GEAR TESTS: CANON 5D MARK IV

DYLAN SILVER Backscatter Team Member

With so much of the buzz revolving around Nikon's new D850 and Sony's mirrorless a7R iii and a7 iii, the selection of Canon gear at this year's Digital Shootout was getting a little dusty. I decided to trek around with the full-frame 5D Mark IV for a few days and put its wide-angle and video capabilities to the test. I've always liked using Canon gear in the water and shooting this body was no different.

The first thing worth mentioning is Canon's reproduction of color underwater. Using ambient light and automatic white balance, Canon does the best of any brand to capture beautiful blues and smooth gradients. Shooting this camera in the shallows at sunset is such a joy. It's incredibly capable in low light and the dynamic range, though not as sensitive as the Nikon D850, still does a great job with highlights and shadows. The camera performed particularly well when shooting split shots in the afternoon and evening. 

For video, I had a good time shooting 4K. Unfortunately, the camera produces enormous video files, which filled up my cards quickly. The manual white balance procedure is a little tedious. But with a couple of Keldan 8X video lights, I got excellent color and some great shots. The camera's autofocus function in video was really accurate and rarely failed to find the critical focus points on the correct subjects.

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