Canon R5 Announced with 8k

All of the camera companies made good camera announcements. You can really see how everyone targeted 2020 for big releases in the new decade.

But I have to hand it to Canon, they made quite the eco system this past year. If you're the type of owner op to own a few specialized cameras, I can think of any other manufacture that makes it so easy to jump between camera models and get comparable controls and image quality. Everything from turning old 5D's into webcams, to creating one of the best s35 ENG cameras, to little 8K mirrorless cameras, to cheap "B-cam" in the C200 that is older but because Canon keeps a fairly consistent look across a longer period of time, they're still a useful back up or multi camera.

If you prefer having that "one" video camera that you can takee anywhere and use for paid video work, it will be difficult to find anything that beats the A7s3. And Sony has made really big steps in creating a more synchronized eco system, but I didn't feel as comfortable jumping between cameras in the Sony eco system as I did with the Canon one.

Canon also continues to be the mount of choice for companies like ARRI, RED, and BMD, and will be interesting to see how far RF continues to be adopted by other manufacturers of cameras. To be honest, I would have assumed they would have adopted the L mount, but so far RF might end up with some traction against the Sony only E mount anyway.

Had Canon not done so well at improving the C series Cine EOS image quality, maybe they'd have had to rely on their mirrorless cameras to bring up the rear, but as is, really tough to beat the Canon eco system this year.


Sony continues to improve its s-log3 integration, but dropped the ball in allowing for S-cinetone to match better between the A,F, and Venice lines. Also, S-cinetone is a drastic departure from. Sony's previous look, and will take sometime for users to adapt. Whereas Canon has been Canon this whole time..

So, heating issues are not issues for some. When you have a C300III and then want to get some 8K wide Scenics for the documentary.... game changing. C3003 isn't bogged down by needing to be an 8K camera, and the R5 is small enough to bring along in the bag. Oh yeah, the R5 shoots awesome stills too. Need more cameras for multi cam? snag a bunch of used C200's or C100's. Did you unfortunately invest in a 1DC, 5DIV, 1DX2, C3002, or anything like that? Well, they can still fit into your new Canon camera eco system, and can do B or C cam duties, because Canon doesn't go changing their colour science in crazy big ways. So, you don't have to get rid of any of your previous purchases.

Canon didn't make the single best camera in 2020, but they may have made the best overall eco system, and gorgeous cameras along the way. Definitely not for everyone, but I tip my hat to Canon, for all the times I disliked the cripple hammer in any single product, they certainly made a robust set of camera options for those that use multiple cameras in their work.
 
Nice little year-in-review, James.

Right - I suppose if you're rich enough to consider the R5 to be a stills/bonus camera, it's great for offering that catch of FF 8K goodness here and there. And if it doesn't work right then - it's not the only camera you're firing with.

My nagging niggle is that I didn't love the look of a lot of the A7siii footage I've seen...whereas I loved the look of almost all the R5 footage I saw. But I'm a little perplexed because I see nice stills from the A7Siii and I've seen effortlessly nice skin tones shot on the a7riv. I suppose I should have faith that I can find ways for the camera to please me.

But Canon and Panasonic have made it so easy for me to SOOC that I've gotten spoiled...
 
The video from a few posts back is quite a fail by Canon. The first video from that crew made the camera look so nice and the second one basically said it was all for naught. Wow, what a roller coaster ride.
 
OKAY...it's bad.

LOL. I wanted to be extra dramatic for that.

So I personally stop watching YouTube videos about a camera I am interested in the day I get it (if I get it), so not sure where everyone is with the overheating and what's been said or shared today, but once this camera overheats, I think it is a wrap for the day with the best modes. Or at least it was for me.

There was no cooling down to get it back-and-running capturing 8K or 4K HQ. Even 4K/60p 5.1K was a no-go. I couldn't.

WITH THAT SAID - and as expected - the camera did take about 1.2 hours to finally overheat after shooting exactly the way I repeatedly said I would; very short clips of b-roll. I'm assuming that once you start rolling longer clips, interviews, soundbites, I don't see you getting very far (in the best modes).

