Canon EOS R5 Mark II user feedback and discussion

[koenkooi]

[…]

• I still honestly don't fully get the new AF modes in the M-Fn menu - the first time ever that I need to read a manual for that […]

On my R8, with the default settings, this like spot AF will track the object you’re pointing at, unless you disable “whole area subject tracking”. But disabling that also impacts zone AF.
The new modes behave like the DSLR modes behaved, single point, spot, expansion only focus on what’s beneath them, no tracking.

For macro shooting I assigned the spot-AF-no-tracking to AF-ON, so I can override the regular AF by putting the spot AF point on the eye of a dragonfly.
In the button menu you can also pick how AF behaves, so I think the new modes are for when you use the menu or Q button to pick AF modes and don’t want to toggle tracking manually.

 

[Budman17r]

So I've had my very first paid outing with the R5 Mark II today, here are my take aways:

• it feels a lot more robust and refined software-wise
• AF in dark scenes is a lotsurer on where to go
  • I shot in a laboratory of a manufacturer specialized in LED lights for automotive clients and the aftermarket. One scene I had to shoot was a test situation of LED lights where they measure the width and complexity of said light on a white wall (and through a tunnel - to measure how far away it still emits light - and how much). Awesome stuff! The room itself is completely devoid of natural or artificial light - when testing, of course. The walls apart from the white one were painted pitch black. Most shots with my RF15-35 were at ISO 16000 and it just jumped wherever I wanted it to go and even held on with AF-C if needed.
• AF in general seems a lot more precise - the shots that did not land were the fault of my own, not the camera
• I don't know if it's by design but the R5II did show me the heat display, though it was hovering around no bars / one bars - presumably because I also did some video free hand for our video guy at work
• the body itself gets a lot warmer than I've ever encountered with my R5 - even in stills only
• the new joystick design is a lot more comfortable for my thumb
• I still honestly don't fully get the new AF modes in the M-Fn menu - the first time ever that I need to read a manual for that
• the camera itself is not noiseless - it emits a very slight humming - but not annoying to me so far

But here's the kicker:

I STILL ONLY HAVE ONE MEASLY LP-E6P BATTERY. WHAT THE ACTUAL SHIT, CANON!?​

No shop I know of has them in stock yet - I called them all.

Not to rub in your face, on release day, I ordered two lp-e6p batteries from b&h, and they shipped next day. Might be worth a shot?

 

[Moritz_RD02]

Not to rub in your face, on release day, I ordered two lp-e6p batteries from b&h, and they shipped next day. Might be worth a shot?

I am in Germany and no dealer around me has them in stock - apparently no one has gotten a single spare battery so far.

 

[Budman17r]

I am in Germany and no dealer around me has them in stock - apparently no one has gotten a single spare battery so far.

Boooooo!

 

[snudel]

I'm also from Germany and I received news today that my 2 replacement batteries are on the way and should arrive tomorrow.

 

[Benjamin_L]

Mine also are on their way so most likely everyone will be getting batteries soonish

 

[john1970]

Buffer Performance of R5 Mk2 with ES set to 20 fps and Pre Capture Enabled

This evening I did some testing indoors of the R5 Mk2 buffer performance. I have set the camera at 20 fps which is generally fast enough for most of my work. I am shooting full RAW not CRAW with pre-capture enabled. I am also using a single Prograde Cobalt 1.3 TB CF Express Type B card.

Overall, I am finding that the buffer last about 3.5-4 sec which is allowing for 70-80 frames after the shutter is fully pressed. This will be quite useful for bird taking of in flight. Frankly, I do wish that the buffer was a bit larger and allowed for 8-10 sec of frames at 20 fps, but the R1 exists for a purpose where I should be able to shoot at 20 fps for a bit longer around 10 seconds. I read on Canon Europe's website that the R1 buffer at 40 fps is 230 RAW files, which frankly I find a bit underwhelming given the R1 flagship status (5 sec buffer a maximum fps with Pre-Capture enabled).

 

[David - Sydney]

Completely unexpected due to the changes but it looks like the existing R5 Ikelite housing can be re-purposed for the R5ii!
That will save a couple of thousand dollars in the future

Can you use the Canon R5 II in an existing Canon R5 Housing?
Yes! If you already have a housing for the Canon R5 and want to use the new camera, you’re in luck! We'll have details on how to use the new Canon R5 II in the existing housing for the Canon R5 very soon - stay tuned!

 

[frankchn]

Frankly, I do wish that the buffer was a bit larger and allowed for 8-10 sec of frames at 20 fps, but the R1 exists for a purpose where I should be able to shoot at 40 fps for 1000 frames.

According to https://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Canon-EOS-R1.aspx, Canon specifies the R1's buffer depth as 230 frames of RAW at 40 fps, but realistically you should be able to get some more. The R5II's buffer depth is 93 RAW frames at 30 fps.

