The Canon EOS R5 is in a truly odd place now within Canon’s lineup of cameras. It’s supposed to be more or less a Canon 5D series camera. But in a bunch of ways, it seems to be behind lower priced cameras in the lineup. We’re expressing this, amongst other disappointments in our Canon EOS R5 review update. In fact, if you’re a Canon EOS R5 owner, I would probably not even bother with this one.
This latest update with the Canon EOS R5 is truly odd as it enhances the camera with a high-resolution shooting mode. But like a lot of things from Canon, it feels like they’re holding themselves back.
Below is the update from our Canon EOS R5 review. You can read the whole thing here.
Update April 2023
Canon recently launched a new firmware for the Canon EOS R5 that gives it a high-resolution shot mode. Here are the details on Firmware 1.81:
- [IBIS High-Resolution Shooting] has been added to the menu. By utilizing the in-body image stabilization mechanism, it is now possible to record images with a higher sense of resolution.
* To check images, use EOS Utility/Digital Photo Professional. EOS Utility/Digital Photo Professional requires a version upgrade. - [Save/load communication settings to card] has been added to the menu. Network settings can now be inherited between cameras of the same model.
- You can now trim and resize images while transferring them to the FTP server.
- “Image protection” for FTP transfer has been added to the menu. Images transferred by FTP can now be automatically protected. This makes it possible to determine whether or not the image has been FTP-transferred.
- Fixed minor bugs
Here’s what they’re not telling you though: High Resolution Shot mode creates the final high resolution image as a JPEG. And typically, the image is around double what a RAW file is. Further, it also means that you have to use it in electronic shutter mode. Of course, we’ve got a lot of thoughts on this.
To begin, high-resolution shot mode has been around for many camera manufacturers for years. So it’s nice that Canon is catching up here. But lots of other manufacturers let you have a RAW photo as your final shot. With Canon, it’s throwing away the RAW files and delivering to you only a JPEG file. We checked with Canon, and there’s no word on whether that might change in the future.
This mentality is counter-intuitive to the photographer that wants higher resolution. Typically, if you want or need an image that’s that pixel-dense, you’re going to work on it in post-production. It’s very essential for retouchers, product photographers, landscape photographers, and others. The fact that Canon is automatically turning the image into a JPEG feels like a slipshod attempt at being innovative. This isn’t uncommon for Canon to do the firmware equivalent of giving a tiny pittance to a beggar. In fact, considering how big of a blunder they made with the Canon EOS R5 with the marketing on overheating, we’d think that they would’ve given us more.
Further, the High Resolution mode only is done in electronic shutter mode. This is because it prevents any issues with camera shake. That’s a bit more admirable to understand if you want to shoot handheld. However, photographers that care about having high resolution will also have no problems with using a tripod. To that end, they’d also use a flash or strobe in-studio. With the Canon EOS R5, you can’t use a flash with the electronic shutter. However, both Nikon and Sony’s platforms let you do it. This is an even bigger problem with photographers shooting products in a studio. Now you have to use constant lighting, which is weaker and doesn’t let you get the higher details that a proper strobe will let you get at comparable prices.
To me, this firmware update feels almost useless. Sure, there are also enhancements to the FTP stuff. But we’re not sure how many photographers are really using that.