p.86 #1 · Sony-shooters thoughts on the Canon R5/R6
RoamingScott wrote:
I can at least say my calculus for trying the R5 vs the R4 was mostly centered around a more well rounded user experience and the added 100mm utility of the 100-500 vs the 100-400.
After 24 hours of fiddling, I'm now of the opinion that most people that are impressed with the R5 must have come from a previous DSLR system, probably Canon. There are many little niggling issues I have with the body itself vs the latest Sony generation, and these are just "first impressions" from a long time Sony shooter.
- Differing materials for similar dials - top dial is sort of a flimsy feeling rubber, while the mode dial is a hard plastic. Also the top dial pointing straight up is a huge step down comfort wise compared to the R4
- Power switch placement is identical to 5D4 (and still just as stupid)
- AF-ON button is tragically small, and mag/info/Q are all very similar feeling when trying to use by feel
- I cannot find a functional advantage to the odd Mode dial, where you must press mode to access the inexplicably laggy PASM options. A locking PASM wheel would have been far better. What a shame the Canon R3 retains this. I thought the R6 having a legit PASM wheel was a sign of hope for future bodies.
- The battery door creaks and pops under the pad of my right hand while holding it with the 100-500 mounted. It feels extremely cheap when this happens, and I never felt this type of material flex on the R4. The R4 admittedly was a big step up build quality wise from the R3.
- The EVF will get extremely choppy/laggy when doing a lower light exposure preview, even when EVF is set to high refresh rate. Not super uncommon with MILCs but still very jarring when panning from bright to dark rapidly.
- Using my right hand to navigate the touchscreen routinely blocks the eye sensor and turns the LCD off mid-use. Blame my big hands I guess.
- Previous complaint about not being able to zoom the 100-500 with lens hood on and reversed has turned from small niggle to major issue. The natural state of my 100-400 was in this configuration with me putting the hood on as needed to minimize bulk. This all or nothing proposition on the Canon is beyond stupid.
- Beyond tactile issues, the CR3 file noise is far uglier and more "digital" to my eye, and LR somehow runs worse while editing CR3 batches than R4 batches.
Might be good for my sanity to just take a break from photography for a while until the A1 is more affordable and can satisfy all my needs with a single body. Can turn my Canon sell into a jet ski and have some real fun this summer at my new lake house
Overall, I don't see much improvement in the "user experience" like so many Canon users gush about, short of the EVF being easier to see/use in bright daylight conditions and the easier lens mounting orientation. All of the tactile experience is objectively worse than Sony, at least in my early impressions.
The biggest ongoing complaint about Sony is the menus, but once you set up your My Menu options, you never menu dive again.
If all you do is basic tripod landscapes, you can get away with an A7R2 frankly. There are only quality of life improvements with the R3 (like Z battery), but you lose the apps. The R4 is still the best value proposition in all of photography....Show more →
Your experience is pretty similar to mine. R5 is my first ever Canon camera and I have been shooting with R5 for few months (after owning most of Sony bodies). I do like the overall feel and robustness of the R5 but the buttons just don't feel right. On other hand, I really like the lenses, despite them being somewhat overpriced.
One of the prime reasons for me to move to Canon was the "renowned" jpeg colors but unfortunately, in my experience so far I haven't found them to be anything special. Actually more on the "yellowish" side. IMO jpegs from latest Sony bodies (A7r4, A9II etc) are more to my taste with nicer OOC colors and sharpness.
p.86 #2 · Sony-shooters thoughts on the Canon R5/R6
ajamils wrote:
Your experience is pretty similar to mine. R5 is my first ever Canon camera and I have been shooting with R5 for few months (after owning most of Sony bodies). I do like the overall feel and robustness of the R5 but the buttons just don't feel right. On other hand, I really like the lenses, despite them being somewhat overpriced.
One of the prime reasons for me to move to Canon was the "renowned" jpeg colors but unfortunately, in my experience so far I haven't found them to be anything special. Actually more on the "yellowish" side. IMO jpegs from latest Sony bodies (A7r4, A9II etc) are more to my taste with nicer OOC colors and sharpness. ...Show more →
I actually came up shooting Canon...first the XT1 and then the original 5D for many years, owned the 6D twice. At that time, they were very good in their space. The 6D sensor was one of the best consumer level DSLR landscape sensors ever made!
The old joke is that Canon shoots yellow, Nikon green, and Sony red...pick your poison. I don't shoot jpeg though, so that's kind of a moot point for me. It's fairly easy to make Sony and Canon raw files look identical (I did it in one of Luis' comparison threads).