 

[john1970]

According to https://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Canon-EOS-R1.aspx, Canon specifies the R1's buffer depth as 230 frames of RAW at 40 fps, but realistically you should be able to get some more. The R5II's buffer depth is 93 RAW frames at 30 fps.

Thank you for the correction on the number of frames on the R1 in ES mode. So at 40 fps I should have a buffer of around 5 secs on the R1. Frankly, I wished that Canon would have provided a deeper buffer at 40 fps on the R1.

 

[RockyCola]

I have had my R5 mark 2 for two days. Overall the camera is great and I am a fan. Here are three things I noticed that leave some room for improvement - or are bugs>

1. You cannot program Photo or Video Pre Capture to a button. Stupid.
2. If you film 4k in APSC (1.6x ) mode, and then switch back to full frame recording. It Always puts you in 4k Line Skipped mode. Even if you were in 4K HQ and went into APSC mode, when you switch back into Full Frame mode it will dump you into the lower quality 4k mode by default. Just a Beware FYI.
3. If you program video settings into your C1, C2, and C3 modes. and use different Color profiles - they don't stick as intended. For example. If you Program C1 to be 4k 24 and CLOG2, and then go to program C2, as 4k 24 and Canon 709 Color, it will override the colors profile on C1 from CLOG2 to Canon 709 Color. Essentially, whatever the last Color profile you program on any of the Custom profiles - it will use that on all of your other Custom Profiles. This is obviously a bug - but an annoying one at that.

 

[john1970]

I have had my R5 mark 2 for two days. Overall the camera is great and I am a fan. Here are three things I noticed that leave some room for improvement - or are bugs>

1. You cannot program Photo or Video Pre Capture to a button. Stupid.
2. If you film 4k in APSC (1.6x ) mode, and then switch back to full frame recording. It Always puts you in 4k Line Skipped mode. Even if you were in 4K HQ and went into APSC mode, when you switch back into Full Frame mode it will dump you into the lower quality 4k mode by default. Just a Beware FYI.
3. If you program video settings into your C1, C2, and C3 modes. and use different Color profiles - they don't stick as intended. For example. If you Program C1 to be 4k 24 and CLOG2, and then go to program C2, as 4k 24 and Canon 709 Color, it will override the colors profile on C1 from CLOG2 to Canon 709 Color. Essentially, whatever the last Color profile you program on any of the Custom profiles - it will use that on all of your other Custom Profiles. This is obviously a bug - but an annoying one at that.

Thank you for noting your three observations. You can program three different settings in the C1-C3 menu and one of these settings could be with Pre-Capture enabled and another could be with Pre-Capture turned off. The M-Fn button can then be set to toggle between C1-C3 modes.

With that said, I do not understand why Canon only gives users only three C modes. In 2024 you think they could design the cameras (R5 mk2 and R1) to have C1-C6 modes. I would readily use each one. Ugh...

 

[koenkooi]

[…]

With that said, I do not understand why Canon only gives users only three C modes. In 2024 you think they could design the cameras (R5 mk2 and R1) to have C1-C6 modes. I would readily use each one. Ugh...

Especially on a mode dial-less camera! And while we’re at it, give us the option to rename them: ‘macro’, ‘birds’, ‘kids’, ‘boring stuff’

 

[Moritz_RD02]

Thank you for noting your three observations. You can program three different settings in the C1-C3 menu and one of these settings could be with Pre-Capture enabled and another could be with Pre-Capture turned off. The M-Fn button can then be set to toggle between C1-C3 modes.

With that said, I do not understand why Canon only gives users only three C modes. In 2024 you think they could design the cameras (R5 mk2 and R1) to have C1-C6 modes. I would readily use each one. Ugh...

... and then let me rename them. I would love to have my C1 called Studio, C2 Sport Outdoors, C3 BiF and so on - that would be killer. Is there any chance to reach out to Canon collectively / is there a proper way to send them actual user-feedback?

 

[tomislavmoze]

So i was testing my R5mk2 with my vintage X-fujion lens adapted through a clean mechanical adapter. When I tried shooting raw video both in 4k and 8k this is the image I got in resolve, fcp shows just a black screen. In the camera I can play the video normally. I tried turning off all the lens correction but it didn’t change anything.
if you guys have some manual vintage lens maybe this happens to you also?

 

[koenkooi]

So i was testing my R5mk2 with my vintage X-fujion lens adapted through a clean mechanical adapter. When I tried shooting raw video both in 4k and 8k this is the image I got in resolve, fcp shows just a black screen. In the camera I can play the video normally. I tried turning off all the lens correction but it didn’t change anything.
if you guys have some manual vintage lens maybe this happens to you also?

