My first impressions of the R5

[Kit Lens Jockey]

Was extremely lucky to get an R5 delivered today. Want to share some first thoughts, all pretty positive.

-It's noticeably bigger to hold than the EOS R. It will take a little getting used to.
-I was able to get acceptably sharp shots using the IBIS at half a second shutter speed using the RF 50mm f1.2. Sometimes the sharpness wasn't there, sometimes it was dead on. It seems a little inconsistent at half a second. So, if you push it to the limits of what it can do, that's a little less than 5 stops of stabilization.
-The whole camera feels much better than the EOS R. The buttons, the finish of the body, everything feels good, save for a weird clunk noise when you shake the camera when it's powered down. Probably has to do with the IBIS.
-When panning the camera and taking a fast burst using the electronic shutter, the video feed to the EVF is very smooth. I can't imagine this camera will get in the way of tracking fast moving subjects very much. Using the mechanical shutter for a fast burst showed only slightly more of a stuttering motion in the EVF. Still worlds better than the EOS R could do.
-I really like the way moving the AF point feels with the joystick. It feels very "joysticky" for lack of a better term. It's not just a binary push up/down or push left/right feel. If you push the joystick diagonal, the AF point moves diagonal. I will probably go back to using the joystick instead of the touch/drag AF that I was never a huge fan of on the EOS R.
-The shutter noise is much quieter than the EOS R. Just overall sounds nicer too.

 

[Kit Lens Jockey]

Here's a comparison of the motion and banding issues on the R5 compared to the EOS R when using the electronic shutter. Both of these were taken with the ceiling fan turned on its fastest speed. Disregard the noise in both of these photos. I was running a fast shutter speed in a poorly lit room to keep the motion blur to a minimum. These were both taken at 1/800 sec, f3.5, and ISO 5000 and then cleaned up a little in post.

While the R5 isn't perfect, it's worlds better than the crazy distortion of the EOS R. And keep in mind this fan is turned on high, so it's spinning pretty fast. Even more welcome is the fact that the banding caused by the LED light bulb seems to be pretty much nonexistent with the R5. So worrying about banding from various light sources with the electronic shutter will be much less of a worry now.

 

[Jonathan Thill]

Ceiling fan photographers of the world rejoice, the R5 is the Camera for you

@Kit Lens Jockey all kidding aside that is awesome

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

Sounds good so far.

In reading thru the manual, the nots on IBIS confused me. Is it running with a lens which has IS in these modes?

 

[Kit Lens Jockey]

Sounds good so far.

In reading thru the manual, the nots on IBIS confused me. Is it running with a lens which has IS in these modes?

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I mounted an EF 70-200 2.8 IS II onto the R5. I tried it in P and M modes. With this lens attached, there is no menu option present for image stabilization. It's not just greyed out, it's totally gone.

In the shooting display, or EVF, when the IS switch on the lens is turned on, there's a little shaky hand icon in the corner. When I switch it off, the shaky hand icon gets the word "OFF" displayed on it. It's pretty much impossible to tell if the IBIS is or isn't functioning when the lens is mounted, but I assume IBIS is working whenever the lens IS is, and IBIS is off when the lens IS is off.

 

[Joules]

I mounted an EF 70-200 2.8 IS II onto the R5. I tried it in P and M modes. With this lens attached, there is no menu option present for image stabilization. It's not just greyed out, it's totally gone.

In the shooting display, or EVF, when the IS switch on the lens is turned on, there's a little shaky hand icon in the corner. When I switch it off, the shaky hand icon gets the word "OFF" displayed on it. It's pretty much impossible to tell if the IBIS is or isn't functioning when the lens is mounted, but I assume IBIS is working whenever the lens IS is, and IBIS is off when the lens IS is off.

I guess the best test would be to compare what shutter speeds you can get with the R and the R5 (And compare them at the same magnification, not 1:1). But from the Canon marketing, IBIS should be active even with EF lenses and is just coupled to the lens IS switch instead of a menu item.

 

[Act444]

Here's a comparison of the motion and banding issues on the R5 compared to the EOS R when using the electronic shutter. Both of these were taken with the ceiling fan turned on its fastest speed. Disregard the noise in both of these photos. I was running a fast shutter speed in a poorly lit room to keep the motion blur to a minimum. These were both taken at 1/800 sec, f3.5, and ISO 5000 and then cleaned up a little in post.

While the R5 isn't perfect, it's worlds better than the crazy distortion of the EOS R. And keep in mind this fan is turned on high, so it's spinning pretty fast. Even more welcome is the fact that the banding caused by the LED light bulb seems to be pretty much nonexistent with the R5. So worrying about banding from various light sources with the electronic shutter will be much less of a worry now.

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Wow that’s a major improvement. Thanks for conducting this test so quickly.

I wonder how it is compared to a baseline (using mechanical shutter)?

 

[Viggo]

Much appreciated , looks crazy useable compared to the R...

 

[Kit Lens Jockey]

Much appreciated , looks crazy useable compared to the R...

Yeah I'm pretty thrilled by the lack of banding compared to the EOS R. With the R, the electronic shutter was always barely anything more than a novelty to me because the banding was so bad under so many types of lighting that that you could never trust your shots not to be ruined by it. It seems like the electronic shutter might be a viable way to take normal photos with the R5.

 

[tron]

Well there was banding and there was … bending due to electronic shutter

 

[StoicalEtcher]

Ceiling fan photographers of the world rejoice, the R5 is the Camera for you

@Kit Lens Jockey all kidding aside that is awesome

So, do we think that ceiling fans will become the 'cat photos' of the future internet then