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Writer's pictureSteve Bell

Thoughts On The Canon EOS R5 mk ii - from a landscape photographers perspective.


You may have seen the live Canon broadcast earlier, today when the new EOS R1 and EOS R5 mk ii were launched.

 

I am not going to discuss my thoughts on the R1 as I would never have been interested in this camera from a landscape photography perspective. If you would like to see a full unbiased review you can check out this link. The cost in the U.K. is £6999.

 

 

The R5 mk ii however, was something that I had been waiting for, especially as I decided to move to the Fuji GFX medium format camera a few weeks ago. The big question was had a made a huge mistake? Thankfully the answer is no!

 

I have no doubt that the R5 mk ii is an amazing camera. Here are a few of the specs.

 

Back Illuminated, dual pixel CMOS sensor

45mp unscalable to 180mp with AI algorithm

Ground breaking AI autofocus technology

8k 60p RAW

8.5 stops of in body stabilisation

 

Cost is £4499

 

I am sure that there are lots of other features, but these are the main headlines.

 

Ok, so back to the Canon launch video. They were very much hyping the camera as a hybrid and made a huge play on the video capabilities. Great if you are into video but not important if you just want a great camera for taking landscapes.

 

Having watched the release video, I have to say I was left really underwhelmed. There is nothing that, had I stayed with Canon, would have persuaded me to upgrade from my R5 to the R5 mk ii. If you are thinking about upgrading your camera and don’t already own a R5 then in my opinion, the sensible option would be to buy the original R5. I am sure there will be lots of fantastic deals out there for pre-owned or indeed new R5’s. Please remember, I am looking at this purely from a landscape and astro photography perspective. If you want a hybrid camera that will do everything the R5 is amazing and the R5 mk ii will be even better.

 

Whilst I understand the trends that the major camera manufactures are following – better auto focus, faster read out speeds, more frames per second etc – none of these are important from a landscape photography perspective. To give this point a bit more clarity, it has been 9 years since Canon launched the 5Ds and 5Dsr cameras which had over 50 megapixels. Today their maximum megapixel sensor is 45mp. Yes, I know the 5Dsr could only shoot 5 frames per second whereas the R5 mk ii will shoot 30. But we are looking at this from a landscape photographers’ perspective. How many times would you need to shoot 30 frames per second when doing landscapes? Never!  So, in all reality the 5dsr is still a better camera, especially with the removal of the AA filter. The only caveat is that the RF glass, especially L lenses are sharper. The new R5 mk ii does have a feature that will upscale images from 45mp to 180mp in body, but these are only with JPG’s. I believe it’s possible to do RAW upscaling in post processing, how good this will be, only time will tell but remember this is AI upscaling.

 

What does stand out is the new autofocus which is assisted by an accelerator chip alongside the digic X processor that was in the original R5. If you are a sports photographer or want instantaneous eye detection where the camera knows where to focus, then this sound absolutely amazing. For landscapes though?

 

There you have it then, my initial thoughts on what has been released today. One final word though. I am 100% sure that both the R1 and R5 mk ii will be amazing cameras and if you choose to purchase either they will serve you well and take amazing pictures. It’s just for me they do not offer what I want. Going back to an earlier point, if you want a pure photography-based camera for landscapes then I think you would find it hard to justify the difference in price between the original R5 and the new r5 mk ii. I would always go with this option and if I had money to still spend then would be loooking at adding lenses or using it to go on trips to locations that I had always wanted to photograpgh.

 

A full unbiased review of the R5 mk ii can be found here.

 

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