For
a completely, detailed, honest review, I think you’re going to have to
send me one… and a handful… no, two handfuls of lenses — they’re huge!
I’ll been needing to live with it for a good year :-)
I’m actually really happy to see the Canon EOS R5. I left Canon back in 2018, mostly because I was getting more out of my Olympus gear. I grokked the whole mirrorless thing, found it better than optical. I could actually use my old manual lenses much more effectively than on an DSLR.
I’m actually really happy to see the Canon EOS R5. I left Canon back in 2018, mostly because I was getting more out of my Olympus gear. I grokked the whole mirrorless thing, found it better than optical. I could actually use my old manual lenses much more effectively than on an DSLR.
But part of it was their basic attitude. Kasey Stern, the genius behind the Camera Conspiracies vlog, pretty much expressed my main problem with Canon. It was absolutely clear, over the years, that Canon was arbitrarily holding back the level of technology on lower-end cameras to sell higher-end cameras… regardless of the actual cost of those features. If you’re the only camera company in the world and doing that, maybe that’s okay. But they were not…. there are other camera companies.
So in 2015, I had bought a few Olympus Micro Four Thirds cameras, which I was using as a secondary system… for when I didn’t want to drag along my 10kg+ Canon system. I bought the OM-D E-M5 Mark II that year. First thing to note was that, even thought this was a mid-range camera, they didn’t reduce features in any way that wasn’t an obvious additional expense. In fact, they introduced a bunch of new features on this model that the flagship OM-D E-M1 didn’t do. A year later, they introduced a new flagship, the OM-D E-M1 Mark II, with a bunch of new features. Not long after, they put out an update that added some of those new features — those that would reasonably work — for my E-M5 Mark II.
Canon, on the other hand, intentionally crippled their lower-end models to drive higher-end sales. And perhaps, in a different way, they also kind of decided, for the photographer, various limits of the camera that were not necessarily natural. Their old behavior was to cripple a bunch of things. So I had a Canon 60D and added a 6D. The 60D, a much lower cost camera, had a far, far better autofocus system. They could have put something at least that good into the 6D for very little extra money, but they were more concerned about the 6D/5D competition than Nikon or anyone else competing with their offerings.
This was all through the camera, including a bunch of things that were 100% software-bases, just there to “crapify” the 6D versus the 5D. When you’re invested in any system — camera or otherwise — you have a vested interest. And if you’re an internet writer or pundit, your first impulse is to support and defend the things your excellent brain has found to be the best. Unfortunately, as a full-time engineer and only hobby photographer, it was all too easy for me to see how that “cripple hammer” had been applied. And once you get involved with a company that doesn’t do that, even a little bit; a company that’s actually adding new high-end features to your mid-range camera, you have a hard time sticking with the old guys.
So I was really excited to see the EOS R5. Of course, since I have not used this camera, I had to give you all my ideas here rather than a real review. But also, I’m hoping this goes beyond the R5 and changes the way Canon is thinking. I knew Canon had some technology issues… here, they’ve solved that a bit, but they’re also leaving it up to the user how they’d like to deal with camera limitations. As a result, you have limited features not offered by anyone else.
I noticed back in 2018 how Canon was going about their EOS R business. They introduced the original EOS R as a low-cost mirrorless, relative to the EOS 5D Mark IV, that had the same sensor and, ideally, same image quality. But they crippled it a bit, to ensure it wasn’t quite a pro-grade match to the 5D. And yet, that also made it cheaper.
So get inside Canon’s head for a moment. The EOS R was not all that well received, but I got the idea right away. Sony was drinking Canon’s milkshake as photographers and videographers started to really get the idea of mirrorless camera advantages. When they introduced the R, they introduced three different EF to RF adapters. So any old Canon shooter could buy an EOS R, a lens adapter, and pretty much pretend they had a mirrorless Canon EF camera. The key here: you could buy a Sony, buy a Metabones adapter, but you still have a Sony… it doesn’t work as fast with your EF lenses, it doesn’t use your batteries, it doesn’t use your speedlights. So Canon was wise: the EOS R’s only purpose was to stop the bleeding.
Next
thing was glass. The reason Canon and Nikon had 80–90% of the pro SLR
and DSLR market for 50 years was that they had huge collections of
lenses. As nice as a new camera might be, if you can’t get the lens you
need, fuggetaboudit! And yet, Canon offered those three adapters…. no
worries.
No worries unless, like Canon, you’re trying to launch a new system. Nikon went there… Nikon didn’t do all that well with the Z system, despite making excellent gear. My contention was simple: you can’t make a new system for new users if you’re Canon or Nikon. As with the EOS R, you make a camera that’s kind of a no-brainer for existing users.
But here’s the thing: let’s assume I still have my EOS 6D. I go and buy an EOS R, I buy the basic adapter, and I’m golden, right… I have a mirrorless Canon EF camera.
No worries unless, like Canon, you’re trying to launch a new system. Nikon went there… Nikon didn’t do all that well with the Z system, despite making excellent gear. My contention was simple: you can’t make a new system for new users if you’re Canon or Nikon. As with the EOS R, you make a camera that’s kind of a no-brainer for existing users.
But here’s the thing: let’s assume I still have my EOS 6D. I go and buy an EOS R, I buy the basic adapter, and I’m golden, right… I have a mirrorless Canon EF camera.
Post a Comment