R5? R6? Anyone?

[Joel Eade]

New stuff arrived about an hour before dark tonight........


Canon R5
RF800mm f/11
1/200
iso 12,800


Canon R5
RF800mm f/11
1/40
iso 2000

One example of high iso and one demonstrating IBIS

The animal eye focus works perfectly by the way

So far so good. Will post more soon when the sun is above the horizon.

These are bit soft but it was very dark and they are cropped quite a bit too as I didn't have time to prepare proper set up.

[Kayaker72]

Wow.

Congratulations Joel. Those are pretty sweet for right out of the box.

Looking forward to what you can come up with “a proper set up”.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Karsaa]

Mmmm, i so hope even more now that i get my R6 and 800mm next week. Can't wait to go on "hunting" birdies

[Joel Eade]

Was able to spend a little more time with the R5 and 800mm f/11 today.

It's a fun camera, so light and easy to hold.

I enjoy seeing the focal point follow a birds eye almost perfectly every time.

I notice no blackout in the EVF and I enjoy previewing images in the EVF as it seems easier to check the images for sharpness.

The electronic shutter works as advertised .... one warning .... you will have a ton of images to look through if you use it much.
I found it difficult to take less than 10 in a burst. It is blazingly fast with zero sound. So far I haven't seen rolling shutter but I have only been shooting relatively static subjects so I wouldn't expect to.

Have not attempted BIF yet.

Have not tried any EF lenses yet but I do have an adapter.

The f/11 800mm is very sharp and easy to maneuver but it requires high iso to get good shutter speed .... I suspect even in good light you would need at least iso 3200 or more to get enough shutter speed for flight shots. Fortunately the images at iso 3200 barely have any noticeable noise. Even iso 12,800 images can be good if the exposure is correct. (ie don't under expose)

Image quality is stellar and crop-ability fantastic too....here are a few samples from today:


iso 3200. 1/400 sec


iso 3200. 1/400 sec


iso 3200. 1/400 sec


iso 3200. 1/400 sec


iso 3200. 1/320 sec

[Jonathan Huyer]

Great stuff! It’s real-life experiences like this which are the most compelling for me. Looking forward to more updates!

[Karsaa]

Really nice indeed. Finally i think i have the lens to go take bird images later on this year to my favorite river with dippers

[Kayaker72]

Thanks Joel. Keep 'em coming!

Edit

BTW...a nice direct comparison between the R5 and 5DIV:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQnabuGXOdY

I especially thought it was interesting at ~1 min where he is commenting on the bokeh being clipped by the mirror box on the 5DIV but not on the R5 (no mirror).

[Kayaker72]

Yep. For those that care about the overheating "issue," I suspect Magic Lantern and others will figure out some sort of hack to the firmware at some point. I am hopeful Canon will address it with a firmware update themselves. But there is mounting evidence that the current limitations are overly cautious if not an outright attempt to limit the camera's video functionality.

Joel...I was wondering how you were getting on with the EVF? Have you tried the 20 fps with electronic shutter, if so, do you see a fall off in IQ? Any other impressions of the R5?

[Joel Eade]

I am actually enjoying the EVF, especially the exposure simulation and the ability to review magnified images.

I have seen no black out at all shooting with mechanical or electronic shutter but be warned: using electronic shutter will produce a ton of images very quickly.....it's hard to realize how many because there is no sound.

I do not see image degradation when using the electronic shutter

I had posted some other comments in your 1DX 3 thread .... I will paste them here:

A few more features I found on the R5 and 800mm f/11:

Exposure Sim: both on the LCD and in EVF you see what the image will look like based on current settings

A histogram (either brightness or RGB) can be set to display live on the LCD (but not in the EVF)

Crop Mode: 1.6 crop mode with 800mm f/11 gives the field of view similar to a focal length lens of 1280mm and yields 17 mp images (very nice for small birds). No TC needed!!!

Bluetooth: using the Canon camera control app and a smart phone you can remotely control the R5 .... aim it a perch and wait ... when bird is in position just touch the phone and it fires away .... lets you hide better and much less motion involved. Also no cable release needed!!!

Shutter noise: the mechanical shutter is very soft and the electronic shutter dead quiet....so that satisfying machine gun sound is not available. The mechanical shutter is not near as fast as the 1Dx3 anyway.

Flash: does not function with electronic shutter

Control wheels: there are 3 .... the front one and big rear one as usual but another one around the mode button (set to adjust iso by default) They are all programmable.

The 800mm f/11 does not come with a lens hood ... bummer.

The LCD is articulating .... it can be folded inward against the body so no way to scratch it during transportation.

The LCD is a touch screen and almost everything can be adjusted by this method. Also it responds to gestures like an i-phone.

The large files from a full frame shot are slower to process of course .... my 2018 MacBook Pro will often turn on the fans during processing.

No issue overheating at all but I have not shot video

No issue with battery life .... I shot for 2-3 hours yesterday and still had 1/2 battery power left. I did set the LCD and EVF to turn off in 1 minute.

I tried my EF 600mm f/4 with the extender ..... AF is the same, works great, covers almost the entire frame. IQ is better than the 800mm f/11 (you get what you pay for) and using 1.6 crop mode you get the field of view equal to a 960mm f/4 lens with 17 mp images. I need to try adding the 1.4 and 2.0 teleconverters!

That's the latest news from my perspective.

[Kayaker72]

Thanks for the continued impressions Joel.

Just making sure you see it, new firmware on the R5 is out.

https://www.the-digital-picture.com/...spx?News=35061

Gordon Liang and DPReview have reviews out.