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
Ok, first photos with the new R5. Nothing special, just an urban sunset, and the settings were the same more or less, as the 5D4 settings would be, and just as easy to set up.
The only hiccup, if it can be called a hiccup, when I downloaded the photos from the camera to the desktop, for some strange reason the photo processing program didn't fully update, so it wouldn't read the RAW files to convert to JPG.
That might have been my fault, and was easily and quickly remedied by logging on to the Canon Software pages, and installing the updated software, nice, quick and easy. The hardest part was obtaining the camera serial number, and all I had to do was log in to my account where my cameras and lenses are registered, and copy it from there, rather than try to read it from the bottom of the camera again.
No issue, no problem, nice and simple.
While i'm on the subject of logging to to my Canon account and registering my cameras and lenses, it is always a wise thing to do, register your camera, and lenses with the appropriate manufacturer. if there are any software updates, then you will get a notification and the update procedure should be fairly straightforward. it has been for me with my cameras.
Here the fun starts, as I start to play around with the settings to photograph bees, butterflies, sadly not swifts, they've flown south now, the swallows won't be far behind if they haven't already flown. However, house martins usually stay until mid/late September, and I know where I can get some photos of those easily enough, and not far away either.
I'm more than ready to play......
TJS said:Hi Mike,
Thank you.
It may be a little while before I start photographing bees and butterflies, a lot depends on my leg at the moment.
I did last night take some photos of the moon on various settings, which I'll sift through over the next day or so.
Some key points regarding mirrorless.
Why have a mentioned those points?
More early playing with the new R5, this time the moon, which was nice and clear a couple of nights back.
Taken using the P setting. i did try with the A just to see what how it would turn out, but that was as I'd expect from any other camera, the moon was bleached out as the camera tried to reach the optimum light setting.
I resorted to my known successful settings, using TV (time value or shutter speed) with very interesting results. It might be pure coincidence, but my preferred settings for other cameras also bleached out the moon surface, so it was a very worthwhile play around.
1/500
cropped
1/1000
I could probably have used 1/2000 sec even more successfully, but my leg wasn't playing ball to stand any longer, so I had to give it a rest.
There are some more photos to follow, yesterday I had a nice relaxing afternoon in the garden, and played around some more with the camera, and some very, positively, interesting results.
Billysdad said:Thanks for continuing the 'Moving to Mirrorless' post Mike, I am following it with interest. At the moment I am using a Canon 90D crop sensor camera, usually with either the Canon 70-300L lens or the Canon 100L macro lens on. But like all photographers I am always looking for something to chuck money at :-)
You're welcome.
There are some more additions to add, so keep reading.
The 90D is a very nice camera, even though I don't have one, I know its pedigree well, born out of the 860D and 7D2 combined. I also still have a predecessor of the 90D, the 750D, which I'm very reluctant to relinquish, so enjoy the 90D.
A quick look at the specs of the R7, they are pretty impressive. I don't know how long you've had the 90D, its not all that old a camera, less than three years that I know, because the rumour mill was saying there was to be a 7D3, which I was holding out for before I bought the 5D4, which is just three years old. Months later, the 90D was launched after rumours of the 7D3 were quashed by Canon.
So perhaps your emporium were doing you a bigger favour in hope of delivering an honest sale later on.
Lunar 11, Apollo 11.....
There will be notable changes from cropped sensor to full frame, I did get a little caught out when I bought the 5D4, but I soon learned and now it is second nature to set the camera as I see fit at the time. Likewise i expect some changes from DSLR to mirrorless, and I'm nicely experiencing them and easily adjusting and moving forward.
I think for the moon, there are many different and very workable combinations, and some dependant on the night sky, as to clarity, cloud cover, angle of the moon, and even position of the moon in relation to the sun.
However, one thing I do ensure, is using spot focusing, to centre on the moon, and also to use TV/shutter priority settings for a brilliant light. With the moon being such intense illumination against a dark background, the sky, that is the best way to obtain the clarity of the moons surface. The only reason why I used the A and P settings was to see what results I would get, and I wasn't surprised at the results, and shared them to help others, like yourself, grasp what is likely to happen.
Bobs_Retired said:For the moon try spot exposure, it makes a big difference. When you are set to evaluative / matrix exposure it's trying to balance the whole exposure.
Absolutely.
I always use spot metering, and to see that from a very experienced photographer like yourself is good to read.
Some of you will have gathered my frustration with being grounded and a new toy to play with, is eating at me a little.
No, make that a lot.....
The good news is, things are progressing, and so is my playing with the R5, and I do like to experiment.
Saturday afternoon, I put a chair under the cherry tree in the garden, and sat with my camera looking for subjects to take. The positioning of the chair was almost garden centre and right by the small pond.
I said I like to experiment, last year i bought a 2x extender, which with the 5D4, has manual focus only. so I hooked it up to the R5 expecting just that.
To my amazement, the camera immediately started focusing and did a perfect job, and images are here to show for it.
With the 100-400 zoom plus 2x extender set at 100
The next two of a dunnock sunning itself, less than a metre from the house sparrow, set to 400mm making 800mm
and down the garden, again at 800mm....
One I always have problems with getting a decent photo of, is a buzzard in flight, but the R5 came up trumps over the 5D4, though still not quite as crisp. This time just the 100-400 lens at 400mm.
The pond lily, 100-400 plus 2x ext,
at 100mm (200mm)
at 400mm (800mm)
The next bath at at 800mm
A random fern
a thistle plant
a juvenile holy plant
Using the 100-400 plus 2xext, a fly having a drink
200mm
800mm and heavily cropped after downloading
100-400 plus 2xext, slightly cropped, no filter (next job, play with filters) one of the pond fish.
For me, this one shows how adept the AF is, the 5D4 would have struggled through the pond netting to get a half decently focused image, here, it seemed to locate the focal point and that is with selecting spot, not people, animal, vehicles or whatever, for focusing.
Again, the same settings, on the pond, a shy hoverfly
To say I'm impressed, is a big understatement, I'm bowing to the cameras superiority, and almost wish I'd pt/ex the 5D4 at point of purchase. But that would most likely have delayed the delivery with it being a distant reputable emporium while they assess my 5D4, so no, I don't have regrets.
There is more, from a short wander at Baddesley Clinton on Sunday, but I won't overload you just yet, though I'm excited and the R5 is without doubt, a superb camera, and early experimentation is, well, exceptional, both excitingly and pleasantly with many very pleasant surprises, the e2x extender being one big pleasant and exciting surprise.
This is not just about the Canon R5, it's about an exciting journey from DSLR to mirrorless and to recap, all input is welcome.