Big test
PERFORMANCE: IMAGESTABILISATION
Canon was at the vanguard of camera-shake defeating image stabilisation, with IS technology featuring in many of its EF lenses – the first was the 75-300mm f/4.5-5.6 in 1995 with a claimed 2EV benefit. By comparison, and skipping forward to today and the EOS R5, this is Canon’s first camera with in-body image stabilisation (IBIS) and has up to 8EV benefit with compatible lenses for stills shooting and, of course, helps to shoot handheld movies with minimal judder. An 8EV benefit is a lot and the small print in the Canon brochure says this is with the RF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM at 105mm. If we assume 1/125sec is needed for a non-IS shot with that lens and focal length, an 8EV benefit takes us down to a shutter speed of 2secs. As it happens, I didn’t have that particular lens, so tested the IBIS with the RF 24-70mm f/2.8L IS USM. I photographed Bourn windmill at twilight on a still evening at both extremes of this lens with shutter speeds down to 2secs, relaxing my arms between shots. At 70mm, I didn’t get any pin- sharp shots at 1sec or 2secs, but managed two out of five at 1/2sec and three at 1/4sec, so I didn’t get close to the claimed 8EV figure at 70mm, but did okay with around
capacity with both card types. Using the Lexar CFexpress card with Raw, you get 12fps with the mechanical shutter for hundreds of frames – I got 206 shots in one burst before the camera paused for breath and the buffer cleared within seconds. Set CRaw format and you can shoot until the card’s full – and that applies to both CFexpress and SD cards. Shoot Dual Pixel Raws, which are around 115MB each, and offer more post- editing options, including the chance to alter lighting and backgrounds in-camera, the continuous shooting rate is more leisurely. I got 46 shots on the SD card before buffering – and hundreds on the CFexpress card. Basically, the EOS R5’s continuous shooting is easily fast enough to keep most people happy. Autofocusing on some mirrorless models can compare poorly with
indicator was still blinking. I pressed the button and got 2 mins 30 secs of video before the ‘Overheated! Shutting down’ message appeared. The overheat warning went ten minutes later. Shoot in 8K and each individual frame is around 35MB and, at 30fps, that’s a lot of data being dealt with – and that’s why a great deal of heat is generated. The high-performing CFexpress cards run hot, too. After writing 10GB of images to my hard drive using a Lexar CFexpress card reader (XQD readers also don’t work) the ejected card was hot – not just warm, but seriously hot. If your plan is to use the EOS R5 for lengthy 8K clips, or perhaps lots of shorter clips in quick succession or lots of slow-motion 4K, you need to think about the heat issue. For stills shooting, there was no overheating problem and plenty of
IMAGES Canon has used image stabilisers in its lenses for years, but the EOS R5 and EOS R6 are its first mirrorless cameras with in-body image stabilisation (IBIS) with a claimed benefit of up to 8EV. Many of the RF system lenses have image stabilisers fitted and work with the camera’s system. The above is a 2sec handheld shot
walking along and there’s also an enhanced IS setting that’s available for even smoother footage, although this comes at the expense of a slight crop. All told, the IBIS on the Canon EOS R5 is very capable and very handy to have, as it means getting sharp shots when your shutter speeds drop and you don’t have a tripod with you or aren’t allowed to use one.
a EV5 to EV6 benefit. At 24mm, though, I did much, much better and got four out of five pin-sharp shots at 2secs, so achieving the 8EV benefit. I was impressed with that showing, especially because I thought I’d swayed during the exposure, but the IBIS must have corrected it for me. The system does well during video use, too, helping give watchable footage, even when
PERFORMANCE: EXPOSURELATITUDE
-3EV
-2EV
contrasty. Starting with overexposure, while the +2EV shot recovered pretty well, the strongest highlights still needed help to show any detail and to compare well with the correctly exposed shot. The +3EV and +4EV shots fared poorly with a colour cast, as well as burnt-out highlights. By comparison, underexposure fared much better, with even the -4EV shot recovering very nicely to give an excellent result. There was an increase in digital noise in the shadows with the -4EV and -3EV shots, but not as much as I’ve seen from other cameras, and the -2EV and -1EV shots looked just about the same as the correctly exposed frame. So, the EOS R5’s Raws did impressively well with underexposure, but less well with overexposure.
Exposure brackets were taken using the Canon EOS R5 in a variety of lighting situations, from dull and overcast to full-on sun. The bracket shown here, of St Peter and St Paul’s Church in Lavenham, was taken in bright sun with the base exposure of 1/250sec at f/8 and ISO 100. The lens used was the Canon RF 15-35mm f/2.8L IS USM at 17mm and a nine-shot bracket from -4EV to +4EV was taken in manual exposure mode (only +/-3EV shots shown here). The full-sized Raws were exposure corrected in Lightroom – only exposure was corrected, so no white-balance or highlight/shadow adjustments were made. Exposure latitude performance was very good with underexposure, and around average with overexposure, especially when the conditions were
-1EV
0EV
IMAGES The EOS R5’s Raws have good exposure latitude, but handle underexposure especially well
+1EV
+3EV
+2EV
20 Photography News | Issue 82
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