- On October 15, the winners of the 2025 Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition were announced.
- Canon EOS R5 became the most popular camera among the finalists
- Released in 2020, it was succeeded by the EOS R5 Mark II.
If you're anything like me, you'll enjoy being curious about what other photographers, especially award-winning ones, are shooting with. Having experience as a photo competition judge, it's no surprise that I was reviewing the winning images Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2025 competition announced on October 15.
When I looked closely at the technical details of the successful works, I was quite amazed at the equipment chosen. Of course, speed and accuracy are of the utmost importance when photographing wildlife, right? So I expect the best WPOTY photos to come from a flagship high-speed mirrorless camera.
Nikon Z 9 presented, of course. Canon EOS R3? And that too. But among the successful competitors was a much more popular camera (besides the 11-year-old Nikon D810 DSLR used for the winning photo). It wasn't even Canon EOS R5 Mark IIwhich itself won TechRadar's Choice Award for 2024 Camera of the Year, but it was actually the original 2020 model that was the most popular of the WPOTY winners. Yes… it was Canon EOS R5 (Mark I).
I'm one of the first to preach about the disposable nature of the tech industry, but when it comes to this level of photography, I admit I expected the later headline-grabbing cameras to be the weapon of choice for this group of award-winning photographers.
Strong balance of pixels and power
The original EOS R5 was released back in 2020 along with its smaller brother, EOS R6. Both cameras were subsequently replaced by Canon EOS R5 Mark II And Canon EOS R6 Mark II are excellent successors, which made me wonder why the five-year-old R5 still ranks so highly.
The EOS R5 lacks the eye-control AF system of the Mark II and the later EOS R3, but still uses the fast Dual Pixel CMOS AF II system with 5,940 focus areas. In particular, the autofocus component of the EOS ITR AF X includes deep learning artificial intelligence – a phrase we quickly became accustomed to, but at the time of launch it was truly futuristic technology. This system was originally developed Canon for popular EOS-1D X Mark III A DSLR camera that coincidentally also appeared at WPOTY 2025.
The EOS R5 features a full-frame 45MP CMOS sensor, 20fps continuous shooting with electronic shutter, 8-stop body stabilization and 8K video. If you compare this to another competitor who competes frequently, Nikon Z 8much more recent version, the resolution and maximum RAW burst speed of the old camera are more than the same. The same goes for the aforementioned Nikon Z9, which is not only newer but also positioned higher in its range (it's aimed squarely at professionals, while the EOS R5 is also aimed at enthusiasts). Meanwhile, 2024 Sony A1 II has a comparable 50MP resolution and 8K video, and only slightly beats the EOS R5 in its maximum continuous shooting speed of 30fps.
With top wildlife photographers like Andy Rose and commercial professionals like Peter MacKinnon choosing the R5 for their top-level work, it's no surprise that this camera is built to last. If anything, success in the 2025 Wildlife Photographer of the Year award proves that newer, brighter cameras don't mean old cameras are immediately rendered irrelevant.
Follow TechRadar on Google News. And add us as your preferred source to get our expert news, reviews and opinions in your feeds. Be sure to click the “Subscribe” button!
And of course you can also Follow TechRadar on TikTok for news, reviews, unboxing videos and get regular updates from us on whatsapp too much.
