhere canon are planning another new camera, but I'm at work and short of details to hand
They are.
I had notification a couple of days back from the camera shop I use, as follows:
While not wishing to demean the R50, the R8 spec is pretty impressive.