I'm really tired of the blathering about the competition when none of the comparisons make sense,
I'm really tired of people mindlessly defending the situation because it's Canon or it's "their camera." When the first complaints hit it was fair to think "crazy YouTubers believing they had 24/7 8k." But the data available now shows there is a problem.
The thermal situation means wedding and event photographers basically have to treat the camera as a stills camera, or perhaps as an EOS R with FF line skipped readout instead of 1.7x cropped. Given the two reports of overheating while shooting stills (one here, one at FM) it may mean sports and outdoor photographers have to be careful or avoid the model altogether. (In fairness until this is replicated it may have been defective units. But the report here is detailed and from a known forum member. If the unit was not defective, if this is to be expected, then it is DOA for many sports/wildlife/outdoor photographers.) And cinema use is basically out. The R5 won't even be used for short captures during crash scenes (5D2 on the set of Fury Road) because nobody would setup a scene like that and take a risk that the camera would overheat before the crash.
This camera is not well below the competition in any way if you make an accurate and fair comparison.
It is behind most (all?) competing 4k hybrids in terms of usable footage you can capture in a day due to excessive (2+ hour) cool down times. This is tragic given how capable the camera's sensor and video modes are.
This is a mirrorless 5D5 with strong IBIS, EVF, weather sealing, and a high MP sensor, and short duty HQ video capability (making it a great hybrid camera) all in a tiny body.
No. Short duty HQ capture is out because you can't trust it. You can't trust that when you want to switch to 4k60 to grab a great clip of a wedding couple walking, dancing, or kissing...after a day of shooting stills...that it will have anything more than 0m record time. Or that it won't shutdown in the middle of the grab. This reduces it to a great stills camera but only an OK-to-mediocre hybrid camera based on how you feel about 4k30 line skipped video.
It is not a 12MP dedicated video camera with weaker IBIS and much less sensor to read out (a large thermal advantage and less capable hybrid).
Stop thinking about the A7s3. This is not a simple matter of market misclassification. If there were no thermal issues it would be very clear to everyone that the A7s3 is a very cinema focused camera (like the S1H) and the R5 the ultimate hybrid camera. And absent these thermal issues, the R5 would be the
ultimate hybrid. The camera to bring people back from Sony. Canon would not lose R5 sales to the A7s3. Heck, you would have people who would own both. But with these thermal issues they will lose sales to other MILCs in a shrinking market.
For that matter, absent these thermal issues the R5 would make inroads into cinema because some people absolutely would use the 8k mode.
Compare apples to apples when it comes to data throughput, features and body size.
Other cameras, many with smaller bodies that are less of a heatsink, shed their heat and are ready to go with 5, 10, 15m breaks. Which means in normal use they can function without thermal issues for hours because you don't normally grab a continuous 30m 4k60 clip. You grab 2m here, 1m there, 5m here, with breaks in between, especially if you are at an event or wedding. But that doesn't work on these new R bodies because heat builds, even while shooting stills, and doesn't go any where.
Such a stumble for what, the lack of a copper heat pipe? Make the bodies a little bit thicker if needed to have the copper to conduct that heat away from the DIGIC X.
If you are not going to be objective about overall capability when considering heat generation and ability to remove heat, don't bother.
Objectively speaking, Canon will lose sales over this, and will lose customers to other brands. It's not like this is the rumored 83-100mp R body. Canon could honestly release something like that with no video at all and be fine, as long as there's a 5-series R body that's reliable. The R5 is not reliable for video. The R6 is not reliable for video. What are event and wedding photographers supposed to do, stick with the R?
The point is, people are reacting to single data points, most from talking heads who make their living blathering about gear and we all know controversy pays.
No, you have the single data point and you want to hand wave all the data points coming in from others. That's fine for you but terrible for Canon sales.