March 21, 2023

Canon R5 - little things I like

Weight

Here is a list of cameras I own or have owned: The R5 is lighter than my old 5D, but heavier than my APS-C mirrorless cameras.

Little things

There are a multitude of little things that I appreciate as I learn more about the camera.
Here are a few:

This is a mirrorless camera, so it can be used with almost any lens on the planet. In particular, it can accomodate EFS lenses that formerly only could be used on APS-C cameras. With a full frame DSLR, these in general could not be mounted because the rear lens element was in the path of the big full frame mirror. Now there is no mirror and this is not a problem. Not only can they be mounted, but the camera detects them and switches to using only the central part of the sensor (you get 17 megapixels rather than 45).

When I first tried using the camera with my two EFS lenses, it failed to work. The lenses I have on hand are the 10-22 and the 60mm macro. I got erratic behavior with clicking noises and the camera reporting that it was switching in and out of manual focus mode. I called Canon the next day, expecting to be told that these old lenses were not supported. The fellow told me to clean the contacts using a dry microfiber cloth. I did and now both work perfectly. I am both puzzled and skeptical, but you can't argue with success. It will be interesting to see how this plays out over the long term.

You can shoot HEIF instead of JPEG. The big plus with HEIF is that it is 10 or 12 bit, whereas JPEG is 8 bit. The downside is compatibility. HEIF may not be viewable everywhere.

The camera has 2 memory cards (one is an SD, the other is a CF express). You can configure the camera to save raw files to one card and JPG to the other. I doubt that I will ever do this, but I appreciate this kind of flexibility.

Feedback? Questions? Drop me a line!

Tom's Digital Photography Info / tom@mmto.org