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:I am hoping things will improve with the RF100-500 lens that I am looking to buy. Especially the focus speeds etc.
The 100-500 will certainly give you faster and more accurate focussing than the Mk1 100-400 you're using currently, but I'd concur with Bob's suggestion about using a larger focus area for the majority of pics - I seldom use the smallest single point even when photographing insects. It just seems too.... fussy, maybe. The next size up, or expanded areas seem much more reliable for nailing focus
___
Find me on Flickr / All about your camera - The Getting off Auto Index
Unknown said:
You could go for the half-way option - a Mk2 EF100-400L. Likely plenty of good second-hand options of those (and it works fine with the R5, it's what I'm generally using as my walkaround lens). It was a much better lens than the Mk1 all round.
It was a thought I had, to look for a MkII. I have a pretty decent camera shop within an hours drive from home.
Your pics and vids are just out of this world.
regards
John
Billysdad said: I have waited a while to get more used to the Canon R7 after moving from the Canon 90D about a month ago, before I give my views on the R7. My first few shots were average to good, but I mainly wanted to get used to the feel and basic settings before the local Coronation street parties where I took groups from two streets near me. The weather was great, I set the camea for 'Groups' and the photos came out well. I did no PP apart from a bit of cropping, then I had them printed and gave them as gifts to the people concerned. The were all highly delighted. My next outings were down my local woods where I go most days. I was using the spot focus point, and on several occasions the camera confirmed focus, but the subject was not in focus - probably not a lot of contrast with a dark bird in trees, I found that by switching to manual focus I could get it better. My next observation was that a lot of the photos were not 'pin sharp', they appeared slightly off focus and rather flat, lacking in fine detail. My next outing was to an agriculural show, again on a bright sunny day. At the show I took some birds of prey on perches, again the photos looked rather flat. I also took some photos of Kestrels in flight using the animal tracking and full screen focus area - the tracking indeed followed the subject across the sky. I reviewed them when I got home firstly in Windows Photo Viewer, and then in DPP4 to check the focus points. I had a burst of say 10, and nealy all missed focus. Some by a smidge and some by a lot. I'm sure I could tweak the settings to make some improvement, but decided that the best course of action was to send it back to Canon. Fortunately I bought it from my local camera shop who are very good and they agreed that in their opinion it should peform better. It was not as good as my 90D. Saying that, when I got my 90D, it was also a bit iffy, and the shop set it back under warranty, to which Canon reported, 'CMOS sensor/ colour/ white balance all calibrated to Canon standard'. It was back within a week or so, there was no charge and the camera was totally different - much better. So now I am awaiting the outcome of Canon's inspection. I also sent with it my 70 - 300L lens that I normally use, to see if there is anything wrong there. I will post again in this section when I get it back.
Very interesting, and I note Bobs_retired reply on the R5 and the camera club members experiences.
I've started to think I should have stayed with the old 5D MkIV. I feel the R5 was a step too far too soon and perhaps something I should have deferred, not avoided, just deferred while I spend more time playing photographer rather than photographer and gadget man.
But I like progress and I like photography, which is what drove me to the upgrade plus lens EF availability.
Sharpness with the R5 has been an interesting experience for me, and something I’ve been playing around with, particularly with small, and moving subjects. The results have been very mixed, and I’ve concluded for now, though I will persevere, a lot is down to me.
I had thought that the AF was working too fast, and desperate to find a subject to lock on to, and still feel that is a contributary factor, but highly likely, not the only factor.
I will not rule out me, the apprentice, as a big factor.
I have tried by slowing the focus down, with mixed results, and reading what you’ve put along with the camera club findings, has started to make me wonder if
I really am very interested in the what the outcome is.
I'm with Bob regarding the AV vs TV preference, only changing to P for lower light and more sedate movement of subjects.
With the ISO range, you can limit the AUTO ISO quite considerably, I've copied the images from the online Canon R7 manual, which uses more or less the same layout as the R5.
Advanced warning, if you try and limit the ISO range on its own, then it will not be anywhere near as flexible, this only works for AUTO ISO..
First snap. Need to practice more. :-)
Ed
Looks pretty damn good to me ...
A bit of an update on my R7 learning journey ... slowly. I am finding that for relatively stationary birds, I have set my C2 to TV Fast continuous. Setting the Shutter speed as high as possible to keep the Aperture at about f 6.3 with ISO around 800 to start with. Focus to Single point expanded, with Servo On. Subject to Animal with Tracking Off. I am finding that with Tracking On, the focus point wanders a bit away from my subject. I have the Control Ring adapter, it is set to Exposure Compensation. so if necessary I can lighten a dark subject up a bit. I increase the ISO if necessary. I haven't done much birds in flight, but I have set C3 to similar to the above but with Full Screen focus, and Tracking on. I am also trying to mainly let the camera follow the subject as much as possible, without quickly moving the camera. I find at higher ISOs noise can affect the detail when pixel peeping, but using RAW denoised in the new Photoshop AI De-Noise feature improves things a lot. I have set my Image QuaIity to CRaw and Large JPG. So any decent photos I can edit the RAW file,otherwise I delete them to save hard drive space. Any opinions or settings used succesfully by others welcome.
Apologies to anyone I have confused with my above post. I inadvertently put Av instead of TV. I have edited it now. It must be cos I am all excited going on my holls tomorrow.... ... Well today really.