Does it show correctly in the standalone Canon RAW tool?

 

[john1970]

Especially on a mode dial-less camera! And while we’re at it, give us the option to rename them: ‘macro’, ‘birds’, ‘kids’, ‘boring stuff’

Yes.

 

[tomislavmoze]

Does it show correctly in the standalone Canon RAW tool?

I didn’t try it, to tell you truth didn’t even know there is an official canon tool for raw video. But still it is strange that the problem happens with a vintage lens and not with the RF lens.

 

[amorse]

So I got my R5 mark ii a couple days ago, and since I'm coming from a 5D IV, I don't know if some of my observations are normal/expected, or otherwise. I'm getting ready for 11 days of back country camping starting in less than a week in the arctic, so I've been trying to figure out if I can trust the body, and my familiarity with it, to do what I need it to. A couple issues I noted that seemed a bit off to me (and I would appreciate any feedback/education!):

1. Battery - The LP-E6P seems to last quite a long time. I have found that it performs pretty well so far for me. No complaints there. I decided to try some LP-E6NH batteries to see how they perform, but when I went to begin, I found that I only had one partially charged battery available right away. According to my 5DIV, the battery only had 34%. I tried it anyway, and the R5ii showed a low power warning and would not turn on. That seems a bit off to me - 34% charge isn't enough to even turn the camera on? Alarming since I won't be able to get all the LP-E6P batteries I need for 11 days without power before I leave, so I had planned on using my LP-E6NHs, and maybe buying one or two more, but if they're going to die with a third of their power remaining.. I don't know. I also tried a third party LP-E6NH which was full, and the camera turns on for a moment then returns error 80 (not unexpected). Was the R5 like this? Would it consider a battery dead and yet you could drop the "dead" battery into an older camera and still keep using it?

2. Hot/Stuck/dead pixels - On day one I found what seemed to be a sizable pixel which is stuck on blue. Day 2, I found a big red one. They are visible in the recorded image (when viewed on the back LCD or EVF), in the EVF during shooting (on dark backgrounds), on the back LCD panel during shooting, and they (anecdotally) seem to be worse if the camera has been on a while. They are not visible in the final image when opened on Camera Raw so I assume the software is cleaning it out at that point. Definitely a distraction while shooting though. Below is an image of the viewfinder during shooting (with the lens cap on) where the pixel is very clearly visible. Was this an issue the R5 had as well? Are pixels like this often visible in the EVF? I don't think it will harm the end image, but definitely a nuisance.

 

[Viggo]

So I got my R5 mark ii a couple days ago, and since I'm coming from a 5D IV, I don't know if some of my observations are normal/expected, or otherwise. I'm getting ready for 11 days of back country camping starting in less than a week in the arctic, so I've been trying to figure out if I can trust the body, and my familiarity with it, to do what I need it to. A couple issues I noted that seemed a bit off to me (and I would appreciate any feedback/education!):

1. Battery - The LP-E6P seems to last quite a long time. I have found that it performs pretty well so far for me. No complaints there. I decided to try some LP-E6NH batteries to see how they perform, but when I went to begin, I found that I only had one partially charged battery available right away. According to my 5DIV, the battery only had 34%. I tried it anyway, and the R5ii showed a low power warning and would not turn on. That seems a bit off to me - 34% charge isn't enough to even turn the camera on? Alarming since I won't be able to get all the LP-E6P batteries I need for 11 days without power before I leave, so I had planned on using my LP-E6NHs, and maybe buying one or two more, but if they're going to die with a third of their power remaining.. I don't know. I also tried a third party LP-E6NH which was full, and the camera turns on for a moment then returns error 80 (not unexpected). Was the R5 like this? Would it consider a battery dead and yet you could drop the "dead" battery into an older camera and still keep using it?

2. Hot/Stuck/dead pixels - On day one I found what seemed to be a sizable pixel which is stuck on blue. Day 2, I found a big red one. They are visible in the recorded image (when viewed on the back LCD or EVF), in the EVF during shooting (on dark backgrounds), on the back LCD panel during shooting, and they (anecdotally) seem to be worse if the camera has been on a while. They are not visible in the final image when opened on Camera Raw so I assume the software is cleaning it out at that point. Definitely a distraction while shooting though. Below is an image of the viewfinder during shooting (with the lens cap on) where the pixel is very clearly visible. Was this an issue the R5 had as well? Are pixels like this often visible in the EVF? I don't think it will harm the end image, but definitely a nuisance.

View attachment 219361

Have your tried this;?

1. Make sure you have a fully charged battery.
2. Detach lens and put the camera body cap on.
3. Go into your menus and find Sensor cleaning.
4. Select Clean manually.
5. Let it run for 60 seconds, turn off the camera.
6. Turn it back on and try it.