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Canon R5 Mark II thoughts after shooting hummingbirds today

absolutic
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Canon R5 Mark II thoughts after shooting hummingbirds today

R5 Mark II thoughts after shooting hummingbirds.....
So I shot hummingbirds today with R5 Mark II for the first time.... And my conclusion is that autofocus for hummers was not better than my R8.. I am not saying autofocus on R5 Mark II is not good, this is a testament of how good the AF system on R8 (and R6mark II) that was lifted from R3, is in real life. R8 is just an insane value when it goes on sale for $1199...and I've seen Canon refurbs under $1000. With R5M2 I am basically getting the same keeper rate as with R8, with obvious benefit of cropping 45MP which I don't have with R8. And crop I do a lot of with these tiny birds.....
R8 of course has a smaller battery, no IBIS, one card slot, it wakes up a little slower than R5M2, but is a testament that general continuous autofocus on most cameras these days is really good.

R5213339 by Dmitry Brodsky, on Flickr

R5214431 by Dmitry Brodsky, on Flickr

R5213511-2 by Dmitry Brodsky, on Flickr

R5213711 by Dmitry Brodsky, on Flickr

Aug 18, 2024 at 10:50 PM

biggles2002
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Canon R5 Mark II thoughts after shooting hummingbirds today

Did you shoot in ES mode?

Aug 19, 2024 at 03:42 AM

absolutic
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Canon R5 Mark II thoughts after shooting hummingbirds today

biggles2002 wrote:
Did you shoot in ES mode?

Of course, otherwise hummingbirds would leave immediately they are very sensitive
to mechanical sensor sound at close distances i shoot

Aug 19, 2024 at 06:06 AM

lsquare
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Canon R5 Mark II thoughts after shooting hummingbirds today

absolutic wrote:
R5 Mark II thoughts after shooting hummingbirds.....
So I shot hummingbirds today with R5 Mark II for the first time.... And my conclusion is that autofocus for hummers was not better than my R8.. I am not saying autofocus on R5 Mark II is not good, this is a testament of how good the AF system on R8 (and R6mark II) that was lifted from R3, is in real life. R8 is just an insane value when it goes on sale for $1199...and I've seen Canon refurbs under $1000. With R5M2 I am basically getting the same keeper rate...Show more →

The R8's AF is based off of the R3?

Aug 19, 2024 at 06:30 AM

koenkooi
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Canon R5 Mark II thoughts after shooting hummingbirds today

lsquare wrote:
The R8's AF is based off of the R3?

The R8 is a repackaged R6II, minus the IBIS and runs a virtually identical firmware. For the single digit R models Canon seems to use the same AF firmware and improves it with each model. The progression for that branch of AF firmware is R3 ➔ R7 ➔ R6II ➔ R8.

The R7 is limited its slow sensor, so the overal AF experience is far below the R5/R6 level, even with much more advanced software. The R6II and R8 share the same, fast sensor and have excellent overall AF performance.

I'm curious if/when we'll see the R1/R5II AF firmware show up in other models, it might depend on having the extra Digic Accelerator, which would drain R8 batteries very, very quickly.

Aug 19, 2024 at 06:43 AM

stanj
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Canon R5 Mark II thoughts after shooting hummingbirds today

biggles2002 wrote:
Did you shoot in ES mode?

absolutic wrote:
Of course, otherwise hummingbirds would leave immediately they are very sensitive
to mechanical sensor sound at close distances i shoot

That's funny, because my hummers could not care less (also shot with a 400 thus same distance). As a matter of fact I have to shoot them with EFCS because otherwise their wings look distorted with my R5 "classic."

Aug 19, 2024 at 08:44 AM

absolutic
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Canon R5 Mark II thoughts after shooting hummingbirds today

stanj wrote:
That's funny, because my hummers could not care less (also shot with a 400 thus same distance). As a matter of fact I have to shoot them with EFCS because otherwise their wings look distorted with my R5 "classic."

You must have trained them well, The ones I see run away immediately if they hear the sound of the shutter. I am 5-10 feet away from them when I shoot them. I did the same with R8 which has the fastest sensor readout for cameras without stacked sensor…. While I got some distorted wings, I also got some shots where the wings looked ok. The worst is R7 where sensor readout is really poor (but not as poor as say Sony A7R5 or A7R4 where I would get crazy results with electronic shutter, like wings would look separated into three part each, etc).

Aug 19, 2024 at 09:07 AM

absolutic
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Canon R5 Mark II thoughts after shooting hummingbirds today

lsquare wrote:
The R8's AF is based off of the R3?

Yea the AF system in R6II and R8 was taken from R3. Which tells you how amazing R8 is….was on sale for $1199 few times and Canon refurbs sometimes deep into $899 range…… for a full frame camera with 40fps continuous af and autofocus from R3.

Aug 19, 2024 at 09:10 AM

docusync
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Canon R5 Mark II thoughts after shooting hummingbirds today

I’m not a helluva bird shooter but IMHO hovering or on-a-stick hummingbirds are easy targets for pretty much any camera.
Birds are much harder to shoot if they are quickly approaching, or if they accelerate (during a take-off for example). It’s even harder when the action is happening closer to MFD.

Aug 19, 2024 at 10:12 AM

absolutic
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Canon R5 Mark II thoughts after shooting hummingbirds today

docusync wrote:
I’m not a helluva bird shooter but IMHO hovering or on-a-stick hummingbirds are easy targets for pretty much any camera.
Birds are much harder to shoot if they are quickly approaching, or if they accelerate (during a take-off for example). It’s even harder when the action is happening closer to MFD.

