Canon 5D SR is too heavy for me

lynnma

Hey guys. Ds (bless his heart) gave me a gift of a Canon 5D SR not long after they came out.. I love it but.... now I'm so old and decrepit I'm finding it very heavy, specially when I put my 300 lens on it. I'm thinking of trading it in for something lighter and smaller but want all my lenses to fit. I'm somewhere clueless as I haven't been paying attention to what's out there. I'd appreciate any input you have. I also don't really need such a huge sensor. DS has a mirrorless which looks odd to me looking at it but his images are beautiful so what do I know..
Help please oh wise ones.
By the way, does anyone ever hear from Rutt?
Thanks in advance.
Lynn

ziggy53

Wonderful to see you here, Lynn!
Sorry you're feeling poorly but hoping it's not too bad. I mean, I never see you at the meetings, where I was voted "Most Pathetic" for the third year in a row.
I am 162 years old, so I shouldn't complain. (You're only as old as you feel, right?)
One of the church ladys told me, "[ziggy], you might be 162 years old, but you don't look a day over 100!", so at least I've got that going for me.

A problem with a lighter camera body is it's generally going to be a smaller body too, meaning that now that heavy lens weight will be shifted forward, which can be even more challenging.

What I wound up doing is investing in expanded neoprene camera straps which absorb some of the shock of a heavy system, and that makes it more manageable overall. A lightweight monopod is another welcome addition, because you can rest your arms and back while waiting for a dynamic scene to unfold.

---

If that strategy doesn't work, I do recommend a smaller and lighter system overall. Fortunately, the Canon R7 mirrorless is a bit lighter by itself, and it's APS-C crop factor, so the "kit" lens, Canon RF-S 18-150mm f/3.5-6.3 IS STM, isn't overly heavy and covers a lot of useful viewing angles.

It is pretty slow apertures, so I bought an EF/EF-S to RF adapter and use my Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM for the wider stuff and Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS STM in good light. In lower light I may switch to the Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L IS USM, which is a chunker, but a fraction of the same focal lengths in f2.8.

If I know vista landscapes are on the agenda, I'll grab the Canon EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM or just use a 50mm prime, like the very inexpensive RF 50mm f/1.8 STM, and create a multi-image panoramic, and stitch it together later.

lynnma

Thank you Ziggy.. that was very helpful. I'm going to look into the neoprene strap to start and think. Thinking helps sometimes and not others.

ziggy53

The system I use and greatly prefer starts with, "OP/TECH USA Pro Strap - 3/8", Black (1501012)".
https://www.amazon.com/OP-TECH-USA-Pro-Strap/dp/B00092KD9C

The Pro series will handle heavy pro cameras and lenses easily and comfortably. I have a pair of Canon 1D Mark II bodies and I shot high-school American football using one of the bodies with a Canon EF 70-200mm, f2.8L USM tele-zoom and the other body used a Canon EF 28-80mm, f2.8-f4L USM standard-zoom for the team entering the field, halftime and then a few single player shots after the game.

This was back in the early 2000s and my son was a lineman on the team. I was the unofficial shooter for the team, and I made all of the home games as well as many of the away games. I survived that ordeal with great thanks to the OP/TECH USA Pro Strap system. (I have no affiliation with OP/TECH USA, and pay full price for their very affordable, high-quality products.)

lynnma

Good morning all and good morning Ziggy. My dear son surprised me with the new Canon EOS R8 with a 100-400 zoom lens and adapter for my 50mm prime. I'm thrilled with it, it is soooo light I can wander around with it all day!! My question is, and I can't find the answer as yet, will my Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT work with it. I seems it works with the 7 but the 8 is so new there is not much info out there yet. Have a great day.

ziggy53

Awe, Lynn, that son of yours is a keeper for sure!

Here's a link to Canon's page for their mirrorless bodies and compatible flashes:
https://cam.start.canon/en/H002/accessory_0010.html

**** ziggy note: the following statement is not completely accurate. Read the next comment below for a more complete explanation.

In short, it looks like you need an adapter to use that flash on the EOS R8, and it's also needed for the EOS R7:

Multi-Function Shoe Adapter AD-E1

ziggy53

Older Canon ETTL II flashes, like the Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT, do indeed fit and connect with the Multi-Function Shoe on Canon mirrorless camera bodies without an adapter.

However, if you want to maintain weather seal then you need to use the "Multi-Function Shoe Adapter AD-E1".

Also note that all electronic flashes will work a bit differently on Canon mirrorless bodies than on Canon D-SLR bodies, in that the AF-Assist function of the flash does not work on mirrorless bodies. Typically, the camera body provides an AF subject illuminator instead (i.e. a light emits from the camera body onto the subject). This is a normal function and probably won't change in the future for mirrorless cameras and their flash capabilities.

paddler5

Lynn,

I went through this some months ago.

The major issue of weight is lenses, not bodies. That means that to get a large reduction in weight, you need to go to a smaller format sensor so that you can use the smaller lenses they enable.

Switching to a mirrorless FF body won't save much. I went from a 5D IV with the EF 24-105 L as a walk-around to the R6 II with the RF 24-105 L. That saved 300g (about 2/3 of a pound), which seems like a fair amount. However, to use any of my remaining EF lenses, I have to add an adapter, which takes away 100g from that 300g. So I ended up saving very little in terms of weight, although the much better image stabilization allows me to leave the tripod home a lot, and that saves weight.

The next step down is APS-C. The Canon R7 appears to be a good camera, although not on the 5D level in some respects. However, Canon has produced only a few RF APS-C lenses and won't license to third parties, which means that you'd be stuck using your old EF lenses with an adapter. So again, not as much of a weight savings as you might want. I also looked at Fuji but was dissuaded by reading and hearing about problems using Adobe software with Fuji raw files.

The next step down from there is micro-four-thirds. The new OM Systems cameras are very well reviewed, particularly the (expensive) OM-1, and the lenses are small and light. But that means entirely new equipment and the disadvantages of MFT. Despite the drawbacks, I came very close to going with the OM-1 rather than the R6 because of the large weight savings.

I hope this helps.

Dan