The Canon EOS R5 is a very special camera, and a mirrorless with its characteristics is not something you see every day. It surprised us with its launch, and it has surprised us with its performance, but we have found certain inconveniences that certain user profiles might not like too much.
Because a camera is worth 4,600 euros
The rumors already sounded too incredible to be true. But they were. The EOS R5 comes with a video recording in 8K format , in addition to being able to also record in 4K at 120 images per second , all thanks to a sensor of no less than 45 megapixels . What can go wrong with this combination?
The first thing that can make many raise their eyebrows is undoubtedly its price. A label of 4,599 euros is something that is surprising, but we must bear in mind that we are dealing with a professional cut camera, so you should forget if what you are looking for in it is little more than photographing a vacation.
The 45 megapixel captor is a crystal clear presentation of where this camera is headed, and a couple more brushstrokes allow it to position it as the most advanced model in Canon’s current catalog.
One more jump from the EOS R6
Previously we could already test the performance of the EOS R6, and we liked it a lot, and this time, when holding the EOS R5, we have had very similar feelings. The fault lies with the manufacturer’s construction, very well finished and with a packaging that I personally like a lot in hand. You just have to grasp the grip to feel that the camera is close to hand, it is held very secure and firm, and it offers a feeling of security and robustness.
At the level of details, a useful screen has been included that will serve to view the settings and select the shooting modes, but it is not something especially new, since it was present in the Canon EOS R. Yes, we must thank the presence of the joystick with the than being able to navigate through the menus, an extremely comfortable controller that does nothing more than recall the heritage of the EOS 5D that this model picks up, in addition to the control wheel.
The luxury point is put by the OLED viewfinder , a tiny screen with 5 million pixels that looks spectacularly good, although we must say that the EOS R6 already showed the preview frankly well with its 3 million pixels, so this is directly a pass.
The 45-megapixel sensor is squeezed to the maximum when making bursts, a string of photographs that can reach the figure of 20 images per second if we opt for the electronic shutter, being 12 if we select the mechanical one. Again, memories of the R6. But of course, shooting 20 images per second at 45 megapixels is not an easy task to store, and that is where the new cards come in.
And yes, we are talking about cards in the plural because this R5 has dared to include two different slots, yes. On the one hand, we can insert SD cards and on the other, the new CFExpress that allow writing speeds of 1,400 MB / s, as is the case with the Sandisk that the manufacturer has sent us for testing.
If you have a V60 category SD card, you may be able to fire a few bursts, but there will come a point where the buffer can’t take any more and you have to rest. This has not happened with the CFExpress, which is responsible for swallowing everything you throw at it without question.
This shooting mode is especially attractive if we combine it with the autofocus that the camera offers us. Seriously, it’s awesome. The ability of this EOS R5 to focus on the eye, whether on people or animals, is incredible, and it is quite difficult not to take a good photo unless you have not correctly exposed and measured the scene.
Even when you think it is impossible to focus, due to light conditions, the camera does. The feeling it gives us is that we are capable of taking any photo. If you accompany it with a particularly bright and sharp lens like the RF 28-70 f2.0 that we have been able to test, the results are simply cinematic.
The ISO sensitivity that it is capable of reaching is 51200, although in our tests we have seen that 12,800 ISO may be the highest acceptable value with which to obtain images without too much noise. The 51200 bail out at an extreme level, but little else.
Extremely detailed video
As we have already mentioned, one of the star characteristics of this camera is that it is capable of recording video in 8K format. In order for you to understand what you would be able to record in this format, we have left you several examples in the video of the analysis, and although it is surprising, unfortunately we have to confirm that there are several problems with its use.
The 8K format will give us incredible framing freedom and, in addition, its sharpness and detail amazes in a brutal way. The level of detail that we can achieve in this format is something that is hard to believe, but you only have to see a few cuts to verify that we are talking about incredibly sharp captures. But after all this party of innovation, there are several problems to discuss, and surely you have heard about them.
On the one hand, we have the size of the files and the raw power it takes to move them. If you are going to record in 8K, you need extremely powerful equipment to edit the video. The something especially surprising and complicated to understand at first. In my case I have a shiny and brand new 16-inch MacBook Pro with Core i9 processor, 16 GB of RAM and Radeon Pro 5500M GPU, well, it is useless, since it is not capable of playing the video in programs like VLC or Quicktime.
It is important to mention that we are talking about playback, so you can get an idea of what happens when you want to edit said video in your movies. As if that were not enough, to all this we must add the size of the resulting files, since in 8K ALL-I format at 24 images per second it has reached 1.84 GB for a clip of only 11 seconds. How many cards does it take to record a video? What hard drive will you need to edit it?
But in the end, these problems would disappear over time, thanks to the arrival of new, more powerful machines, and cheaper cards, so they are simply short-term problems with simple solutions. The real problem comes from inside, and it is none other than the temperature.
Recording in 8K, 4K at 120 images per second or 4K in high quality, will cause the camera to generate enough heat to force a technical stop to reach the sensor cooling. This is something that we have seen in many, many mirrorless cameras with a video function, but the problem is accentuated in this EOS R5.
The reason is none other than the cooling capacity. Its sealed magnesium body makes the heat generated inside it very difficult to dissipate, so the sensors maintain very high values for a long time, so much so that it takes more than an hour of rest to record again.
Canon has released firmware to try to mitigate this problem, but beyond reading the values of the temperature sensors more accurately, the cooling problem has not been significantly improved. As soon as the overheating warning appears on the screen, the camera needs to calmly rest, forcing the user to forget about it for a while, something unthinkable in full production work.
Is the EOS R5 the ultimate camera?
After testing the EOS R6 we felt that the lower model is a more hybrid camera, as the video was quite well balanced with the photo (even with slight heating problems). In this EOS R5 on the other hand, due to the limitations suffered by the video modes, we believe that the photographic facet weighs much more than that of the video, so if you are looking for a mirrorless camera to record video, this Canon could give you headaches in the middle of the job.
But obviously we are facing a technological monster that will surprise anyone. Its extreme speed, and insane definition pose a very difficult photographic performance to beat, and its excellent stabilizer and video quality, are a great high-quality option for those who do not prioritize recording too much.