So is the Canon R5 a bird photography body? (3 Viewers)

[Barred Wobbler]

Never been that close to a red kite Colin . since I moved to north northumberland I have only seen a couple at long range . They were re-introduced in Durham but they still aren't around here much . I could match your robin though 😁
Alan will tell me I'm totally wrong and there are plenty about but its an old age thing with me and memory !

It's about three years since I saw one in the county, at silage-cutting time west of Knowsegate, low, just over the car, camera on the passenger seat and nowhere to stop within three-quarters of a mile, and that was the first for ages. They get a nose-bleed when they come into the county from Gateshead. Either that or they get a poisoned rabbit carcass, which I suppose leads to nose-bleeds and worse.

 

[colincurry]

They seem a little more frequent around here in Cambridgeshire but still quite uncommon. A couple of weeks ago and walking home from the bus, one came over very low - but sans camera. Very exciting to see. Firmware 1.5.1 helps. Have downloaded 1.5.2 but not yet tested

 

[Barred Wobbler]

I installed 1.5.2 firmware yesterday and went down to the beach.

RF100-500 + 1.4xTC.

I maybe wasn't giving it a fair go, photographing drab stuff like not particularly close and very active rock pipits on heaps of washed-up seaweed on a pebble shore, but when it found the birds, it found them. Some false alarms when it found eyes in the clumps of seaweed, but no complaints.

Some heavy cropping in these shots.

 

[capdegat]

I was out yesterday with new firmware and with mixed results . Eye AF seemed to be better and stayed on but when I looked at shots afterwards a lot were what I would call hazy . I've put this down to haze, me etc and will try again tomorrow . I'm not convinced about the extender so will be trying with and without .

 

[WildPhotographer]

Not so sure about the low light performance advantage either

The R5 is a beautiful camera, but it is very expensive for what it is and I completely agree that R6 is the optimum option for Birds. If you need to crop so far into an image, a longer lens is needed, or to simply be closer.

One thing that many people do not consider with the R5 in particular, is that the processing the RAW files is incredibly power hangry and many users will need to purchase a new computer to work with the files, if their own machine is over a couple of years old. A Canon colleague calls it a £7k camera: 1 camera body, 1 new laptop and a couple of very expensive CFast cards

 

[capdegat]

I have to disagree especially if you live in uk . it is much more difficult to get closer to birds here than say the states . Many of us are getting on in years and weight comes into the reckoning so the days of big teles have gone for a lot of us. Yes the r5 is expensive but for me to get decent pictures it , or something similar is a real neccessity . . I think that 40 ish megapixels is about the ideal to allow framing and cropping. the best camera i ever had was nikon d850 but nikon lenses are just too big and heavy so over to canon

 

[Dave Williams]

The R5 is a beautiful camera, but it is very expensive for what it is and I completely agree that R6 is the optimum option for Birds. If you need to crop so far into an image, a longer lens is needed, or to simply be closer.

One thing that many people do not consider with the R5 in particular, is that the processing the RAW files is incredibly power hangry and many users will need to purchase a new computer to work with the files, if their own machine is over a couple of years old. A Canon colleague calls it a £7k camera: 1 camera body, 1 new laptop and a couple of very expensive CFast cards

I disagree too, after careful consideration I chose the R5 over the R6 and have no regrets whatsoever. If you can afford the R5 you can probably afford what you need to go with it too. Buying a longer lens is likely a more expensive option than the difference in cost between the two bodies and the 45mp allows cropping way beyond levels I could comfortably achieve with any circa 20mp camera I have owned. I can also confidently say that probably 90% of the photos I take need cropping. Getting closer is of course ideal but the opportunities to do so when you can come anywhere near filling the frame are still all too rare even in those pro hides that are increasingly popular nowadays.
Your Canon colleague needs some shopping lessons. You can buy an R5, a 128gb CF card and a new iMac for just over £4k. You don't need more than one memory card but you do need extra power. The battery grip is expensive for what it is and I have found that the Neewer batteries that can be purchased as a pair and complete with a dual charger are a bargain at under £70 and keeps the weight down too.
If you want to push the boat out the RF100-500 plus a 1.4TC gives an ideal lightweight body and lens combination which even at f10 still allows decent images in typically UK light. That then will cost you £7k in total.

 

[Barred Wobbler]

I took the 100-500 out without the telecon today. Firmware 1.5.2 and the eye detection was like lightning.

 

[capdegat]

much better day today without extender abd haze . As barred wobbler and I live fairly close to each other we tend to see same birds so apologies but
somemore pipits

 

[MJN]

The R5 is a beautiful camera, but it is very expensive for what it is and I completely agree that R6 is the optimum option for Birds. If you need to crop so far into an image, a longer lens is needed, or to simply be closer.

One thing that many people do not consider with the R5 in particular, is that the processing the RAW files is incredibly power hangry and many users will need to purchase a new computer to work with the files, if their own machine is over a couple of years old. A Canon colleague calls it a £7k camera: 1 camera body, 1 new laptop and a couple of very expensive CFast cards

I beg to disagree, my experience is quite the opposite. Simply being closer is sometimes anything but simple and the overwhelming majority of bird photographers will already be using a long lens.
There is an option of supposedly lossless CRAW which reduces the file sizes by roughly 50% and could possibly negate the need for any computing upgrade. The R6 is no doubt a cracking camera but is outgunned by the R5 for birds in my opinion.
I do agree that the R5 is a beautiful camera.

