Canon EOS R5 II in-depth review

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Canon’s EOS R5 II is the company’s latest high-end, full-frame mirrorless camera, which now gains a Stacked CMOS sensor and many of the autofocus features of the company’s new flagship R1 model.

Key specifications:

• 45MP Stacked CMOS sensor
• Eye-controlled AF subject selection
• Up to 30fps continuous shooting with blackout free viewfinder
• In-body stabilization rated at up to 8.5EV correction, coordinated with lens
• Pre-burst capture (up to 0.5 sec in stills, 3 or 5 sec in video)
• 8K Raw video capture up to 60p
• Canon C-Log2 profile
• Waveforms and false color display
• AF trained by machine learning for specific sports
• AI-enhanced post-shot noise reduction or upscaling
• Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax)
• 1x CFexpress Type B, 1x UHS-II SD

The Canon EOS R5 II is available, at a recommended sales price of $4299. This is a $400 increase over the original model (though less expensive in real terms if you account for inflation). A kit with the RF 24-105mm F4 L IS USM has a suggested price of $5399.

There will also be a choice of three accessory grips, covered later in the article.

Index:

• What’s new
• What’s new for video
• How it compares
• Body & handling
• Autofocus
• Image quality
• Video
• Sample gallery
• Video recording limits
• Specifications
• Press Release

What’s new

The biggest change in the EOS R5 II is the move to a Stacked CMOS sensor. As we’ve seen before, this allows the camera to read out its sensor much, much faster than conventional BSI or FSI chips. This speed allows the camera to capture 8K video at up to 60p and bursts of stills at up to 30fps.

If 30fps is too much for the shooting you do, the camera can be customized to shoot at 20, 15, 10 or 5fps instead. We found the readout rate in stills mode to be 6.3ms (∼1/160 sec) and that it appears to read out in 16-line chunks. This is a fair bit slower than the likes of the Z8 (∼1/270).

The EOS R5 II’s sensor uses Canon’s Dual Pixel AF design, with two photodiodes for each pixel location, meaning almost the entire sensor can be used for phase-detection autofocus. But it does not have the cross-type arrangement used in the EOS R1. It also omits the original R5’s Dual Pixel RAW option, but we suspect very few people found a good use for this.

Eye-control AF

The EOS R5 II gets the same updated version of Eye-control AF that appears in the R1. Like the first modern version in the EOS R3, this lets you select a subject to focus on by looking in its direction: as soon as you half-press the shutter button or hit AF-On to initiate focusing, the camera will pick the subject nearest to where it thinks you’re looking.

The latest version has sensors with a wider field of view, to get a better view of the eye as a whole, and revised algorithms that should work better when the eye is further from the viewfinder. This should be particularly useful for people wearing glasses and is supported with an eyeglasses detection mode, to avoid it getting confused by the additional lens and distance between the sensors and the photographer’s eye.

‘Digic Accelerator’ co-processor

The EOS R5 II has the same ‘Digic Accelerator’ co-processor used in the R1. The way Canon talks about it is directly comparable to the way Sony describes its ‘AI processing unit’: a dedicated processor focused on crunching its way through the complex algorithms generated by AI mechanisms, which means the main processor can stay focused on things like distance measurement and communicating with the lens, rather than trying to do everything at once.

Canon says this processor helps run more complex exposure and white balance algorithms, too, boosting the camera’s fundamental functions, as well as powering some of its novel features.

Our of camera JPEG 1/125 sec | F2.8 | ISO 51200	JPEG reprocessed with “Neural Network” noise reduction 1/125 sec | F2.8 | ISO 51200

Pre-capture

As with the R1, the R5 II can be set to capture up to 1/2 a second of action before you fully depress the shutter, so long as you have the button half-pressed beforehand. It can also pre-capture 3 or 5 seconds of video.

