• Home
  • Reviews Index
  • Best Gear
  • Inspiration
  • Learn
  • Disclaimer
  • Staff/Contact Info
  • Media Kit
  • Membership
Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
News

We Handheld the Canon EOS R5 at 105mm for Over a Second

Chris Gampat
No Comments
08/01/2020
4 Mins read
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Canon EOS R5 product images 2.51-640s160 1

Last Updated on 08/01/2020 by Mark Beckenbach

A bunch of lenses got a firmware update today and perform even better with the Canon EOS R5.

I’m a photographer trained to not rely on image stabilization–and I’ve seen that this training has helped so much with my photography. Today, all of Canon’s RF lenses with image stabilization are getting a new firmware update. The Canon EOS R5 and EOS R6 now work with the internal stabilization systems to produce more steady results. Canon has stated that with specific lenses, you can get up to 8 stops of image stabilization. So if you’re one of those photographers that loads up on too much coffee, can’t control their breathing, or just has shaky hands, you now have a better chance of producing sharp results at slower shutter speeds. And for those of us who do things the old school way, we’re now able to do a whole lot more. We took the Canon EOS R5 and the Canon RF 24-105mm f4 L IS USM onto our Brooklyn rooftop to shoot the sunset. Our findings: we’re very impressed even when we go beyond 8 stops of IS.

What Was Possible Before

For what it’s worth, the Canon RF 24-105mm f4 L IS USM is already really solid. In our review, we were able to handhold it down to around 1/15th and still get very stable images with the Canon EOS R. To refresh, the Canon EOS R doesn’t have IBIS, so we were just relying on what was possible with the lens. Quite a bit was already capable if you took the right steps with the image stabilization that it had. Using the motion stopping abilities of a powerful light also helped a lot. So if you’re not too steady, you can use a flash with a fast flash duration to stop the motion. Combine it with second curtain flash, and you’ll get the motion blur from the trains.

What’s Possible Now

With the new firmware update and the features of the Canon EOS R5, you can get up to 8 stops of image stabilization with the 24-105mm f4 L IS USM. So if you consider the reciprocal rule of shutter speeds and you kept the aperture and the ISO the same, that’s going from around 1/100th at 105mm down to 3 seconds. Of course, that’s tough for anyone to do, and it all depends on focal lengths and a bunch of other things. As it is, I don’t know many people that can handhold a 105mm lens at 1/100th. Amongst the photography reviewers and journalists I know and regularly associate with, Steve Huff (does he really need an introduction?) and Jeanette Moses (DPReview, Pop Photo) are the only two I think could do it without image stabilization. Steve’s a Leica guy, and Jeanette is a trained photojournalist. Gear Editor Brett Day and Copy Editor Mark Beckenbach can do it too. But amongst the working photographers I know, the list is still pretty small.

Just think about this: 105mm, and according to the reciprocal rule of shutter speeds, you need to be able to handhold it at 1/100th or 1/125th. How many of you can do that? Well, let’s take a look at what we did.

The Wide End

24mm 1/30th ISO 100 f5.6
24mm f4 1/8th ISO 100
1/8th 24mm

Starting at the wide end at 24mm, we’re in easy mode. Brett will have more of this come later today, where he handheld to around 5 seconds and got super steady results on the Canon EOS R6. (Stay tuned for that to come at 6AM EST today.) I didn’t dip as far down, but even at 1/8th of a second at 24mm, I’m sure that most people who call themselves photographers would have trouble getting a blur-free shot. So let’s do a torture test, shall we?

The Telephoto End

105mm 4 seconds

We’re doing this all at different times and with different subjects. With these two images, I was focusing on the white stable on the chessboard style rooftop. There’s undoubtedly camera shake, but it’s still pretty impressive. Handholding at a focal length that long for this period is pretty tricky to do. I’m sure anyone would agree.

105mm 3.2 seconds
105mm 2.5 seconds

For this image, I was focusing on the door. Again, very impressive.

105mm 0.4 seconds

Focusing on the window here with the guitar in it. Still able to get a ton of great details. The 45MP sensor helps here.

105mm 1/50th
105mm 0.2 seconds

These two shots above are still pretty slow for 105mm in the eyes of the modern photographer. Yet it gave us no trouble. Again, we’re very impressed by all this.

24-105mm Canon EOS R5 canon eos r6 handheld IBIS image stabilization rf 24-105mm f4 L IS USM
Shares
Written by

Chris Gampat

Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
Previous Post

We’re Looking for a Specialized Writer. Want to Join Team Phoblographer?

Next Post

EOS R6: Handheld 6 Second Exposures Are Easy After RF Lens Updates

The Phoblographer © 2023 ——Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
  • Home
  • Our Staff
  • Editorial Policies
  • Media Kit
  • Membership
  • App Debug