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The long awaited Canon R1 and R5 MkII cameras were announced on July 17. As a bird, nature, scenic and architecture photographer the 24MP R1 is of no interest personally. The 45MP R5 MkII, on the other hand, delivers many new capabilities and performance upgrades that fill a gap in the feature list of the otherwise ground breaking original R5, the industry's first unicorn camera at 45MP and 20fps. Below we list the more obvious features that will benefit us directly for the things we like to photograph. There is much more, especially for Canon's prime markets, sports shooters, photojournalists and videographers, but since we don't do sports, events or video those are not listed. Having said that, there were a few items that didn't make the cut, and those may pinch a bit at times. Only field experience will determine just how much of an impact the latter will have. Noteworthy features
Regretable shortfalls
A Brief ComparisonWhen Canon stopped making two pro 1D series bodies, 1D for high frame rate and 1Ds for high(er) megapixels, we opted to move to the 30 MP 5D Mk IV DSLR for genres where resolution was more important than action. When the R5 was introduced in 2020 its announced capabilities convinced us to immediately sell off our 1Dx IIs and 5D Mk IVs even before first shipment. And the R5 has not disappointed, providing AF across the full frame, access to unicorn-like high megapixels and high frame rate at the same time -- and, at long last three dials with which to control the entire exposure triangle. However, it wasn't perfect. The R5's ~16ms electronic shutter readout time exhibited significant rolling shutter with accompanying viewfinder blackout. This meant that 20fps was not available for many sports and action types. For instance, baseball bats became bananas, not a good look. Also, there were a number of nagging electronic shutter deficiencies, two of which stood out: 12-bit RAW files and lack of flash support. Together, all these shortfalls added up to a less than perfect camera for certain uses -- albeit on balance the pluses far outweighed the negatives for my uses, even relative to Canon's pro 1D DSLR series offerings. At an opening price of $4299USD (compared to $3899 for the R5) it should be better. Still, it's a difficult ask with Nikon's 45MP Z8 currently selling for $3499. Needless to say, the R5 Mk II follows the R5's tradition of excellence while adding plenty of additional value.
As the summary table of key metrics suggests, and leaving aside ruggedization aspects, the R5 Mk II can compete as both an action camera and a general purpose camera -- especially for our personal use cases, birds (with limited action) and nature, scenics, architecture and portraits. In adddition to the above upgrades, a few small R5 annoyances have been fixed:
How useful is it?Every feature in the first list will be of direct benefit. Each represents an improvement over the original R5, which nonetheless was by far the best camera I'd ever used in features, performance and ease of use -- including also almost every generation of 1D and 1Ds series DSLRs. As such, the R5 Mk II will become my standard camera for action, birds and other wildlife used in combination with "big white" long telephoto primes. The original R5 is no less capable than it was before and will thus remain in use for architecture and travel, primarily used with our stable of standard f2.8 and f4 zooms, ranging in focal length from 10mm to 200mm, and also with our tilt-shift lenses. But, how limiting are the shortfalls? Price is a disappointment but perhaps inevitable. Canon may be trying to recoup its seemingly belated stacked BSI sensor R&D investment. The 6.3ms sensor readout time is the slowest of any full frame stacked sensor currently on the market -- despite the fact that it is the newest. Yet, since I don't do professional sports (tennis) anymore it is likely not a problem for my one action genre, bird action sequences, including flight and feediing activities. Nevertheless, it is a discouraging commentary on Canon's struggle to catch up. In practical terms, the hard buffer limit likely will have a bigger impact than readout speed, particularly with heron and egret fishing scenarios. Finally, the lack of zebras for stills is simply inexcusable at this late date, particularly when the very same camera offers zebras for video recording. Since these are almost certainly not hardware limitations one can hope that they will be addressed in future firmware upgrades. All in all, as excellent as the camera is, it seems a bit compromised in a few important areas, especially given Nikon's Z8 capabilities and price point. The unflattering suspicion lingers that if Sony hadn't come along Canon would still be pushing out 500nm FSI sensors with off-chip ADCs -- and 1% improvement upgrade cycles would be marketed as revolutionary technological triumphs. So, yes Virginia, the infamous Canon cripple hammer lives on, albeit swung with a bit less force these days. First use update after the break below. Update 21 August 2024 The beast, AKA R5 Mk II, arrived yesterday afternoon. By this morning buttons, dials and My Menu settings were first cut configured for wildlife, birds, sports, aviation and other action use cases. The first field test, with tripod-mounted 600mm f4, hoping for birds to land at a birdbath as a test of pre-continuous shooting, took place thereafter on a sunny afternoon. Sadly, no birds appeared. However, the session was not without value as far as feedback is concerned. More so, in fact, than I expected. Below follows first impressions vs the noteworthy features introduced above. Note that heat ventilation vents has been added to the original list -- and therein lies a tale, although not necessarily a good one.
Despite not finding a suitable subject during the two hour test, a couple of overvations merit mention. First, the approach to setting the camera up has been to arrange as many settings as possible as toggles, supporting starting in one mode and switching quickly to another with a single button push. For instance, there are only two viewfinder display options -- standard view with a few exposure parameters at the bottom and a second with full information plus level and histogram. A quick toggle allows for checking exposure (zebras would be much better) and then returning to a less cluttered view. Likewise, two nearly identical custom shooting modes, differing only by the on/off status of pre-continuous shooting, allows for switching to pre-capture only as needed. That much seems to be working well. On the other hand, the overheating after two hours of mostly standing around is troubling. Since my most intensive use is in the summer, chasing birds at refuges, this will bear close scruitny in the future. One must add that it's doubly troubling to realize that the design of the vertical battery grip accessory blocks the very ventilation ports designed to prevent this problem. What gives with that, Canon? Finally, now that the camera is available and testers can examine performance metrics such as noise level and dynamic range it appears that there is a (very) small penalty, in those two in particular, vs the original R5. The implication of this is that for those not concerned with action and low readout speeds, there may be little incentive to upgrade. We tend to concur with this supposition, and in fact we are keeping our R5s for general purpose genres such as events, architecture and scenics. Meanwhile, the R5 Mk II appears to be simply better for action oriented genres where rolling shutter would otherwise be a problem. As always, horses for courses.
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