Action Priority modes

One of the biggest features the R5 II shares with the R1 is its slate of Action Priority AF modes. These are based on machine learning trained on how different sports look: how active players’ bodies are positioned and what the ball looks like at key moments. The camera is able to follow the ball and work out which player to prioritize. For instance, Canon says the Football/Soccer mode has been trained to recognize the following actions occurring: “Shoot, header, short pass, long pass, dribble, clear, place kick, save by keeper, throw in, sliding tackle”.

At launch, the EOS R5 II will have AF modes for Football (‘Soccer’ on cameras with US firmware), Basketball and Volleyball. Canon did not say whether it plans to add other sports, via firmware, later, but implied it would be possible.

Pre-registered person priority

In addition to the generic subject types the camera has been trained to recognize, it’s also possible to register up to ten sets of ten people in the camera’s memory. If engaged, the camera will try to give priority to those individuals if it identifies them in a scene.

This could be used to ensure you get photos of specific players at a sporting event or, for instance, during wedding shoots, where you can set the camera to prioritize the betrothed, rather than risking the camera getting distracted by other members of the wedding party that happen to get closer to your AF point.

You can even create a priority rank of the people you’ve identified so that the camera knows to focus on the bride ahead of the groom, ahead of the maid of honor, and so forth. Despite giving the camera only a single image of each subject, it proved pretty good at recognizing the people we asked it to prioritize.

AI-derived noise reduction or upscaling

Original image 1/2000 sec | F2.8 | ISO 640	Up-scaled version 1/2000 sec | F2.8 | ISO 640

Like the R1, the R5 II gains two post-shot options to reprocess your files using the full power of its AI-derived algorithms. It’s not got the processing power or battery life to apply these as you shoot, so you’ll need to select which images to process, after the fact. Even with a dedicated ‘accelerator’ chip, both processes take several seconds to apply to each file.

The first option is to up-res the images to twice their original resolution (four times the pixel count). This uses machine learning to anticipate what might occur between the captured pixels, to boost the apparent resolution. Somewhat unexpectedly, this process is conducted on JPEG or HEIF images only, rather than the Raw data.

The other option is to apply complex “neural network” noise reduction to files. This again is based on machine learning and attempts to distinguish between noise and detail to give a clean but detailed image. The option can be applied to Raw files but Canon says that the JPEGs that are then created cannot then be up-sized.

Blur/Out-of-Focus detection

The other post-capture cleverness the EOS R5 II acquires is its ability to check how in-focus the chosen subject is. It’s based on the camera’s subject recognition system, so works best with human faces.

A metadata tag identifying the most precisely focused images is added to the file and can be used to filter your images, either in playback mode on the camera or in Canon’s Digital Photo Pro software, when you get back to your computer. There are significant restrictions to when the system works: you need to be using an electronic shutter mode and have subject detection turned on. It also only works for JPEG images: the feature will operate if you have the camera set to Raw + JPEG but you can only check the results or filter your images if the Raw file has been deleted.

The R5 II may not be able to shoot quite as fast as the EOS R1, but any amount of 30fps shooting is likely to make you appreciate the ability to home in on the most focused shots.

Anti-flicker

As with the EOS R3, there are options both to sync the camera’s shooting to match the brightest point in the brightness cycle of lights that flicker at 100 or 120Hz in response to 50 or 60Hz electricity, and there’s also a High Frequency Anti-Flicker mode that assesses the flicker rate of fast-flickering light sources such as LEDs, and chooses a fractional shutter speed at a harmonic frequency, to minimize visible banding.

Using these modes reduces the camera’s maximum shooting speed considerably, as it can only shoot at specific moments in the flicker cycle of the lighting. For 100/120Hz flicker, Canon quotes figures of 12-15fps in e-shutter mode, 8.6fps in electronic first curtain mode and 4.8fps when in mechanical mode.

The EOS R5 II still has a mechanical shutter when needed, though: allowing flash sync at higher speeds, for instance. This can be used with continuous shooting at up to 12 fps.

