arbitrage Offline Upload & Sell: On
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I've now had my own R5 for three full weekends of shooting. The only lens I own for the R5 is the RF 100-500. But I did spend another two days shooting the adapted 400DOII that I borrowed from a friend (Pius).
I don't think much has changed from my original assessment posted many pages back. I think I've just been able to solidify the thoughts I had after my initial couple test runs with Pius' R5.
I think for sure the A9II (A9) still has the edge for quickly acquiring and keeping focus throughout a lengthy burst of a smaller, faster BIF. Some bursts the R5 will match the A9 in consistency. But other times it will fall behind. When a very small, fast bird (like the past two days shooting some Brewer's Blackbirds coming straight at me) comes out of nowhere with little warning, the A9II has a better chance (in Zone or Wide) to quickly "see" the subject, get a lock, dance the dots, and get you a nice string of focused shots. The R5 is less successful for that type of thing. But, I am still playing around with the best AF mode for the R5. Also playing around with the AF settings for the R5. I think I will be able to improve my success with the R5 after a bit more experience with it but it won't have the same ease as picking up an A9 for the first time, switching to Wide AF and just firing away without much effort.
Now for the flip side....for shooting perched, floating, swimming and foraging birds the R5 has the advantage because of the Animal Eye Detect (AED). When the camera has the time to see a stable bird in the AF system (unlike the fast, speeding bullets discussed above) the AED is remarkable. It has got me shots I would have missed with the A9. For example, often when out birding or even shooting my setups in the backyard, birds will land for only a split second or two before they fly to the next perch or turn away etc. With the R5 I can basically hold down the AED button as I raise the camera to my eye and before my eye even registers what I'm seeing through the EVF the AED tiny AF square is locked onto the eye (or head if the head is turned away). This has allowed me to catch fleeting moments that I would miss some of the time with the A9. With the A9 I'd usually use Zone AF in these situations and it is also pretty quick. With a totally clear foreground and background the differences are probably minimal. But in a lot of scenarios, having that AED ignore everything other than the eye can make the difference. I've also found for foraging shorebirds and waders that the AED is just easier to ignore having to place the focus area as I do with Zone or ExpandFlexSpot on the A9 and just let the AED do its thing while I put all my effort into composing the scene. For example, bird foraging pointed to the right, usually I'll be using Zone in one position and as bird turns and goes the other way I switch Zone to another position...with AED, the system does everything, I'm never touching any joystick. It is pretty crazy to watch the AED have the eye of a foraging yellowlegs, keep the tiny square on the eye as it plunges its head into the water, switch to a larger head box once the eye is below water level and then even just half the eye reemerges and it is back to the tiny AED overlay over the eye...remarkable AI system behind all of this. Can't wait for Sony to update their system to do this also....they've had such a head start developing this type of system that it must be coming soon now that the competition will be pushing them to innovate.
Gripes about the R5 compared to my A9:
* Back buttons are too small and too similar to each other to easily know if I'm on my intended button
* Switching into APS-C requires button push and then click of a wheel instead of straight toggle
* Switching between MS and ES can't be assigned to a custom button. Requires assigning one or the other to a C mode and toggling back and forth. Otherwise a My Menu dive is needed.
* Shooting in ES is fixed at 20FPS...that is too much most of the time...too much culling
* The EVF experience in ES is not quite as smooth and flawless as the A9. The A9 is a little easier to pan/track/shoot a fast BIF. But Canon did do a remarkable job with the EVF Experience in ES on the R5 considering they aren't using the stacked sensor. Better than any other MILC I've tried, better than the RIV, Nikon Zs etc.
* LCD flips to the side, vs just hinging. I find it easier to do my ground level shooting with an LCD flipping straight up in line with the lens vs having the LCD off to the left.
Pros of the R5 over the A9:
* Grip material is better (Sony feels like hard plastic, Canon is better)
* Operational speed of things like bringing up overlays, waking the LCD or EVF, chimping 1:1 images while card writing, switching settings while card writing are all way better on the R5 with no noticeable lag. A big one for me is when on the A9 I hit my alternative back button to change to a different AF mode and the thing literally takes 1/2 second to show the new AF overlay. R5 instant...that may sound minor and petty but it makes a big difference to me.
* I can permanently set my upper rear scroll wheel to ISO. With my A9 have to use the My Dial setting and every time I turn on the camera I have to use a custom button to toggle into that My Dial 1 setting...that is just annoying to me because there is no reason it needs to be like that.
* Much better EVF...even my A7RIV which has the same dot count is not as nice of an image as the R5's EVF. Compared to the A9 it is just no contest. The A9 sends a fairly poor feed when shooting at 20FPS and high refresh. The R5 seems to keep the same high quality feed no matter what.
I think I've mentioned this previously in this thread but the main reason I'm keeping my R5 is that it comes so close to the A9 but with 45MPs. If only 24MPs, I wouldn't keep it.
I think Sony will cross a lot of my issues off the list by using the new BIONZ-XR in the next round of 7R and 9 cameras. I'm not sure if they will be able to make that new 9million dot EVF work at high FPS/ES/no blackout but if they can it sounds like that EVF is the one to rule them all. I believe the BIONZ-XR will eliminate the operational lag and handicaps while card writing. The new dual CFeA/SDUHSII slots will give the best of all worlds for storage (as long as the cost of CFeA comes down to CFeB pricing). I also thing Sony will have a Bird Eye AF update coming soon. Fingers crossed it can come to the A9II via FW but regardless it will surely come to the A9III.
All for now.
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