But if you would like to shoot a 30-second spot in 8K with about 10 shots (preferably non-complicated takes), it is most definitely an option for superior quality for your client. (Even if you're doing this, and especially for money, it would still be best to bring a second body.)

Again, not sure what other people are saying about their own experiences, but tomorrow I will try ONLY 4K HQ and see what happens. Then ONLY the 4K APS-C mode if possible, or the day after.

Footage is transcoding. But I used the worst possible lens, 24-105mm f/4-7.1 (but more on that later).

Zebras and focus peaking can't be used at the same time if anyone doesn't know. I know some of you kooky birds still like to manually focus.

___

Oh, man. It almost seems like they coded this camera to overheat (not saying they did) - because I don't know how it's possible that it just couldn't recover eventually.

It's hot in New York.

[BTW, switching to HD while the symbol is flashing appears to always instantly solve the problem.]

I'm interested in the other aforementioned tests to see if I can get more than 1.2 hours (based on how I shoot) since today was a very random mix of 8K ALL-I, HQ, 120p, and 4K/60p 5.1K.
 
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NorBro said:
OKAY...it's bad.

LOL. I wanted to be extra dramatic for that.

So I personally stop watching YouTube videos about a camera I am interested in the day I get it (if I get it), so not sure where everyone is with the overheating and what's been said or shared today, but once this camera overheats, I think it is a wrap for the day with the best modes. Or at least it was for me.

There was no cooling down to get it back-and-running capturing 8K or 4K HQ. Even 4K/60p 5.1K was a no-go. I couldn't.

WITH THAT SAID - and as expected - the camera did take about 1.2 hours to finally overheat after shooting exactly the way I repeatedly said I would; very short clips of b-roll. I'm assuming that once you start rolling longer clips, interviews, soundbites, I don't see you getting very far (in the best modes).

But if you would like to shoot a 30-second spot in 8K with about 10 shots (preferably non-complicated takes), it is most definitely an option for superior quality for your client. (Even if you're doing this, and especially for money, it would still be best to bring a second body.)

Again, not sure what other people are saying about their own experiences, but tomorrow I will try ONLY 4K HQ and see what happens. Then ONLY the 4K APS-C mode if possible, or the day after.

Footage is transcoding. But I used the worst possible lens, 24-105mm f/4-7.1 (but more on that later).

Zebras and focus assist can't be used at the same time if anyone doesn't know. I know some of you kooky birds still like to manually focus.

___

Oh, man. It almost seems like they coded this camera to overheat (not saying they did) - because I don't know how it's possible that it just couldn't recover eventually.

It's hot in New York.

[BTW, switching to HD while the symbol is flashing appears to always instantly solve the problem.]

I'm interested in the other aforementioned tests to see if I can get more than 1.2 hours (based on how I shoot) since today was a very random mix of 8K ALL-I, HQ, 120p, and 4K/60p 5.1K.
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I’m curious to Know what happens if you shut the camera off when not shooting. It’s not like the camera is in use all the time. Find your shot, shoot your shot, turn off , repeat . Let’s say a minute a shot as a test .What happens then Also rumor sites say canon is working on a fix . No cameras until November.
 
A fix with firmware. Which probably can be hacked by those who know how to hack into Canon cameras.
 
It’s just that the earlier videos of canon reps saying keeping the camera on standby doesn’t help in reducing heat. It’s still working whether you’re shooting or not.
 
I wouldn't doubt it...but the thing is is that when you overheat and the symbol pops up and blocks you from shooting 8K/etc., you can change the camera to HD and continue shooting...so it's still working even more after overheating, but it allows you to shoot in HD.

So if anything, maybe you can switch to HD while you "walk around"...

I don't know if anyone even bothered to test HD because no one buys the camera for that, but it's a safety mode that does exist and allows you to keep shooting (at least that's what I've found after day 1...we'll see, lol).
 
