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:Looking forward to seeing your pictures Mike. That lens should pair well with the R5. Any thoughts on the R5 Mk2?
As you'd expect, the lens was quickly unwrapped and put to it's intended use. Pics to follow.
I have seen the R5 MkII specs, looks good, but I think for now, I'll stick with the MkI, which I'm still getting to grips with.
Billysdad said:I am waiting for the R7ii, which is at the moment just a rumour. I like cropped bodies for the reach. I feel the R7, (which I have), is a great camera, but could stand improvement in some areas which have been discussed on here. If the Mkii addresses those areas, I would buy one.
The R7 is a good camera, there's no doubt on that.
I know what you mean about the wait.
It was the waiting game that prompted me to buy the 5D4, after waiting, and waiting, and waiting, for the 7D MkIII. During that waiting, I'd been tipped off that the 860D (a successor to my current at the time 750D) and 7D MkII were to be combined into the 90D, with no release date.
That was when the offer was presented to me on the 5D4, the rests is history which we know.
While I've no doubts on the advances and improvements I think I'd need to try the R5 MkII first before making the change, just to see what the differences are. But first, I need to migrate from EF lenses, which are good, and move to RF, which seem even better....
The moment you've all been waiting for.
I'll get the boring stuff over with first. The reason for making the change to the RF200-800 was down to visiting an emporium in Norfolk, where I'd been tipped off about the intended launch, but not details at the time, not even the price.
Playing with the RF 100-500 was impressive vs my current EF 100-400, plus 2x Ext.
Not long afterwards, I received the email invite to pre-order the RF 100-800, so after talking to the boss (it did require use of the savings fund for when we both were retired, but the cost of living has changed those plans significantly), I was allowed to place the order.
Then a follow up email, to review my pre-order and if still interested, to contact the emporium to guarantee the very favourable T&C's, and get the new toy the very next morning, not even 24hrs passed from resubmitting the order to the delivery the next morning. Better than first class service.
Never being one to be negative, without good reason, I don't intend to start here either.
When I unpacked the lens, it looked beautiful. Ok, a bit tongue-in-cheek I know.
It is expectedly bigger than my EF 100-400 and the balance, or should I say the centre of gravity point, took a little to adjust to. That was because it felt lighter than my older combo, the lens and 2x ext, so really, a win win.
I reset the P and TV modes to basic settings, but made sure the C1-3 settings (which can auto update) remained the same, for now.
The one thing I miss on the new lens, is the distance guide that the EF 100-500 lens has. A minor thing, but often useful when demonstrating the benefits of SLR/DSLR/Mirrorless over smart phones and why we manage to get such clear and appearing to be close up images, to discourage people getting too close to rutting bucks/stags and wildlife in general.
That's my only criticism.
Hang on a mo, one more criticism, the local swifts have gone quiet, my guess is they didn't hang around and decided to get out of the way, quick...
Now the best bits, the piccies.
I do like my aeonium aeonium schwarzkopf/zwartkop, out in the sun where it belongs...
Mrs BB wanted some of the action
but was very disappointed to no suet pellets out....
Now for the more tricky stuff, small creatures in actions, ok, buff tail bumblebees on the lavender
uncropped
the next photos are all cropped
Now the trickier action pics, BTBBIF!
I did try the various AF settings but found for me and the light at the time, which was very good, my original settings gave me the best results.
The tech for the following
First impressions, unsurprisingly a big improvement on the EF set up. All I need to do is adjust to the wider field of view to make better use of the tracking, and, try other AF modes for action scenarios.
Glad you have got a chance to give the new lens a test drive Mike, it looks impressive. Certainly with how little practice you have had. The bees are excellent! You also remind me that I used to have an Aeonium Schwartzkop - I wonder where it went ... . Enjoy ... .
Great results Mike and always fun to play with a new toy to get the best out of it; such clear detail when cropped in tight. Hopefully, you'll be able to enjoy some more lovely sunny days to get out and bring us some more wonderful photos. Thanks for the update and glad you are pleased with your purchase. Got to say the 100-500mm has exceeded my expectations so very pleased I came off the fence and hit the buy button !!!
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Regards, Hazel
Cracking start Mike :o)
What distance from the first bee were you? If you'd zoomed in to the 800mm would it have been a screen filler with no need to crop, or is there a long minimum focal distance at the long end?
Billysdad said:Glad you have got a chance to give the new lens a test drive Mike, it looks impressive. Certainly with how little practice you have had. The bees are excellent! You also remind me that I used to have an Aeonium Schwartzkop - I wonder where it went ... . Enjoy ... .
Thank you.
Those aeonium plants are very delicate, perhaps it didn't survive
HAZY said:Great results Mike and always fun to play with a new toy to get the best out of it; such clear detail when cropped in tight. Hopefully, you'll be able to enjoy some more lovely sunny days to get out and bring us some more wonderful photos. Thanks for the update and glad you are pleased with your purchase. Got to say the 100-500mm has exceeded my expectations so very pleased I came off the fence and hit the buy button !!!
I was a cats whisker away from buying the 100-500, it is a very nice lens.
It was only after chatting as you do, and the fact I use the 2x ext with the EF100-400 a lot to compensate for the reduced agility, that swung me towards the new lens.
Lovely photos Mike. I just wonder what that lens would be like on the R7 cropped sensor. Hmmmmm....
PimperneBloke said:Cracking start Mike :o) What distance from the first bee were you? If you'd zoomed in to the 800mm would it have been a screen filler with no need to crop, or is there a long minimum focal distance at the long end?
The first and second bees were the same and the same lavender flower head. I was using record shots with eye tracking, so only minor fractions of a second difference and with the same exposure settings and distance, it gave minimal differences.
I was probably about 4mtrs away. The reason why I zoomed out was to get used to the wider field of view and see how well the tracking with this lens tracked the bee without locking onto something else.