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
Bobs_Retired said:
I recently had a visit to Wakefield with the good lady- main points of interest were Piece Hall in Wakefield and Shibden Hall (location of TVs Gentleman Jack) and Halifax Minster and I carried out some experiments which probably apply to most of the mirrorless modern cameras.
You know what it's like walking round a stately home trying to take pictures relatively quickly so as not to hold people up too much, but because you're indoors but with strange lighting from windows etc you know that its a struggle to try and work out correct exposures - I decided to try hand held HDR and let the camera do all of the work and have to say I was more than happy with the majority of the results
Yes I know what you mean about the strange lighting in many Nat Trusts, along with the fact they don't allow flash photography, which isn't an issue to me, and I guess the same for you.
One thing that doesn't help the strange light levels is that many Nat Trusts keep curtains drawn, or window shutters closed, or worse still from a photography perspective, partially closed which does angle the light badly, mainly to protect the delicate furnishings and wall paper etc.
I tend to aim for the time the house doors open, which usually, except for Christmas when folk are queuing for the same reason, is the quietest time to walk around the house.
I have heard of Shibden Hall, having looked it up on a map for my wife who watched the 'Gentleman Jack' drama, but not of Pierce Hall.
I think from a light perspective, one of the toughest houses I've ever had to take photos in, was Packwood House, mid-December 2018. Though it was a sunny winters day, one room was very dark, and so done to create the atmosphere with the flowing poppies to commemorate the ending of the Great War.
Baron Ash, who owned Packwood at the time, as with many men of that era, was very involved with the Great War.
With the help of fairy lights among the poppies, ideally a tripod and cable shutter would have been better, but the opportunity wasn't there, so I used as low a shutter speed as poss, 1/30 and hoped for the best.
I have played with HDR, but only on compacts and smartphones, and while the results were good and interesting, they didn't appeal. However, I am looking forward to the HDR on the R5, and will most definitely experiment.
Another little gem you may not have found yet - when looking through the viewfinder at something, hit the magnify button, once, twice - it will zoom in on the subject within the viewfinder. Any pic will be normal of course, but it can be handy - in effect using the camera as a telescope
ETA - I've added a link to this thread to the Getting off Auto index - as it's got lots of handy info :-)
___
Find me on Flickr / All about your camera - The Getting off Auto Index
Unknown said:
I had accidentally hit the zoom button instead of the A button (the A button on the 5D4, wakes the camera and focuses the subject, while the zoom buttons only work on the TTF screen in image viewing mode only), which I use to pre-focus without the risk of taking accidental shots (especially when in record shot mode) and it took me by surprise. I did quickly realise what had happened, and was fully at ease with it.
A very good point to mention and one I'd overlooked to mention.
Many thanks for adding this thread to your Getting Off Auto Index, there are lots of good tips and hints there for anyone seeking more info, and the link:
https://community.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/f/photography/247069/getting-off-auto---losing-the-mirror#pifragment-4285=1
Just as a reminder, though my experiences are around Canon, this is about a journey to Mirrorless, and not specifically Canon. There are other mirrorless cameras out there and I welcome those using or considering using a mirrorless to join in and share their thoughts/experiences around mirrorless.
Having just re-read the "Getting off Auto - Losing The Mirror", in the excitement of making my purchase and all the initial research as to what I need and didn't need, I have omitted to mention that with the converter to enable you to use the existing Canon lenses on a mirrorless camera, there are two types of adaptor, with the control ring, or without the control ring, its as simple as that, do you want to control the aperture or other functions from the adaptor or not.
I opted for without basically because I do that easily enough on the camera, it's first nature for me to operate these functions from the camera and I'm comfortable with that. But you might think you'd prefer to use the ring, and why not.
I will also add, in my own personal experience with the R5, what may seem to be a bulky addition, having the RF-EF/EFS mount is actually far from bulky.
Yes it does make the overall body with convertor slightly wider, but not intrusively so. The mount stays on the R5 when it's packed away in my camera bag.
I mentioned the convertor will handle EF and EFS lenses, that came as a surprise to me that it could handle EFS, which are often used with Canon's budget range of DSLR's, but there is apparently, and understandably, a compromise with EFS lenses. I understand the image processing will be equivalent to using a cropped sensor.
Michael B said:
"I mentioned the convertor will handle EF and EFS lenses, that came as a surprise to me that it could handle EFS, which are often used with Canon's budget range of DSLR's, but there is apparently, and understandably, a compromise with EFS lenses. I understand the image processing will be equivalent to using a cropped sensor."
End of quote - manually inserted because the software itself is rubbish.
I presume that with an EFS lens fitted the camera automatically sets the itself to shoot in crop mode rather than full frame mode. I may be wrong but it sounds logical and a useful feature for anyone moving up from crop sensor cameras.
I've fitted an EFS lens, and then swapped to the EF lens, and it looks like that is the case, the R5 automatically defaults to cropped sensor settings looking at the menu options when selecting the aspect ratios.
EFS Lens fitted, note FULL is not an option, and in white text
EF lens fitted, FULL is an option and text is in blue
EF Lens fitted, but manually select 1.6 crop ratio and FULL is still available and still in blue text.
Unless I'm reading it wrong, fit an EFS lens and the camera defaults to a cropped sensor setting and FULL is not available.
If I'm wrong, please do correct me, because I'm still exploring.
Jim
My Pictures
My Fbook Group
James G said:An EFS lens fitted to the camera defaults to a cropped sensor setting of 1.6 my R6 does.
Glad that logic and common sense works and those that are moving up to full frame don't have to discard their EFS lenses immediately
James G said: An EFS lens fitted to the camera defaults to a cropped sensor setting of 1.6 my R6 does.
That was my thoughts too.
I think Canon have thought deep and hard about encouraging people to make the move to mirrorless with enabling the ability to use existing lenses, without breaking the bank any more than necessary.
I can't speak for Nikon or others, but if anyone reading has any info, please share it here. This is about moving to mirrorless, not just Canon mirrorless.
Copied over from Sunrises and Sunsets 2022: share your photos here thread.
The latest from the new R5, a sunrise.
Sunday last, while it was a little cooler in the early morning, I nipped up to Baddesley to try and see if I could get a decent sunrise photo or two, or three, or four, or more.....
It was a necessary change of scenery, and probably the last chance before the weather turns, plus with forthcoming HS2 road closures.
While back home, the garden was basking (perhaps that should be baking, not basking) around the mid 20's, once I got to Baddesley Clinton, the temp was a nice 18.0ºC with a lovely breeze to make it all the more comfortable.
One thing I've learned over the years when taking winter sunrise photos, with all the fabulous trees around, the sun rises over the trees around 30-35 mins after actual sunrise, but i wasn't sure if that would be the case for summer sunrises. Even more unsure, was with all the trees around, I've calculated within 10º of a compass point 60º where I would need to position myself.
Everything fell into place nicely, and even the fact the sun was to rise over the trees around the 30-35 min period after sunrise was prevalent for summer sunrises.
Actual sunrise time
The sun starting to rise over the treetops
and with a Star 6 filter
Once the sun had risen, it cast its morning glow over the trees to the north west
Not something i've seen quite the same before, the morning sun casting a speckled effect on St Michael's Church, Baddesley Clinton, though I have enjoyed the rising suns glow in winter time.
and for the drive home, the morning sun casts its glow in the straw bales