After a gap of just over two years I felt the urge to return to my blog. For some reason I just could not find the motivation to do so during the height of the lockdowns here in Melbourne, despite having the time, a backlog of ideas and work that I always intended to publish…

2019 ended with an incredible trip to India, a vibrant and richly colourful country with just so much to photograph. 2020 began with the promise of a trip back to the UK to celebrate my parents 60th wedding anniversary in July…and then of course Covid 19 engulfed the world…

During the seemingly interminable months of home imprisonment, I fully intended to revisit this blog, however a degree of lethargy combined with trying to work during the restrictions (while also being in the middle of building a house), meant that unfortunately my publishing plans never materialised…

So how do you resume posting after such a long period of inactivity, and of course what should I talk about? Well thoughts on new camera equipment, naturally..!

During the lockdown I started to be offered even more video work (which thankfully continues), and when my beloved Canon 5D Mk III was at Camera Clinic having a sensor clean, I was advised that the shutter was close to failing, worn out after many years of daily professional use. My main camera was still the Canon 5DSR, however with the release of the new Canon R5 I felt it was time to embrace the higher video specs and reputedly amazing auto focus capabilities in the matured Canon mirrorless system. I was never really interested in the original EOS R, having played with it a little in a local camera store. I did like the smaller size of the R, but it somehow felt like an experiment by Canon rather than a ‘finished’ product (although I am probably being unfair).

Using the Canon R5 as a commercial photographer

Making the switch from a DSLR to a mirrorless camera was very easy, and by using the EF-RF adapter I have continued to enjoy my collection of EF lenses. In fact I think that they produce even better quality images on the R5 as there is now no problem with the occasional back focusing, which I have experienced in the past primarily with my old 5D Mk 2. Certaily there are a considerable number of menu’s to work through, and it is worth updating the camera’s firmware whenever a new version is released, but thankfully I have not experienced any instances of the camera ‘freezing’, or of it overheating when shooting video work.

Using The Canon R5 for Architectural Photography

The first time I picked up the Canon R5 I was amazed with the impressive ‘eye auto focus’ system; finally here was a camera with a superb eye tracking auto focus that I could use in my industrial and corporate work. In the past when shooting portraits on my 5DSR or 5D3 I have always shot many more frames than I currently do simply to ensure that I had achieved critical focus on my subjects eyes. I would also rarely use my beautiful 85mm f1.2 wide open at 1.2 because I just did not trust that I would nail the focus, instead I would stop down a little to f2.5, which in a sense negates the reason for having an f1.2 lens in the first place… Now with the R5 I can confidently shoot moving subjects wide open at f1.2 and enjoy the results from the brilliant L series glass.

As an architectural photographer I was very much looking forward to using my much loved and overworked 17mm TS-E tilt shift lens on my new camera. Obviously it would still need to be focused manually, but I was again delighted with the exposure simulation seen in the R5’s viewfinder. Now I can see exactly the exposure I am going to be getting before shooting with the 17mm TS-E. This saves so much time when compared with using the lens on my other DSLR bodies, since shifting the lens causes the exposure meter to give a false reading, it was always necessary to shoot and judge the exposure on the rear LCD. Of course over time I became proficient at estimating the correct exposure, but I far prefer the convenience of the R5

All of these images were captured for a specific client, and of course I also captured the aerial panoramic shots using the Mavic 2 Pro drone.

For more information regarding my work please visit my portfolio site at http://www.michaelevansphotographer.com