 

[Barred Wobbler]

I beg to disagree, my experience is quite the opposite. Simply being closer is sometimes anything but simple and the overwhelming majority of bird photographers will already be using a long lens.
There is an option of supposedly lossless CRAW which reduces the file sizes by roughly 50% and could possibly negate the need for any computing upgrade. The R6 is no doubt a cracking camera but is outgunned by the R5 for birds in my opinion.
I do agree that the R5 is a beautiful camera.

Just so. I've been shooting CRaw since I got my camera 15 months ago. The file size is comparable to my 5D iv shooting on Raw, both around the 34MB mark on average.

My 7Dii, which my R5 replaced for birds, gave me about 26MB Raw for a 20MP camera

On the rare occasion I shoot the R5 in crop mode as I did for yesterday's rock pipits, the CRaw file size is only about 14MB for a 17MP image, roughly the same MP count as a 7D Mk 1, but with a much, much, much cleaner picture.

Regarding computer upgrades, I've never understood this. I had my computer upgraded a few months ago, true, but for the first 7-9 months of my R5 operation I quite happily used my old computer that was put together in about 2014.

Before I ordered my R5 I looked at the R6 just to be sure I was doing the right thing, but 20MP on a full frame camera, as a replacement for the 20MP 7Dii with a crop sensor was a deal breaker for me and I've never regretted going for the R5.

 

[mike nesbitt]

I'm still using 15.1.1 not going to upgrade until I get back from a photographic trip but I get the occasional freeze. Nothing drastic but it is annoying.

Attached are a trio from the last 24hrs R5 + 100-500

The much maligned Cormorant is a very handsome bird when it gains its full plumage, this one is not that far off.

 

[Barred Wobbler]

Today's outing with firmware 1.5.2 with the bare 100-500 lens.

Previous iterations of the firmware occasionally struggled with ripples in water. I don't recall a single time that the focus found the ripples rather than the bird today, even with a flock of redshanks flying in at about 50m away.

In my book the local feral Canadas just fall short of technically being birds, but before I go off photographing migrating raptors in a few weeks I wanted to test the focus tracking with something that can be notoriously difficult - a subect flying towards the camera - and Canadas were all I got. It looks from these examples that it doesn't do at all badly.

 

[capdegat]

after complaining about getting close enough to some birds this sat about 10 feet away . Definately one of my favorite birds and most colourfull in UK?

 

[Barred Wobbler]

While not having the number of lock-ups that have occurred previously, I had two this morning, both when using back button eye detection. Firmware 1.5.2

I was photographing a pied wagtail feeding. The eye detection found and held the bird's eye perfectly, as should be expected. I don't recall the exact circumstances of the first freeze, but the second one occurred when the bird stood stock still. I kept my thumb on the focus button in anticipation of a shot as it started to run, or maybe better, fly off. I never got the chance. After holding the static subject in focus for maybe 5 or 6 seconds the image froze and I was left with the viewfinder view of the bird with the focus square showing on its eye.

Easily corrected by switching off and on, but by the time I did that the bird had indeed flown.

 

[mike nesbitt]

I was getting uncomfortable about the freeze ups with 1.5.1, a couple every time I went out. I don't want this happening during much anticipated opportunities that should arise next week so I installed 1.5.2
I've only tested it on the local Gulls and Cormorants in flight. Eye af does quite often find the flying Gulls eye or at least it did in that first session which was good, with the Cormorants it did always lock somewhere on the bird. When scrutinising images in a burst, the critical sharpness does appear to vary noticeably for no apparent reason, plenty of pin sharp images but also some that are not. Maybe it's me, more testing required. No freezes during the first session.

 

[Barred Wobbler]

I was getting uncomfortable about the freeze ups with 1.5.1, a couple every time I went out. I don't want this happening during much anticipated opportunities that should arise next week so I installed 1.5.2
I've only tested it on the local Gulls and Cormorants in flight. Eye af does quite often find the flying Gulls eye or at least it did in that first session which was good, with the Cormorants it did always lock somewhere on the bird. When scrutinising images in a burst, the critical sharpness does appear to vary noticeably for no apparent reason, plenty of pin sharp images but also some that are not. Maybe it's me, more testing required. No freezes during the first session.

I've taken about 1400 shots over the days since I installed 1.5.2 and yesterday's two freezes were the first (apart from possibly one which I wasn't even certain was a freeze a few days earlier). It's much better in that respect than 1.5.

 

[MJN]

I've taken about 1400 shots over the days since I installed 1.5.2 and yesterday's two freezes were the first (apart from possibly one which I wasn't even certain was a freeze a few days earlier). It's much better in that respect than 1.5.

Another session with 1.5.2, about 750 shots in all without a freeze. The af seems sticker than I can previously recall and TBH it's s*** hot.
I'm only testing on flyers initially as I think that if they're ok then all else will be. I'm still getting random variation in critical sharpness during bursts when viewed at 100%, it's possible that's always been the case and I've just cherry picked the best images.

 

[Dave Williams]

Two freezes in two days with the 1.5.2. Always with the 1.4TC on the 100-500. Overall though I'm still very happy!

 

[colincurry]

No freezes in a week. Practicing on hovering bee-flies using the RF100-500 + 1.4 tc and finding it easier than with the 7D2 and R5 with EF 100-400 Mk2.