NorBro said:
I wouldn't doubt it...but the thing is is that when you overheat and the symbol pops up and blocks you from shooting 8K/etc., you can change the camera to HD and continue shooting...so it's still working even more after overheating, but it allows you to shoot in HD.
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Can you still shoot in the 4K standard (non HQ) mode up to 30 fps after the overheating warning appears? Or do you have to switch to HD?
 
Thank you so much NorBro for the firsthand report!

On the shoots I do, everyone from DP to the art department to client to me generally like to have picture up on the monitors quite a bit. We can't just turn the camera on before we roll.

I am curious if it's possible to program a button so you can switch to HD mode and back really easily (and hopefully it doesn't knock the Teradek out) and if that would help overheating.

It's a bit of a long shot though... and my nightmare would be the camera gets left in HD mode when we roll!

Bruce Allen
www.bruceallen.tv
 
Thanks for the feedback NorBro. I can't quite tell if this was on purpose or just wading too deep into the pool for Canon. If it was on purpose that is quite a risk of customer goodwill. If they do not have the technical capability then why go to market? Strange but either way, I am not going anywhere near one until more light gets shed by Canon. I have my doubts this can be "fixed" at this stage in the game. It is a shame as the images really look nice. The only saving grace would be if one can be happy with the 4k low quality mode. But, I am concerned about the camera in general if it overheats just by being on. That seems like a design flaw for a mirrorless camera. But what do I know!
 
I had a genius idea - a battery grip that inserts a cooling module into the battery compartment and powers the camera via USB.

You can't do better cooling down the camera than an active coolant inside the body, right?
 
Bassman2003 said:
... I can't quite tell if this was on purpose or just wading too deep into the pool for Canon. If it was on purpose that is quite a risk of customer goodwill. If they do not have the technical capability then why go to market? ...
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Accidental? They must have spent tens of thousands of hours testing it from all the different angles - performance, durability, et cetera, et cetera. And they surely have gotten six months worth of PR off it.

But, now that it's in shooters' hands, they're out of stock for the next 3-4 months? After Europe got how many? 70 pieces in total?

Oh, well, the majority of the Canon Rumors forum members are still praying to their Canon overlords for giving them a dream of a vaporware. Disaster averted.

Edit : correction. 70 pieces for Germany. But that's 20% of the EU economy. Slim pickin's.
 
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ahalpert said:
I had a genius idea - a battery grip that inserts a cooling module into the battery compartment and powers the camera via USB.

You can't do better cooling down the camera than an active coolant inside the body, right?
Click to expand...
Yes, it's a little surprising that none of the major camera manufacturers have come out with any kind of battery grip thermal cooling accessory. Especially since at this point most of the camera brands have had challenges with thermal management when doing high resolution video recording from a large imaging sensor in a compact camera body. Although some have navigated these challenges better than others, they are all facing the similar problems due to the laws of physics: as internal processor speeds increase, they generate more heat while camera body sizes remain the same or have gotten smaller with the transition to mirrorless.

You could imagine something like grip with an internal heat pipe connection into the camera coupled with a large heat sink and perhaps active cooling fan in the grip itself. In order to work well though, I think the camera kind of needs to be designed for this kind of accessory, so that there is a suitable thermal attachment point for the grip, with fast enough heat transfer into the grip that it can dissipate heat effectively. But similar cooling approaches are often used in laptops since there's not really space to mount a fan directly on the processor generating the heat, so the fan is located elsewhere in the laptop (usually near one of the edges that can be vented) which might be a couple inches away from the actual processor location.

A thermal cooling accessory like this would allow the camera body to stay small for photographers or when shooting short video clips handheld. And then the grip could be attached when shooting on a tripod or for longer form recording. Traditional battery grips are designed to overcome the power-related capture time limitations of small capacity batteries in a compact camera body, and similarly a thermal battery grip would be designed to overcome the thermal-related capture time limitations of a small camera body.
 
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