What are your plans regarding the R5 MKII?

cohenfive
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p.7 #1 · p.7 #1 · What are your plans regarding the R5 MKII?

On paper the R52 seems somewhat disappointing, at least for my use. I'll wait to hear how much better the AF is for action/BIF, but unless Canon has somehow managed to move the ball ahead of Sony and Nikon, I might be selling my Canon gear in favor of Nikon. The Nikon long lens lineup is just without peer these days, and I've been waiting to see how good the R52 is before deciding. Plus, imo the r52 is way overpriced, especially factoring in the cost of new batts. The z8 just seems like a much better value imo, unless the canon af has leaped ahead. We'll see...

Jul 27, 2024 at 12:09 AM

rscheffler
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p.7 #2 · p.7 #2 · What are your plans regarding the R5 MKII?

There's so much conflicting information (opinion) about AF capabilities of the various systems. Some have stated the old R5 is better than the Z8/Z9 while prevailing sentiment seems to be that Nikon's lens selection offsets any of this, along with seemingly more frequent firmware updates that have improved performance aspects.

It'll probably be a matter of trying for yourself to determine what, if anything, has improved for the type of work you do.

Back in late 2022 I trialed the R3, 5, 6 and 7 for sports and found they were all good, with respect to AF, but there were minor but potentially annoying differences in other areas. I took a chance and bought the R6II without trying it, on release, hoping it would address some of these seemingly minor points, and it did, resulting in a better user experience than at least the R5 and R6 (I was considering one of the two), even though 'on paper' the R6II seemed like a minor update over the R6.

I feel like this is an aspect of the R5II and R1 that none of us can know until we actually use the cameras; to appreciate how impactful difficult to quantify changes to the AF system may affect how we use the cameras.

Jul 27, 2024 at 12:41 PM

thedutt
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p.7 #3 · p.7 #3 · What are your plans regarding the R5 MKII?

Just came back from spending a couple of weeks photographing in the field - bears, arctic terns, eagles, sea lions. I was unsure if I wanted to upgrade to R5II, but now I have a preorder in the works.

The pre-shooting buffer is a game changer for wildlife photographers, it is the one feature I think will increase my keeper rates substantially. Often I was just 0.5 seconds behind the action while sea lions were catching a fish, or an eagle was about to take off. Plus I am eager to see the new AF features of sports to trickle down wildlife via firmware, and I suspect that Wildlife AF will be substantially better than an already awesome AF of R5.

If I was staring out today, I may consider Nikon, but then again, I just don't like how bulky Z8 feels in my hands. But that 400mm with built-in TC sure is very tempting. I am hoping that by year's end, canon announces the rumored 1x-2x extender.

Jul 27, 2024 at 03:42 PM

Methodical
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p.7 #4 · p.7 #4 · What are your plans regarding the R5 MKII?

WJaekel wrote:
If you read my post carefully, it's basically not just an increase of $ 400 which they might justify by the inflation. If you add the grip plus a second battery, you pay € 5500 here in Europe..That's 1200 € more compared to the price I had paid for the corresponding set of the R5 at my dealer here. If you take into account that people now dump the R5+Bg10 for € 2300.- at maximum, the upgrade for the R5 II plus grip would be € 3200.-. Btw, the R5 II (body only) is € 4799 not €/USD 4299 here

Anyway,...Show more →

I read it and focused on the camera aspect. However, the grip and the battery are the same costs as it was for the R5. So, the only price difference is for the camera.

Jul 29, 2024 at 12:29 AM

Methodical
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p.7 #5 · p.7 #5 · What are your plans regarding the R5 MKII?

JPRPhotos wrote:
I remember when the 5D MIII came out, it was said to have almost the same AF as the 1D series at that time. So I went with the 5DMIII and made some great sport images with it until I borrowed the current 1D camera ( don’t remember the exact model number). That 1D blew me away with its speed and responsiveness over the 5DMIII. So much so that I sold my 2 - 5DMIII and switched back to 1D series. I am mostly sports and low light photographer, so even though the R5 M2 has the same AF, I...Show more →

I say you did the right thing. I also do sports, but not my mainstay. If all I did was sports I'd probably go with the R1 too.

Jul 29, 2024 at 12:31 AM

WJaekel
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p.7 #6 · p.7 #6 · What are your plans regarding the R5 MKII?

Methodical wrote:
.... However, the grip and the battery are the same costs as it was for the R5. So, the only price difference is for the camera.

I don't know about the prices in the US. But your statement is not true for the prices here, at least. The new grip and battery are considerably more, too.

https://www.foto-erhardt.de/kameras/vollformat-kameras/canon-eos-r5-ii-plus-bg-r20-akkugriff-plus-2x-lp-e6p.html

The R5 II body itself is 4799.- € here as mentioned before.

