This is probably the best camera review I’ve ever watched – Gerald Undone with the Canon EOS R5 and Canon EOS R6

David_E

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Sep 12, 2019
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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.
I enjoyed reading your ”rambling.” My experience with the R5 parallels yours, except that your photos are waaay better the ones I have made to date.
 
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AlanF

Desperately seeking birds
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We had better hope not, because if it radiates faster than it generates, it will lead to the heat death of the Universe.
Do your bit for humankind and turn off your fridge or icebox to prolong the life of the universe. In the short term, you will slow down global warming.
 
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SteveC

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Sep 3, 2019
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We had better hope not, because if it radiates faster than it generates, it will lead to the heat death of the Universe.

That can happen, if heat generation stops, you'll see a temporary situation where radiation continues to happen faster than the new rate of generation. But you'd be correct in surmising that can't stay true indefinitely!
 
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David_E

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That can happen, if heat generation stops, you'll see a temporary situation where radiation continues to happen faster than the new rate of generation. But you'd be correct in surmising that can't stay true indefinitely!
I have alerted my fellow cosmologists. There goes the 2.725 K Cosmic Background Radiation!
 
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SteveC

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I have alerted my fellow cosmologists. There goes the 2.725 K Cosmic Background Radiation!

Oh, believe me, not an issue there! It's behaving exactly as theory expects.

In fact it's such a perfect black body wavelength distribution that when the data were first presented the audience gave it a standing ovation.

Edited to clarify: I was talking about situations where, say, you heat a pot of water...then you stop heating it. It radiates heat far faster than you're dumping heat into it, then. But it won't radiate heat faster than you're heating it, while you're heating it.
 
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David_E

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I was talking about situations where, say, you heat a pot of water...then you stop heating it. It radiates heat far faster than you're dumping heat into it, then. But it won't radiate heat faster than you're heating it, while you're heating it.
Or so we hope. But we’re not talking about a mere 373 K; we’re talking about the R5, which, if the alarmists are to be believed, defies the laws of thermodynamics and generates Big Bang temperatures before you even unpack it.
 
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SteveC

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Or so we hope. But we’re not talking about a mere 373 K; we’re talking about the R5, which, if the alarmists are to be believed, defies the laws of thermodynamics and generates Big Bang temperatures before you even unpack it.

Yeah, I had to rush to the camera store and pick mine up...so it wouldn't burn their shop down. Aren't I a wonderful person willing to make such sacrifices?
 
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SteveC

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Or so we hope. But we’re not talking about a mere 373 K; we’re talking about the R5, which, if the alarmists are to be believed, defies the laws of thermodynamics and generates Big Bang temperatures before you even unpack it.

Still, I think I got a sunburn from the UV blackbody radiation coming off the thing.
 
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HenryL

EOS R3
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Apr 1, 2020
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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.
Very well said, and beautiful images - thanks for sharing! Your experience pretty much aligns with mine so far. Between work and weather, I haven't had many opportunities to get out too far from home so I've mostly been playing around in the yard and local park. Chasing dragonflies is exasperating haha.

My son stopped by this afternoon and he was checking out the new camera. We started talking about how customizable this camera is. I've had many DSLR's - 10D, 20D, 30D, 50D, both 7D's and every 5D except the Mk II. I have always set them up the same way in large part because they were limited in the beginning as to what you could do with them. Then, as they had more and more ways to customize the controls, I still just set them up as I always did because, well, I always did it that way.

With the R5, I'm purposely not repeating that. Instead, I'm moving functions around to different buttons, trying them out and slowly getting the most used items to the controls that naturally lay at my fingertips or somewhere where they make sense for the way I use them. I fumble every now and then and forget that I moved this function or that, but each time out it's a bit better. Hopefully by the time I get some good weather/good light, I'll have this thing tuned just right and I can make my masterpiece!

I find this camera feels great in the hand. I never thought the 5D series was too large, actually preferred it to the xxD series and those felt puny after I got used to the 5D. But, after only a few hours, the smaller R5 is a great fit and the larger DSLR (down to only a 7DII now) feels kind of bulky. The controls are laid out extremely well, the contours are very comfortable, and to me it feels larger than it really is (in a good way). It kind of pains me to say it, but every time I look over at my 7DII sitting on the shelf I feel a twinge of sadness because I honestly may never pick it up again except to sell it and add to the RF lens fund.

