Flash Focus Bracketing EL-5 with Canon R5 Mk II

[jonathonisola]

with the new Canon R5 Mk II having the capability to do flash focus bracketing, is the EL-5 capable of doing this or is this only EL-1? 

[p4pictures]

At this time only the Speedlite EL-1 is able to work with the camera focus bracketing capability. 

You can find this on the bottom of this section from the Canon website supplemental info.

https://cam.start.canon/en/H001/supplement_0010.html 

[jonathonisola]

Brian, when I attempted it on the Canon R5 MK II, it did very fast at 1/6th speed and below (able to do a bracket of a butterfly at 200 images), at 1/4 the recharge made it a slower.  So the camera accepted the flash in this mode and worked.  Why are you saying it doesn't work?  What am I missing?  Does a third party flash like a Godox 860III or V360 do a better job?  I am new at Macro Photography and I want to make sure I have the right flash for Marco.  i can't affrod $1k for the EL1. 

[p4pictures]

See this page of the EOS R5 Mark II manual, in step 8 it mentions that this function works with compatible Speedlites

https://cam.start.canon/en/C017/manual/html/UG-03_Shooting-1_0270.html

According to the page I linked to which was updated March 2025 the only Speedlite explicitly mentioned as compatible with focus bracketing is the Speedlite EL-1. It is possible that the EL-5 will work, but the information on the Canon website is what I based this on. 

As you have found, more power from the Speedlite will lead to longer times between frames in the focus bracket sequence. Ultimately compatibility of third party units will be down to the third party. Some flashes might work for smaller numbers of bracketed images, as often the issue is the build up of heat from prolonged periods of regular high power flash. I certainly know that my older Speedlite 600EX-RT will go in to overheat mode faster than a newer Speedlite 600EX II-RT even working at the same power levels.