DPReview: Review of the Canon EOS R5

[scyrene]

They’d need to buy two cameras... like we’ve always had to do. Canon gave false hope that this body could eliminate that need for 2020-2021.

Did they? Or did you just read too much into pre-release hype?

 

[HotPixels]

I am not sure anyone is standing by Canon 100% we are just being realistic. Keep in mind if you want to shoot 8k raw video you get about 13 minutes of record time with a 256gb card. 1tb gets you less than one hour. 1tb per hour is going to generate a lot of heat, and require massive storage requirements. It seems all of a sudden everyone wants to go out and film terabytes of data daily, and are now pitching fit that they can't. If I wanted to go out and film for two hours, that would be approximately 3 Tb's of data. What are you going to record all of this to? Are you going to change out memory cards every 15 to 20 minutes, or will you be using an external recorder? If the latter then you can keep recording. Either the camera works for you or it doesn't.

The complaints are intentionally misleading. It's a social media strategy by Sony vloggers/Youtubers. They know that no other camera does 8K. They know how great 8K looks. They know they can do great stuff with even one minute of 8K, and that 20 min of 8K for this type of camera is amazing. But they have their Sony talking points. They just happen to have found the religion of "no overheating" whatsoever when Sony releases a camera that touts "no overheating."
Even then the Sony appears to overheat in some circumstances.

If Sony had included 8K in any camera these Youtube reviewers would be singing its praises, no matter what the thermal limits were. So let's not be naive. This is not an argument based on facts and logic. This is a guerrilla marketing strategy.

 

[Kit.]

Canon is the ONLY camera company that has a STILLS camera with 8-Freaking-K in it!
Why on earth put EIGHT KAAAAAAY in a stills camera and then say it is not video centric?

Because they can?

 

[scyrene]

No gun to my head. I have other cameras, but I did invest in RF thinking Canon would deliver so that’s my bad I guess? It amazes me how so many stand by Canon 100%

With respect, and everybody's different, I would never do it that way round. If I get an RF mount camera, it will be body before lenses. I can adapt my EF lenses with no problem. Getting one or more RF lenses before a body has been released that suits my needs would be... putting the cart before the horse, to resurrect an old phrase.

 

[sdz]

Anybody expecting genuine unrestricted 8k from Canon in a sub $4,000 camera is an idiot.

Here is the list of Canon competitors offering unrestricted 8K in a sub-$4,000 camera:








It's a long one, isn't it?

 

[Go Wild]

My workflow has not changed at all with the R5 and I am super happy with the Camera. Shame the focus is on what it can't do and not what it can.

• Editing 8K just laughs at my PC so I am transcoding
• The standard 4K looks as good or better then the 4K out of my EOS R and no crop.
• The 1.6 Crop 4K looks mush better than the cropped EOS R 4K
• Punching in on the 8K looks awesome - I think I am going to try and setup a 5min clip using the 15-35 with the goal of having 3 or 4 "scenes" all recorded at the same time and just punch in to create scene isolation. I think the detail is there to do it, pass or fail it will be fun to mess with.
• 8K is nuts to work with Example this clip
  took 2 hours to show up on Youtube as 8K. It is just to test the upload time of 12secs 8k and not a good video, but I have never had 8K before so it still seems cool to me.

The R5 is everything "I" wanted from a Canon Pro body so I am going to be happy.

Great!!

People are just getting crazy with so much "garbage" and misleading information. I think it´s time to people stop listening to this "so called influencers" and try to think by their own head and experiences. This conversation of overheating it´s just STUPID and I am so tired of it!

1 - If you think the camera it´s not for you don´t buy it!
2 - If you don´t want the camera to overheat film in regular 4k or 1080p
3 - If you do want THE BEST 4K IN THE MARKET just use an external recorder. Period.
4 - If you are in a major production or need to film for a lot of hours, just buy 2 or 3 R5 or you can also buy a 20.000$ cinema camera. But stop complaining about this overheating issue!

