Canon R5 Mark II image from Canon’s web site.
I have been using Canon cameras since before the year 2000 and up until recent years they have been the main tools that I have used for photography for most of that time. Other than in my youth with various film cameras I started actually doing photography as a hobby when some of the first digital cameras were coming out. The first I bough for myself was the S400 elph and since that time I have progressed through the Canon lineup and relied on these tools for both pleasure and work.
Canon cameras that we have owned and used over the last 25 years. S400 elph, s95, sx50 HS, original digital Rebel, Rebel xti, Rebel t1i, 20D, 50D, 7D, 5D, 5D II, 5DIII, 1DIV, 5DS, m50, R5, and Elan 7e. I currently still own the s95, 5DS, m50 and the Elan 7e.
About 2 months ago I sold my Canon R5 with a couple things in mind. I knew there was a Canon R5II coming soon and the rumours looked like it might be a camera worth keeping my 500 F/4 II lens to use. I also figured that Sony would need to come out with something similar in the near future and it is likely that one of those two options will decide what gear I will be using for the next few years.
The R5 was a good camera…not a great camera and not one that I could rely on to get the shot when the moment happened. The picture quality was great, nearly as good as the Sony A7RIV and A7RV which are currently my main cameras. The autofocus is great, pretty much on par with the Sony A7RV and a bit better than the A7RIV when it comes to tracking wildlife which is what I really need it for. The biggest reason I have not moved fully away from Canon over the last few years is that big white lens that I bought for a lot of money that I really can’t afford to replace with either a new RF or a Sony FE big white. I also have most of the old EF lenses that I still use with both my DSLR 5DS and SLR Elan 7e.
I enjoyed shooting with the R5 most of the time however there were two issues that really made it difficult to use when I needed to get that shot. The first is the battery life and with the long lens it seemed like if I was below 50% battery focus became a challenge. The second was how often the camera would crash. This last one would happen with any lens (RF or EF), under just about any conditions (landscape with single shot or tracking for nature) and was pretty much completely unpredictable. I might not occur for hours on a shoot and then pop up a couple of times or it might happen constantly for a while and then just be fine again for a while. It got really frustrating when I was waiting for a bird or animal to do something and as soon as it did the camera would lock up needing to have the battery removed and I would lose all chance to get the shot during the action. I have been using Canon cameras for more than 20 years and have never had issues like this with any other one. On the forums it seems that many people also had this issue and a number of firmware updates tried to address it but never fully did (I felt like the last ones made things a bit more stable but that might have been wishful thinking).
Catching the moment. Eagles fighting over some Salmon. These are the types of shots I can rely on capturing with the Sony A7RV but worry about with the R5. The hope is that with a camera like the R5 Mark II we could silently capture 3 times more images in that interaction and not worry about the camera crashing at just that moment.
I have been using both Canon and Sony camera systems pretty much since I tried the Sony A7R when it came out. This was a very slow camera but had some amazing resolution for the time. Over the years Sony has improved just about everything on these cameras and they are now a very stable and useful tool even if some people think they are not exciting to use. For me a camera is a tool that just needs to work and make getting the shots as easy as possible, and that is what they have done for me over the last few years. They also have the advantage of being useful for video which means Salwa has switched over from Canon completely now since her job has become more about video than photo in recent years.
From my perspective at the moment there are only a few things that I think might be a compelling reason to get a new camera right now. Stacked sensors is one of them. When the Sony A9 came out with the first stacked sensor camera and the ability to take completely silent shots and also shoot at a high number of frames per second I knew that it was a technology that I was going to want. However I was not willing to use a lower resolution camera to get that and the price was pretty much out of reach. The A1 solved the first problem but price was still an obstacle. Then Nikon came out with the Z8 which was really close to what I wanted but I did not want to get into a third set of lenses or sell off the Canon gear at that point. So I have been left waiting to see what Canon and Sony would do in response to a reasonably priced high resolution stacked sensor camera. Sony doesn’t seem to be in a hurry since no one has managed to match the specs of the A1 even after nearly 5 years on the market. I have a feeling they have a camera sitting on a shelf ready to come out when it feels like matching or beating Nikon and Canon but I don’t know when that will/might happen. The rumours of the Canon R5 having exactly what I have been waiting for and at a (sort of) reasonable price have had me watching and waiting and now starting to watch whatever reviews are going to be out there for this camera.
With that out of the way let’s get back to Canon’s recent announcements for the R5II.
The specs are pretty much perfect for me. Same resolution as the R5 as I was quite happy with that before. Improved autofocus is a bonus as it was really good before. The stacked sensor seems to be fast enough for the type of shooting I will do and will be great for trying to get silent shots from a hide or when I’m close enough that the subject might notice the sound and possibly stop if from catching a meal or just make it nervous. I really try to ensure that my presence doesn’t change how the animal/bird acts as much as possible.
There are a few bonus additions that I can see from early reports. The viewfinder is a bit bigger and the eye control autofocus is now in this camera (hopefully better than that in my elan 7e). There is a new battery which may help with some of the issues I had before and I’m hoping Canon has improved power usage with the new camera. Full size hdmi port is nice since I do use monitors quite often. They have moved the power button and changed how they move from stills to movie shooting. Both look better although I would prefer the power switch to be under the shutter button. Pre-continuous shooting is another nice addition as I have definitely just missed the moment many times. Everything else to me was either already what I needed on the R5 or a nice incremental improvement and it doesn’t look like they have taken anything away (the old cripple hammer…as Camera Conspiracies would put it).
The only initial issues I have heard so far have to do with the size of the buffer and with pre-continuous shooting of .5 seconds which may have some issues with heating up the camera.
Now comes the big question…do I buy this camera? Unlike when the R5 came out, I think, this time I’m going to wait for a while to see if this camera also has glitches like the R5 and how well it actually performs. I will also give it a bit of time to see if Sony is going to come out with something in the same range and price soon and it is has some amazing new thing that I didn’t know I needed. I won’t wait too long as I do miss using that big white prime but if I don’t end up buying the R5II that lens will likely be looking for a new home. So to answer my original question, yes I do believe the R5II is a worthy upgrade but I’m not yet sure when or if I will actually do so.
It really has been a good few years to be a nature photographer. We have gone in the last 20 years from mostly slow tracking of subjects with 1 (or a few) useful focus point(s) to full screen tracking with object recognition that allows us to automatically focus on the eye of a rather small subject while in fast motion. This also allows us to compose shots exactly how we want them while the action is happening. We have gone from a couple frames per second to a point where I no longer would need to use the fastest available on a regular basis. We can even get the shot before we hit the shutter button now (oh how many shots I have missed by just a split second). We have resolutions now that make printing a pleasure and allow for useful cropping when we still can’t quite get close enough to our subject. Even mid tier cameras and lenses now can do the job. It is much easier to get into nature photography now (just as big a jump in some ways as moving from film to digital). Even if I don’t get this new camera, I am able now to get shots I never thought I would be able to get consistently and each new feature is like a bit more icing on the cake.