Canon EOS R5 Mark II in-depth review

Canon’s EOS 5 series cameras are incredibly important to its business because it sells lots of them, and they are popular with end users because you get professional-level, cutting-edge performance in a standard-size body at a price that is affordable.

I use the word ‘affordable’ advisedly because the EOS R5 Mark II body sells at £4499, which is still serious money; its predecessor was £4199 at launch in 2020, so we are not talking pocket money here.

Before we get into the nuts and bolts of the review, two points for transparency. Canon supplied us a pre-production sample of the EOS R5 Mark II (v1.0.1 firmware), so we could not fully test the camera’s imaging ability and, of course, cameras on sale in the shops might perform or handle differently.

Also, we had the camera for just three days and shot around 5000 frames, mostly in London.

R5 Mk II body, battery and handling

There is a broad range of changes in the stills and video capabilities of the EOS R5 Mark II compared with the original.

Physically, the two are similar in size and weight, with the new camera being just 8g heavier. The upside of this for current EOS R5 owners is that the same L-brackets will fit and the Battery Grip BG-R10 can be fitted too. But use the grip or the camera itself with the LP-E6NH battery and you will get a message telling you that some of the EOS R5 Mark II’s skills won’t be available. This includes a range of movie features and pre-capture.

You need the LP-E6P battery, which sells for £119, to fully enjoy the new model – and this cell also gives greater shooting capacity.

On my London shoot, I racked up 1400 frames, which included several long bursts using the electronic and mechanical shutters, plus several short movies – and I still had 30% capacity at the end. That was good, especially as I spent some time digging into the menus.

There is one major physical change in the EOS R5 Mark II and that is the provision of a stills/movie switch which sits exactly where the on/off switch is on the EOS R5.

The EOS R5 Mark II’s on/off has moved to the right with a lock position in-between the on and off positions. It means you can carry the camera in one hand and turn it on while bringing it up to the eye. Start-up, though, like on the EOS R5, is not fast.

The downside for EOS R5 owners is that muscle memory will have them using the stills/movie switch by mistake. I would have thought a better solution would be to lose the lock option and have that function assigned from the menu and have a three-way on/off switch with positions for off, video and stills.

Other key physical features include a multi-function hotshoe, which is protected by a fiddly-to-use cover, and a full-size HDMI port, which will please video shooters.

R5 Mk II sensor

Of course, while the exterior changes are important, it is what Canon has done inside the EOS R5 Mark II that is important.

While the new camera has the same 45-megapixel effective resolution, it uses a backlit stacked sensor for a much faster all-round performance.

R5 Mk II shutter

Top shooting rate of the electronic shutter tops out at 30fps, with options of other shooting rates, and this is with 14-bit Raw capture – whereas the EOS R5 had the option of 20fps only and at 12-bit.

The speed range of the electronic shutter is 30secs to 1/32,000sec with flash sync at 1/160sec or slower; the older model was limited to 0.5sec to 1/8000sec with no flash sync.

The electronic shutter also has an adjustable volume click. In fact, you can have sound to confirm focusing, self-timer operation, touch sounds and beeps in video shooting.

R5 Mk II continuous shooting and processing speeds

To test the EOS R5 Mark II’s continuous shooting skills, I used an Angelbird 512GB CFexpress Type B 1785MB/s card and a Lexar 64GB 2000x SD card, although I tested each separately.

I set the camera to shoot full-size Raws and large JPEGs simultaneously, with ISO 12,800 and a shutter speed of 1/1000sec, and photographed an online stopwatch.

With the mechanical shutter, I got 85 shots at 12fps with both cards; I took my finger off the shutter release when the buffer counter hit zero. With the CFexpress card the buffer cleared in five seconds, while the SD card took much longer at 32secs.

Switching to the electronic shutter, I got 60 shots at 29fps with the SD card and the camera’s write LED extinguished after 32secs. Using the CFexpress Type B card I got 68 shots at 30fps and 79 shots at 20fps with the buffer clearing in six seconds.

In my continuous shooting tests, the EOS R5 Mark II outperformed the EOS R5, but not by that much. Using the same CFexpress Type B card in the EOS R5, I got 43 shots at 20fps with the buffer clearing in 5secs.

R5 Mk II pre-capture feature

A prominent feature for many photographers will be the EOS R5 Mark II’s pre-capture feature; Canon calls its version ‘Pre-cont. shooting mode’.

In this, with the continuous shooting speed set to 30fps, you get 0.5sec of pre-capture. Again shooting full Raws and large JPEGs, I was getting 14-15 shots pre-capture and around 50 shots if I kept my finger on the shutter button without setting a frame limit.

