EOS R5 Mark II upgrade or not?

[shawnphoto]

I have the original R5, and have had it for 4 years next month. It's a fine camera that does the work. It seems to be very accurate for photography. Colors are fantastic, but not 100% accurate. The new one is supposed to be lower quality for photography, but is it more accurate with what it does have? Because I would personally take the slightly improved colors over a small increase in dynamic range. I haven't found anyone who has actually A-B tested the R5 and R5 mk II with a detailed color analysis. Honestly, if we exclude video from the equation, should I upgrade to the R5 mk II?

[FloridaDrafter]

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@Tronhard wrote:

"here in NZ the R5II would cost me over $8,000 with exchange rates and taxes.  I envy you folks in the USA..."

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Holy cow! The R5 II is, IMO, a worthy upgrade, but not an $8,000 upgrade. I was pissed at a $300+ Florida sales tax then two new cards and spare battery, but dang, I feel your pain (:

Newton

[Tronhard]

I feel it too... It's a combination of being on the dead end of a fairly long logistics run, and the fact that the market here is not too competitive.  It would be significantly cheaper to fly to Oz and get it, but the government would still charge me 15% GST at the airport.

[shawnphoto]

I never had a problem getting shots in focus with the R5... LOL. I guess I'm just better at using cameras than most people. I must be a camera genius because I also never use tracking AF and I still have loads of photos of animals and people moving that are perfectly sharp. I didn't realize how smart I was I guess. I guess if you're not smart like me then the R5 mark II is a great camera because it can use AI to figure out how to focus on something. Cuz thats soooo hard to do. 

[Tronhard]

To not actually own the R5II does not mean that one has not used or tested the camera - I have, and for my purposes it was not worth the investment.  I have tested the R7 extensively, and as a result chose not to own it either.

Still, given your original question is about colour rendition, I stand by my comment that shooting in RAW does not apply colour profiles and the idea is to do those changes in PP, where you can set up colour profiles to have any global changes you want applied seamlessly. This issue is not model specific. If you were videoing it might be more of an issue, but since you say you are discussion photography, I think we can let one be.  

But, given what you say about your skill and intellect, I am sure you were all over that in any case.  

[ctitanic]

If you upgrade now you will be part of the early adopters group. You will suffering of all the minors issues that other users are reporting in this forum and other forums such as the R5 freezing, settings being lost after configuring them, disconnections from Camera Connect, and other issues. 

I'm not saying do not upgrade, I'm saying that you should wait until these issues are confirmed and fixed. Just few days ago Canon released the first Firmware update for this camera.

[shawnphoto]

The thing keeping me from upgrading is that Canon does not seem to have committed to how it wants this camera to perform for stills. It seems that nobody has done the obvious and compared it shot for shot against the old camera. When is someone gonna do the obvious and show us what this camera can really do or not do?? We want to see shot for shot at the same ISO and same lens. Barring that, I'll NEVER buy this camera.

[FloridaDrafter]

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@ctitanic wrote:

If you upgrade now you will be part of the early adopters group. You will suffering of all the minors issues that other users are reporting in this forum and other forums such as the R5 freezing, settings being lost after configuring them, disconnections from Camera Connect, and other issues. 

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Hello, Frank!

I jumped on the R5 bus early, also. I've lost count of the firmware updates for that camera, but I never had problems with it, even in the early days. I kept waiting for it to mess up, like a lot of people were complaining about, but it never did... Go figure 🤔

I've had the R5 II for a little over a week and shot 2,000 or so test shots with no problems. I updated to fw v 1.0.1 when it was available but saw no changes in my experience. I've done some remote shooting with it and had no problems with dropped connections. I shoot stills, so I haven't used the movie feature and probably never will, but reportedly, the vintage lens thing has been taken care of.

To repeat my main reasons for buying the mark II:

>The stacked sensor which, in general, allows 30% more light to hit the sensor. When comparing similar shots from the R5, I noticed lower ISO was needed and better DR.

>Pre-shot in burst mode. My wife's R6 II has this feature, and I've come to really like it.

>The DIGIC accelerator chip.

I will continue to use my R5, as it is a fantastic camera, but so was my 5D IV, 7D II, and on down the line. I've probably sold more prints taken with the 5D IV, but I've shot with it longer. I still use it as well.

Newton

[ctitanic]

FloridaDrafter, I have not said it’s a bad camera and I didn’t say don’t buy it. I said to hold until everything is figured. No everybody is an early adopter.

[ctitanic]

Look around YouTube and you will find a lot of videos compering both cameras. 

[FloridaDrafter]

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@ctitanic wrote:

FloridaDrafter, I have not said it’s a bad camera and I didn’t say don’t buy it. I said to hold until everything is figured. No everybody is an early adopter.

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Frank, I totally understood your comment and agree 100% my friend. I started to hold off myself, but it was hard to resist when B&H sent me a stock alert.

Newton