The Canon EOS R5 Mark II aims to refine an already impressive camera with a host of practical upgrades. Building on the success of the original R5, the Mark II brings enhancements designed to appeal to those who need speed, precision, and advanced features while maintaining exceptional image quality.
Coming to you from Gordon Laing with Camera Labs, this detailed video review explores the updates that set the Canon EOS R5 Mark II apart from its predecessor. Notable changes include a stacked sensor for faster readout, making the electronic shutter far more usable by significantly reducing skewing. This improvement allows for silent shooting and bursts up to 30 frames per second. The new pre-capture mode, which records moments before the shutter is fully pressed, is especially useful for fast-paced scenarios. Laing also highlights the eye-controlled autofocus, which lets you select subjects simply by looking at them through the viewfinder—a feature wedding and event shooters may find particularly valuable.
The video underscores how the Mark II improves autofocus capabilities across the board. Enhanced subject recognition now includes more nuanced human poses, along with animals and vehicles, all powered by Canon’s latest DIGIC X processor. Laing demonstrates the effectiveness of the new Auto Subject Detection mode, which seamlessly switches between recognizing people, birds, and other objects without manual adjustments. These upgrades make the camera particularly versatile for dynamic scenes, like sports or wildlife photography, where quick adjustments are critical.
While the Mark II retains the same 45-megapixel resolution as the original, Canon introduces AI-based features like noise reduction and in-camera upscaling. These tools aim to refine image quality further, though Laing notes they might not outperform third-party software in all cases. Stabilization has also been improved, providing up to five stops of compensation, which he demonstrates with both RF and adapted EF lenses. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Laing.
