Canon EOS R5 Mirrorless Camera- Body Only

I've enjoyed taking photos for decades(5), R5 is by far my favorite for a number of reasons but mostly its ability to deep beautiful clarity and colors. Low light photos to bright sunny days wow is all I can say. Not a professional photographer, but this camera has renewed my desire to take more pictures.

The R5 is an amazing deal refurbished. In my opinion it still has the best image quality of any camera in Canon's lineup and worthy of Canon's legendary 5 series badge.

The autofocus is quite good. It's definitely not perfect. When doing bird photography, the eye control focus will sometimes get confused. The closer the bird and the fewer obstacles (such as trees, etc.) that are in the way, the better the eye control focus will work. Based on reviewing several YouTube videos I decided to set up back-button focus on two separate buttons. If you're not familiar with back-button focus, it means that you set the main shooting button to do metering only, NOT focusing as is the usual default. Then you set the AF-ON button to initiate focusing. In my case, this initiates the "traditional" (i.e., non-eye-controlled) focusing that can be used in those tricky situations where the eye-control focusing is confused. Then I also set up the * button, which normally functions as AE Lock, to initiate eye-control focusing. It's a lot of buttons and a bit confusing, but it gives you very good control over focusing. The picture quality is fantastic. There is more dynamic range and there are more pixels versus the Canon 5D Mk IV. I do not do much video, so I can't comment on the issues with overheating. For those interested in still photos, there is a very good upgrade.

I have, also, a Canon EOS R. The R5 is far superior in its layout and controls...and, of course, in its photographic capabilities to the R, which I've used for the past two years. Although I've not had a chance to use the R5 extensively, I have shot stills in 1.6x mode, full mode, FHD and 4K Video. All look great. The camera feels comfortable in my hand, operations are very natural, all buttons and dials have a great array of programmable options and this camera will likely replace both my Canon EOS 7DII and the R for wildlife, landscapes and video.

I used to shoot on Nikon. But when my less than 2 year old D750 started giving me less than great images, I was having doubts about the brand. All of my lenses had soft focus and I was getting visible grain at ISO 800! I tried every trick in the book to figure out what was wrong, but nothing fixed the issues. So I rented an R5 and Fell. In. Love. This camera is AMAZING!! Fast focus, sharp, intuitive and user friendly! The customizable features are such a great addition to an already spectacular camera! Touch and drag focus is a Game Changer!! Although my nose sometimes moves the focal point when it touches the screen. As soon as my rental was up, I purchased the R5 and have been loving it! Now if only the lenses weren't all on back order. ;) I definitely recommend this camera!

This is a fantastic camera. The capabilities packed into this camera are remarkable. High density sensor (45MP), great sensitivity and low-light capability, high-speed shutter, IBIS, best in class video capabilities, just to name a few. The DPAF v2 is outstanding and the R system a revolutionary step forward that maintains backwards compatibility with EF lenses. This is a great upgrade for any Canon user and an excellent reason to move to Canon.

Amazing camera!!!! So sharp so fast! Canon made an incredible camera body that in my opinion for photography is unbeatable! I have been shooting wildlife and focus on whales and dolphins and even when the animals are coming quick out of the water it focuses on them so fast! I love this product

ransitioning to the Canon EOS R5 feels like a massive leap forward in raw technical capability, especially when coming from the baseline EOS R. As a high-resolution, high-performance tool, it delivers arguably some of the finest imaging files on the market today. However, living with the camera reveals a few distinct engineering bottlenecks that complicate the user experience. The High Points: Uncompromising Image Quality and Ergonomics First and foremost, the image quality is spectacular. The 45-megapixel sensor paired with Canon's modern RF color science yields files with incredible micro-contrast, clinical sharpness, and ample dynamic range. When pairing the body with native glass like the RF 50mm f/1.8—especially stopped down to its f/4 sweet spot—the resolving power easily satisfies the most demanding pixel-peeping standards. The ergonomics and control layout are equally stellar. Returning to the traditional joystick and robust rear dial interface (moving away from the EOS R's experimental M-Fn bar) makes blind-operating the camera effortless. The deep grip balances wonderfully, even when adapting heftier DSLR lenses like the Tamron 17-35mm via the EF-to-RF adapter. The Bottlenecks: Where the R5 Tests Your Patience Despite its flagship-tier performance, the R5 enforces several sharp technical limitations that remind you of the physical costs of managing high-density data. 1. The Auditory Disappointment: A Muddy Shutter Sound For photographers who view the tactile and acoustic feedback of a camera as core to the experience, the R5's mechanical shutter is a letdown. Where the original EOS R possessed a sharp, crisp, metallic "click" that felt incredibly decisive and mechanical, the R5 sounds distinctly muffled and muddy. This dampening is a direct byproduct of engineering necessity: to protect 45 megapixels of data from the micro-vibrations of a 12fps mechanical shutter mechanism, Canon had to heavily cushion the assembly. While your images stay tack-sharp, your ears sacrifice that satisfying, tactile snap. 2. The Data Avalanche: Overwhelming File Sizes Moving to a 45MP workflow means constantly wrestling with massive file sizes. A standard uncompressed RAW file frequently pushes north of 50MB. If you are shooting long sequences or high-volume bursts, your storage architecture gets pushed to its absolute limits. This creates a downstream ripple effect: importing files, running heavy processing pipelines, or feeding images into local AI/ML models demands substantial computing overhead and extensive hard drive space. It forces you to be incredibly disciplined about what you shoot, turning the camera into a high-maintenance data factory. 3. The Electronic Shutter Artificial Ceiling Perhaps the most frustrating firmware-enforced bottleneck is the strict behavior of the electronic shutter. While the 20fps silent shooting mode is a powerful asset for tracking motion without a sound, it comes with a severe restriction: the shutter speed cannot drop below 1/0.5 seconds. This artificial ceiling is a protective measure against data degradation. Because the R5's sensor takes relatively long to read out the full 45 megapixels row-by-row in electronic mode, prolonged exposures accumulate massive amounts of heat and dark current noise. To prevent your shadows from dissolving into a messy matrix of colorful thermal artifacts, Canon completely locks out long exposures. If you need to shoot architectural long exposures or slow-shutter motion on a tripod, you are abruptly forced to switch back to mechanical or electronic first-curtain modes. Final Verdict The Canon EOS R5 is a phenomenal piece of engineering, but it is not a "carefree" camera. It demands that you accept the physical tax of high-resolution shooting—tolerating a dampened shutter sound, managing a deluge of data, and constantly navigating shutter-mode workarounds to maximize your dynamic range. It is a precision instrument that rewards you with breathtaking images, provided you are willing to play strictly by its rules.

This is a fantastic camera with some issues, which seem to be getting addressed. The problem boils down to overheating (pun intended). This makes using some of the more amazing things not practical except for very short videos. The first update has helped alleviate the problem but it is still and issue. Maybe they released it too soon.

This new body has reinvigorated my photography interest. While it did hang once (requiring power off, not an overheat issue) after a bursty stills session of 700+ over 30 minutes, I have had no other problems. Beyond the micro HDMI port, the only other complaint I have it that it lacks HDMI 2.1 or DP 2.0 for 8k external recording. Also, adding the ability to program the AFON button would be great. I want eye AF except when I press AFON, when I want to force the focus to a pre-selcted spot, then eye AF when I press the shutter button.