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
Hi Alan, I've not got an R7 but know that some people with autofocus issues can cure them by turning off eye detection especially when dealing with more distant subjects. That allows the camera to concentrate on tracking the subject rather than looking for an eye that isn't really visible at some of the distances people are taking photographs of . .
I think Bob's re-iterating my comment (with more clarity :-) ) - turn off the eye-tracking if the camera is hunting, see how it gets on. This new generation of AFs are great, but we quickly forget they do have limitations and wildlife photography is probably one of the most challenging things for it to handle - small subjects with complicated backgrounds.
Incidentally, don't get sucked in to thinking the grass will necessarily be greener elsewhere. I was chatting to a chap at Minsmere a few months ago who bought himself a Nikon Z8 & 600mm to use alongside his R5 Canon. He was disappointed in the Nikon's AF, with it consistently missing shots he knew the R5 would have nailed. This was a few weeks before Nikon did a big software update to enhance AF on that body, so it may well have improved significantly since then (which picks up on the other comment re software updates improving AF over time), but it emphasises the fact that all cameras will have some people struggling with features sometimes. Unfortunately, you only ever hear about the problems online & it's often difficult to tell what % of users are experiencing the issue.
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Find me on Flickr / All about your camera - The Getting off Auto Index
Thanks for the suggestion Bob and WJ I've asked if he has eye tracking enabled, without being out with him/them it's hard to tell what they are doing.
WJ that's the Nikon combo I've seen on Twitter with the barn owl shot.
The z8 upgrade is a huge step up in capability. I've not got the prime, so low light is still a bit of an issue with the 180-600 I got (5.6-6.3 if I remember rightly) especially as I tend to use a 1.4 TC too as I'm not an editor.
Edit: sorry, was at work an lost my train of thought and not sure where I was going with the editing comment... The TC takes it down to F9, so a definite compromise, but 840mm is a definite benefit I think, and I could also switch to crop mode which would take it to 1600mm+ although it would need to be a bright day I think to get a fast enough shutter speed to avoid wobbles at that magnification. The new specific "bird" in subject tracking is excellent as opposed to just animal previously.
PimperneBloke said:Edit: sorry, was at work an lost my train of thought and not sure where I was going with the editing comment... The TC takes it down to F9, so a definite compromise, but 840mm is a definite benefit I think, and I could also switch to crop mode which would take it to 1600mm+ although it would need to be a bright day I think to get a fast enough shutter speed to avoid wobbles at that magnification. The new specific "bird" in subject tracking is excellent as opposed to just animal previously.
The 840mm to 1600mm is kind of irrelevant really in this instance as you are using the same camera and are only talking about field of view. In this case the image taken in crop mode is smaller than the image taken in Full frame mode but there is no difference in resolution so no gain. For every picture you crop you can take the pixel dimensions and work out exactly what "this is the equivalent of xxxxmmm" is as its purely referring to the field of view. However your reduced pixel image will not blow up or print very well, whereas taking an image with a xxxxmm lens would give you a full sized image with a while lot of detail. It really only becomes relevant when you are deciding whether to buy a camera and think about the difference in resolutions.
The advantage of using crop mode is purely as a compositional aid or for clarification as to where the focus is best.
I've never been known for political correctness, so beware. To put it bluntly, your pals need to learn how to use their R7s and lenses. I've commented on this pulsating phenomena many times in this thread and forum.
Essentially, the software is trying to do too much and various modules can get in each other's way.
You've got traditional auto focus, desperately trying to focus on objects in the focus area.
You've got shape recognition trying to find, lock on, focus on and track a shape e.g. bird.
You've got eye tracking trying to find, lock on, focus on and track what it thinks is an eye. You will be quite surprised what the software thinks is an eye.
You've got light meter and other gubbins trying to figure out exposure, iso, etc, etc, etc.
On top of all these, you've got different sensitives to which to set how relaxed or aggressive these features are and also different strategies for tracking.
Perhaps most telling of all, the auto focus is highly sensitive e.g. I can lock on to an object with my 80D and move the focus point a few inches, with focus remaining. I move my R7 a couple of millimeters, and the thing changes focus.
It took me a couple of months to figure out the above. It then took me about six months to get used to my R7 and Sigma 150-600mm combo. I now get far more keepers than when I first started out.
One key mode of operation I have is to turn off eye-tracking on occasions. Why? Because I know the R7's software will pulsate. This happens most when you're close to the subject you're trying to photograph. Any movement of the subject (bird in our case) or camera/lens and the R7 will pulsate as the software tries to keep tracking all sorts.
A bird need turn its head slightly too and fro, and the R7 (or any other tracking camera) will pulsate as the eye appears and disappears. Basically the software will swap between the eye (when it appears) and the body of the creature (when the eye disappears).
I use my 80D and R7 in slightly different ways, having learnt their strengths and weaknesses. I love eye tracking. It has enabled me to get many, many, many photographs which I could never ever get with my 80D. It's great for tracking BIF. I will actually move the R7 around deliberately on occasions, and pick the optimal moment to press the shutter button as the thing pulsates. I've got many a great shot this way.
Check out Odds 'n sods 2023 and 2024 for examples of my R7 in action. Also the Birds of Prey thread. I recently photographed a Buzzard in dense tree branches. I would never have got that with my 80D. It would keep focusing on intervening branches.
90% luck, 5% field craft, 5% camera skills.