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
Unknown said:I'm not sure if it's good or bad news, but there's not a general problem with the R5 underexposing images in bright sunshine, so it must be something you're doing :-) Worth making sure exposure simulation is switched on, at least you'll quickly see in the viewfinder if there's something wonky with your exposure settings that way. Without knowing how you're using the camera, it's difficult to suggest why you're getting dark pics, but I'd take a stab at guessing you're using spot metering & the camera is metering on a bright part of the image, resulting in most of the pic being dark. If so, try centre-weighted instead. That generally gives more consistent results
Your guess work is pretty much spot on, though using a dark or light part of the subject doesn't seem to make any difference.
I don't for one second think the camera is at fault, but I definitely question the photographer.
Exposure Simulation, where do I find that?
regards
John
Ed D said:John, What settings are you using on the camera? On my R7 I find myself using manual shutter speed and manual aperture with Auto ISO. I also use centre spot metering. Ed
That's an interesting scenario, manual shutter and aperture, but auto ISO.
I use either the P for general work, or moving objects, I select TV, though I'm still getting to grips with what speed gives the crisper results.
The chap I met at a local reserve gave me some shutter speed tips, and early indications are good for birds in flight, that is the ones that cover sufficient area of the square box in the EVF.
___
Find me on Flickr / All about your camera - The Getting off Auto Index
Unknown said:Manual with Auto ISO has been the jewel in Canon's crown for many years (not sure if other manufacturers now have that option, but it used to be peculiar to Canon). There are very few situations I'd recommend setting ISO on anything other than Auto truth be told :-)
It's been a godsend for wildlife for years and now has the added bonus of being able to set the control ring of an RF lens to adjust exposure compensation as easy as can be. I also concur with centre weighted exposure for wildlife - Spot can move so quickly especially with a long lens and the movement of the camera as you press the shutter.
For Tag - The eye is normally watching to make sure the tracker is focused on the eye so could easily lose where the centre spot is if your exposure is limited to the centre spot - I'm not sure if all the RF cameras allow spot exposure to be governed by the focus point and indeed whether you have that set up if your camera does allow it.
Unknown said:Exposure simulation is on the Red7 menu page
Thank you for pointing me in the right direction, it is there and as I've never set foot into that part, until last night, I presume the default is enable, which it is set to.
What I will do is play around with that and the other two options in that setting:
And see what the differences are.
I can happily say, it is nice how Canon have laid out the menus, though not a totally new feature, but using different colours for different progamming settings does make finding the way around a lot easier.
Bobs_Retired said:
Hi Bob, Tracking does not work in spot, it has to be in Tracking mode first. I found that out at the very start.
Once tracking has been enabled, then multiple mini blue square boxes appear, as the camera tries to locate an eye. Once the camera finds the eye, tracking does follow the eye, and extremely well in my opinion, once it has found the eye, or what it deems as an eye.
It won’t be for a few days before I can play around again, with this weekend a bank holiday, it’ll be a family time, my sons, their partners and my wife are enjoying a long weekend here.
How to make a 45 Megapixel camera, a 400 Megapixel camera!
While playing around with the R5's menus I came across IBIS, but I haven't yet tried it, and I'm not sure it would benefit me. But I can see it's advantages for large sized printing, like billboards, the few taht are not yet LED/OLED or whatever.....
https://cam.start.canon/en/C003/manual/html/UG-03_Shooting-1_0440.html
For those not in the know, the R5 is a 45Megapixel camera, taking nine 45Mpxl images = 405 approx.
The exopsure detail will be what the first photo is, so any changes in shutter, aperture or ISO will not be logged. I would strongly suspect a tripod and remote shutter release would be highly recommended to reduce camera shake effect with the slightest movement taking away from any sharpness.
With a rough estimated average of 39MB per 45 Mpxl photo, the final file size could be in the region of 350+ MB!