Canon R5 Mark II for 12 Days- What I Loved (and Hated)!

Welcome to my office. I've spent a lot of this winter in here editing and it's my cozy place. There's a lot of things I still want to do in my office to make it super cozy and nature-themed, but today we're going to have a little chat about the Canon R5 II. But first, let's make some coffee. We're at this time of the year where there is so much light. The snow is reflecting all the sun. I could close the curtains. It's fine, it's fine. So, not long ago I went to Zambia with the Canon R5 II on a 12-day safari. Now, I'm literally the last person to do a review on a camera or lens. Cameras are my tools to share stories, so a camera really needs to fit my needs in order to share and tell a story. And I'm not necessarily interested in new features unless it helps me to share that story. So, in this video I'm going to share how the R5 II did and did not fit my style and needs. Thank you MPB for sponsoring this video. Let's get into it. So, for the past couple of years I've been using two R5s for all my videos. I will have one R5, which I'm currently shooting on, filming me or as a second camera. And then I'll have my other R5 with my telephoto or zoom lens on the wildlife. So, on this trip I had one R5 and one R5 II. Although I didn't do any direct comparisons in terms of photos or videos, because I was constantly shifting between the two, I had a good idea of the differences with these cameras. When I first bought my R5, I absolutely hated it because I had been shooting on non-mirrorless cameras or DSLRs for so many years and the transition was just massive. I'm the type of photographer who gets used to muscle memory and I just want to shoot. I'm not the type of person to read manuals and work things out. I just want to go and shoot. So, it did take me around six months to feel comfortable with the R5 and now it is my absolute favourite camera. I wouldn't swap it for anything until the R5 II showed up. So, the few major differences I noticed is the tracking, which literally blew my mind. So, I haven't really used other cameras. So, from going from the R5 to the R5 II, the tracking was brilliant. There was one specific moment I realised it was crazy, which was when we had a leopard walking through dead branches and we couldn't see it with the naked eye, yet the camera continued to track the leopard. And actually, another moment, I was taking burst mode loads of photos of a crossbill flying over and there's lots of branches and there's literally a tree underneath and it continued to track. So, the tracking is amazing, especially the animal eye tracking. Like, it was pretty much on it constantly. Didn't get confused with other things, which occasionally happens with the R5. So, I was pretty impressed. The other major thing is the stabilisation. So, I often had the R5 II on my tripod or on a gimbal and filming me whilst we were driving around. There is a major difference between the two cameras in terms of the stabilisation. So, even though we were on this really bumpy jeep and I was sat at the back of the car, so it was really bumpy, it was very, very stable. Sometimes with the R5, if you make a big movement, there's a moment or a couple of frames where it's just blurred or just like the image is slanted and almost like stretched and that didn't happen at all with the R5 II. Something I didn't notice at the start of the trip, which is the eye-controlled autofocus. The camera is basically watching your eye and what you're looking at and based on that, it's going to focus on what you're looking at. And I discovered this by accident because I was filming video and usually if I've got multiple animals in my shot, I'm going to be looking around to see what they're doing in case I need to change my composition. And so, I was filming one and I looked at the other one and the camera just started focusing on it. And at first, I was a bit like, why? But since it had already changed focus, I just continued to focus on this lion cub. But I didn't realise until later that that was the actually registering what my eye was looking at, which is pretty nuts. Before I go into what I didn't like about the R5 II, I want to talk about MPB, who are the largest global platform to buy, sell and trade used photography gear. Thank you MPB for sponsoring this video. As photographers, we tend to hold on to equipment we don't use, guilty. And you can actually sell your gear on MPB. I've sold my EF 24-105mm, my EF 100-400mm lens and the process was quicker, easier and just safer than selling on marketplaces or on social media. MPB gave me an instant quote and organised a fully insured courier to collect my gear from my doorstep and I was paid directly into my bank account a few days later. If you've got camera gear you're not using and you want to trade it in or turn it into cash, MPB is linked in the description. Okay, let's go into why the R5 II didn't suit me. When I first got the R5 Mark II, I was quite surprised at how much it felt like the R5. In terms of the size and just the feeling, it feels like an R5, which is good. However, the top is very different and now with the left hand you have a photo and video switch and on the right side you have your on off. Until I was actually using it I didn't realise how problematic this was for me. Hang on, let me get another camera. This is how I hold my camera and for the R5 it's perfect because my left hand takes the weight of the lens. I never hold a camera unless it's with a short lens like this because of the weight. So this is how most wildlife photographers hold their cameras if they're not using a tripod. The issue with the photo and video switch being on the left is if I want to change between them I have to get my right hand and actually go over the camera and change it because it's impossible for me to let go of the lens with my left hand and do it with my left thumb. With the R5 you can also set a custom button which is the MFN to be photo and video which is extremely useful but for me having the photo and video switch on the left was a major inconvenience, has to be said. However, I've been recently told that there is a custom button that can be set to switch between photo and video. The past few months I've been on and off experimenting with log and when I was in Zambia I was shooting in c-log and I then changed my battery on the R5 too and I was very confused why I couldn't find the setting for c-log and for the first few days I couldn't work out for the life of me why certain features weren't working and then I realised you need to use the new battery to unlock those features. If I had known that I would have brought plenty of new batteries so I didn't have the issue that I couldn't record in slow motion or use c-log and because of that once the R5 II battery had run out I was just using my R5 because I need to shoot slow motion and I want to shoot in log. Despite these two limitations I do think the R5 Mark II will become my main camera if I can set a custom button on the right side of the and of course you can always get more batteries. I also noticed when we were photographing a male leopard sitting in a tree so there was low light because of the canopy cover that the footage from the R5 Mark II were more noisy than with the R5. Obviously not in all situations but particularly with this situation the R5 was better. Despite these limitations I do think the R5 II will become my main camera or one of my main cameras. I think the animal eye tracking being so good is going to be extremely good for squirrels running and jumping. I really really want a custom button on the right side of the camera to be able to switch between photo and video and if that doesn't exist I feel like it could be in an update so that doesn't worry me massively and also with the batteries you can always get more batteries. It's a bit annoying that the older batteries don't unlock those features but you can get more batteries. The thing I didn't try just because I had so much going on, crazy wildlife, two cameras, is the pre-capture. So the next time I have my hands on the R5 Mark II I'd really like to test the pre-capture. So those are my honest thoughts on the R5 Mark II. Would love to know what you think of the camera. I hope you've enjoyed some extra sneak peeks at the upcoming Zambia videos. There's still quite a few videos from Zambia to come. We find wild dog puppies just adorable. We still have a few spots on the Zambia photo trip. I will be providing photo tuition so if you want to learn more about photography, editing, as well as experiencing amazing Zambian wildlife and just crazy nature times then links below. Thank you for watching. I hope you've enjoyed this more casual chatty video. If you enjoyed it or didn't let me know and I'll see you next week, next Sunday. Bye!