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
HAZY said:Well with the family away and before one returns tomorrow, I've been having another "play" and now downloaded the camera firmware to update it a tad, have linked it to my smartphone although it's taken a few attempts to get the firmware as I am working on a Mac and struggled a bit with the dmg file until I could get it to open FIR - if I am stating this correctly. !! all good now but lots of learning to do. I'm a bit like a dog with a bone and tend to keep trying until I achieve what I need to do which often takes longer than it should. LOL. I'm pretty much on Program setting at the moment but will get round to using the other settings and then set the C1, C2, C3 like I had on the 5Dmkiii. I had the electronic viewfinder on the Panasonic bridge camera so have seen this before. I probably need to recharge the battery now but did buy a spare one at £114. !!! Didn't want to risk a compatible version. Work in progress but thanks again for your brilliant tips and advice, as always, much appreciated guys.
Well with the family away and before one returns tomorrow, I've been having another "play" and now downloaded the camera firmware to update it a tad, have linked it to my smartphone although it's taken a few attempts to get the firmware as I am working on a Mac and struggled a bit with the dmg file until I could get it to open FIR - if I am stating this correctly. !! all good now but lots of learning to do. I'm a bit like a dog with a bone and tend to keep trying until I achieve what I need to do which often takes longer than it should. LOL. I'm pretty much on Program setting at the moment but will get round to using the other settings and then set the C1, C2, C3 like I had on the 5Dmkiii. I had the electronic viewfinder on the Panasonic bridge camera so have seen this before. I probably need to recharge the battery now but did buy a spare one at £114. !!! Didn't want to risk a compatible version. Work in progress but thanks again for your brilliant tips and advice, as always, much appreciated guys.
The R5 battery is the same shape and dimensions as the 5D, will fit both cameras and chargers, except with greater capacity, so once you've got to grips with the features (I'm still learning, and enjoying it) the overall charge cycle should be comparable.
I still have connection hiccups when trying to download photos to the smartphone, but I think I've finally resolved that, by chance and not education. The smartphone is an ideal way to view the images on a larger screen and it does work well for remote shooting so long as the camera isn't more than a few metres away. You can adjust most exposure settings on the smartphone just as you would on the R5.
I think the interesting part of using the R5, is the eye focus. Sometimes centre is better than eye, other times eye does show superiority, so sometimes, if the subject permits, I'll take a series of photos using both focus options and sort the best out afterwards.
Eye features are great but sometimes with wildlife it is trying to find an eye when the wildlife is too distant so there is excessive hunting. Turning the eye detect off can obviously help on those occasions.
Linked the camera via wi-fi to the Mac computer just now, tested the download which was ok; taken a few smaller jpegs ..............the whisker detail on the moor chick are impressive with this camera considering I'm working in smaller jpeg size !
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Regards, Hazel
I gave an R3 and was completely new to this area. I found this YouTube channel very helpful and this is tye link to the R5 video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFZ0J27zSI4&t=42s. I use 3 back buttons with different focus setting which makes switching very easy.
Might be if some use.
Regards Andrew
Hi Andrew, what a coincidence, I've just viewed that long video earlier this afternoon and found it very interesting. I've followed the instructions but I'd already set the back button using the AF and * buttons. I viewed it because it was on birds in flight. Thanks for the link anyway as others may want to use it.
andrew s said:I gave an R3 and was completely new to this area. I found this YouTube channel very helpful and this is tye link to the R5 video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFZ0J27zSI4&t=42s. I use 3 back buttons with different focus setting which makes switching very easy. Might be if some use. Regards Andrew
That was an interesting video to watch. Even more interestingly, I many of the settings he uses I already have selected, with the exception of White Balance, which I'm eager to try. The beauty of digital, no time waiting or processing costs for the final results.
I do recall many years ago setting the white balance using information available at the time, on a camera, and also on a camcorder, with "interesting" results. Times have moved on, I'm retired and have a bit more time, and I'm happy to try again, along with some other tips, I'm just waiting for a decent weather window.
Mike B said:I'm just waiting for a decent weather window.
Aren't we all but I think we might just be in the wrong country
For anyone who didn't know - including me, Canon released a Firmware update, (v.1.5.0), on 17th June 2024. There is an article, with directions to the download here
I have just edited this post. The Firmware update wouldn't install for me. I loaded it to an SD card as instructed and went to the Firmware tab, clicked install and the screen went black. After 5 mins or so, I re-started my camera and nothing had changed. If anyone else tries it, please let me know how you go on ...
Billysdad said:For anyone who didn't know - including me, Canon released a Firmware update, (v.1.5.0), on 17th June 2024. There is an article, with directions to the download here I have just edited this post. The Firmware update wouldn't install for me. I loaded it to an SD card as instructed and went to the Firmware tab, clicked install and the screen went black. After 5 mins or so, I re-started my camera and nothing had changed. If anyone else tries it, please let me know how you go on ...
I'm guessing this is for the R7, because nothing is showing for the R5, as yet.
Todate, I've always had to download to a memory card, (for the5D4 and R5, flashcards can be used or SD Card as you chose).
You're right Mike. I omitted to say it was for the R7 ... . It's me age ... .