M5 does Namibia

[digigal]

Just got back from Namibia and took the M5 as my landscape/carry around camera and my 7DM2 as my wildlife camera. Worked great. I used the 18-55 kit lens from the M3 which was fine for the landscape shots. We did some night/star shots and I used my Sigma 18-34 f/1.8 with the adapter and manual focusing even though it's really not wide enough, I just didn't want to buy a wider fast lens for these shots because it's not something I'm really in to right now. Sigma worked fine except there was a little streaking of the stars because it wasn't quite wide enough. Here's some samples of the pics. I've got no regrets about using it! It handled the incredible dust as well as the 2 other weather sealed cameras I had along (7DMK2 and OLY OMD EM5 IR converted).
Catherine

 

[Click]

Beautiful series. Well done, digigal.

 

[lion rock]

I like love.
-r

 

[bholliman]

Excellent series Digigal, thanks for sharing!

 

[dlee13]

Really love the last one, haven't really tried astro stuff before.

 

[mdmphoto]

Incredible shots. You've got me thinking now.....

 

[Fleetie]

Stunning!

Especially the night shot.

The person with the torch is pure genius.

Thanks for sharing!

 

[zim]

Agree with all the above, lovely images.
I really like the first and last.

The M5 as an option is really starting to grow on me, just wish it had a slightly deeper body and an EF mount.

 

[digigal]

Thanks for all your kind comments! Some additional comments about the M5: I took it because of its light weight and I knew I wanted to try to hike into the DeadVlei one more time (I swore the last time I was in Namibia 2 yrs ago that was the last time I was ever going to do that!) but with the little 18-55 lens and the Sigma 18-34 and the smallest RRS tripod I would have a light weight set up to take with me. We made it in just as the sun was going down so the first 2 shots were grab shots hand held but by toggling to manual focus and using the zebra lines you can really get sharp pictures hand held and know exactly what's in focus. Plus I really learned to love knowing exactly what my pictures were going to look like on the EVF or screen with the M5 and adjusting on the fly. The adjustable screen was so incredible useful when doing the star shots with the tripod down on the ground and everyone else was having to lie on the ground to look thru their viewfinders. The only really frustrating thing about this camera is there is no way to put it into "sleep" mode so you have to turn it off between shots. That said, I never had a problem with night shoots when I left the screen on continuously and was focusing, reframing, and shooting for more than 1 1/2 hr and never ran out of battery power. I have no idea how well my 7DM2 battery would run my live view for 1 1/2 hrs continuously shooting and framing--I've never put it to the test!
It's going to be interesting how Canon evolves with their mirrorless over the next few yrs.
Catherine

 

[Frodo]

Lovely photos!
You comment about not being able to put the M5 into sleep mode. On my M3 I have set the delete (trash) button to the sleep function. Works well and the camera wakes up when any button is pressed or the lens zoomed.

 

[Rockskipper]

The soft color in the bathtub shot is just gorgeous. Also like the guy with the flashlight - nice touch.