Unfortunately the postmail got late in deliveries so I am only going to have my precious R5 tomorrow. I will be filming with the atomos shogun inferno an I will be happy to show that this camera is superb!

For 3800$ you will get a remarkable stills camera! You will get a remarkable video camera (best 4K in the market, stunning 4k120fps, 8k!!!!) You will get the best AF in the market with a fantastic Eye af and animal eye af! Dual pixel AF....

So please just stop this overheating nonsense created by youtubers that need this kind of bulls+++t to create content to sell. Most of the things I see in youtube is praising and praising A7s3 from Sony youtubers. Damn they even score the A7s3 like the "masterpiece"...The technologic masterpiece! If Sony A7s3 is a masterpiece what the heck is the R5???? Because it´s a WAY BETTER CAMERA than the A7s3....

This review from the dpreview is the ONLY complete review i have seen from all the "best" youtubers and I wonder Why it is? Why are not more complete reviews? I tell you why, because this camera is huge and they don´t want to highlight a camera from Canon. Only problems...problems...But wait...this one doesn´t have any problem! So they needed to create a problem with overheating.

Now I am not saying this wont be an issue we need to be careful. But it´s clearly time to stop this stupid thing of the boogie man!!!

Enjoy your camera I will enjoy mine tomorrow!

 

[drama]

Really smart comment. A few thoughts, including some inspired by comments on other sites:
The R5 video specs as you note are really in line with all other hybrids. They push the frontier on things like 8K but no one else has that. Yet they are punished for that by some Youtube reviewers, who otherwise have accepted Sony overheating for years without complaint. Their reasoning: well, at least Sony is pushing the boundaries.
I think this has been a planned social media strategy by Sony and their Youtube/vlogger community. It's too coordinated. Someone else pointed out how the Sony Youtubers generally don't compare their new camera with its natural competition, the S1H. And these Youtubers all of a sudden care most about heat dissipation and long record times, when they have made do with Sony limitations for years.
There was that one guy, Gerald Undone, who's gotten a lot of notice. But someone pointed out how before the A7SIII was even announced, he posted a comparison on his Twitter of two 12MP A7SII photos, and he couldn't yet say they were taken with that camera, and the same image taken by the R5. The point he was trying to make was that 12MP was good enough for stills. So even before the A7SIII was announced he went in with a plan.

Also someone else pointed out how Youtube reviewers have skewed the entire way a camera is reviewed. They tend to review based on how they use a camera, which is naturally mostly for video. But they put out reviews to get photographers to watch and get them more views. So serious stills cameras like the Fuji GFX100 and the Leica SL2 end up being reviewed by them more for their video capabilities than for the stills. Because people enjoy watching well produced and easy to watch video content, these Youtube reviewers end up influencing the way a camera is reviewed and thought of moreso than it really should be.

super valid. Agree this was a clear Sony strategy to invite comparison and ask for favorable views in exchange for product. It’s the 21st century, let’s see if it pays off for them, and if the youtubers make a gain from it or if they take a dive for looking like they’ve been bought.

One thing is for sure, I can’t read much more of “Gerald undone” in serious tones. What a stupid screen name and what an awful theme tune to an otherwise good channel that has obviously been swayed by Sony donating product.

 

[Juangrande]

Correction: They built a stills camera with great AF that overheats while taking stills making the “cutting edge” 8k and HQ modes unusable in “hybrid” scenarios. They marketed the 8K30 and 4K120 as if it were actually usable. They only released the overheat times after we questioned them days after preorders started. Stop making excuses for a shady PR team. There is nothing cutting edge having to wait 2 hours for 20 minutes of record time (if you’re not taking stills).