What’s new for video

The EOS R5 II gains a full-sized HDMI socket, over which it can output a Raw video stream

The Stacked sensor underpins many of the leaps forward in the EOS R5 II’s video capabilities, but in addition to the newfound speed, Canon has worked to enhance the camera’s usability as a video camera, borrowing features from its Cinema EOS line (at last).

So, in addition to the camera’s 8K and internal Raw capabilities, the R5 II also becomes the first camera in the main EOS line to gain waveforms, a false color display and zebras and to make it easier to optimize exposure. It also has a tally lamp, to let a person in front of the camera know when it’s recording.

The camera can also capture high quality footage (8K Raw or 4K compressed) to its CFexpress card while recording lower resolution and more heavily subsampled and compressed proxy footage to the SD card.

Raw video

The EOS R5 II can capture either 8K Raw footage at up to 60p or ‘SRAW’ 4K video at up to 60p. Both options use the 1.89:1 aspect ratio DCI format. Canon hasn’t given details on how the 4K Raw is generated (downscaling or sub-sampling). The camera uses Canon’s compressed ‘Raw Light’ format for the 50 and 60p footage, to keep file sizes manageable.

Both DaVinci Resolve and Adobe’s Premiere appear to support Canon’s Raw and Raw Light formats natively, while Apple’s Final Cut Pro or Avid Media Composer require the installation of a plugin from Canon.

Raw video allows a slightly greater degree of lightness adjustment (often incorrectly described as “ISO” or “Exposure” adjustment), and white balance correction than compressed and gamma-encoded footage. It’s not anything like as big a difference as Raw vs. JPEG in stills, though, as 10-bit Log files can fully encode the sensor output and are designed for tonal edits in a way that JPEGs aren’t, and the Raw footage is typically 12-bit.

Raw shooting also gives much more control over noise reduction and sharpening, which are typically applied to some degree in gamma-encoded files, giving more freedom but adding an extra step to the workflow.

Compressed video

The R5 II’s compressed video options are more extensive, giving the choice of 8K or 4K derived from 8K at up to 30p. Both of these options are available in the 1.89:1 DCI aspect ratio or in the 16:9 UHD shape, which crops the edges of the footage in a little.

The R5 II can also shoot sub-sampled DCI or UHD 4K at up to 120p, while maintaining the same angle-of-view. We measured the DCI 8K as having a rolling shutter figure of 12.6ms (∼1/80 sec), which suggests the main reason to shoot the less detailed sub-sampled footage will be to access those faster frame rates or to avoid any heat concerns, rather than because of any need to lower rolling shutter.

Beyond this there are DCI and UHD 4K options taken from an approximately APS-C part of the sensor. There are also options to capture 2048 x 1080 full-width or edge-cropped Full HD footage at up to 240p, with APS-C versions of each available at up to 120p.

The EOS R5 II gains the ability to capture C-Log2 footage, as well as C-Log3. C-Log3 is a more expansive version of the original C-Log profile, but C-Log2 is a curve designed to encode an even wider dynamic range.

The EOS R5 II is the first camera outside the Cinema EOS range to be able to capture C-Log2, which makes it much easier to use in a workflow alongside those cameras.

Also aiding cross-compatibility is the adoption of the XF-AVC S and XF-HEVC S formats, which are the same as used on Canon’s Cinema EOS and pro camcorder lines. Both options allow 10-bit 4:2:2 capture, but with the H.264-based XF-AVC S format dropping to 8-bit if you select 4:2:0 chroma sub-sampling, whereas the H-265-based XF-HEVC S files give you a choice of 8 or 10-bit for 4:2:0 capture.

The EOS R5 II can shoot 4K derived from 8K at up to 30p.

The EOS R5 II continues to be able to record HDR PQ footage for display on HDR displays. Interestingly, the HDR PQ option can be combined with the HDR Video mode that simultaneously captures normally and unexposed footage to add additional highlights to the end result (at up to 8K/30 or 4K/60).

