David Noton On Location

Cadbury Castle, Somerset, England. 00:56am. 21 July 2020

David on shooting with the new EOS R5 beast that’s been on everyone’s mind

David Noton on shooting with the exciting EOS R5 mirrorless beast that's been on every Canon user's mind…

Finally, I have in my hand the EOS R5; Canon’s new all-singing, all-dancing, much hyped top-end mirrorless camera that we’ve known was coming for almost a year.

It’s the camera, along with its R6 stablemate and raft of new RF lenses, that puts real flesh on the bones of Canon’s increasingly comprehensive mirrorless EOS R system. I’ve been shooting with one over the last few weeks, tackling a variety of subjects and genres; from landscapes to portraits to animals to astronomy; from barley fields to speeding dogs, birds of prey, frolicking infants, streaking comets, flowers in the garden, windblown sisters and cows in the rain. I've done it all. I reckon I know this camera pretty well now, and how damned impressive it is, too. It’s a camera the tripod and filter manufacturers will hate…

In a nutshell, the EOS R5 delivers amazing high-resolution image quality with expansive dynamic range, blistering speed, and impressive low-light performance; destroying at a stroke the myth that, where camera sensors are concerned, you just can’t have it all. Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? Where’s the catch? The £4200 price maybe. But, when you take into account all of the above, plus the 8-stop In-body Image Stabilisation, the focus tracking capabilities, and the 8K video, I’d have to conclude this camera is seriously good, and of a type that only comes along every couple of decades or so.

First and foremost we buy into a camera system and now it seems that Canon’s mirrorless system has finally come of age. For the last two years there has been, and will continue to be, a steady stream of new RF lenses coming our way. The RF 100-500mm F4.5-7.1L IS, for example, which has 100mm more reach, but is 13% lighter and only 7.5% longer then the EF 100-400mm Mark II lens.

The EOS R system is now, with the addition of the R5 and R6, looking pretty comprehensive if you ask me. Clearly, mirrorless is the future for Canon, and for me. I decided to transition to mirrorless en route to Mexico, where the portability of my kit bag – packed with the versatile combination of EOS R, RF 15-35mm F2.8L, RF 50mm F1.2L and RF 70-200mm F2.8L – decided the issue.

Using the R5 has confirmed the wisdom of that decision, because the versatility of that set up will be increased significantly with the substitution of the EOS R5. This is a camera that can do it all. It is an incredibly versatile tool for any kind of photography; and a real joy to shoot with. I have to conclude it’s the best camera I’ve ever used.

For the last 10 years or more I’ve chopped and changed between different cameras depending on what I was shooting. But too often I’d end up photographing a beaver in a pond in Algonquin with the EOS 5DS R and a landscape with the EOS-1D X… So a versatile camera that can do everything well without compromising on image quality is clearly the way to go. It looks like the R5 is going to be my

go-to camera for some years to come, wherever I am, and whatever I’m shooting. What’s more, given the system’s portability, it’s a camera I’m more likely to have with me when I need it.

There are few better tests of a camera’s low-light capabilities than a night sky shoot. Prompted by the Comet Neowise, I ventured out in the wee small hours two clear nights in a row in mid-july. ISO settings between 6400 and 12,800 are the norm under the stars, but I tested the R5 up to an astronomical (literally!) level of 51,200. Up until now ISO12,800 is the maximum

I would contemplate using before noise became too unsightly; now with the R5, that upper limit has become ISO25,600. And looking at the results from my night sky shoots I'm amazed at the lack of noise. Considering this is a 45Mp camera, that kind of high ISO performance is really quite remarkable. For this shot, I used the EF 16-35mm f/2.8l III USM and not the RF 15-35mm F2.8L because I don’t yet own the latter.

In summary, I’ve loved shooting with the R5, and testing the limits of this impressive tool has given me great satisfaction.