I used to shoot weddings for a number of years and I never shot more than 30 seconds of video at a time, often less, like 5-10 second clips of the kiss at the alter, cake cutting etc.. these were usually added to an Animoto slide show for an extra surprise element or for social media posting. And those instances were often at least 30- 60 minutes apart. So in that hybrid scenario overheating would be a non issue. I was hired primarily as a stills shooter and there was a video guy (sometimes partners with me) who shot the video and guess what, he shot with a VIDEO camera! Right tool for the job. Most professionals have a second body with them at all times and if your a true hybrid shooter (50/50 workflow) then why not have a body for stills and a body for video. I think we’ll see RF Lens capability in future cinema bodies soon. Or a video centric R body. I personally don’t think trying to cram a high end video camera into a stills camera specced body Is the best idea because it means there’s gonna be compromises. Which’s fine if like in my scenario you just need to grab a few clips here and there. But if your primarily shooting video then get a video camera and do the job right. Or at least a more video centric hybrid body, which is what Sony has attempted in their latest offering, which by the way because it’s focused on video performances it had to take a massive hit on stills capabilities. One body trying to do everything will have to comprise. Btw I’ve heard even the new Sony is having some overheating issues as well. I think the breakthrough that needs to happen is in the processing on the chips and the cards. The technology needs to advance to more energy efficient processing that doesn’t get so
Damn hot. Maybe that can be somewhat corrected in processing algorithms rather than hardware.

 

[HotPixels]

Because they can?

Yes, remember when Canon put HD in the 5D Mark II? Certainly wasn't meant to suggest it was a video centric camera, it was an extra feature. Of course it led to a revolution and is the reason why we have hybrid cameras today. Same with 8K in the R5. It's an extra feature that pushes the boundaries forward. It is the start. And mark my words, you will have some really creative people find ways to use the 8K in all kinds of surprising ways. Then it will really start to catch on, like HD video did with the 5D Mark II.

Remember too the 5D Mark II had a video recording limit of 12 minutes. It's just that we didn't have the guerrilla marketing of Sony around at the time or else they would have complained about the 12 min limit of the 5D Mark ii.

 

[sdz]

So why did they market it as an 8K full frame camera?

Because it is an 8K FF camera.

 

[HotPixels]

BTW the best way to overcome the negative guerrilla marketing campaign against the R5 will be for content creators to put out some really compelling video made with it, esp. the 8K mode. That will have impact on the Youtube community.

 

[Deleted member 384473]

With respect, and everybody's different, I would never do it that way round. If I get an RF mount camera, it will be body before lenses. I can adapt my EF lenses with no problem. Getting one or more RF lenses before a body has been released that suits my needs would be... putting the cart before the horse, to resurrect an old phrase.

I have an EOS R.

 

[Bert63]

No gun to my head. I have other cameras, but I did invest in RF thinking Canon would deliver so that’s my bad I guess? It amazes me how so many stand by Canon 100%

Yes. It’s is YOUR bad. Your choice. No one else’s. I am a loyal Canon customer but I’m not blind to obvious shortcomings. Unlike a large majority of the population though (or so it seems) I don’t believe the hype of the YouTubers and influencers as if they are somehow the be-all, end-all when it comes to information. I actually think the opposite.

I preordered the R5 as a stills camera and I’m excited to get it and see if it does what I hope it will. If it doesn’t, I’ll return it but from a stills perspective the reviews are solid. If I cared about video I guess I’d go Sony but I don’t so that’s a problem solved.

It amazes me that people listen to the YouTube garbage and base their expectations off SWAGs instead of waiting until the camera is actually available to see what it will do.

I’m still searching links to see where Canon overhyped 8K or any other feature of this camera. They said it will do 8K and it will. they listed the features one by one and fools and their imaginations did the rest.

Bugatti advertises that the Chiron can do 250MPH or higher but they don’t tell you all the things you have to do to get there or what limitations it causes when you do it. It’s up to the buyer to decide if those limitations are livable. I don’t see anyone standing in the Bugatti dealership screaming about limitations because some YouTuber misled them.

If you want to get mad at someone, get mad at the people supposing things and imagining things that may or may not be possible before the camera is even available.