Dual Shooting

There’s also an option to capture UHD 8K (7620 x 4230px) JPEGS to one card while the camera is capturing Full HD video at up to 30p on the other. This feature requires the more powerful LP-E6P battery and, naturally, means that your shutter speed choices will apply to both the video footage and still images, but the camera can grab stills at up to 7.5fps depending on whether you’re capturing 30p or 25p video.

Choice of accessory grips

The EOS R5 II can be paired with the $350 BG-R20 battery grip that can also be used with the original R5, R6 and R6 II, but it can also be used with two additional accessory grips that are exclusively designed to work with it. The first is a BG-R20EP battery grip that includes an Ethernet port, giving 2.5 Base-T connections, costing $500.

The CF-R20RP accessory grip adds both a fan and an Ethernet port to the camera, but doesn’t duplicate the controls. Image: Canon

The third option is the CF-R20EP Ethernet and fan grip, priced at $400. Unlike the other two grips, this doesn’t have duplicate controls for portrait shooting, it’s just a fan designed to pull cool air through and lower the temperature of the camera when shooting video. This can extend the shooting duration for all but the most demanding video modes and helps maintain the shooting duration in warmer conditions. It also includes an Ethernet port for fast cabled network connection.

As with the original EOS R5, Canon has published details of how long it expects the R5 II to be able to continue recording video before it overheats. We’ve published these in full on a separate page so that videographers can check whether the camera meets their needs and whether they’ll need the fan grip, but without having to add another large table to the middle of the review.

How it compares

The Canon EOS R5 II is explicitly both a successor to the EOS R5 but also the de facto continuation of the EOS 5D series, a series of cameras for enthusiast and pro photographers and video shooters. As ever, the most directly comparable competitor comes from Nikon, whose Z8 aims to do much the same thing, just as the D800 series of DSLRs did beforehand.

There are no other like-for-like competitors to these two cameras: Sony offers the a7R V for photographers wanting high-resolution stills, but with nothing like the speed or video capability of the Canon and Nikon cameras, or the a1, which offers both speed and some video capabilities but at a price that pushes it very heavily towards the Pro end of the audience. It’s a pretty old camera at this point, so can be bought well below its list price, but don’t let that hide the fact that its primary intent was to compete with the Z9 and R3/R1s of this world. We’re including it here more for interest, than direct competition.

The upgrades to the EOS R5 II bring the camera at least into line with those of the Nikon Z8, with faster Raw shooting, 8K/60 Raw for those that can handle the file size and adding the level of video support tools that was seeming somewhat lacking in the existing camera.

What this table can’t really capture is the fine detail such as Registered Person Recognition mode and the activity-specific autofocus behavior algorithms. How well these work may, at least for the kinds of photographers who shoot the relevant types of subject, define the margin by which the EOS R5 II turns out to have overhauled the Nikon in the eternal game of leapfrog the two companies are locked in.

Body and handling

Other than the power switch moving, Canon hasn’t changed much of the R5 II’s control layout. Note the large rubber hood that protects the new multi-function hot shoe.

The R5 II’s body is extremely similar to that of its predecessor: similar enough that it’s BG-R20 battery grip can be used with the existing model. The only major external change is that, like the EOS R6 II, the power On/Off switch on the top left-hand corner is now a stills/video switch, and the power control is now around the rear command dial on the top plate.

This change will no doubt infuriate upgraders who’ve become used to the handling of the existing R5, but after a couple of days of accidentally flicking to photo mode, rather than finding the power switch, it soon enough becomes second nature.

This is no bad thing, as we really liked the way the original R5 handled: it’s a pretty large camera but its grip is very well shaped and proportioned, and the controls were all well placed and comfortable to use for extended periods.

New menu section

The menu options that customize the control of the camera (including whether Eye Control is active), now gain their own menu tab

The EOS R5 II bears witness to that rarest of things: a change to Canon’s menu layout. In addition to the familiar menu sections, there’s now an olive green tab containing all the control customization options from the menu, so they can all be easily located. This includes control customization for shooting and playback mode.