That said, if colors are easy enough to do in PP, then it comes down to the tactile experience and the ultimate image quality. Sony wins here twice, it looks like.
p.86 #3 · Sony-shooters thoughts on the Canon R5/R6
Well that maybe so but, this thread is about the R5 and I will give my opinion also.
Weren't you suppose to have me on hide. I'm far from a fanboy of canon other than canon taking alot of my money. If that makes me a fanboy then so be it..
p.86 #4 · Sony-shooters thoughts on the Canon R5/R6
I may be to blame for the bird against blue sky issue. I've asked both Canon and Sony to program AF to fail against blue sky in order to try and stop people from shooting birds against blue sky.
Unfortunately I fail to take my own advice sometimes....like this past Sunday when this guy hovered over my kayak
p.86 #5 · Sony-shooters thoughts on the Canon R5/R6
Pius Sullivan wrote:
Well that maybe so but, this thread is about the R5 and I will give my opinion also.
Weren't you suppose to have me on hide. I'm far from a fanboy of canon other than canon taking alot of my money. If that makes me a fanboy then so be it..
You seriously need to get a life. Welcome to my ignore list.
p.86 #6 · Sony-shooters thoughts on the Canon R5/R6
Been watching some of Ron's vids, never seen him linked here. He definitely gets some great results. Interesting that he regularly shoots around 1/8000.
p.86 #7 · Sony-shooters thoughts on the Canon R5/R6
RoamingScott wrote:
Been watching some of Ron's vids, never seen him linked here. He definitely gets some great results. Interesting that he regularly shoots around 1/8000.
I'd never heard of Ron until the R5 came out. I've been following his vids ever since. He gets referenced in the R5 review thread each time he releases a video. He was shooting an A9 alongside his 1DXII until the R5 came out. Unfortunately all he ever used on the A9 was adapted Canon glass. That isn't really giving the Sony system a fair shake. But he is happy now with the R5 so Sony is in his rear view mirror at this point.
Also take a look at Jan Wegner's YT vids about R5. He has been playing around with Sony the past little bit but is a Canon boy through and through.
p.86 #9 · Sony-shooters thoughts on the Canon R5/R6
arbitrage wrote:
I'd never heard of Ron until the R5 came out. I've been following his vids ever since. He gets referenced in the R5 review thread each time he releases a video. He was shooting an A9 alongside his 1DXII until the R5 came out. Unfortunately all he ever used on the A9 was adapted Canon glass. That isn't really giving the Sony system a fair shake. But he is happy now with the R5 so Sony is in his rear view mirror at this point.
Also take a look at Jan Wegner's YT vids about R5. He has been playing around with Sony the past little bit but is a Canon boy through and through....Show more →
Now you're talking Canon fanboys for sure.. they talk it big time huh, Arbitrage...
p.86 #10 · Sony-shooters thoughts on the Canon R5/R6
I found a company called Pangolin Safaris based in South Africa that has huge number of videos on camera reviews and setup on youtube. These guys use their own gear and give good real world advice about pros and cons. Not sure if they only have mostly used Canon but still informative. Pretty unbiased honest testing.
p.86 #13 · Sony-shooters thoughts on the Canon R5/R6
I think everyone's personal opinion is somewhat biased. Some things are a personal preference that's all, doesn't mean one system is better or worse. Long time users of one system always complain about the ergonomics of other brands. Naturally one brand does some things better and vice versa. Sometimes there is no "best" way and pick your preference.
Performance issues are a different matter as they can be quantified.
p.86 #14 · Sony-shooters thoughts on the Canon R5/R6
sygtryggr wrote:
To answer the OP’s original query, my first impressions would be after reading this thread is that other than A1, A7RIV and A9II owners, the R5 might might be tempting. This may change over time though. It appears to have A1ish aspirations…but not sure if they are being realized.
Of course it and the A1 are both relatively new cameras and users are still mastering their capabilities. Roaming Scott’s experiences and insights are refreshing and keep them coming.
So not sure the question can really be answered with any clarity yet, but interesting times with all the options out there.
Or R5 R6 might be the cheaper way of getting access to prime lenses and prime shooting experience. No cheaper options than 600/400 gm in Sony ecosystem.
p.86 #15 · Sony-shooters thoughts on the Canon R5/R6
Very few people on the Sony board would be willing to dump their entire Sony system to give another system a try…I’m brand agnostic across all aspects of my life, and am willing to try just about anything if I think it can offer me something of value. The R5 ended up not offering me enough bang for the buck and I’m not shy to share my thoughts accordingly. That’s the point of this thread, except I’m one of the few that threw down the cash to give a valid opinion instead of being a keyboard warrior.
