30 Days With My Ex

To say I have a love-hate relationship with my ex would be a huge understatement. By ex, I mean Canon cameras. As a 26 year Photographer and a very opinionated middle-aged man, I have come full circle with my digital nemesis. A Canon friend then foe I’ve had my doubts & hate with the DSLR giant. From their customer service to limiting camera updates, I’m just not a fan. But this isn’t a bash Canon post, I’m here to give you an honest overview of my first 30 days with the Canon 5D Mark IV.

As an avid Micro 43 shooter for the past 4 years, Lumix GH3 then GH5 a switch back to a DSLR goes against everything I have come to love about Mirrorless digital. For my style of shooting and the way I work, it was a HUGE deal. Let me explain the switch, my client’s needs and lastly how I feel about the Canon 5DMKIV in general and how it matches up to the Lumix GH5.

I was recently hired by a company who shoots exclusively on Canon cameras. More specifically the Canon 5D Mark IV. They love the imagery they get out of the Full Frame CR2 files, skin tones, image latitude and Bokeh (I hate that term) especially with the 70–200mm F2.8 in particular. That mixed with their post-production workflow of Lightroom and Photoshop the final imagery looks amazing. For the first 2 weeks I had a loaner camera but as my booking increased and being the ADD neat freak/dust off addict that photo assisting burned into my soul, it was time to take the reluctant and pricey leap back to Canon. I was looking at getting a basic kit for my needs, nothing too crazy, no super fast primes yet or wide zooms. Just a solid starting point and trying to figure out what that was going to set me back. My estimated kit landed me at $8,500 USD. Without doing all the math I believe that’s a pretty solid estimate of where I landed. Below is all the camera equipment purchased & used during this review. Thanks to Samys Camera Pasadena & BH Photo for their excellent service.

There is one thing I noticed right off the bat with this camera, the beautifully familiar layout of the Canon 5DMKIV and how it feels in my hand. The layout is almost instinctual, even though I haven’t owned a Canon in over 6 years, since my 5DMKII. It felt solid and right at home in my hands. I’m not sure if that is a good or a bad thing? Feeling good in my hands is amazing but the fact that nothing significant has changed with Canon DSLR’s in that amount of time explains the majority’s thoughts on their DSLR products. With Sony dropping new pro cameras every year with amazing low light, autofocus & video technology what the hell is Canon doing? That being said, in regards to the layout of the camera body, everything was where it needed to be. Setting up the camera to my specs and setting the quick buttons took maybe 30 minutes of digging through the menu without using the manual. Quality RAW, Beep Enable, ISO & Exposure set to 1/3 Increments, VF display illumination On, The guts and layout of the menus are exactly what you expect from Canon, flawless. This is something they really excel at. Color-coded, touch screen menu that is by far the easiest menu to navigate I have ever come across on a DSLR or Mirrorless Camera. Good job Canon.

To check out my exact camera settings CLICK HERE.

After I had my camera set up it was time to shoot and tweak. After a few weeks of time with the camera, I switched one of my custom functions to allow me to move the focus point with the back button without having to hit the AF Area Mode button which has been a game changer. Besides that, almost everything has been the same since my set up. I noticed I prefer my white balance for review at 5200K as opposed to 5600K for daylight. I think that’s just a personal preference. Seems like the monitor matches the slight peach tone Lightroom gives the images better. From March 28 to May 6, 2018, I’ve had 18 shoots with my Canon 5D Mark IV and shot approximately 32K CR2 images. So I would say that gives me a fair amount of time on the camera. So far there has only been a couple of hiccups using the system. There has been a couple of random times that the autofocus didn’t work. I just turned the camera off, reconnected the lens to make sure the points were matching and restarted and everything was back to normal. That has really been my only hiccups so far with the camera. I’m a pretty easy user with my cameras and want them to be a tool I have for a long time so I treat all of my equipment very good.

