Canon EOS R5 Mark II Review

“Master the moment” is the marketing strapline for the exciting new Canon EOS R5 Mark II prosumer mirrorless camera.

The EOS R5 Mark II is positioned as the company’s highest resolution offering, replacing the original R5 model that was released back in 2020.

It features a brand new 45 megapixel full-frame back-illuminated stacked CMOS sensor, which is different to the R5’s sensor, and the very latest DIGIC X processor and DIGIC Accelerator dual image processors.

The native ISO range runs from 100-51200, which can be expanded to ISO 50-102400. In-camera upscaling enlarges up to 4x the initial resolution with no degradation in quality, while deep learning noise reduction reduces noise by 2 stops.

Burst shooting speeds are rated at 30fps continuous shooting with the electronic shutter or 12fps with the mechanical shutter. Pre-continuous shooting up to 15 frames (Raw or JPEG/HEIF) is available before fully pressing the shutter button.

It has a blackout-free electronic viewfinder with 5.76M dot resolution. The upgraded eye control AF feature lets you select focus points or subjects to track simply by looking at them in the electronic viewfinder.

Compared to the R3 model on which this feature first made its debut, eye control AF on the R5 Mark II offers improved performance thanks to a higher pixel count sensor, improved LEDs, larger eye detection area, an updated detection algorithm, and 2x faster eye movement detection speed.

The new Dual Pixel Intelligent AF system offers an advanced tracking algorithm that can detect subject crossing/upper half of body and avoid obstacles by estimating the head area.

The new Action Priority subject tracking mode uses deep learning tech for football, basketball and volleyball to detect where the action is and move the AF point to that subject at up to 60fps. It can quickly detect and identify multiple people, status of joints and ball positions and automatically determine the main subject and action poses, depending on the sport.

Subject tracking can now recognise horses, aeroplanes and trains in addition to people, animals and motorsport vehicles when shooting both photo and videos. The Canon R5 Mark II can focus down to -6.5EV.

The Registered People Priority mode can detect and prioritise up to 10 faces even in side profile, useful for sports, news and weddings, with the ability to save 10 files on a memory card each with 10 registered faces.

There is up to 8.5-stops of image stabilisation available via a combination of the camera’s in-body Image Stabiliser which works in tandem with the attached lens’s own stabilisation system. High precision white balance and metering with up to 6,144 metering zones ensures that even the smallest of subjects are perfectly exposed.

The Canon R5 Mark II’s magnesium alloy body is both dust- and weather-resistant, offering the same level of weather-proofing as the previous R5 model.

The key video specs for the Canon R5 Mark II are 8K 60p RAW in-camera for up to 120 minutes, 4K 120p, 4K 60p oversampled from 6K, and 2K or Full HD at 240p in XF-HEVC S / XF-AVC S formats. It offers 16+ stops of dynamic range, minimal rolling shutter, Canon Log-2 / Log-3 / HLG profiles, custom pictures, proxy movie support and 4-channel 24-bit audio.

You can shoot video and stills at the same time on the EOS R5 Mark II, even whilst using continuous shooting. It has a full size HDMI port and dual SD UHS II and CFexpress type B memory card slots along with Wi-Fi 6E connectivity.

The Multi-Function Shoe provides data communication and power for accessories such as the ST-E10 Speedlite Transmitter, DM-E1D Stereo Microphone, and AD-P1 Smartphone Link Adapter, as well as acting as a traditional hotshoe for existing Speedlites and triggers via the AD-E1 Multi-Function Shoe Adapter.

The Canon EOS R5 Mark II is priced at £4499 body only in the UK and €5149 in Europe. It is also available in a kit with the RF 24-105mm F4L lens for £5749 / €6549. It is made in Japan.

We were able to briefly test a beta version of the EOS R5 Mark II camera, paired with the Canon RF 400mm f/2.8 L IS USM prime lens. So read on for our Canon R5 Mark II review so far, complete with full-size sample JPEG and RAW photos for you to download and evaluate.