There is no option to fine-tune time period or how many frames you get in pre-capture, which is disappointing. However, simply having a properly implemented pre-capture mode (with individual Raws to choose from) is very welcome.

R5 Mk II pixel shift and in-camera upscaling

Another feature implemented well on rival cameras is pixel-shift shooting for high-resolution files, but Canon has struggled with this.

The EOS R5 gained IBIS High Resolution via a firmware update and can produce 400-megapixel JPEG files of static scenes by combining nine shots.

The Mark II has In-Camera Upscaling included in its playback menu and this increases the size of the original JPEG from 8192×5464 pixels to 16,384×10,928 pixels. It only works with JPEG/HEIF files and the process takes approximately 12secs for the in-camera interpolation to take place.

With Raws, these will need to be processed in camera to JPEG/HEIF first and then the resulting files can be upsized.

Where the EOS R5 Mark II’s upscaling feature wins is that it works with individual frames, which means you don’t have to worry about movement during multi-frame pixel-shift capture.

That aside, I can’t see the point of the feature. There is no benefit to noise or colour fidelity, so you might as well interpolate images on the computer.

R5 Mk II autofocus

The Mark II has moved forward significantly, though, in its AF skills. Its sensor uses Canon’s Dual Pixel AF, which uses two photodiodes at each pixel location. There is no Dual Pixel Raw on the new camera, which was a feature with limited appeal
and potential.

R5 Mk II eye control AF

One feature that has cascaded down from the EOS R3 is Eye Control AF. After calibration and with partial pressure on the shutter or AF ON button, this neat feature lets you select and focus on a subject just by looking at it.

So, if you are at a racetrack with two cars tearing towards you, using Eye Control allows you to focus on one car and then the next just by staring at which one you want sharp.

I did try it on London traffic and the system worked well even after a single calibration. It is advised to perform a calibration on upright as well as horizontal orientation and
in different lighting for better results.

Compared with the EOS R3, the EOS R5 Mark II’s system has improved algorithms and wider-view sensors to improve performance when your eye is further from the viewfinder eyepiece – as well as for the benefit of spectacle-wearers.

In my short time with the camera, I used Eye Control quite a bit for normal shooting and even after a single calibration it worked remarkably well for street shots, scenes and birds.

With one of the small AF points active, I found I could move this point by eye where needed and it was quicker than using the focus joystick. I am not saying it was infallible and that may be because my eye wasn’t in the optimum position each time, but it was still pretty good even when shooting with a tripod.

The thing to remember was, while you might scan around the frame during composition, when you are ready to shoot you must look at the subject or what you want sharp.

In the end, I got to like Eye Control AF and dedicated the depth-of-field button to call it up quickly.

Perhaps oddly, given that Eye Control is a focusing feature, it is not in the AF section of the menu. But then again, Canon’s menus could do with being better organised and it still bugs me that setting bracketing and number of frames are in different places.

The EOS R5 Mark II has eight menu tabs, one more than its predecessor. The new tab is broadly headed ‘Customized controls’ and has four pages.

On page one you will find customised controls and functions, and on page four you will find Eye Control. Of course, the feature can be dedicated to My Menu.

R5 Mk II subject and eye detection

The Mark II’s autofocus is very good. I didn’t get the chance to test the ‘register people’ priority or shoot football, basketball or volleyball, but with birds, insects, street shooting and scenics I enjoyed using it.

I deployed a range of lenses, including the RF 24-105mm, RF 70-200mm, RF 100-500mm and RF 200-800mm, and used a range of AF zones and subject detection modes.

With birds, I did find the AF system a little bit uncertain. For example, with a bird sitting in a tree, the eye detection box could pick up on the end of a cut branch and the AF would not move to the bird’s eye, even with a subject as bright as a parakeet. Or with two birds in the frame, the AF box would move onto the bird behind the main subject.

But then, with a starling and its dark eyes, the AF eye detection would manage no problem.

During pre-capture shooting the AF was inconsistent at staying with the subject as it took off, or might focus on the background.

One issue with the EOS R5’s AF remains unresolved on the new camera. Shooting birds and insects with a long telephoto, the AF will not detect or recognise an out-of-focus close-up subject even when it is large in the frame or will focus on the background.

You need to manually get focus close before hitting AF ON or find something well defined at around the same distance, focus on that and then reframe and hopefully the system will pick up on the subject.

R5 Mk II image quality

I haven’t mentioned picture quality yet, but ISO performance with both shutter types seems good (see Performance: ISO section below) and the same applies to the dynamic range of its Raws; here the EOS R5 Mark II seems at least comparable to its predecessor.

I did a few side-by-side shots for my own personal consumption, but didn’t dig too deeply. Final judgement will have to wait for a production camera.