True to some extent, especially with hummers who can accelerate rapidly to what looks like faster than a Cheetah speed….. but hovering hummingbirds near MFD against a somewhat busy background is not an easy target to get an initial focus especially with Canon zoom lenses that don’t have range limiter at wide end (unlike Sony, Olympus and some third party ones that do). I was using 100-400 RF in this case since I don’t have 100-500RF anymore.

Aug 19, 2024 at 10:21 AM

absolutic
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Canon R5 Mark II thoughts after shooting hummingbirds today

It is funny that Jan Wagoneer on YouTube, Australian Bird Photog just posted his review on YouTube after many hours and 100,000 photos in Australia and his findings are similar to mine:

“Autofocus is quite similar to R3 and R6M2” Just what I wrote about re R8.

Autofocus Better than R5 Mark 1 in Low light.

The autofocus improvements are towards Sports and People photography. With Nature photography it ‘guesses’ more. What I believe he means - If you have R3/6M2/8 you will not see much improvements in autofocus when shooting birds.

Aug 19, 2024 at 11:24 AM

Sy Sez
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Canon R5 Mark II thoughts after shooting hummingbirds today

Aug 19, 2024 at 11:31 AM

Scott Stoness
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Canon R5 Mark II thoughts after shooting hummingbirds today

Thanks for the post.

The most tempting part of R5ii is that it picks up the R8 menu. The R5 for example could not do electronic/AEB, and I liked the 4k better on R8. [ In addition in order to get silent on r5 you needed to drop to 12bit electronic.]

As you have said, the R8 is the best value camera on the market, if you can live with 24mpx and its only 450grams for backpacking. I bought the r8 for my hiking /backpacking/ travel to complement my R5 and liked the menu better than the r5.

Aug 19, 2024 at 12:50 PM

jayoco
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Canon R5 Mark II thoughts after shooting hummingbirds today

Whatever the AF system, these are great shots. I enjoy seeing them.

Aug 19, 2024 at 01:44 PM

biggles2002
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Canon R5 Mark II thoughts after shooting hummingbirds today

absolutic wrote:
It is funny that Jan Wagoneer on YouTube, Australian Bird Photog just posted his review on YouTube after many hours and 100,000 photos in Australia and his findings are similar to mine:

“Autofocus is quite similar to R3 and R6M2” Just what I wrote about re R8.

Autofocus Better than R5 Mark 1 in Low light.

The autofocus improvements are towards Sports and People photography. With Nature photography it ‘guesses’ more. What I believe he means - If you have R3/6M2/8 you will not see much improvements in autofocus when shooting birds.

The autofocus improvements are towards Sports and People photography. With Nature photography it ‘guesses’ more. What I believe he means - If you have R3/6M2/8 you will not see much improvements in autofocus when shooting birds.

This is why I hesitate to buy... it needs more tests to convince me, in Jan Wegeners video the AF "jumps" quite alot .
(I do not shoot sports or people in action).

Aug 19, 2024 at 02:31 PM

jedibrain
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · Canon R5 Mark II thoughts after shooting hummingbirds today

I suppose it makes sense. There is much less diversity in features of people than birds, or other various types of animals. I'm excited to see someone do some sports shooting with the R5II and see how well the predictive tracking works. Fro's preview video looked pretty impressive.

Brian

Aug 19, 2024 at 04:10 PM

lsquare
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · Canon R5 Mark II thoughts after shooting hummingbirds today

Scott Stoness wrote:
Thanks for the post.

The most tempting part of R5ii is that it picks up the R8 menu. The R5 for example could not do electronic/AEB, and I liked the 4k better on R8. [ In addition in order to get silent on r5 you needed to drop to 12bit electronic.]

As you have said, the R8 is the best value camera on the market, if you can live with 24mpx and its only 450grams for backpacking. I bought the r8 for my hiking /backpacking/ travel to complement my R5 and liked the menu better than the r5.

The R5 can't use the e-shutter with auto exposure bracket?

I agree, the R8 is very small and light. Perfect for traveling! It's lighter than even some APS-C bodies.

Aug 19, 2024 at 04:20 PM

stanj
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · Canon R5 Mark II thoughts after shooting hummingbirds today

lsquare wrote:
The R5 can't use the e-shutter with auto exposure bracket?

No.

Aug 19, 2024 at 04:29 PM

lsquare
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · Canon R5 Mark II thoughts after shooting hummingbirds today

stanj wrote:
No.

What about the R5 II?

Aug 19, 2024 at 04:56 PM

Imagemaster
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p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · Canon R5 Mark II thoughts after shooting hummingbirds today

docusync wrote:
I’m not a helluva bird shooter but IMHO hovering or on-a-stick hummingbirds are easy targets for pretty much any camera.
Birds are much harder to shoot if they are quickly approaching, or if they accelerate (during a take-off for example). It’s even harder when the action is happening closer to MFD.

Right, hovering hummers can easily be captured with most cameras and they can quickly get used to the sound of mechanical shutters. Just hours ago I was shooting hovering hummers and using mechanical shutter. I was using R5 and R6 II with RF 100-400 with an extension tube and within four feet of the hummers.

Hardly a challenge for most cameras. Maybe try swallows in full flight for a real AF test.

Aug 19, 2024 at 08:25 PM

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