Maybe next time I’ll just rent though
ajamils wrote:
@RoamingScott@@, looks like you hated R5 too much. 😉
p.86 #17 · Sony-shooters thoughts on the Canon R5/R6
Didn't dump my entire Sony system but a lot of it, including the RIV and I'm trying the R5 for my second time. I'm certainly not ready to give up on it and go back to an RIV after just a few days with it. I'll give it a lot more time before I make a decision.
I have to laugh at some of the comments--especially when a lot of the commenters rip the online reviewers (Tony&Chelsea, Ken Rockwell, etc) for not spending enough time with the gear that they review.
As I sold a lot of my Sony gear, my original intent was to upgrade to the A1. My research on the A1 and handling it at a local camera shop left me with seeds of doubt that it was worth $2800 more than the R5 (I was able to purchase the R5 new from B&H via a CPW link for $3700), hence the decision was made to go with Canon
So far I'm quite impressed with the new Canon but I'm in the honeymoon period so that may change. Obviously, there are advantages and disadvantages to both the Sony RIV and Canon R5. Aside from a few niggles with the buttons and their placement on the R5, I like the color, IQ, the eye AF and IBIS as much or better than the RIV. And Canon support (from past experience) is many times better than you get from Sony. I like their website (My Canon), software, and frequent updates that appear. My 2 experiences with Sony camera/lens repair was with Precision and both were not good.
Sony lenses are certainly more plentiful at this stage of development, and the only ones I can compare right now are the FE 24-105 F4 and its RF counterpart 24-105 F4. No difference that I see. I'll patiently wait as more RF lenses become available that are in my price range (under $2k).
So that's my 2 cents as a Sony user who left the fold for the R5. From my perspective it's not as bad as some of you with your fixed opinions think. I've got a couple more weeks with it before I can return it for a refund, but I suspect this is a keeper.
p.86 #18 · Sony-shooters thoughts on the Canon R5/R6
RoamingScott wrote:
Maybe next time I’ll just rent though
Where's the fun in that ? . I've played this switch around way too many times than I care to admit so I totally understand. I have R5 and good set of Canon lenses but I keep hearing Sony calling me back. Since I have already owned/tried most previous Sony bodies (excluding A7s series), the only one that I am really interested in is A1 but good thing is that it is way too expensive for me to justify no matter how much I lie to myself. The alternative would be A7r4 but I have already owned it multiple times and even though the output was great the slow and clunky operation always bothered me. A9II is better in this regards but with "only" 24mpx.
p.86 #19 · Sony-shooters thoughts on the Canon R5/R6
ajaykay wrote:
And Canon support (from past experience) is many times better than you get from Sony. I like their website (My Canon), software, and frequent updates that appear. My 2 experiences with Sony camera/lens repair was with Precision and both were not good.
I used to hold Canon CPS in high regard as they did get things fixed for me a number of times over the years with decent efficiency. However, lately I'm very disappointed. I'm Platinum member with CPS Canada. Now maybe Canada is different than the US. But every time I try to contact them to get my account dealt with or most recently test drive some gear all I hear back is crickets. I haven't had to send anything in for repair recently.
On the flip side with Sony I haven't had to repair anything so that experience could still go sour. But every time I email SPS I get a reply within a couple hours. Issues I have are sent up to engineering (or at least they say so) and they've followed up with further questions about my issues.
Right now based on communication I'm ranking SPS way above CPS. Repair could be different. Hopefully I don't need to test it anytime soon.
Jul 15, 2021 at 11:04 AM
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p.86 #20 · Sony-shooters thoughts on the Canon R5/R6
michal.narozny wrote:
Or R5 R6 might be the cheaper way of getting access to prime lenses and prime shooting experience.
that applies only to uber-expensive supertelephoto lenses, with the serious caveat that it's all old adapted ef-mount lens designs that don't use linear voice coil af motors... canon doesn't have any lenses in any mount that use modern af motors.
michal.narozny wrote:
No cheaper options than 600/400 gm in Sony ecosystem.
canon doesn't have anything equivalent to the fe200-600, in fact they have never made a 600mm superzoom with af, in any mount... between that and the lack of modern af motors, the ridiculous f/11 primes, slow rf100-500, etc., i don't like where canon is going with rf-mount, z-mount makes more sense for what i shoot.
there is also the sigma 500/4 on mc-11, it's good for 15fps af-c on the a9/a9ii/a1, and at the minimum it'll have better af on stacked sensor sony than it does on any canon dslr.
