Photography News 82 WEB

Big test

CANON RF 24-70MM F/2.8L IS USM

24mm F/2.8

24mm F/5.6

24mm F/11

£2330

I’ve no complaints about this lens’s optical prowess. It delivers impressive images throughout its focal length range, even at f/2.8, although there is a little vignetting at the wider settings that goes by f/5.6. Sharpness levels are very high, especially at 24mm, and shots looked amazing, even at f/2.8. Performance levels at the tested 50mm and 70mm settings probably didn’t reach the same heady heights, but were still very good indeed. As the RF 24-70mm f/2.8L IS USM is a £2330 lens, you would expect a leading performance and I think you get it, so it justifies its price tag.

50mm F/2.8

50mm F/5.6

50mmF/11

50mm F/11

70mmF/2.8

70mm F/5.6

70mm F/11

DSLRs, but not the EOS R5. It was very responsive, exceedingly rapid and sensitive when light levels were very low. I used single-spot AF, expanded area AF, zone AF and wide zone face+tracking AF. In the zone modes, with animal or people detect selected, you can see the little AF boxes reacting to the scene and keeping focus impressively. With animal detect on, the AF worked very well with dogs and less well with birds, unless they were a reasonable size in the frame. As an example, shooting starlings with the 70-200mm f/2.8 at the 200mm end, animal detect didn’t start to kick in until I was within ten metres, and then the AF worked really well and you could see the focus boxes busily working away. With human subjects, the AF tracked well and eye focus latched on quickly and stuck to the task as the subject moved within the frame, and then reacquired quickly if the head was briefly turned away. Canon makes bold claims about the camera’s IBIS systemwith a benefit up to 8EV. Of course, the actual benefit depends on a great many imponderables. I did some outdoor and indoor handholding tests shooting stills, mostly with the 24-70mm. At 50mm, I was consistently getting good results at 1/4sec and 1/2sec and moderate success at 1sec, but at 24mm I had a decent hit rate even at 2secs. See the panel ‘Performance: image stabilisation’ for more details.

Final word

Verdict Many Canon owners have been waiting patiently for a high-megapixel count, full-frame mirrorless, EOS 5D-level camera – well, the wait is over, because the EOS R5 is it. It is something quite special. It’s great to use, delivers an awesome performance and has the feature set, including 8K video, that helps make the camera future-proof. Of course you pay for it, but it’s true that often you do get what you pay for and the EOS R5 is great value whether you’re a stills, video or hybrid photographer.

IMAGES Canon’s range of EOS R system lenses has grown quickly, notably the pro- level optics. The RF trinity is shown here (from left to right): 24-70mm f/2.8L IS USM, 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM and 15-35mm f/2.8L IS USM

24 /25

FEATURES 45 megapixels, 8K and 4K video, excellent AF – what more do you need? HANDLING Typically Canon, so intuitive and very good with ample set-up options PERFORMANCE Lovely images even at high ISO speeds, accurate exposure and impressive AF VALUE FOR MONEY Taking into account its features and performance, very good value OVERALL The Canon EOS R5 is an awesome camera and great value despite its high price tag

RF 600mm f/11 and 800mm f/11 lenses on the EOS R5, but the signs are very promising. In fact, during the short time I had the EOS R5, I found many aspects of it very promising and not much that was negative. Yes, I managed to overheat it shooting 8K, but when I mentioned that to a few video shooter colleagues the response was along the lines of: “I wouldn’t shoot 8K and 4K is enough.” For stills, I was very pleased with the quality of out-of-camera JPEGs and the Raws looked fab, too. This is a superb mirrorless camera. WC

My testing period coincided with a weekend break, so I managed to shoot in a variety of lighting situations and I have to say I was delighted with what the EOS R5 produced. Great autofocusing, consistently spot-on exposures, skilful auto white-balance performance and generally very fine quality files that edited nicely – my Raws were processed through Adobe Lightroom. I didn’t get the chance to really dig deep into the camera’s AF skills, say for street, shooting flying birds or action subjects like racing cars. And of course I’d love to try the

24 /25

23 /25

95 /100

THERE’S NEVER BEEN A BETTER TIME TO MAKE GOOD USE

PROS Image quality, accurate and sensitive AF, high ISO performance, customisation potential CONS Price, 8K shooters need to be aware of overheating

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Issue 82 | Photography News 21

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