Viewfinder

The EOS R5 II still uses a 5.76M dot OLED panel and still maintains the 0.76x magnification but the optics have been significantly redesigned to allow the implementation of Eye-control AF. This makes the viewfinder appear larger as you look at the camera, but in practice, it’s the same size when you’re using it.

What doesn’t come across from the spec is that the new OLED panel can go much brighter than the one in the original R5 (though not as bright as the one in the R1), allowing the inclusion of the ‘Optical Viewfinder Simulation‘ mode seen on the EOS R3. It cannot accurately preview HDR PQ shooting, though. There is also 1mm increase in the eyepoint, to 25mm, which means you can see the entire viewfinder panel from a tiny bit further away from the finder.

The rear screen remains the same 3.2″, 2.1M dot, fully articulated unit.

Multi-function hotshoe

The EOS R5 gains the multi-function hot shoe from the EOS R3. This has a row of contacts that can be used to feed a digital audio signal into the camera, allowing the use of the DM-E1D digital stereo mic; the contacts can also provide power to the ST-10 radio flash trigger or to provide a wired data connection to an Android smartphone using the AD-P1 adapter.

The shoe itself is sealed, but if you want to maintain a water-resistant seal with a weather-resistant flash, you’ll need to use the AD-E1 adapter.

As before, the EOS R5 II has one CFexpress Type B card slot and one UHS-II SD slot. This means you’re always likely to have a card that’ll work with the camera, but also means there’s a longer list of video modes that can’t be saved to the smaller, slower card.

Battery

The EOS R5 II takes a new battery but, as is normal for Canon, it’s also able to accept existing LP-E6N or E6NH (though not the original E6). The LP-E6P is able to provide more sustained power than previous versions, which is needed for a couple of functions, including Pre-burst shooting, HDMI Raw output, Dual Shooting (simultaneous stills + video) and use with high-powered devices mounted in the multi-function hotshoe. These functions and the camera’s highest performance may not be available with older batteries.

The higher res, brighter viewfinder results in a CIPA rating of 250 shots per charge (up about 15% compared with the original R5), while the rating when using the LCD is up 70% at 540. As always, we find the CIPA testing methodology is much more demanding than most people’s real-world usage, and they become less and less meaningful the more burst shooting you do. These aren’t bad numbers, all things considered.

The camera can be charged over USB but to power the camera using USB you’ll need the new PD-E2 power adapter or a high-powered USB PD power source. We don’t have specs for the PD-E2 yet, so can’t confirm which Power Delivery modes are required to power the camera.

Autofocus

Photo: Richard Butler

The EOS R5 II essentially has the same AF system and setup as the EOS R1, which is designed for the challenges of sideline shooting at the highest level. Despite this, it’s not overly complex. Or, at least, need not be.

At its heart, it’s quite straightforward: there are 8 different AF area modes ranging from a tiny spot to selecting the entire scene, which lets the camera choose where to focus. These include three customizable focus zones, where you can edit the shape and size of the focus region. Pressing the ‘Info’ button engages tracking, meaning that the AF point will move to follow whatever you were pointing at when you initiated focus.

There are also versions of the Spot, Single Point and Expanded areas with a padlock symbol, which do not allow around-the-frame tracking. This means you can quickly switch between tracking and non-tracking versions of the same AF area without disengaging tracking overall. As with all Canon’s high-end models, there’s a menu option to limit which AF areas are available, just to the ones you regularly use, to speed up selection.

Subject recognition

Separate from this are the camera’s subject recognition modes, which allow it to detect people, animals or vehicles. There’s also an ‘Auto’ setting that attempts to look for all three.

We mainly used the people mode and found it to be highly effective. The system is guided by your selected AF point, so if you decide you want to focus on a subject on the right of the frame, you can place an AF point to the right and be sure the camera will prioritize that person. And, while the system will follow subjects near to the AF point, not just those directly under it, it’s selective enough that we generally found we could leave the people detection mode on, even when capturing other subjects. We wouldn’t necessarily recommend the same approach with the Auto mode, though, as there are so many more potential targets for it to select.

