I Pre-Ordered The Canon R5 Mark II…BUT

It should come as no surprise to fans of ThuMyLens that I has to put a pre-order in for the Canon R5 Mark II as quickly as the ordering link was live at 6 AM on July 17th. Actually, thanks to Canon’s pre-order coinciding with the Republican National Convention this week, I didn’t actually wake up until a bit after 6 AM and put in my order at about 6:14 AM. Then I started reading some of the press releases and watching some of the preview videos of the folks that were invited to Arizona to go hands-on with reproduction examples of both the R5 Mark II and the R1. Sadly, as a result, I believe I’m going to be canceling my pre-order. I say sadly not because I think that the R5 Mark II is in any way a bad camera. Quite the contrary, I’m actually quite surprised at just how much capability from the flagship R1 is in the R5 Mark II.  Most of the significant technological advances and enhanced capabilities seem to be in the area of improved auto focus that action and sports photographers will leverage, as well as video with 16 stops of dynamic range in Canon CLOG 2.  But I’m not an action or sports photographer.  Nor with my limited video requirements benefit significantly from Canon CLOG2.  My current R5 is plenty fast and plenty accurate for the few times that I do shoot fast action. In a few YouTube videos, I shoot for my channel look great with my existing equipment .  The majority of the photos that I take are product, automotive, and landscape/architecture.  And there’s just not much improvement in these categories of photography that can be found in the R5 Mark II.  As of RIGHT NOW here are the most compelling new features of the R5 Mark II for the type of photography that I do.  I emphasize “right now” because it’s possible that with firmware upgrades there may be additional features and capabilities that may sway me.  But as it stands, here are the most compelling features for me:

The EVF:  The R5 Mark II is essentially getting the R3 EVF.  Here’s a screen capture that I took from Fro Knows Photo’s R5 Mark II preview video that shows difference in EVF size on the new Mark II compared to the original R5:

I’m not having any problems with the R5 EVF.  But bigger would be nice to have.

Digital Hot Shoe:  most all current camera releases have replaced to old style flash hot shoe.  Both the R3 and the R6 Mark II have this feature and it only makes sense that the R5 Mark II would as well.  Right now, there is no product that requires a digital hot shoe that I would like to use, but can’t.  But it would be nice to have in terms of being able to use some future piece of technology that will require a digital hot shoe.  

Auto Leveling:  It appears as though the new camera has some sort of new auto leveling feature.  Dirty little secret: I can’t take a straight picture to save my life.  Invariably I’m off a little little bit one way or the other and it drives me nuts.  I’m not exactly sure how this new feature works, but it would probably be a nice to have time saver for me, as I have to do some sort of a leveling correction on nearly every photo I take.  

Record Light:  The R5 Mark II has a small indicator light on the front of the camera that illuminates when the camera is recording video.  I don’t post as many YouTube videos to my YouTube channel As I should, but this would be a handy feature when I’m recording myself.  

Noticing a trend in the above features?  None of them are earth shattering, must-have features.  They all pretty much fall into the “nice to have” category.  Without a killer feature or benefit, none of the above features either on their own or even collectively are enough to make me want to upgrade my R5.

WHAT’S MISSING?

So what features are missing from the R5MII?  Features that I was perhaps expecting, or might have helped move the upgrade needle for me.  

LCD:  The LCD screen appears to be completely unchanged from the R5.  I was really hoping for a completely redesigned LCD that has a tilt feature feature similar to some of the Sony camera bodies, in addition to being able to pull out and swivel.  So I can’t help but be a bit disappointed here.  

Pixel Shift:  Canon implemented pixel shift on the R5 about a year ago via a firmware update.  It wasn’t great, as you could only output to JPEG format.  So my expectation was that the new camera would have the ability to take a pixel shift photograph and output it to Camera RAW.  The preliminary previews suggest what we got is something very different – it almost sounds like some weird upscaling feature.  But it sure doesn’t sound like what I and I think everyone else wanted or can use practically.  This one is a head scratcher.  

New & Improved Canon Connect:  Canon Connect is the app that lets you connect your mobile device to your Canon camera for wirelessly controlling your camera, wirelessly downloading files, etc.  Like similar apps offered up by other can’t manufacturers, it leaves a lot to be desired in usability.  I had hoped that the R1 and R5M2 release would also bring a significant upgrade to the app, but no such luck.

even if we had gotten some or even all of the above, I’m not sure it would justify the upgrade for me.

SO NOW WHAT?

So yes, I do find myself a bit sad that I’m not upgrading because I genuinely would like to have seen a camera come out from Canon that would make me motivated to upgrade.   Which I thought would be the case with the R5M2.  At the same time, I’m also relieved that I don’t have to spend $5000 on a new camera.  So what does my path forward look like?  Will I be buying any new glass?  Maybe but there’s nothing that I need in the near term.  How about upgrade my lightning?  That’s another possibility, but there’s nothing pressing in in terms of a need in this department either.  I could make a case for upgrading my R6 to an R6 Mark II.  That would give me the Apple ProRes capability that I would like for videos.  I would have the new digital hot shoe to be able to accommodate any future accessories that might utilize it.  Not to mention essentially getting the auto focus and sensor read out capabilities of the R3, which is nothing to sneeze at.  And it really wouldn’t cost me much to upgrade.  Maybe $1000 or so.  I could even make a case for just getting a second R5 – that would only be a couple thousand dollars if I sold or traded my R6.  But that’s probably even harder to justify than the R6 Mark II.  I have plenty of time to make my decision as to whether or not I’m going to cancel my pre-order.  I may actually go ahead and get the R5M2 and see whether or not I think it’s worth the upgrade myself versus relying on reviews.  but for right now, it seems like for existing R5 owners, it’s only worth the upgrade if you’re doing primarily sports and action photography