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:Need to practice more
Yeah, Ed... you've made those individual pollen grains almost impossible to count with that image being SO out of focus!!!!
And what he's not telling us, is that he was half a mile away ...
90% luck, 5% field craft, 5% camera skills.
Billysdad said: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.
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.
Personally I've found AI eye tracking a very interesting process, with much to distract the software, and increasingly so as the subject gets further away.
In another thread, and I hope Angus doesn't mind my quoting, "AI eye tracking is the easiest to confuse. So many objects can look like an eye - especially in the pile of rubble the Skylark is stood on."
That to me explains things perfectly.
I'm sure one day it will be perfected.
I need to reset my C settings, now I've become more aware of the features on the camera.
regards
John
Angus, PB and BD, Thank you for your comments.
Make things hard to focus on makes people dwell on the picture for longer.
Taken at a range of 2.5 miles..... oh wait 2.5 metres may be.
In all seriousness, I need to thank you guys (and many more on the forum) for posting some absolutely great photos that inspire me to get better with photo taking. I am in awe looking at some superb images.
Moving to mirrorless has been a game changer for me.
The picture of the bee was taken with my R7 and my new Canon RF 100-500 lens. I use Lightroom now to "Process" my images in a basic way. In other words, I import the picture, use the new denoise feature and crop the image to a size I like and hope you like it too. I then use the "Auto" function to set up all the levels etc. I have to tweak the sliders to get my finished photo. I use the slide and hope method as I have no idea of what the all do. I use the denoise feature as the R7's sensor is not that good in lower light conditions. I used to use Topaz Denoise AI and moved to Photo AI but stopped when Adobe introduced the denoise feature in Lightroom. I have a lot to learn yet. Youtube has been a great start to my photo adventure.
My settings. I stress that it is these that work best for me and I am comfortable with them. Very many images taken are absolutely useless but every so often one pops up and catches my eye.
R7 now with RF100-500 lens. (used to use EF 100-400 Mk1 with RF to EF converter). Camera set up to use Adobe sRGB colour space. I use the C1 setting and configured on start up to FV mode. Shutter 1/1250th, Aperture F8, 0 for exposure compensation and Auto ISO. I change things using the dials and mainly change the Shutter and Aperture. I am sure the more I get used to things this will change. Experimentation is the way forward for me. Auto white balance, autofocus and servo is setup and I use electronic shutter at H+ frame rate. Animal eye detection is on. I do not use back button focus as I cannot get on with this. It is a "me" thing. Oh and a big thing for me is Image stabilisation. That is on in camera and lens. I mainly shoot hand held and with my shakes seems to stabilise things nicely for me.
Well that is about it from me. I move forward with a goal I have set for myself. To get a photo good enough to published in some obscure mag article somewhere.
Take care all and keep taking those lovely photos.
Ed
Ed D said:
Good news on the new RF 100-500 lens, I'm certain you'll make good use of it, but pleeeeeease don't twist my arm any further up my back, I've got Mrs CL breaking the other one.
The move to Mirrorless has been a game changer for a great many, looking through some of the posts I've seen generally on the web, and quite a big game changer, to the point some are finding the changes uncomfortable.
John, Whatever you do....... do not look at the Canon RF 100-500 Users group on Facebook.
I do not wish to be responsible in anyway for your broken arm or dislocated shoulder.
Unknown said:Canon are offering up to £600 cash back on select cameras, up to £450 on select lenses and I think up to £500 on camera/lens packages through to August 2023. Funnily enough, the email I got, with a link to a Canon website page with offer details, says up to £500 cashback. However, when I went to Canon's site and clicked on the 'Offers' link, I did find a camera with £600 off. This may not be part of current promo. I'm sticking with my Sigma 150-600mm C as the Canon lenses are too expensive, even with cashback. HDEW have a great offer going for R7 + RF adaptor.
If you consider going down the cash back route, its worth making sure that you are in the Canon Club (free to join\0 as you will get an extra 5% back and you can't complain at that.
You may recall that I hired a RF 100-500 lens in an attempt to rationalise my kit and get me a lens that would be small enough to take on holiday abroad or carry with me on cycle rides so that I could do a spot of wildlife photography if the occasion arose. As it turned out I didn't feel that the performance was as good as my EF f2.8 300mm so decided not tpogo down that avenue as the only way I could justify the cost of the 100-500 would be to trade in the 300mm f2.8.
So the hunt continued and I took a close look at t he RF 100-400mm f5.6 - f8. It's not an L lens, hence the £699 price tag and its not the fastest lens lens at f8 at 400mm but again, at that price point its fairly understandable. From my point of view though it is a perfect size for taking on cycle rides or for taking abroad on limited luggage holidays and should be more than capable of capturing shots that I would otherwise miss, even if not of the quality I would normally hope for. As for going abroad standard holidays which might include a bit of wildlife, we are normally going to warmer sunnier climes also the f5.6-f8 range is less of an issue as far as light gathering goes.
With a holiday in Croatia booked for 18 -28 June I took then plunge and bought one given the dimensions were certainly within the bounds I was looking for. It fits in my camera bag that I use for my budget airline hand luggage along with the 24-105 lens that I need for the every day holiday photography - so requirement 1 met.
Requirement 2 was to be able to take it on cycle rides and it comfortably fits in my cycle bag
So size issues resolved - how did the lens perform in sunny Croatia with the wildlife. As you would expect not nearly as good as my prime L series lenses but I wa happy with results pictures that I would not have been able to take. Some were very good and I was surprise at the quality of some of the Swift flight shots. I attach a few examples of the various wildlife we saw that would otherwise have been missed.
So for anyone looking for a lens that doesn't cost an arm and a leg and doesn't weigh a ton, I can highly recommend this one - initial cost £699 then £100 cashback plus further 5% discount for being in the Canon Club.