Drew Buckley CANON EOS R5 / LANDSCAPES
The landscape and wildlife pro on switching from EOS DSLRS to EOS mirrorless cameras
Humans are always a bit fearful of change once we get set in our ways, and many champion the ‘if it’s not broken, don’t fix it’ mindset. I think that partly runs true with me to some extent; especially after all these years using SLRS. I was used to 35mm film SLRS when I was young and in the last decade I utilized Canon EOS DSLRS for my job as a photographer, so why change?
The first Canon mirrorless bodies didn’t really catch my eye, so I happily continued using my EOS-1D X Mark II and 5D Mark IV to get the results I relied on. That was until the R5 was released, which triggered my interest. Now, after 18 months of using an R5 as my main camera week in, week out, I’ve come to love the feature-packed R5 body for an array of reasons. While I’ve been enjoying the RF lenses, the RF 24-105mm and RF 15-35mm,
I’ve also been able to utilize my existing arsenal of EF lenses thanks to EF-EOS R lens adapter. Over this time, I’ve photographed puffins in flight, to night skies and long exposure landscapes – even dabbling in video too (which is excellent). The R5 can do it all. The real ‘game-changers’ for me are having an EVF for precise exposure simulation combined with the live histogram in the viewfinder too. Secondly, the Eye AF is out of this world compared to DSLR AF. The ability to instantly grab focus on people or animals wherever they are in the frame is brilliant – rather than constantly having to move the AF point, sometimes missing the action. Electronic silent shutter is great for wildlife, and the resolution too; I love having 45Mp for extra detail and more cropping.
For back-button focusers, like me, I suggest setting the asterisk (AE LOCK) button in the custom controls to Eye AF instead, so you can have quick access to two types of AF options available.