What’s next for the Canon EOS R5 and Canon EOS R6?

[koenkooi]

Has anyones local shops gotten the R5 in? Mine was supposed to get some in for those who preordered through them, but I haven't gotten a call and IF I have to wait until November I WILL be jumping ship to Sony and returning ALL the RF gear I've purchased for a full refund.

Where I ordered they had 30 (pre)orders and received 4. I wasn't in the first 4.

 

[Eric Mazzone]

Where I ordered they had 30 (pre)orders and received 4. I wasn't in the first 4.

When I spoke to my shop, their order got redirected to LensRentals instead. I was at the top of my stores list, like #1, if LensRentals has MY camera they better ship it back to me.

Needless to say, I'm plenty pissed off right now.

 

[Chris.Chapterten]

Eh? The improvement of RF lenses is mainly the width of the mount, right? So we end up with better quality glass outright and amazing stuff like f2 zoom lenses. It hasn't made the EF lenses obsolete though and a big part of Canon's marketing with the launch of the RF mount is its backwards compatibility with existing lenses.

If, to get the most out of a $3,800/£4,200 camera, you actually also need to spend thousands more in upgrading lenses for a new mount then I think it's fair enough to have some general reservations about it. It also removes the advantage Canon has in a customer already being financially committed to their previous lens mount, and puts them squarely in competition with Sony.

Basically, I like Canon cameras and have never considered anything else for "serious" work. I've never been that fussed over the quality of Canon lenses in the past five years or so to think the extra expense over Tamron and Sigma versions is worth it. It would be a bit of a disappointment if those lenses ended up being reduced in ability purely because they're third party rather than a genuine physical characteristic.

The width of the mount is the same. The distance to the sensor has just changed.

 

[Darrell Cadieux]

Just as a sidebar question. Has anybody here read or heard of the R5 overheating doing regular stills photography?

 

[quilatoo]

The width of the mount is the same. The distance to the sensor has just changed.

Ah yeah you're right I got that bit confused.

 

[SteveC]

I find unboxing videos hilarious. Anyone interested in the camera would have looked at it on the Canon website? It's a box with some packaging, a camera, a strap, battery, charger and manual for heavens sake.

I guess it depends on what's being unboxed.

Live reptiles can be interesting, since they can have a mind of their own and might be in a bad mood when you open the box.

On the other hand, apparently this camera could burst into flames at any moment.

 

[koenkooi]

When I spoke to my shop, their order got redirected to LensRentals instead. I was at the top of my stores list, like #1, if LensRentals has MY camera they better ship it back to me.

Needless to say, I'm plenty pissed off right now.

I've been on the other side of that, having to explain to my customer that HQ diverted their order to another customer. Or rather having to not say that while also not lying :/

 

[Bert63]

I've had a couple hours to test the R5, and Wahhhhhhh overheating, it is garbage and I'm so mad that Canon personally cheated me! I was going to shoot cat videos and weddings in 8K for 6 hours every day but this thing is stupid and an obvious failure. It should only cost 50 dollars. Canon is doomed and crippled us again. I just threw it off my balcony. Just kidding .

The real scoop: So far it is great and I am not encountering anything but being mostly impressed. Adjusting to the form factor of a smaller body and the new controls, etc. but so far so good. Some notes from my first play time:

This is going to make shooting very pleasant and more convenient, and be a robust stills camera in all light and weather, and competent video camera for light and mid duty jobs in moderate to good light. The build feels very solid and elegant and the body is clearly well thought out for the most part. The only thing I have found that is a real negative, is the grip is more squared and smaller than most FF DSLRs and is not nearly as comfortable, and the controls feel a bit close together which is an advantage for reaching some and disadvantage for others.

Ergonomics:

• The thing is silent in electronics shutter and pretty darn quiet mechanical.
• Not a fan of the smaller size and less rounded grip compared to a DSLR. Space and comfort are slightly reduced and controls are not as perfectly placed. It isn't awful, but is the thing I like least so far. I will be buying an L bracket to hopefully make it larger and better balanced. Canon and industry should calm down with the one camera for all purposes and leave pro gear pro- and large for comfort. Also would be easier to pack in features and cool probably.
• The screen is very high quality and great touch response. Articulation feels solid, like it will not be fragile unless you really screw up and ram it into something. Visually, it is on par with a good phone screen, just smaller.
• I still love an optical viewfinder and how much more natural that feels, but there are many advantages to EVF and with this one, it is not awful to look through. You can shoot, operate the menus, and review all in the viewfinder. I particularly like how much larger images look reviewing in the viewfinder.
• Screen and VF brightness lowered from default by one tick look best to me indoors and should save power unless I need the brightness.
• The timeout on the screen and VF can be lowered, but not as far as I think it should be. I want max power savings. The 5D4 had a 2 second timeout on review of images and I think this screen and VF should have that low of an option too. The lowest is 15 seconds currently. You can turn off either VF or screen in menus but would prefer short auto off time options .
• The menu system and display options on screen and in viewfinder will suit anyone, they have done a really great job offering many options for info display and control setup. So many ways to customize to a simple workflow for most tasks. Still miss quick control custom layouts though.
• Batteries fully interchangeable with previous ones, even off brand.
• The magnesium alloy seems different composition, maybe to enhance thermal conductivity closer to copper since the body is the heat sink surface? I can feel the body take heat form my hands very slightly, and that should help dissipate heat from inside. After a long session of constantly playing with everything the body felt barely warm at 78-80 degrees ambient.
• There is a very subtle quiet clunk if you move the un-powered body in a direction with hard enough motion (takes a good shake). This is the IBIS mechanism, which when un-powered, allows the sensor to float on the IBIS suspension. I don't think this rattles at all as some have said. It feels solid still and to me the sound is no bother. When powered, does not happen.
• All buttons seem well placed. The dials are decently placed but a bit close on the top for my large hands. The joystick is up too high but not awfully so. Not nearly so cramped as many mirrorless bricks, but I still wish this smaller-is-better mentality, when we are talking about pro equipment, would stop. Portable stuff should be a niche market. By comparison, the 5D4 feels luxuriant and more natural in the hand. Large lenses also look dumb on a mirrorless but whatever.
• I love the top screen, which I think is e-ink like any kindle and displays the mode even when off .
• You can operate the mode dial like the old one without looking down. Better, you can remove modes you will not use from that rotation order. It could be just a few modes if you want, like Av, M, B, C1, or any other list you desire.
• Everything feels intuitive for the most part. Video configuration and shooting is just easy, and you get good info as you select options about shooting times, etc. Stills basic settings are accessible in several screens and via the dials of course. Getting to deep settings is never more than a couple buttons or touches and much can be customized. Very easy to use overall for any shooter, particularly Canon shooters, and hoping I will get as comfortable with it, or more, as the 5D4 over time.

Performance so far:

• The focus system is amazing. So fast compared to 5D4 even in low light. So many options for different scenarios. Tracking on objects works well but I have not tried face or animal modes yet, but I can tell there is a lot of ability here. Machine learning and later firmware may make this even better still. It is already class leading and 100% coverage focus points is great. Video focus seems reliable, effortless and easy. For stills, I cannot figure out how to get the focus point to move when I move the joystick without first pressing the focus spot button. Time to read the manual.
• I got something near but slightly below the 20FPS with an old 24-105 EF mk1 and off brand battery in a quick unscientific burst test of about 50 images. In electronic shutter only, this thing flies. It did take a while to write the buffer out to my midgrade SD card but I had plenty more buffer to go if I had wanted it.
• IBIS is great. I handheld a 1/6 second on my old 3 stop 24-105 and it was almost as sharp as a 1/100 so I am getting at least 4-5 stops on an old EF lens and could never have hand held that before.
• Image quality looks like a good step up form the 5D4 in clarity, noise, high ISO, and color (slightly). I have only done some quick tests so this is just first impressions. Some reviewers are saying the Canon sensor stills quality is out there with the best of them now, and while the base DR is not the absolute top of the pack, it is not far behind, very good and improved. At high ISO, DR is equal or better than most competitors as it has been since the 5D4 came out with Canon sensors.
• High ISO is looking more usable than the 5D4. Will need to take more subjects to get a better feel. An astrophotography landscape trip ought to put it through the ringer, hopefully I will do that soon.
• Tried some 4K30 and 4K60 low bitrate (haven't bought cards to try higher res or bit rates yet). To me it looks really good compared against my Sony NXCAM HXR-NX80 4K. Of course uncropped full frame, I can get much wider, still clear and sharp with great Canon color, and a way better stabilizer. Haven't done a pixel peeping 4K comparison, but the 5D4 held its own against most 4K options and this should be even better. Won't even get into the nonsense about HQ modes and limits, I did not buy this as a dedicated video camera and don't even have the memory cards for those modes yet. I will still retain dedicated video tools because I don't have this belief any hybrid can do it all yet, and probably not for years to come.
• Shot for only a few minutes of video at a time so far so no comment on heat issues but I doubt for my normal uses I will encounter them. If I need long form video for interviews or documentary (which I only very rarely do) I have a dedicated pro Sony NXCAM camcorder for 1080P (still very appropriate for most jobs) and 4K, and off camera sound capture. That is the most realistic kind of camera for event and documentary work in my opinion. If I was doing full frame video production I would look at the newest Sony, or more likely the SH1, or if I could afford it, a used or new Cinema camera. Hybrids may never do it all just based on engineering trades and physics, despite what all the entitled people think and poor marketing suggestions.