On to the imagery. To me, a camera is a tool. I’m not in love with the Canon brand the way I would be if I owned a Leica. So my Canon is like my photography daily driver, gets me from point A to B. It’s not a fancy Ferrari or a deluxe SUV, it’s a Ford F150 and it’s dependable. That being said the RAW files out of the Canon 5DMKIV are really clean, good noise up to ISO 2000, barely noticeable at 3200 and surprisingly decent at ISO 6400. I would never go above ISO 3200 for my needs and really try to stay at below 2000 if at all possible. Used in a studio application the images are good, not great. The highlights on skin and reflections (especially metals jewelry) seem to blow out really fast which surprised me with the file sizes. This could have to do with Lightroom, I personally use Capture One and have had great results with RAW images there. So not super impressed with the studio imagery but skin tones and general use felt good. Still, I wish the camera synced faster with strobes, 160 Shutter Sync just doesn’t cut it with my Profoto gear and stacking ND filters takes me back to my Pentax 67 days. Where’s the love Canon? Maybe if you got rid of the damn mirror you could put that saved money into faster sync speed, better video codecs, a full-size HDMI, clean 4K out, and give us sharper images… I can dream right.

The mirror! The mirror! The damn mirror Canon! That is one thing I hate about switching over to this camera. I 100% notice image blur even at faster shutter speeds from this ancient artifact. Even though the GH5 is a smaller camera and the fact that I can hold the Canon much steadier (I really plant the 5D into my palm when I shoot) I notice a significantly larger number of out of focus images due to that damn mirror, even at 200 shutter. CANON, GET RID OF THE DAMN MIRROR!!!!!! IT’S 2018!

So how does the Canon 5D Mark IV match up? In my opinion, the 5DMKIV is a good camera. When I look at the current marketplace if I could buy any Full Frame DSLR workhorse would this be it? No. I would prefer to own the Canon 1DX Mark II over the 5D Mark IV. That being said, the 1DX MKII is super outdated. Right now I think the Mark IV is the most bang for your buck. Sure the Sony A7R III looks great on paper but personally it feels like crap in my hands. Menus are horrible and damn that green Sony hue. I love Pentax lenses and would like to try out their K1 Mark II but haven’t had the chance. Nikon, I can’t even start with the opposite focusing lens direction. I’d rent them, autofocus only but never own.

Now to compare the Lumix GH5 & Canon 5DMKIV. Both cameras have terrific skin tones and beautiful white balance which makes such a huge difference with digital images. So I’d consider that area a tie. I’m such a huge fan of Mirrorless (camera with no mirrors) and that’s a negative for the Canon. Sharper images, no shake, no lag live view so we have a win for Micro 43 too. Lenses, I am going to call this a tie. I love the Lumix 12–35mm and the Canon 24–70mm so I think those are really a tie. Image quality for ambient light, I’m going to have to give it to Canon. On camera flash photography, I prefer to use my GH5 because of the live preview with no lag time. I’ll sacrifice megapixels for ease of use here. So I’d really call this comparison a tie. They are different tools for different needs. And for Bokeh, I would def have to give Canon the win here. My personal favorite? If I was heading out to shoot for my portfolio or take some personal images which camera would I grab? My GH5 for sure, but for a headshot or my clients needs right now I’d have to go with the Canon. Even though the GH5 & 5DMKIV are completely different animals, they match up pretty evenly. Personally, I don’t think you will be disappointed with either camera.

Hope you enjoyed my ramblings about my love-hate relationship with Canon and how I feel it matches up with my favorite camera, the GH5. Questions & comments please drop me a line. Happy shooting.

Side Note…. It’s been about 3 weeks since I wrote the above review of the camera and have come kind of love the system. To say its grown on me would be an understatement. I really love the camera in low light but still find the images un-usable above ISO 3200 for clean, grain-free skin. ISO 2000 I’ll shoot at all day long. I’ve recently been using some 0.9 & 1.2 ND filters with strobe to bring down my F-stop and the image have been beautiful. That mixed with the sharpness in daylight, without feeling too digital is really making me appreciate this tool in a new light. Maybe 30 days wasn’t enough time with my ex to give you a fair overview. Hope this additional note helps.

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