As also said, I had got a little discount (around 5%) for the original R5 + BG -R-10 + LP-E6 NH when I bought that combo in 2020, around 6 months after the release. So the price I had paid for that set was a bit less than Canon's official price at launch, of course. Nevertheless, when I take into account the resale value and dumping price on the used market for the “old” combination, the costs for an upgrade make a big difference here.

Anyway, since you obviously doubt the figures I had posted, it makes no sense to argue on that further.

Jul 29, 2024 at 09:04 AM

Methodical
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p.7 #7 · p.7 #7 · What are your plans regarding the R5 MKII?

WJaekel wrote:
I don't know about the prices in the US. But your statement is not true for the prices here, at least. The new grip and battery are considerably more, too.

https://www.foto-erhardt.de/kameras/vollformat-kameras/canon-eos-r5-ii-plus-bg-r20-akkugriff-plus-2x-lp-e6p.html

The R5 II body itself is 4799.- € here as mentioned before.

As also said, I had got a little discount (around 5%) for the original R5 + BG -R-10 + LP-E6 NH when I bought that combo in 2020, around 6 months after the release. So the price I had paid for that set was a bit less than Canon's official price at launch, of course. Nevertheless, when I take...Show more →

The point I am making is the grip and battery prices in your area, whatever that may be (higher or lower), launched at the same price for the R5 and R5II but now only the camera is higher.

What was the launch price for the R5 battery and grip vs R5II battery and grip in your area?

Jul 31, 2024 at 07:39 AM

molson
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p.7 #8 · p.7 #8 · What are your plans regarding the R5 MKII?

rscheffler wrote:
There's so much conflicting information (opinion) about AF capabilities of the various systems.

I think that's mainly because everyone has different shooting styles and performance expectations. It's also really difficult to make valid comparisons between systems when there is always variability in lighting conditions, subject matter, subject behaviour, and shooting distance. Any situation where you can control all of those variables is never going to be truly representative of shooting in the field.

I find that I really need to spend several months using each system before rendering a final verdict, and of course firmware updates can sometimes require resetting that clock. I gave the Nikon Z9 and Z8 14 months, and several major firmware updates, after several years of shooting with Sony. I've now had the Canon R5 for four months, and for what and how I shoot, Canon's AF system is hands down the winner.

That doesn't mean it's the best for everything - if I exclusively shot medium and large size birds, flying directly at the camera at high speed against a plain background, one of the other cameras might perform better... or not.

And just to add, if Sony had supported the A1 with firmware updates, I might not even be visiting the Canon forum.

Jul 31, 2024 at 11:20 AM

Jeff Nolten
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p.7 #9 · p.7 #9 · What are your plans regarding the R5 MKII?

Well, I'm keeping my R5 for the foreseeable future. My wife and I are back from a photography workshop in Costa Rica and I am very pleased with the images we captured. We visited the Tortuguero, Sarapiqui, and Savegre areas and photographed a variety of subjects, mostly birds but also monkeys, frogs, jungle plants, water falls, and landscapes.

One exercise in particular cemented my decision. We visited a Macaw reserve in the Sarapiqui region where about a dozen birds are trained to fly back and forth across a field to feeders at each end. We spent about an hour in the hot sun and humidity at this and once I got my shutter speed up the camera performed well without heat warnings. I used whole area back button tracking and it found the birds well enough. I got many nice images. Maybe this is an area where the Mk II is improved but I'm happy with the R5's performance here. I saw no electronic shutter distortions and 20 FPS captured plenty of images to sort through.

Don't think I'll need more.

As far as I can tell there is no real improvement in mechanical shutter performance or IQ and I use this the majority of the time. I'm still amazed at how far off the camera can find and track bird's heads or eyes. Coupled with the 100-500 this is a powerful tool. The camera performed flawlessly for everything else, macro, focus stacks, slow shutter water images, landscapes, and people. I got a few heat warnings in the lower elevations but managed this by turning the camera off between uses. We were also in the worst heat and humidity I'd ever care to suffer.

I would prefer the on/off switch on the right side but this hardly seems a reason to upgrade. The 4K/60 video is sufficient for my limited needs. Precapture would be nice but the R7 can do that if needed. My wife's R7 also performed well on this trip and they make a good pair. This is my third international trip with the R5 including Morocco and a Baja whale watching cruise where I also photographed diving boobies. The R5 is a worthy upgrade from the 5D4 now that the cost is a distant memory.

Think I'm good for now.

I'll also give a shout out to Lightroom's new AI noise reduction SW. It cleaned up ISO 6400 images amazingly well while enhancing sharpness and feather detail. I have some lovely Quetzal images taken in poor light. And to LR's generative remove which made short work of the bananas at the feeders.

Aug 25, 2024 at 11:29 AM

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