Blur/OOF

The camera’s Blur/Out of Focus mode is a genuinely clever feature, letting you very quickly narrow your images down to the best-focused shots. There are a few quirks around its use, though.

The fact it only works in electronic shutter mode is reasonable enough, as these are the modes that shoot fastest and are likely to benefit from you being able to filter to just the sharpest focused images. However, the fact that you can’t check images if you’ve shot Raw or Raw+JPEG (unless you offload or delete the Raw image), adds an extra step to think about: it’s easy to look back at your images and wonder why the camera hasn’t made a sharpness assessment: the answer being that playback mode shows the Raw image and the focus tag lives in the JPEG.

Eye Control

Canon promises improvements to the Eye Control system, but we had a very similar experience to those we had with the EOS R3: at its best it can be a truly intuitive means of selecting a subject to focus on but, to varying degrees, we didn’t all find it to operate at its best. For instance I sometimes found the Eye Control target would operate slightly to the left or right of where I was looking, and I’d need to re-calibrate the system to get it to work again. I found it more reliable when wearing glasses than with contact lenses, which makes me suspect I don’t always position my eye in precisely the same position, relative to the viewfinder, which may be causing the offset problems.

Eye Control made it possible to select which of the many detected subjects the camera would focus on. It seemed to be improved, compared with the EOS R3, particularly when wearing glasses, but not to the extent that I felt I could depend on it for my shooting.

Overall we found Eye Control works much better as a means of selecting between recognized subjects, rather than for selecting points within a scene to focus on. It’s difficult for us to know how well the system will work for different individuals and their shooting needs, but we suspect it’ll be useful for some and indispensable to others.

Read about our experience of shooting bike racing with the EOS R5 II

Performance

We subjected the EOS R5 II to our standard AF tests, as well as putting it through its paces at a rather more challenging sporting event.

As you’d expect of a modern camera, it aced the simple straight-on test, as it has no problem assessing and predicting distance and driving the focus to the correct point.

What impressed us is the tenacity of the subject tracking modes. A lot of modern cameras can continue to track the subject as it turns the corners, but even some of the best take a beat to come to terms with the change in approach speed as it does so. Without subject recognition, the camera did extremely well, but with subject recognition on, its hit-rate was very high.

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16

We set the R5 II to its maximum 30fps speed and found it did a really good job of staying consistently focused. Though it does appear to be focusing on the subject’s cap, rather than their pupil.

Blur/Out of Focus assessment

The camera’s Blur/Out of Focus assessment considered all but one of the images we shot to meet its lowest threshold and all but five to hit its Standard level of acceptable blur. 156 of the 168 images met its highest bar.

However, in practice, we found that even setting the camera to its most stringent, High threshold ended up selecting some images with motion blur in them, which significantly undermines the usefulness of the function.

This image was rated to the highest standard by the camera, and this one exceeded the Standard threshold, neither of which we’d consider acceptible for use at full resolution.

Image Quality

Our test scene is designed to simulate a variety of textures, colors and detail types you’ll encounter in the real world. It also has two illumination modes to see the effect of different lighting conditions.

The EOS R5 II is essentially indistinguishable from its predecessor in terms of detail. It can’t quite match the resolving power of Sony’s 61MP a7R V, but it’s consistent with it most direct peer: the Nikon Z8.

The similarities persist as the light levels drop: at moderate ISOs it’s consistent both with its predecessor and its peers and perhaps a touch noisier at very high ISOs. Not enough that you’re ever likely to notice.

The slightly darker rendering relative to the original EOS R5 makes the comparison a little difficult but the color response of the JPEGs looks very similar. The slightly sandier pink patch at the top left, compared with the Nikon and Sony, is likely to play a part in Canon’s rendering of some skin tones being so well-liked.

