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Our TechRadar Choice Awards 2024 The winners include some really powerful cameras this year, some of which had a chance at our coveted Camera of the Year award. Honorable mentions go to him Nikon Z6III and the tremendously popular Fujifilm X100VIbut if there is one camera that stood out from all of them, it is the Canon EOS R5 Mark II.

Simply put, the EOS R5 Mark II is Canon’s most versatile camera yetand the camera giant’s most exciting launch of 2024 by far. In fact, made TechRadar’s editor-in-chief seriously regret switching from Canon to the Nikon Z8.

The EOS R5 Mark II updated the already excellent full format EOS R5offering faster performance across the board, intelligent autofocus features, better video, plus some AI tricks thrown in for good measure. This is a highly capable camera for any type of professional photographer or filmmaker.

We tested the EOS R5 Mark II before launch and completed an in-depth review, but we still felt like we were only scratching the surface of what it can do. It really is one of the best professional cameras we have ever used.

The Canon camera that does it all

The EOS R5 Mark II takes super-sharp 45MP photos, especially when paired with one of Canon’s L-series pro lenses, but its sensor is now a stacked type, with a faster readout that minimizes shutter effects, which means it’s a great camera too. for high speed photography and video in general.

There’s also a second processing engine that delivers incredible high-speed performance, including 30fps burst shooting with a respectable buffer. During our tests, it was not entirely hold sequences for as long as the EOS R1 canbut for a high-resolution camera, the EOS R5 Mark II is super impressive.

This faster performance is backed by near-flawless autofocus and subject tracking features; For example, through the Action or People priority modes, you can choose between various sports for optimized autofocus, as well as select a specific person using face detection for the camera to focus on. like a player in a sports game or the bride at a wedding. Our success rate when focusing clearly on a specific player on a basketball court was ridiculously high.

Eye control autofocus also impresses. The viewfinder has internal cameras that can detect where you are looking in the frame, using your eyes as a guide to the focus point, along with tracking the subject. Simply put, in this mode the autofocus follows the cues of your attention. It doesn’t completely replace the best autofocus systems, but eye-control AF made us feel more at one with the EOS R5 Mark II.

We also tested the new AI-powered in-camera editing features, including a Exclusive feature that increases the size of your images by 400%.. It uses Canon’s neural network and is optimized for the EOS R5 Mark II: you select one of your images from the memory card and it will upscale the resolution 4x to 170MP for incredible detail.

The potential of Canon’s luxury technology is enormous. Instead of the high-resolution shooting modes on most other cameras that essentially combine multiple images and can’t handle scenes with motion, the EOS R5 Mark II’s unique feature works on a photo you’ve already taken and the results. They are very impressive. For us, what’s especially useful is the increased ability to crop 170MP images.

All in all, the EOS R5 Mark II is Canon’s most versatile professional camera yet. If you can’t get it right once you master its professional features, especially its complex autofocus system, you should probably consider another career path.