This is a double post, including my Canon R5C Review and also the importance of having the best camera gear as a luxury wedding photographer.

When I pressed “Buy Now” back in March I felt a little queasy. Dropping $5300 on a camera is a lot of money. To some families, that’s 1/2 a year worth of mortgage payments. But after weighing the benefits against the disadvantages, buying the state-of-the-art video + photo camera made sense for my business.

As soon as I pressed that button, I waiting for the shipping confirmation email to come. I waited. And I waited. Finally, I held the camera in my hands on Wednesday, July 13th. Thankfully, I’ve already got to test out both the video and photography functions. Here’s my honest Canon R5C Review, with both good and bad things about Canon’s latest professional camera.

Canon R5C Review: The Good

There are so many significant improvements that Canon R5 C brings. First, it’s a true cinema camera. As my video branch of Benfield Photography has been growing quickly in 2022, this improvement was important. Being a true cinematic camera means more shooting modes, including 8K video. Also, it mounts my RF lenses, which incorporate the best glass in the world. I get incredible image quality for video – the same in fact that I get when I shoot my still photography. However, the built-in vent fan is the most obvious improvement in the R5 C over the R5 (my other camera). I’ve photographed weddings in 2022 and have seen videographers (not Benfeld Photography) who have their cameras overheat in the middle of shooting a wedding ceremony. (I’m not joking!) The built-in vent enables photographers to shoot raw 8k video without the overheating issue of lesser cameras. For all you camera geeks out there, here are the shooting modes:

Canon R5C Review: The Bad

While I love how the camera feels in my hand with the new vent fan, it eats battery crazy. That was the first negative I noticed. In shooting non-stop video for an hour, I exhausted to fully-charged batteries. One plus about this was that there is now a “minute-countdown” to let you know how much battery you have left in minutes on the display screen. Shooting an 8 hour wedding, I see myself exhausting 6+ batteries. Another downside is the lag time while switching between camera and photo modes. There is at least 5 seconds of downtime when the camera reboots in the other mode. For that reason, I would suggest using this camera as only a video camera or only a photo camera. Unless of course, you have two running simultaneously. Finally, there is a little learning curve with the cinematic terminology and menu in the R5C if you haven’t used cinema cameras before. If this is you, brush up before you buy.

If you have any questions about my Canon R5C review, feel free to leave a comment below. I’d be happy to clarify or debate with you!

Why It’s Important to Have the Best Camera Gear

Again, this camera is expensive. The lenses that attach to it are expensive. The batteries that you need a dozen of are expensive. However, it’s important to stay on top of the technology. In my opinion, skipping more than two camera models will cause a huge deficiency in the quality of deliverables. As technology advances so rapidly, the last thing you would want is to be left in the dust. We can offer our clients the best final product by staying on top of technology. As a luxury wedding photographer, my job demands I deliver the best possible product and service to brides and grooms. You might think that as an Arkansas wedding photographer (as opposed to a photographer in NYC, Paris, Italy, etc) I won’t need the best equipment.

You’d be wrong. First, I photograph NYC weddings, Italy weddings, Mexico weddings, and all over the world. Second, Arkansas has some of the best weddings in the world. Our brides and our grooms have incredible style and deserve the best. Furthermore, the commercial clients in Northwest Arkansas need a photographer who can handle big needs. After all, with Walmart and all the vendors here, there is a huge market for talented photographers with state-of-the-art camera gear.

Talk to you soon,
Dale

P.S. Thanks to my gorgeous and talented wife, Tyler, for shooting these images of me with my new camera. Here are a few more.