036 - Hands-on with the Canon EOS R5

So, lot's going on over here. But this podcast and getting information out to you every Monday is my promise to you, and I'm not breaking that promise. So, here we go!

One great thing did happen during this week of moving and stressing and all that fun stuff. I finally got my hands on a physical Canon EOS R5, the company's new flagship mirrorless camera. I haven't gotten mine yet, it's still on backorder, but I got to try one out as part of Canon's Road Trip across Canada to show off the R5 and the R6.

So today, I'm talking about my first impressions using the camera and a few of its new lenses. And give you an idea of what I think of the new RF mount line up.

The Canon R5 and R6 were the widely anticipated full-frame cameras Canon announced a few months ago and started releasing a couple of months ago. The pandemic has affected Canon's timelines on deliverables, some people have managed to get their hands on them, but most haven't received their orders yet.

I had the chance to test out the camera near the Dean House in Calgary's trendy Inglewood area. The Dean House is situated on the confluence of two rivers and has a historic community surrounding it, so it really was one of the perfect places to test out this new gear, with a blend of nature and urban to get great shots. We had 30 to 45 minutes to test out the gear and ask questions about it. This isn't quite enough time, but it had to do because it was better than what you would get in most camera stores. 

Going into this, I was excitedly nervous about trying out the camera. I'd heard a ton of great things about its stills capabilities (and, of course, all the negatives about the overheating issues in video mode). I had such high hopes for the camera that I was hoping it wouldn't disappoint. And let me get this out of the way very quickly. It DID NOT disappoint. It was one of the most intuitive and beautiful cameras I've ever had the pleasure of using.

Let's start with the feeling and the ergonomics. This camera feels like a Canon. It instantly felt at home in my hand. The materials, the grip the way my fingers found buttons. It all felt like a Canon camera. Which is a fantastic thing if you are like me and love the way Canon feels. I could pick it up and right away knew where my back-button focus was, where the joystick was, where I could quickly change settings. It felt intuitive and quick, and I started taking pictures with it after only one small snafu. The previous tester had been trying out the video mode, which takes a moment to figure out. You switch between stills and video mode with a dial and a button press, and when you are in video mode, you cannot take pictures. So it took me a minute to figure out why it wasn't taking pictures when I first put it up to my eye. But, after figuring out we were in video mode, the screen tells you what button to press to switch between photo and video modes, then we were off and going. I was able to start producing images the way I always have. Changing settings was a breeze. There is an additional dial that my current Canon doesn't have on it, but even that only took a moment to figure out. Then I was adjusting and shooting like I always have. Which is impressive when just picking up a new camera.

Now, some people have mentioned the camera feels too light or too tiny in their hands. I have average-sized hands, and the camera fits in them really well. The buttons weren't too cramped together, and I could reach them all without moving my hands all over the camera. So, for me, the camera is excellent.

Now because it is a bit smaller than a standard DSLR, it can feel a bit front-heavy when you get big glass on it. I've experienced this a few times with big telephotos, but never with a medium-range telephoto. This time, however, I had that happen.

The first lens I tried out was the RF 28-70 f/2. This is a beast of a lens. It's big, it's heavy, and it takes beautiful photos. Even when totally wide open, the pictures turn out sharp. But, the camera isn't super well balanced with it on there. You end up with a lot of the weight in your front hand and end up pulling back on the camera with your other hand just a bit to keep it straight. It isn't a massive deal, but it doesn't feel weird to have that happen with a medium-telephoto lens.

So, for the ergonomics and feel, this thing is beautiful. I can't fault Canon for anything on the way this camera functions. And there are many options to customize the buttons and the control ring, so you can make it work just the way you need to.

Alright, so the ergonomics are superb, but what about the actual shooting capabilities?

They are soooooo smooth. The two big things that blew me away were the eye-tracking AF (human and animal) and the straight-up image quality.

