A report has surfaced that bodies of the Canon EOS R5 Mark II are in the hands of the select few testers. Does that mean we're going to see it announced in Q4 of 2023?
We have no specifications of value to add to the Canon EOS R5 Mark II rumors at this time.
Most of the information that we do have, seems to suggest that the EOS R5 Mark II will be announced before the Canon EOS R1 flagship mirrorless, which is the worst kept secret and expected in the first half of 2024.
Canon has the EOS R5 II in the hands of content creators, videographers, and photographers testing the camera according to the Ordinary Filmmaker. No specs were given, but the YouTube channel claims that Canon will announce the EOS R5 II in Q4, 2023, several months before Canon is expected to unveil the EOS R1.
https://www.thecamerainsider.com/2023/07/02/canon-eos-r5-ii-spotted-in-the-field/
We'll do what we can to find more information as soon as possible. This is a [CR1] rumor, so please treat it as such for now.
I guess better heat handling is an obvious improvement, but for us primarily still shooters, that's not a big deal. I'm not looking for more resolution; 40-50MP is the sweet spot in my opinion. Rather, I'd like to see a 45MP stacked sensor implemented to reduce rolling shutter artifacts, improve responsiveness, and make the already excellent limited blackout disappear. 20fps is plenty for me, but more options (e.g 10, 12, 15fps), and a fake (selectable?) shutter sound in ES mode would be desirable.
In short, I'm not looking for major changes but, rather, for a more refined camera. My R5 is my most enjoyable body (I shoot the Nikon Z9 as well). I think that if Canon makes the user experience more enjoyable with the performance improvements mentioned above, a lot of R5 users will be willing to upgrade.
I'd welcome a slight boost in resolution, but it is not a deciding factor for me and only if Canon increases the buffer to accommodate increased resolution.
I don't care about pre-shot capture or eye control autofocus. Eye control just isn't effective or reliable for my shooting and I doubt I'd ever use the pre-shot capture (I don't on the R7).
I'd like a sound option added to the electronic shutter.
Too much to hope for, but it would be really nice if Canon would eliminate the "freeze" feature on all its mirrorless bodies.
Apart from that, having an optional contrast based fine tuning step at the end of the AF loop would improve things a lot as well, not every lens is calibrated to the same standard. The RF70-200 needed a firmware update to fix the consistent mis-focus problems.
What can Canon improve? I don't use an R5 so I can't say from first-hand experience. Video overheating is an easy one, but they just released the R5c so they need to be careful that the R5 stays as a stills camera that can also do video and not the other way around.
Beyond that, I'm sure Canon has learned a lot from the R3 and R7 that they can incorporate into an R5II.
The real question from a business perspective is whether a Mark II can gain new customers for Canon, i.e., from non-Canon (or non-R5) users, rather than just current R5 users who upgrade. That's a possibility too. Sony is still producing new models on a regular basis, and Nikon has been coming back strong lately (the Z8, in particular, seems like a direct shot at the R5).
Deutsch Photography: NYC’s Top Corporate, Executive and Actor Headshot Photographer NYC