Which Should You Buy, the Canon 5D Mark IV, EOS R, R5, or R6?

Canon's line-up is starting to bulk out with some incredible mirrorless bodies, not to mention still arguably leading the way with DSLRs, so which should you buy?

Some of you may know that for the most part, I jumped ship from Canon. I still have a couple of older Canon bodies as well as a smattering of lenses, but my workhorse body is Sony, as are many of my most used lenses. So it might come as something of a surprise to see me write that I have truly been waiting for Canon to make me regret that decision. Their releases have been lackluster to my eye for the most part, until recently when they went fully Spinal Tap on their innovation dial.

On the lower end of that is the Canon 5D IV, which is still one of the best DSLRs on the market. Then there is the toe in the mirrorless waters with the EOS R, which had a mixed reception. However, the exciting cameras (and lenses) are the new mirrorless releases coming soon. With all of these options, it might be difficult to know in which direction you ought to upgrade. If you have a DSLR, is it worth staying with DSLRs, for instance? On the other side of the debate, is it worth getting an EOS R now or waiting until the R5 and R6s come out with their rumored titanic specs?

What do you think? Will you be going into Canon mirrorless cameras? Do you already have the EOS R and are thinking of upgrading to the R5 or R6? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Robert K Baggs's picture

Robert K Baggs is a professional portrait and commercial photographer, educator, and consultant from England. Robert has a First-Class degree in Philosophy and a Master's by Research. In 2015 Robert's work on plagiarism in photography was published as part of several universities' photography degree syllabuses.

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14 Comments

The first nit to pick out of the gate: there doesn't seem to be a shutter cable release port on the R5. It's not clear if there's a low-tech way of tackling Bulb-mode exposures.

It would appear to be in the same location as the one in the EOS 5D IV, to the lower right of the lens mount.

Ahhh, ok. I’ve been playing with a rented EOS R and I “ass-u-me”d the R5 would follow that design. 🤭😊

I would guess like the RP, you can use the bulb timer, which allows you to simply set how long you want the exposure to last.

The one you really need and you can afford in cash :-)

Which means. I don't need any of these :-)

If I were in the market I would get the R5. I have a 42mp and 24mp cameras and I do enjoy that cropping ability when needed.

What you should buy???...A rather presumptuous statement...How about none of the above....

Can't Fstoppers find something else to write about? Six articles over recent days. It's as if it's simply run out of original thought.

When Fstoppers launched, it differentiated itself from sites such as DP Review insomuch as it was more about technique and concepts. It was good. Now, just like DP Review, it's mainly for gear geeks, only not as expertly done.

EOS R owner. Not interested in upgrading. Has nothing to do with the latest batch and their features. It is as simple as I recently replaced my canon 24-70 2.8 L with the II because the inside ribbon had worn and I was getting errors. Didn’t feel like waiting 6 months for repair. Also I have neither utilized my EOS R investment long enough for a true ROI and I am still enjoy turning it into a well leathered tool. I love it’s customization and as a still photographer it has what I need with exception to focus stacking which I work around by using Cascable.

Focus stacking is a big reason why I kept my 5D III (with Magic Lantern) instead of selling it when I picked up the EOS R.

No ISO 25 or even better, ISO3 as we had with Tech Pan film. Is the dynamic range at low ISO better with the new cameras? I'll stay with the optical finder - the little electronic finders don't work for me. Would add a mechanical mirror lock for the DSLR to make it right.

I do believe I'll be receiving a not so good email from Canon on my 5DM4 with its error code 1 today. They already replaced the diaphragm in August and the same error code has appeared. I changed out three different lenses and same code appears. If we have bitten the dust, I still don't know which camera body to think about. I can't afford to purchase new lenses and need an adaptor for now. Still looking for recommendations on which one Canon users suggest.

If you stick with Canon, there's always the R, R5/6. You'll be able to keep your EF lenses too.