Let's start there, with that image quality. This is a flagship camera, after all, so you should expect it to be insanely good. But, when combined with an L-series lens, this camera produces mind-blowing images in terms of quality. Images are sharp across the board, with beautiful colour rendition and skin tones look like actual skin tones. The first few images I saw from this camera made me so happy, and that was with 0 editing.

The most amazing thing to me with the RF glass and the new RF mount is the sharpness when shooting wide open. I shot a ton of images at f/2, and they are wonderfully sharp, with a gentle fall off and beautiful background blur. This is a high-end beast of a lens and, when combined with the image quality from the R5, you get spectacular looking photos.

Part of what also makes this image quality excellent is the dynamic range. You can pull a tremendous amount of detail out of the shadows and out of the highlights to really re-balance a bright or dark image.

The other thing that I loved about using this R5 was the eye-auto focus. We tried it with our heads moving, running, and on birds in flight, and it was terrific. It had no problems keeping up with anything except for the quickest of movements. So, a fast turn from a bird or a sudden acceleration. And, when it did falter, it caught up again very quickly. I've used other eye detect AF systems, and the only one on par with this is Sony. So, kudos to you for this one, Canon!

So that's just a few of the things I loved about this R5, but let me get into one of the things that I really didn't like—the electronic viewfinder. Don't get me wrong, it is beautiful and bright, and the live view exposure simulation is terrific. But, coming from an optical viewfinder, it was weird to watch the world bounce and shift around as you moved quickly from spot to spot. Like it took a moment for the screen to catch up with where you pointed the camera. It was much more noticeable when I started using it, so I think my eye and brain adjusted, but it was definitely one of the more difficult things to get used to with this camera.

I didn't test the video modes (not really my thing at the moment), so I can't comment on the overheating issues that seem to be a big problem for some. For stills shooters, overheating isn't a problem at all.

Alright, let's talk quickly about the lenses I tested. I already mentioned the RF 28-70 f/2. This is a huge, heavy lens. When I first picked it up, I couldn't ever see myself carrying it around to shoot every day or putting it in a bag to travel and explore. But the more I used it, the more I started to see this lens as a replacement for some primes. You don't really need a 35mm or 50mm prime in your bag unless you need that extra little bit of light that they offer. The sharpness is just that good. 

Now, the tradeoff is how huge and bulky this thing is. It's a monster. It weighs over 3 lbs and has a 95mm filter thread on the front. And its price, as it will cost you nearly $4,000 CDN.

One of the Canon Pro shooters at the booth said that this lens is his go-to commercial lens. He mostly just leaves the primes in his kitbag now and shoots with this monster. And I can understand why after using it.

The other lens I got to test out was the RF 100-500 zoom lens. This is a variable aperture lens from f/4.5-7.1. I didn't think I would like having a lens that topped out at 7.1 on the long end, but I honestly didn't notice. This didn't impact my shooting at all, and I could create some very cool compressed landscape images and capture some birds in flight easily.

The first thing I noticed when I picked up this lens is how light it is compared to other telephotos. It doesn't have the same constant low aperture, so there isn't as much glass in it, but even knowing that I was blown away with just how light and nimble this lens felt. I can see being able to go out for a long day of shooting and my arm not wearing out. One of the things that really bugged me about this lens was how you lock the barrel in place. It's just a little spin dial on the lens, but it felt cumbersome and occasionally would slow down my shooting. Without locking the barrel down, this lens suffers horrid lens creep (where the lens barrel moves out when it's being pulled on by gravity.) So it is a necessity, it can just be annoying at times. But once again, the image quality and sharpness are hard to beat. I'm loving the way the images look coming out of this lens.

Overall, I am blown away by the R5 and the whole RF system. From the outside looking in, I was in love with their innovation and ingenuity in the lenses they were creating. But after having gotten them in my hands, I can honestly say that this is one of the best cameras and camera systems I have ever used. Fantastic job, Canon!

Now, I just need to actually get mine delivered so that I can start creating some beauty content with it.