The default sharpening is well-judged: pulling out a good level of detail but without any sign of over-shoot at high-contrast edges. Color aliasing seems well controlled too, if you compare the finest text with the Nikon.

JPEG noise reduction seems to strike a good balance between detail retention and noise suppression, with subtle detail in similar colored subjects looking natural. It continues to do pretty well even at very high ISO settings, maintaining detail and color, despite how noisy the underlying data is.

Dynamic range

As we’ve seen with other Stacked CMOS sensors, there’s a slight increase in electronic noise, which clips dynamic range a little earlier (at the lowest ISO setting where dynamic range is most critical). This is still more pronounced in electronic shutter mode on the EOS R5 II, so we’d suggest using one of the mechanical modes when you’re knowingly shooting high DR scenes, but for many types of shooting, the increased speed is likely to make this trade-off worthwhile.

Exposure latitude | ISO Invariance

AI upscaling

Whereas its Sony and Nikon rivals offer multi-shot pixel shift options to boost their output resolution, the Canon EOS R5 II uses AI-trained algorithms to interpolate higher-resolution images from Raw files, on a file-by-file basis.

This has the disadvantage that it doesn’t truly capture any additional detail, but also means you don’t need to shoot on a tripod and any benefits aren’t undermined by moving subjects.

We’ve added an upscaled version of the standard test scene JPEG to our comparison tool, so you can see how it compares with the results of a pixel-shift mode. We found we got better results by reprocessing the original Raw with less sharpening and less noise reduction before upsampling. Though there’s probably a happy middle-ground between the default and minimal setting shown below.

Real-world image, default settings	Real-world image, sharpening and NR reduced
Studio scene image, default settings	Studio screen settings, sharpening and NR reduced

We hope to compare these results to other popular software in the coming months.

Video

The EOS R5 II’s core video specs are similar to those of its predecessor: it can shoot 8K at up to 60p in Raw, or 8K/30 in processed and compressed form. It can deliver DCI or UHD 4K at up to 120p but tops out at 30p if you want oversampled footage derived from 8K capture. But, while those specs are similar to the existing model, it exhibits less rolling shutter, thanks to its Stacked CMOS sensor.

Its impressive specs have to be tempered by the fact that it’s extremely difficult to process so much data in a relatively small camera body without heat becoming an issue. All the R5 II’s most impressive video modes 8K/60 Raw, 8K/30 compressed and the HQ 4K/30-from-8K are best suited to capturing a series of short takes, rather than recording extended performances.

The times quoted by Canon are perhaps a little conservative, but if you are a keen filmmaker, or expect to shoot outside a temperature-controlled environment, the added dependability and shorter recovery times brought by adding the optional fan grip.

The EOS R5 also adds significant improvements for the video shooter, compared to the Mark 1. Not only does the stacked sensor bring lower levels of rolling shutter, but the camera also gains Canon Log 2, which captures a wider dynamic range than the Log or Log 3 options in the existing camera. Not only does it encode a wider dynamic range but it also means you can use a range of LUTs designed for the Cinema EOS range, making it easy to make the most of.

The R5 II also gains four-channel audio input (via the connections in the hotshoe) and offers a waveform display, which makes it much easier to set and assess exposure when shooting Log.

Video performance

The EOS R5 II’s detail levels are a match for its predecessor. And, as you’d expect, there’s an appreciable detail benefit to using the camera’s ‘HQ’ modes that derive 4K from 8K capture. That said, there’s no further loss of quality if you use the camera’s sub-sampled 4K/60 and 4K/120 modes.

This is no real surprise as the rolling shutter rates for all the sub-sampled 4K modes are the same. Interestingly, while the 8K/60 Raw and (subsampled) 4K/60 SRaw exhibit the same rolling shutter rates as many of the compressed video modes, the 30p and slower versions use a slower readout rate.

We’ve asked Canon for clarity about this, and what benefits it brings, and will update the review if we get an answer.