No company is perfect but Canon has never let me down. Show me the camera out there right now that the Canon R5 “should have been” or gets “beaten by...”

I’ll wait here.

 

[adigoks]

Yes, remember when Canon put HD in the 5D Mark II? Certainly wasn't meant to suggest it was a video centric camera, it was an extra feature. Of course it led to a revolution and is the reason why we have hybrid cameras today. Same with 8K in the R5. It's an extra feature that pushes the boundaries forward. It is the start. And mark my words, you will have some really creative people find ways to use the 8K in all kinds of surprising ways. Then it will really start to catch on, like HD video did with the 5D Mark II.

Remember too the 5D Mark II had a video recording limit of 12 minutes. It's just that we didn't have the guerrilla marketing of Sony around at the time or else they would have complained about the 12 min limit of the 5D Mark ii.

that 12 min recording limit are gone using magic lantern. imagine R5 with Magic Lantern .

 

[privatebydesign]

no one was expecting that.

and stop calling names

If people are being idiotic them calling them idiots is factually correct. The out of all context uproar this release has caused is idiotic, and while you might say "no one was expecting that" the limitations those specs alone place on that aspect of the camera are the ONLY criticisms of the camera. Everybody has praised the AF, the DR, the resolution, rolling shutter, image quality, iso performance etc etc etc, the only aspect people are ripping the entire package to pieces on is the 8k and other special video modes.

 

[Bert63]

So why did they market it as an 8K full frame camera?

Because it is. The unrealistic expectations came from the usual gang of paid idiots on YouTube.

 

[zim]

My workflow has not changed at all with the R5 and I am super happy with the Camera. Shame the focus is on what it can't do and not what it can.

• Editing 8K just laughs at my PC so I am transcoding
• The standard 4K looks as good or better then the 4K out of my EOS R and no crop.
• The 1.6 Crop 4K looks much better than the cropped EOS R 4K
• Punching in on the 8K looks awesome - I think I am going to try and setup a 5min clip using the 15-35 with the goal of having 3 or 4 "scenes" all recorded at the same time and just punch in to create scene isolation. I think the detail is there to do it, pass or fail it will be fun to mess with.
• 8K is nuts to work with Example this clip
  took 2 hours to show up on Youtube as 8K. It is just to test the upload time of 12secs 8k and not a good video, but I have never had 8K before so it still seems cool to me.

The R5 is everything "I" wanted from a Canon Pro body so I am going to be happy.

8k or not that grass needs cut

 

[Deleted member 384473]

Because it is. The unrealistic expectations came from the usual gang of paid idiots on YouTube.

You know, I actually agree that expectations were unrealistic and that overheating should’ve been expected especially considering past Mirrorless cameras pushing higher end specs at FF but I also think Canon added to these expectations to some degree. Doesn’t matter at this point, it is what it is. Only thing I can hope for to make RF worth it for my use case is a dedicated RF cine cam from Canon. I’d definitely pick up an R5 for stills to work alongside it.

 

[Bert63]

BECAUSE IT IS! They never said you could shoot a movie on it, they never said it was designed for long form use. It is a sub $4,000 small hybrid. Maybe my mistake is I live in the real world, I never expected more from the R5 and Canon never promised more so I don’t really understand people’s dismay and anger.

We’re living in the same cone of delusion. I actually think that Canon did a good job with the R5 and can’t think of a single camera that even comes close to its capabilities - limitations and all.

But then again, this is the generation of rampaging entitlement and the generation that was never told no now has enough disposable income to bring misery to the masses.

 

[Bert63]

You know, I actually agree that expectations were unrealistic and that overheating should’ve been expected especially considering past Mirrorless cameras pushing higher end specs at FF but I also think Canon added to these expectations to some degree. Doesn’t matter at this point, it is what it is. Only thing I can hope for to make RF worth it for my use case is a dedicated RF cine cam from Canon. I’d definitely pick up an R5 for stills to work alongside it.

Please explain how CANON added to “expectations” beyond listing specs and limitations...