One of the perks of being a Canon Explorer of Light is that I get to test run their newest innovations, and their latest release — the Canon EOS R5 — has me singing its praises from the rooftops.
The Canon EOS R5 is exactly what I was hoping for from Canon with their first full-frame mirrorless camera. I’ve shot it in a studio setting, outdoors, in low light, for portraiture, fashion photography and more. The more I shoot it, the more I fall in love!
While you can certainly read more about what’s new in the camera, I want to share some of the features that I’m most excited for and how they affect me. Keep in mind that the images I’m showcasing were captured using a pre-production model of the Canon R5, not the final version.
Canon EOS R5 Ergonomics and “Feel”
Before jumping into the specs of the gear, I wanted share something bit more “intangible.” The camera just feels good. I know that’s not scientific, but its important to me nonetheless. When I picked up this camera, I had no learning curve. I tested it for about five minutes and went straight into a professional shoot without any roadblocks.
The R5’s ergonomics are fantastic and it feels extremely similar in the body to the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. When it comes to the buttons and control, it has the essential elements of a 5D Mark IV, making it extremely easy to transition to this mirrorless camera. On the back of the camera, I have my familiar multi-control joystick and two quick control dials that help me make quick adjustments to camera settings, move focus points, easily navigate through the camera’s menus, or a number of other custom programming options. To put it simply, the camera is like a 5D Mark IV but with all the benefits of mirrorless, and that’s exactly what I was looking for out of their mirrorless full-frame.
Face Tracking and Eye Detection
One of the things I love most about the Canon R5 is its incredible focusing capability. While I love the look of shooting super wide apertures, I was always a bit wary on client jobs. Very narrow depths of field were intimidating and I usually wasn’t willing to take the risk.
With the R5, focusing has never been as effortless and precise for me. I can confidently shoot wide open with my prime lenses and know I’ll nail the focus. It’s not an exaggeration to say it will change the way I shoot. This feature did exist in the EOS R and it was decent, but in the R5 it is fantastic. I instantly noticed the improvement that made me audibly say “oh, wow.”
Since I’ve had the R5, I’ve created more than a dozen conceptual images shooting at 2.0 and wider. When I went back and reviewed the images, I had nailed the focus in almost every shot.
I used the R5’s face tracking and eye detection autofocus so that I would always be locking my focus onto the eye closest to camera even if the subject was quickly moving, posing, or dancing.
Autofocus Coverage
I used to dread “focus and recompose,” When I couldn’t grab the focus near the edge of the frame I’d have to focus, recompose, and hope the movement wasn’t too drastic that it would kick my subject out of focus.
The R5 has 100% autofocus coverage… top to bottom, left to right… all of it! No matter where my subject is or what part of the frame I need to focus, there’s a focus point for that (more than 1000 actually)!
45 Megapixels
Megapixels aren’t the end all be all, but that being said, it’s always great to have the flexibility to crop a bit after the fact. With the 45 megapixels of the R5, I have more than enough information to give me some freedom to crop and adjust in post.
In my closeup beauty photography I frequently crop to improve compositions or for more practical purposes. By using a wider composition and cropping in, I actually give myself a bit more depth of field to work with when shooting tight/macro beauty shots featuring just the eyes or lips.
Improved Battery Life
One of the things that used to concern me about switching to mirrorless was the battery life. I assumed that the camera would just devour batteries and I’d have to bring a bunch with me on any shoot.
Thankfully with the R5 we also have improved high capacity batteries. You can still use your old LP-E6 batteries that work in the 5D and EOS R (the batteries are the same form factor), but these new ones last a lot longer.
When shooting with the R5 on two different days I shot around 1000 to 1500 frames and only needed to switch out the battery once.
Killer Video Specs
In truth I haven’t yet extensively tested the camera’s video capabilities, but I am very eager. For example, now I can shoot in 4K with slow motion (120 fps) or shoot at 8K. That’s something I couldn’t even have imagined a few years ago. While I can tell you that I personally am not going to be shooting 8K all the time, I know that I could use this for very high resolution cinemagraphs (moving photos) or to give me the ability to shoot a single video and crop in to form different compositions/crops after the fact.
Other Benefits
In this article I wanted to discuss the features I am most excited about in the Canon R5, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t more that will thrill other photographers.
For example, as everyone was dying for, the R5 has dual card slots (one CF express and SD)! This is also the first of Canon’s cameras to offer In Body Image Stabilization (IBIS). To be honest, most of the time I am not shooting at slow shutter speed with my work, but during one of my shoots recently I found that the light was dropping and I simply forgot to bump of my ISO. Why did I forget? The IBIS was doing such a good job that even with slower shutter speed the images were sharp!
Listening to feedback
One of the things I love about this camera is that Canon really listened to its pros and audience. I sat through several meetings where I was invited to give my wishlist for a camera, and it seems like they really cared that they fulfilled them and gave us even more. I can’t wait to see what everyone else thinks as they created with the R5.
Shop the Canon EOS R5 Now!
Canon EOS R5 ()
Feature photo via Lindsay Adler
