Amateur Photographer - UK (2020-09-19)

http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk

Testbench CAMERA TEST

can get away with not having to

let the camera cool before you

shoot again, but any lengthy

recordings do require you to wait,

which isn’t always possible on

set or during a never-to-be-

repeated scenario. The time until

the full record time is available

varies based on factors such as

the selected shooting resolution,

ambient temperature and

continued camera operation. At

8K 30P , 20 minutes of cool-down

time gives users an extra 8

minutes of recording time,

whereas at 4K 60P , 10 minutes’

cool-down time gives another 10

minutes of record time.

Testing the IBIS system

conrmed that it effectively

stabilises handheld shots and

video footage, but how slow you

can attain sharp handheld shots

is very dependent on how steady

your handheld technique is. I had

no difculty achieving sharp shots

at shutter speeds as slow as

1/5sec using the RF 70-200mm

f2.8L IS USM at full telephoto,

and 2secs with the RF 15-35mm

f2.8L IS USM at its widest point

in the zoom range.

Using the EOS R5 with a

SanDisk Extreme Pro 512GB

CFexpress card, resulted in

2,851 Raw les being recorded

to the card at 12fps using the

mechanical shutter before the

buffer was hit. Switching to the

Large JPEG le format saw an

unlimited number of les being

recorded. In electronic shutter

mode, the EOS R5 rattled off 62

uncompressed Raw les (121

CRAW’s) at 20fps.

Image quality

As well as recording stunningly

detailed 45MP (8192x5464

pixel) images, which equates to a

27x18in or 69x46cm print, there

is a 1.6x crop setting for those

who’d like to gain greater reach

from their lenses at a reduced

17MP (5088x3392 pixel)

resolution. Other crop modes

include 1:1, 4:3 and 16:9,

outputting 30MP, 40MP and

38MP les respectively.

With Adobe yet to support the

EOS R5’s raw les at the time of

testing, I converted raw images

using Adobe DNG Converter

v12.4 beta. Editing a few

underexposed landscape shots

where I’d exposed for the sky to

preserve highlight detail revealed

that users can put a huge

amount of faith in the camera’s

dynamic range. The sensor offers

remarkable leverage when it

comes to recovering shadow

detail, which is best illustrated in

the opening image to this review.

In high-contrast scenes users

may wish to take advantage of

the new HEIF image format that

boasts 10-bit colour for greater

dynamic range and higher image

quality than JPEG les, but

outputs at approximately the

same le size. All of the above is

backed up by an impeccable

metering system that rarely

misjudges a scene.

The EOS R5 works as well with

EF-mount lenses as it does

RF-mount lenses, but does

require use of an EF-EOS R

mount adapter. Canon EOS R5, Canon EF

100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM, 1/3200sec at

f/6.3, ISO 1000

The R5’s vari-angle screen

made this low-angle shot

of a miniature steam loco

easy to take

Canon EOS R5, Canon RF 24-70mm F2.8 L IS

USM, 1/400sec at f/4.5, ISO 400

Autofocus

Testing the autofocus speed

on a wide range of subjects,

including some challenging action

sequences, demonstrated that

it’s highly responsive in One Shot

and Servo modes.

Not only is AF brisk, Canon has

made it remarkably easy to toggle

between AF area modes with the

small M-Fn button after using the

AF point select button. Zone AF

combined well with Servo AF to

keep apace with cars and cyclists

approaching the camera head-on.

Only when I pulled back quickly

from 200mm to 70mm did the

camera misinterpret focus, which

I put down to the subject moving

outside my central Zone AF area.

There’s the option to choose from

two AF point sizes (pinpoint and

normal), but having the ability to

resize the AF point and the Zone

AF area to a size of the user’s

liking, much like Fujilm and

Panasonic offer, is something I’d

like to see Canon introduce.

Switching over to the wider

horizontal and vertical Zone AF

area modes can result in better

success and anyone who wants

to track erratic subjects to the far

edge of the frame will want to

use the AF tracking mode. This is

where you also benet from face

and eye detection, which works

exceptionally well in both One

Shot and Servo modes. The EOS

R5 is more responsive at

identifying people’s eyes and

faces from greater distance than

the EOS R, and the AF select

button and joystick can be used

to prioritise which face or eye

you’d like the camera to focus on.

With subject detection set to

animals, users will nd the EOS

R5 accurately detects cats, dogs

and birds’ faces and eyes in the

same way as it does for people.

Performance

Much has been reported about

the excessive heat generated

when the camera records video.

Recording full sensor width 8K

Raw video internally to the card at

25fps in a room at 23°C from a

cold start resulted in 17 minutes

21 seconds of footage being

recorded – short of the specied

20 minutes. An overheat warning

icon popped up onscreen after

14 minutes and the rear of the

camera became extremely warm.

After being left to cool, I

switched to full sensor width 4K

120p recording. It managed 4

minutes before the overheat icon

reappeared and the camera shut

itself down three minutes later

due to overheating. Before

recording starts, the camera

displays an estimate of the

recordable time based on the

current camera temperature and

the set recording mode. It went

on to record full sensor width 4K

60p footage for 29mins 59secs

with no overheating. Recording

full sensor width 4K 30P footage

from a cold start didn’t reveal any

overheating concerns either.

The issue that’ll put serious

video users off the EOS R5 is the

irritating cool-down time that’s

required between spells of

recording. If you shoot short

snippets of 8K and 4K video you