So far I've used it with the EF 24-70L II, 100-400 II with and without the 1.4x III and yesterday I picked up the RF35. My favorite, though, is the RF 50 - it feels great and balances perfectly. Now I am just waiting for deals/rebates on the RF85 to complete my prime set, then to slowly replace my EF 2.8 trinity.

Needless to say, I'm super happy with the R5 and looking forward to using it for my wildlife photography as well as learning new genres (like your Milky Way photo above) and macro as well as getting back to portraits (been over a decade!).

Cheers - now go take pictures! :)
 
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reefroamer

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Jun 21, 2014
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Nuh, that would be overkill. Just a single asterisk at the tech specs header would suffice. It’s a common practice. In my opinion, Canon went a bit Gung Ho with this press release in particular.
It just reads like every other press release ever. It talks about the good stuff and ignores the negatives. By carefully choosing subjective wording (“comfortably”) they steer clear of outright falsehoods. It’s marketing. Always to be taken with a grain of salt. No company ever announces a new product by leading with its limitations. That's what fine print and 900-page product manuals are for. As a former corporate media/PR rep, I can 100% guarantee you that Canon's lawyers scrutinized ever single word of these press releases and even changed words as needed to ensure they could be defended. The legal departments always have to reign in the marketing stuff.
 
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SecureGSM

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Feb 26, 2017
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It just reads like every other press release ever. It talks about the good stuff and ignores the negatives. By carefully choosing subjective wording (“comfortably”) they steer clear of outright falsehoods. It’s marketing. Always to be taken with a grain of salt. No company ever announces a new product by leading with its limitations. That's what fine print and 900-page product manuals are for. As a former corporate media/PR rep, I can 100% guarantee you that Canon's lawyers scrutinized ever single word of these press releases and even changed words as needed to ensure they could be defended. The legal departments always have to reign in the marketing stuff.
Sir, I am not arguing your former corporate media/PR rep position, but being an enterprise services account executive for a very large Multinational and a qualified business practitioner, I would like to prove my point and disprove your point that NO company ever announce a new product by leading with limitations. For simplicity. Here is a a Sony camera announcement. There are 22 limitations in total listed in the press release.

have a read and hopefully reconsider:


and here is Nikon D6 press release with a number of limitations listed in there:

 
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HenryL

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Apr 1, 2020
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Sir, I am not arguing your former corporate media/PR rep position, but being an enterprise services account executive for a very large Multinational and a qualified business practitioner, I would like to prove my point and disprove your point that NO company ever announce a new product by leading with limitations. For simplicity. Here is a a Sony camera announcement. There are 22 limitations in total listed in the press release.

have a read and hopefully reconsider:


and here is Nikon D6 press release with a number of limitations listed in there:

Those footnotes aren't necessarily "limitations", some are, but for example in the Sony it clarifies what standard is used to justify EyeAF claim and that's not a functional limitation as we typically think of them. I think I get your point though.

Of course, not to be outdone, Canon lists 29. ;) I linked to Canon Australia since the US site is still MIA. I'm sure the US site has different footnotes, as will EU site and others. And before anybody piles on...no, I didn't read the whole thing and I personally am not concerned about video specs or performance. I don't know if Canon AU addressed heat limitations on video, nor do I care. Point to this comment relates to what and how companies disclose certain information, and that is all.
https://www.canon.com.au/about-cano...-r6-unrivalled-performance-endless-creativity
 
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SecureGSM

2 x 5D IV
Feb 26, 2017
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Canon a Europe however, quite contrary to the Link. you have provided. Not a single limitation mentioned. Not a single footnote. None. See the link:

However, I am disagree with the following point made by the reefroamer:

No company ever announces a new product by leading with its limitations.