Conclusion

The EOS R5 II is improved in almost every respect, relative to the original camera. It can shoot faster, gains a more capable autofocus system, better video tools and, most notably, Canon’s Eye Control AF system. Almost regardless of what kinds of photography you enjoy, the EOS R5 II will offer some degree of benefit over the existing model.

The result is a camera that can do pretty much anything you ask of it. Action, landscapes, video, you name it. Along with the Nikon Z8, it’s among the most broadly capable cameras we’ve ever seen, and priced consistently with the historic EOS 5D series. We found it comfortable in the hand, with well-positioned controls and an interface that was pretty quick to familiarize ourselves with (though it would be good to have a quick way of adjusting Auto ISO minimum shutter speed).

For subjects the EOS R5 II has been trained to recognize, it does a great job. Canon RF 24-70mm F2.8 @ 63mm | F2.8 | 1/400 sec | ISO 100

In fact our main concern wasn’t anything the camera couldn’t do, but that it does so much that it’s impossible to put ourselves in the shoes of the vast range of photographers that might opt to buy one. We tried to shoot some action but weren’t able to find the time to also shoot landscapes, wildlife, events or shoot as much video as we’d have liked. The EOS R5 II simply does too many things well to get a complete picture of its capabilities.

So, although we were very impressed by the Action Priority mode when shooting Basketball before the launch, we haven’t had a further opportunity to put it through its paces. If Basketball or Soccer/Football photography are important to you, we think it could be a decisive benefit, but we’d suggest renting a camera to form your own impressions.

Perspective corrected in Adobe Camera Raw Canon RF 24-70mm @70mm | F5.6 | /1250 sec | ISO 100 Photo: Richard Butler

If you don’t own a recent camera, the EOS R5 II is very easy to recommend: it does a vast range of things and does most of them extremely well: it’s not necessarily head-and-shoulders better than the Nikon Z8, but if you have any Canon lenses worth sticking with, it’s a really impressive all-rounder.

It’s a more complex story if you’re thinking about upgrading from the already very good EOS R5. If you shoot video, there are definite benefits. If your photography involves capturing action, the Mark II’s more sophisticated autofocus system and better burst shooting might well make it worth upgrading. But if neither of these things are central to what you need, it’s a more difficult call.

Scoring

Scoring is relative only to the other cameras in the same category. Click here to learn about what these numbers mean.

Compared with its peers

The Canon EOS R5 II’s most significant competition comes from the Canon EOS R5. The R5 II is, to varying degrees, a better camera in every regard and we think it makes sense to choose the new model over the existing one, almost regardless of what kinds you plan to shoot with it. For many people it’ll be worth a significant premium over the EOS R5. However, if don’t shoot fast moving subjects or video, it’s less clear whether it’s worth upgrading, and it may come down to whether Eye Control AF works for you.

The EOS R5 II goes toe-to-toe with Nikon’s Z8. They both shoot fast and have very good AF systems, the Canon can shoot Raw stills faster while the Nikon has the slightly better video specs, with details like oversampled 4K/60 straight from the camera. The R5 II’s Action Priority AF system and Eye Control could set the two cameras apart, if you shoot the sports it’s been trained for, and the Eye Control system works reliably for you. Overall, though, the differences between the bodies won’t be as significant as the impact of lenses, for most people. If you have any RF or Z-mount lenses, or have a preference for the specific lenses each brand offers, that probably matters more than the cameras.

Sony doesn’t really offer a like-for-like competitor to the EOS R5 II. The pro-focused a1 is significantly more expensive, while the a7R V doesn’t come anywhere near the speed of the EOS R5 II. The Sony a7R V has a higher pixel count sensor (and a high res mode if your subjects and workflow lend themselves to combining multiple Raws after the fact). For landscape work, the Sony definitely has the edge, but beyond that niche, it doesn’t come near the breadth of capabilities of the Canon.

Sample gallery

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Review samples

Pre-production sample gallery