Conclusion so far? Going well, no major regrets. To me, the camera is as advertised as I never latch onto a feature with unrealistic expectation. Field testing on some tough shoots soon should tell me if I love it, but I already like it. Curious to see how others are getting along with their R5/6 if you were able to get one.

Great review and nice touches throughout. Thanks.

 

[HikeBike]

It’s not selling as well according to my sources. The R5 preorders beat it in a landslide. One salesman I talked to said he hadn’t taken a single order for an R6 yet.

Thanks for the info!

 

[RunAndGun]

Just as a sidebar question. Has anybody here read or heard of the R5 overheating doing regular stills photography?

Not exactly. But I think I did hear about some YouTube celeb shooting a bunch of stills, then shooting video and the stills shooting drastically cut into the video thermal limit window.

 

[RunAndGun]

Has anyones local shops gotten the R5 in? Mine was supposed to get some in for those who preordered through them, but I haven't gotten a call and IF I have to wait until November I WILL be jumping ship to Sony and returning ALL the RF gear I've purchased for a full refund.

Where I ordered they had 30 (pre)orders and received 4. I wasn't in the first 4.

Pre-ordering from the big boys is always your best bet for this type of thing, because their allotments will always be much greater than the small shops.

 

[Bert63]

As other influencers have mentioned in their videos

I honestly couldn't care less about influencers. They want clicks. They want sponsors. In most cases they're are narcissists begging for attention.

YMMV.

 

[koenkooi]

Pre-ordering from the big boys is always your best bet for this type of thing, because their allotments will always be much greater than the small shops.

Those didn't have enough either here in .nl

 

[SteveC]

An announcement is over due for those cameras at this point. I am already eyeing 3 a7sIIIs to be my 3 compact cinema cameras. At least for events.

Really? You're going to go with another overheating camera, one where the manufacturer isn't in the least up front and willing to own the issue?

 

[SteveC]

I honestly couldn't care less about influencers. They want clicks. They want sponsors. In most cases they're are narcissist attention seekers begging for attention.

YMMV.

Maybe you don't pay attention to them, which is commendable, but Canon shouldn't ignore the fact that many people DO listen to them.

 

[Starting out EOS R]

If you find a way to remove some of the useless shit displayed on the play back screen, I would love to know, I really do not care to see if Flicker is engaged or not etc etc! Thanks!

I may be wrong but I believe in one of the menus you can untick things to display.

 

[kingrobertii]

Got mine in yesterday, and loving it so far. Will be doing some heavy testing this weekend but so far, it is a huge improvement over my R.

 

[scyrene]

Again, I think Canons only sin here was overhyping the 8k aspect of the camera.

Did they *over* hype it though? I've mentioned this on a couple of previous threads but does nobody remember the reaction to the rumour of 8K back in early 2020? Nobody seemed to believe it would be proper 8K for more than a very short time - some said it would be a timelapse, others that it would be a few seconds long etc. Twenty minutes of 8K is still far more than any other comparable camera can do. Honestly the change in perspctive on this is mind boggling! (Not aiming this at you, but the general mood on this forum).

 

[Bert63]

It's kinda sad out here, a whole industry (and sponsored gravy train) has sprung up around *testing/testers/ambassadors/etc* -- objectivity plus real world feedback has gone out the window.

None wants to bite the hand that feeds them, it appears.

Try getting an honest public critique from some of these *in house* alpha and beta testers.......

I kept looking at the upside down SONY logo on the long awaited A7Rlll flip-out screen, and that low resolution menu font on the long awaited menu update, and thinking, "surely someone said something, that shouldn't be like that."

This is why I like to read here and other camera forums - you generally can get a sense of what normal everyday people think - pros and hobbists - without any of the Youtube/Influencer crap.

 

[VegasCameraGuy]

Just got off the phone with B&H and MY R5 body is shipping today or Monday at the latest! Woo Hoo! They have hit my PayBoo account with the cost of the body, which confirms that my R5 Body is somewhere in the shipping department (please don't drop it)! I ordered my R5 at about 5 AM on 7/9/20 PST when the Pre-Order first went up and so I got in on the first shipment. My Frenchie and I will probably be eating dog food for a while but at least I'll be able to take pictures!

According to the salesperson, there is no truth to the rumor that Canon has recalled the R5 to fix overheating issues and they are out of stock because the number of orders has exceeded the supply. Using the B&H PayBoo card saved me over $500 in sales tax! That's not to say that Canon won't address this issue but hopefully can use a firmware upgrade to lessen the problem.