For most individuals, July 2020 is a troublesome time to recollect. That is as a result of it was the center of COVID lockdown – that weird haze of days, weeks and months that each one blur into each other. However I keep in mind it very clearly, as a result of this was after I received my Canon EOS R5 – one in all solely two cameras I’ve preordered to obtain at launch.
Not everybody was so fortunate. Attributable to COVID shutting the planet down, there have been monumental manufacturing and delivery delays to simply about the whole lot. So whereas the R5 technically launched on July 09 2025, it might be months earlier than most prospects would get their fingers on their cameras.
Honestly, although, I would already been utilizing the R5 for fairly a while earlier than that. Even COVID could not cease digicam reviewers, and I would been fortunate sufficient to play with it extensively forward of launch – and it was that playtime that satisfied me to place down 4 grand of my hard-earned money on this digicam. It actually was – and nonetheless is – that good.
I wrote about how the Canon EOS R5 is a cheat code for wildlife pictures, due to its ungodly good autofocus. Even at the moment, 5 years later, there aren’t many cameras that may beat this one in the case of AF efficiency.
The R5 took lots of flak for “overheating points“, in that deliriously harmless time earlier than most folk realized that just about all cameras overheat if you document 4K in its highest high quality – not to mention 8K. And keep in mind, the EOS R5 was the primary shopper digicam that would seize 8K.
However whereas I discovered 8K video fascinating, way more fascinating was Canon’s 8K Body Seize. Utilizing this, the R5 might basically take screenshots from its movies that have been higher than different cameras’ “correct” pictures – crisp, clear 35MP pictures that provided an ideal hack for getting improbable stills with minimal expertise.
Clearly the improbable 45MP sensor rewards those that do have the abilities to squeeze probably the most out of its mammoth decision – now formally the best decision of any Canon digicam (because the demise of the 50MP EOS 5DS/R DSLRs). But when 45MP one way or the other wasn’t sufficient for you, Canon firmwared within the means to shoot 400MP pictures on the R5.
The in-body picture stabilization was additionally completely stellar. Canon had by no means dipped its toe into the world of IBIS – not within the DSLR days, not throughout its first crack at mirrorless with the EOS M system, and never with its first EOS R cameras. However when it lastly did it… boy, it did it. Actually rock-solid stability, placing different full-frame producers to disgrace.
My life has modified so much within the half-decade of the EOS R5’s existence. Within the 5 years I’ve owned this digicam, I’ve written off two vehicles, been in a life-changing automotive wreck, ended two relationships and received engaged. In some methods, the R5 has been probably the most constant factor in my life.
I’ve taken it on numerous shoots: principally portraiture, lots of wildlife, a little bit little bit of sports activities, and a boatload of odds-and-sods pictures for this web site. Indoors, outdoor, rain, shine, scorching, chilly, stills, video – it has by no means as soon as let me down. It is probably the most reliable physique I’ve ever used, helped in no small half by counting on CFexpress Kind B as its major storage format – which is as sturdy because it comes.
By means of all of it, high quality and consistency have been the calling playing cards of the Canon EOS R5. The autofocus is so good that you simply actually cannot miss, and the file constancy is so good that you simply actually cannot complain – Canon’s coloration science is famend for a cause, the 45MP sensor delivers scrumptious outcomes, and the glass… oh, the glass.
I have been fortunate sufficient to make use of each lens for the EOS R system, however the finest Canon RF lenses actually are one of the best of one of the best. I am unable to let you know what number of nights I misplaced sleep, attempting to resolve whether or not to purchase the RF 85mm f/1.2 or the bokehlicious RF 85mm f/1.2 DS (Defocus Smoothing) model. And I am unable to let you know how shut I got here to simply shopping for them each.
However that is how good the glass for this method is. And on the R5, one of the best glass is nearly impossibly good. Although that hasn’t stopped me slapping on classic Helios lenses in addition to my older DSLR glass – and I nonetheless received improbable outcomes from them.
It has been an unbelievable 5 years with this digicam, however in fact there’s an elephant standing within the room: it has been outmoded by the Canon EOS R5 Mark II. Which, I will be the primary to confess, is a superior digicam. So why, then, am I not abandoning the OG?
As a result of the unique R5 was ridiculously overpowered when it launched again in July 2020 – so ridiculously overpowered, the truth is, that it is nonetheless higher than 90% of cameras in July 2025.
There are occasions after I’ll attain for the Mark II – sports activities pictures, principally, or the uncommon events the place I want professional video. However for the whole lot else, the OG R5 nonetheless does the whole lot I need and wish it to.
That is why I am nonetheless going to personal this digicam in one other 5 years. And 5 years after that. The unique Canon EOS R5 is so good that I do not really want to purchase a brand new digicam ever once more.
And whereas, as my colleagues will let you know, the chance of me by no means shopping for one other digicam is exactly zero (I actually purchased a brand new one final week!), I can safely say that I’ll by no means promote this one.
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