They absolutely do include some footnotes in press releases. As per the link you have provided
 
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We have a wealth of Youtube reviewers none of whom generally will test equipment in the way Lens Rentals would, or Arri Rentals, or Clairmont Camera, or Otto Nemitz or Panavision etc. Yet they are the self-proclaimed experts that failed to read the limitations that Canon published and failed to realise these are stills first & video second cameras.
They equally forget these cameras are in a totally different price point to Cinema EOS cameras and Cinealta cameras both of which ARE DESIGNED FOR PRODUCTION VIDEO first.
Im sure Canon have been stung by the complaints and you can bet they will have firmware improvement going forwards. But every cinema camera whether from Red, Arri, Panasonic, Black Magic or Sony Etc through its lifetime gets numerous firmware improvements. One of the best current high end video cameras is the Sony Venice, this was limited in its functions when it first appeared and had a few minor teething issues, nothing unusual about that. Now its a key camera on Netflix, Amazon, HBO, Disney etc. high end shows. Don't think either that high end video cameras with fans never overheat, they do if the set is hot enough and they shut down.
If you shoot video and rarely shoot stills, buy a video camera, if you mainly shoot stills & a bit of video buy the R5 & the R6. I know I will be replacing my 5DS with the R5 and my 6D MKII with the R6 just as soon as cameras are available or in stock.
 
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Canon Rumors attracts the largest group of stodgy, stuck in the past "photographers" who are angry that video has become more important than stills on the internet. You guys are worse than the crowd who insisted that no Pro would ever use autofocus in video, which has quickly become one of the most important video features in professional video cameras.
Wake up and smell the coffee: these mirrorless cameras are HYBRID cameras. Their main selling point is that they do BOTH well. And video is obviously extremely important, if not the most important feature today, which Canon clearly demonstrated by focusing so strongly on the video features in the marketing hype.
It's you stuck-in-the-past, "get your video features off of my lawn" dinosaurs who look increasingly unbalanced.
I work professionally in video, our clients are the top US studios and international broadcasters and we operate in multiple countries. One of our business units rents stills & video cameras so your comments are childish and inaccurate. The people that are at fault are the ones NOT reading the limitations Canon openly published, thinking paying £ 4,150 / $ 4,000 gets you a production ready video camera, it doesn't. The Sony R7S III is a great value for money video camera first hybrid cameras but it would not hold the resolution the R5 has and is not meant too for stills. Equally the R5 is not as capable as the R7S III in video and is aimed at an insert type video style in some modes. Yet we have people comparing the two cameras that are video shooters and saying "what a bad video camera the R5 & R6 are". Now tell me who are the unbalanced ones? Right tool for the right job.
 
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I work professionally in video, our clients are the top US studios and international broadcasters and we operate in multiple countries. One of our business units rents stills & video cameras so your comments are childish and inaccurate. The people that are at fault are the ones NOT reading the limitations Canon openly published, thinking paying £ 4,150 / $ 4,000 gets you a production ready video camera, it doesn't. The Sony R7S III is a great value for money video camera first hybrid cameras but it would not hold the resolution the R5 has and is not meant too for stills. Equally the R5 is not as capable as the R7S III in video and is aimed at an insert type video style in some modes. Yet we have people comparing the two cameras that are video shooters and saying "what a bad video camera the R5 & R6 are". Now tell me who are the unbalanced ones? Right tool for the right job.

I work professionally in video and film with A-listers on blockbusters and more, and I disagree with you which proves that you are childish and immature.
So there.
 
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Nice!

What Bortle class was this shot in?
This would help us better understand the quality of the camera.


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.
 
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Mar 17, 2020
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Simply do not get all the fuss about the reviews. The ones I have seen (quite a few) all seem spot on.

Do not care much for video myself. Iphone is all the video I need. However, a lot of people do care and for them the R5 and R6 have severe limitations that need to be better understood. Of course any sane review would highlight this issue as it is central to how many people want/had hoped to use the two cameras.. Everything else is more or less as expected. Nice stuff such as IBIS, a little improved DR, more fps, more MPIX etc. Not a lot to discuss here except get some confirmation and enjoy the excellent pictures the two can take.

Now if there was overheating just shooting stills - that would be worth exploring a lot too... :devilish:
 
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