EOS R5 or R6 Versus 5DMIV for Airshow,Sports and Wildlife thoughts .

[SteveC]

Of course!
Mostly, experienced shooters who know their equipment by heart, get great pictures - even if they use "outdated" gear. .
One of the CR-forum users has a true writing in his profile: "The best camera is that one in your hand". At bad photographic conditions also the best cameras and lenses fail. And to be honest - if an shot has the "WOW" in its message or its just beautifully composed or hit, it is not impaired, if there are some optical shortcomings.

If you think about it, bokeh is an optical shortcoming. After all, it's out of focus! Why can't everything be in focus?

Well, because physics. [If any lurker reading this thinks, well my eyes don't have that problem, you're wrong; almost everything outside of what you are looking at is out of focus and low res, you just don't notice because as soon as your eye travels there to look, your eye focuses on it and the high-res part of your sensor (retina) is trained on it. With photos it's obvious because they won't adjust based on what part of the photo you're looking at.]

The thing is to use that shortcoming to draw attention to what you did focus on., Now I realize that's the first five minutes of the first lecture of Photography-as-art 101 (well, OK, the prof has to do an intro and administrative stuff, but the first five minutes after that), but there it is.

 

[zim]

I think if i had an R5, 100-500 + 1.4 extender my current camera would immediately turn to junk, being a 7D

 

[SteveC]

I would really appreciate someone who has been using the R5 with grip extensively to comment on the number of shots they are averaging especially if using white zooms. 250 off a single battery seems very low to me. I'd be ok using 4 in a day (gripped) but as OP I'm usually 1000 - 2000 photos depending on what's flying.

It's going to depend heavily on how much time you spend with the viewfinder on as opposed to taking pictures. I guarantee you, having taken enough shots to fill a memory card just for S&Gs, that you can do a LOT more than 250 shots, if you fire a lot of bursts in a couple of minutes, even without a grip. I have no idea what would happen if the viewfinder were to be on for six hours straight with or without taking some pictures now and again.

 

[SteveC]

I think if i had an R5, 100-500 + 1.4 extender my current camera would immediately turn to junk, being a 7D

Of course "doesn't turn to junk" is different from "I still use it a lot."

 

[Grunt087]

XPS Thanks that is the kind of reply I was looking to get. I agree the 5Dmk4 will still take good pictures but if I can get Better images with a new camera with the same level of skill on my part it might be worth it. I can see the problem using the EVF. I usually track most of the planes at an airshow thru the lens because you never know when the shot you want will present itself. If you have to watch for the right shot then turn on the EVF find the plane and take the shot you will have missed it. I would have to have the EVF on most of the day. It might come to the point of having a battery belt like the old Video cameras had for TV reporters. I will still wait and see how things work out. Maybe they will have a 5DMk5 with improvements from knowledge they gain from the R5 sensor or autofocus so I can still use the Optical View Finder. It would be nice if someone would report how many shots they get per battery and how long it will last time wise when using EVF all the time at an airshow or sporting event. Thanks everyone's input it is very enlightening.

 

[Jonathan Thill]

I have used the EOS R and the RP to cover a couple of Airshows and honestly I struggled with those systems. They are just not fast enough but it taught me it could be done but the hit rate was better with my 7D

EOS R Pics from Abbotsford





The R5 is a different animal all together and I cannot wait to try it at an actual airshow. With 20FPS I am never going to miss a cross over at Airshow center again.

The beauty of Airshows is the downtime is predictable so battery life is not an issue as I tend to shoot a lot of bursts and then shut the camera off while I wait for the pass with the best angles. Carrying a few extra batteries is nothing when compared to all the gear I pack for an airshow.

Lets hope we can get back to shooting them soon.

 

[cornieleous]

For your type of shooting I think the R5 or the R6 will give you no benefits and even more, you'll have to use an EVF instead of OVF, which really sucks, for extended periods of time, in fairly bright light.
You have your cameras, you have your lenses and you don't have to worry about battery life.
To me, it's a no-brainer. Forget about the new cameras and go travel to some air shows somewhere..

I have a 5D4 and R5, and the EVF is way better for bright light and shows you the exposure you will actually get. It has almost no lag tracking fast things. Yes, if you are looking through the viewfinder it will be on a lot and use more battery. This generation of EVF is not like what is found 1-2 years ago.

Battery life is no worse than about a third to half less shots with the new batteries in the extreme cases, particularly with EVF and screen brightness not way up and other conservative settings. To me that trade off for better capability is fine.

The 7D2 is indeed capable of capturing a similar amount of detail as the R5 when comparing cropped full frame field of view vs un-cropped APS-C, but with up to 1.5 stop worse noise. Focusing and IBIS of the R5 I'm fairly certain will produce way more keepers- all my EF glass is better on the R5 than 5D4. So to suggest there is zero benefit to the R5 is not accurate at all I think- its 6 years of technology growth. The question really is if the price vs. benefit to a 7D2 is worth it for airshow shooting. I'd probably rent to make that decision.

I would never suggest an upgrade unless your current camera feels limiting in some way. For me, I always need better low light capability since I do night timelapse with multiple cameras, and the video capabilities are sufficient that I was able to sell my pro Sony NXCAM to pay for a large bit of the R5. I upgrade every few years and keep the backup cam shooting B angles for the timelapses.

 

[wockawocka]

For shooting things at a distance? The R5 wins in croppability.

 

[Stu_bert]

I would really appreciate someone who has been using the R5 with grip extensively to comment on the number of shots they are averaging especially if using white zooms. 250 off a single battery seems very low to me. I'd be ok using 4 in a day (gripped) but as OP I'm usually 1000 - 2000 photos depending on what's flying.

I've shot over 1000 photos with the R5 in 2 hours whilst testing it. IBIS, Eye AF. I have no grip (yet). I'm sure extended use of the EVF and touch screen would be different, and that wasn't with the big whites (I don't have any of those with me in HK, sorry). But honestly, doesnt bother me carrying around a few extra batteries, but I also appreciate others dislike it.

Start another thread, and I am sure people will contribute and fill in gaps.

 

[JayLT]

Regarding the R5 in terms of battery life, I was out this weekend with mine at a local wetland preserve testing a couple different lens combinations and settings. I had the battery grip, with two batteries installed. I racked up 2200 shots in 2-3 hours and both batteries were still at 67-70% charge. Not as good as either of my DSLR bodies, but really not too far off either