Exactly, we are indeed already out enjoying it! A few test shots at the end of post for people who don't want to read my rambling.
The R5 is turning out to be the best hybrid on the market, period. It was designed for stills and short duty incredible video footage. The video crowd and those who form opinions from their favorite talking heads have had a bit of tunnel vision, and pile-on the negativity bandwagon attitude. Despite the mountain made of a mole hill, the camera is turning out to exceed all
reasonable expectations and be a true marvel when you get it out there and
use it. All the major features, combined with all the nuances of ergonomics make it truly great. It is another well thought out camera that doesn't deviate from the care of design that has kept me with Canon for my stills work for almost a decade (yep I own other brands for video, although those cameras are redundant a bit now and may get sold). My nerves during all these negative internet rantings are gone after using it- I can tell it is solid and going to do everything I need reliably and effortlessly.
Now on to photography and a couple quick test shots.
Shooting experience: I've only taken the R5 out for some real test photos in the world just last night. In two words: it's amazing.
- Can handhold +4 stops more than previous cameras like 5D4 with the same lenses. It is quiet or silent depending on shutter mode.
- I'm getting used to the small size and starting to love it.
- The dial placements plus the control ring makes setting exposure so intuitive and fast.
- Articulating screen makes weird shooting angles easy.
- You can operate exposure basics from EVF, LCD screen, or top screen if you even feel the need to look ( I didn't).
- Info display is robust and very customizable.
- The workflow with the EVF is incredible. So smooth and quick to move focus points with the joystick compared to any previous Canon. Histrogram, focus peaking, exposure preview, distortion correction all in EVF, so no time wasted reviewing photos- I know what they will look like when I take them and may only review sharpness if at all- there seem to be no auto focus misses ever and I'm using older EF glass mostly. The EVF may not look like real life in many conditions like fast tracking, bright daylight, etc. but it is a very high quality image. In any type of medium or low light it is a way better that the OVF or LCD screen and the typical DSLR distortion. The preview of what images are going to look like overlaid with any control or info you may need is a major workflow improvement. Review inside the EVF is far superior to screens for spotting issues with taken images. Overall it is a more fun experience to get the shot when your fingers just move on the controls while you watch the shot you want come into shape in the EVF and take it effortlessly.
- Focusing in almost complete dark is trivial, it just works. You can focus directly on stars with autofocus and it does as good a job as manual focus. You can see night images how they will look after long exposure and frame them in the EVF, no more guessing in the dark or blinding yourself and everyone around with a headlamp to spot and focus on foreground objects. The red focus highlights can tell you when foreground, stars, or both are good without zooming in all around parts of the frame in live view ore reviewing test shots. Same during the day, focus highlights are incredibly good on this camera.
Editing: CR3 is a non issue, extremely easy to convert to DNG in one click and get into bridge or LR/Photoshop, until we get native ACR support from Adobe.
The RAW files are
gorgeous with zero color noise, a ton of detail and crispness, and lots of room to crop. You could crop off 33% vertical and horizontal and still have a 6D sized file with less noise and more detail. The shadows push 3-4 stops with ease (not that this stupid metric matters directly) and for normal preserve highlight shooting you can almost completely skip any need for HDR stacks and get incredible results.
Here are a couple examples of my test shots reduced to 20% resolution. The full outputs you can zoom in for days and still see detail, the difference from 5D4 even though its only about 1/5 extra frame vertical and horizontal, still looks beautiful. These are not the most amazing photos or compositions as I had limited time to get to good scenes with decent conditions. Forgot the 5D4, was going to take test comparisons.
View attachment 191991
R5 + 24-105mm F4L Mk1, 1/80s, ISO 200, F10. Single exposure. The shadows and flowers were DARK almost black to preserve highlights and boosted about 2.5 stops in post, resulting in this awesome quality. Image is post processed but not super heavily.
View attachment 191990
R5 + 24mm Samyang , 15s, ISO 6400, F2.8.
Single exposure, no long exposure niose reduction or darks used. Imagine what stacking for noise reducation will bring to night images with this camera. Again the detail is incredible. Noise in shadows has ZERO color problems, just a gradual loss of detail. It cleans up so much better than a couple generations ago and better than the 5D4. I'd say an easy full stop better than the 5D4 for noise and usable ISO in low light despite the large jump in sensor size. I'm confident I could shoot at 12800 if needed and use those files in many cases. Image is post processed but not super heavily.