finally on hand with production Canon EOS R5 for 2 days. managed to test standard function, ISO performance, Raw file capability (Shadow and highlight recovery) and AF : Animal eye tracking on birds

For wildlife Photographers, few things about AF bordeing us : AF speed, AF accuracy, AF tracking capability

*** yet to have time setup screen capture to show the R5 AF capability and hope I can make one to show

for the 2 days bird photography with the R5

Day1 : standard shooting experience, Handheld IS capability , ISO, Shadow and Highlight recovery

Day2 : I shooting Tv mode , Full Animal eye tracking

Here, I will sharing real Tropical forest field experience on using the R5 … few simple conclusions before start some sharing

1. the AF to lock the object

i. normal condition – EOS 1Dx m2 definitely faster and R5 is faster than my 5D mark4

ii. low light condition – EOS1Dx m2 faster , R5 is good compare to 5Dmark4

iii. back light condition with shadow highlight backgroup (not just pure sky)

– EOS1Dx m2 faster, 5Dm4 slow but R5 seem can’t really look for the object (small object on the overall frame) . the R5 just can’t get the lizard or the trunk nearby to focus for long (and I am still looking single button to change AF to MF peaking to solve this easy .

2. Animal Finding — > Eye Tracking

– I was amaze by A9 with 600mm FE year back where my guest using it to find the the bird !!! As long as we point the camera and len toward bird direction with some minor complex object (with pure sky there are no problem at all) the A9 will automatic found the bird and keep tracking it !!!!!

so I also try to use R5 , I know where is the bird and point R5 with EF-R adapter 500mm EF IS4 II toward the direction . the Camera did found the tiny flowerpecker if it move/jump but it stay and just moving it’s body .. I still can’t depend the R5 help me find where’s the bird yet …

Trac#

Tracking : this TOTALY change my thought of Mirrorless camera !!!!

As long as I can find , focus the bird (use shutter button focus the bird) than I use the AF-on (configure to Animal eye focus) it will track the bird head/eye in any conditions : dark, backlight, moving, flying small object etc

Even, the Green Iora is far and small in this case. After I got the bird focus and press AF-On button, the eye tracking just work seamless (no matter it change head direction, jumping etc)

situation where birds flying with plain sky … it is incredible fast to get the camera to focus on the bird .. as long shutter speed fast enough , shooting swiftlet is like “makan kacang putih” (Malaysian say) …. picture below .. point my camera and len toward sky with any bird , and press the AF-On button which is Animal-eye tracking than within very short moment it will lock the bird and fire shutter ….

We always do have problem shooting bird in flight when bird flying toward us with speed . the AF not easy to lock the object firmly , even yes we need luck , high skill (camera and tripod handling) to have higher success rate for Bird in Flight toward us .. which is different from side way flying which many way can make higher success rate

Very lucky day, we have this Owl for us to try the animal-eye tracking AF … with condition

– bird flying from about 200m toward us about 20-30m toward us and than to right

– Canon EOS R5, R-EF adapter , Canon 600mm F4 IS2

– Tv mode set to Auto ISO, 1/2000

– This test , using single focus get the bird focus when it flying toward us than using Animal-eye tracking for full sequence shooting of ~3s

– Mechanical shutter

– among 29 frame pictures captured , only 1 frame missed and 1 not capture correct (due to moving my camera slower than the bird flying)

simple video show how each the bird flying toward us