CanonEOSR5 The EOS R5 sits proudly at the top of Canon’s mirrorless camera range with its vast array PRICE: £4199
Big test
CANON.CO.UK
SPECS
› Prices EOS R5 body £4199 RF 15-35mm f/2.8L IS USM £2329 RF 24-70mm f/2.8L IS USM £2329 RF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM £2659 › In the box Body, body cap, strap, charger, battery › Sensor 45-megapixel CMOS with optical low-pass filter with DIGIC X processor › Sensor format 36x24mm full-frame, 8192x5464 pixels › Lensmount Canon EOS RF › ISO range 100-51,200, expansion to ISO 50 and 102,400 › Shutter range 30secs to 1/8000sec plus B, 1/200sec flash sync mechanical shutter, 1/250sec › Drivemodes 12fps with mechanical shutter, 20fps with electronic shutter › Exposure system PASM, scene intelligent, flexible priority AE, Bulb. Evaluative, partial, spot and centre-weighted light measuring patterns, 384 zones › Exposure compensation +/-3EV in 0.3 or 0.5EV steps, AEB in +/-3EV in 0.3 or 0.5EV steps › Monitor 8cm Clear View LCD touchscreen, 2.1 million dots, 100% coverage › Viewfinder 0.5in OLED EVF, 5.79 million dot, 100% approx coverage › Focusing system Dual Pixel CMOS AF II, 100% horizontal and 90% vertical coverage, working range EV-6 to 20. Eye/face detection and animal tracking AF, movie servo AF › Focus points Auto selection: face + tracking, 1053 AF areas in auto. Manual selection: single AF point (AF frame size can be changed) 5940 (stills) and 4500 (movie) › Image stabiliser In-body, five-axis, 8EV with compatible lenses › Video 8K DCI (17:9 8192x4320 in 29.97, 25, 24, 23.98), UHD (16:9 7680x4320 29.97, 25, 23.98), 4K DCI (17:9 4096x2160 in 119.9, 100, 59.94, 29.97, 25, 24, 23.98), 4K UHD (16:9 3840x2160 in 119.9, 100, 59.94, 29.97, 25, 23.98), Full HD (16:9 1920x1080 59.94, 50, 29.97, 25, 23.98) › Connectivity USB-C 3.1 Gen 2, HDMI type-D, microphone and headphone mini jack sockets, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth › Other key features 23 custom functions, portrait relighting in Dual Pixel Raw, HDR, multiple exposure, weather/dust resistance › Battery LP-E6NH, giving 320 viewfinder shots. Accepts LP-E6N › Storagemedia 1 x CFexpress Type B, 1 x SD UHS-II › Dimensions (wxhxd) 138.5x97.5x88mm › Weight 738g body, card, battery Contact Canon.co.uk
of photo and video features, including a new 45-megapixel sensor and 8K video. It’s time for us to check it out
WORDS AND IMAGES BY WILL CHEUNG
ABOVE The EOS R5 has dual slots, SD and CFexpress – you’ll need the latter to make the most of the camera’s stills and video shooting features customisation opportunity, and there’s the choice of how features are used. For example, the ring can be used to alter ISO, compensation or aperture value and you can do this by operating the ring on its own or in conjunction with partial pressure on the shutter button. To switch to and from stills to video shooting, press the mode button followed by the info button. It works fine, but it’s not as intuitive as the control knob found on the Fujifilm X-T4, which says simply ‘Still’ and ‘Movie’. But if you want to shoot video while you are in stills shooting, just press the record button and recording starts immediately. The vari-angle monitor has touch functionality that can be switched off and has many of the options you would expect. So you can switch off touch completely, use touch AF or use touch shooting. There’s touch-and-drag AF, too, which is a good alternative to using the focus lever and is available while the eye is up to the viewfinder, and the sensitive area can be varied. Touch control works during playback,
five-axis in-body image stabilisation, a system designed to work intelligently with the image stabiliser of RF lenses, giving a benefit of up to 8EV – this is the figure claimed for the RF 24- 105mm f/4 at 105mm. With the help of the wide-diameter 54mm RF lens mount, this benefit is also possible with non-IS lenses, including the RF 85mm f/1.2 and RF 28-70mm f/2. Autofocus in the EOS R5 is handled by the same DIGIC X technology found in the EOS-1D XMark III, and the Dual Pixel CMOS AF II system gives AF as fast as 0.05secs and performs accurately in light as low as -6EV. Physically, the EOS R5 is a relatively large mirrorless camera, so to give some perspective, it’s not as large as the Panasonic S1/S1R, but is bigger than the Nikon Z 7. It offers a good compromise between fitting the hands well, having enough acreage for good- sized controls and portability, although that’s obviously influenced greatly by your lens choice. For this review, I was supplied with the trinity of Canon’s fast zooms: the RF 15-35mm f/2.8, RF 70-200mm f/2.8 and the lens I spent most of my time with, the RF 24-70mm f/2.8, all L IS USM. All are top-end pieces of glass and very fine performers, giving excellent, contrasty images very rich in fine detail, but none are what you’d call compact, lightweight or cheap. The EOS R5’s control layout, in mirrorless terms, is quite traditional with a top-plate info LCD, three command or quick control dials and a Qmenu button. There’s a top-plate
IF THERE WAS a ‘most-talked about camera of the year’ award, it would almost certainly be won by the Canon EOS R5. Canon itself kicked it all off back in April, months before the actual launch, by revealing that the EOS R5 could shoot stills at 12fps with the mechanical shutter and 20fps with the electronic one, and boasted a feature that few people probably actually need: the ability to shoot Raw 8K video internally. Post-launch, the torrent of words has continued, this time with the focus on the EOS R5’s performance, handling and its overheating issue while using that aforementioned feature that few people need. Indeed, Canon has since introduced an updated firmware, v 1.1.0, to address overheating when shooting in high- resolution video modes. I’m guessing, of course, but it’s very unlikely that the potential threat of overheating will concern, let alone deter, PN readers from buying the EOS R5, assuming they can afford the £4199 body-only price tag, so let’s concentrate on what the camera offers. The EOS R5 was announced alongside the EOS R6, a model similar in many ways, but which is £2499 body only, has a 20.1-megapixel resolution and doesn't have 8k video. The EOS R5 is centred around a new 45-megapixel sensor that has an optical low-pass filter and Canon says this camera can outresolve the 50.6-megapixel EOS 5DS R. The sensor is not the only big new feature in the EOS R5 – it is also the first Canon mirrorless model to have
placed multifunction lock button that can be configured to lock several key controls, including the three control dials, the multicontroller or focus lever and the touchscreen. Also within easy reach of the right forefinger while the camera is up to the eye is the M-Fn button, which takes you into ISO, drive, focusing, white-balance and compensation, selected with the rear control dial and the front control dial varies the settings. There’s also a front-placed depth-of-field preview button for use with the fourth finger of the right hand, so easy to access while shooting. Gone is the M-Fn touch bar seen on the EOS R – which is a good thing, because it wasn’t very effective. As you would expect of a top-end camera, the EOS R5 is blessed with numerous options to customise most buttons and dials, including the three control dials. The AF-ON, AE-L and depth-of-field buttons, for example, can be set to 51 options and even the mode button has a choice of 45 features. RF lenses are equipped with a control ring and this is another
THE EOS R5 IS CENTREDAROUNDA NEW45-MEGAPIXEL SENSOR THAT HAS ANOPTICAL-LOWPASS FILTER
18 Photography News | Issue 82
photographynews.co.uk
Powered by FlippingBook