The Canon EOS R5 is a very special camera; a mirrorless camera with its features isn't something you see every day. It surprised everyone with its launch, and its performance has impressed us, but we've found some drawbacks that might not appeal to certain types of users.
Canon EOS R5, video analysis
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 8K video recording , in addition to being able to record in 4K at 120 frames per second , all thanks to a sensor of no less than 45 megapixels . What could possibly go wrong with this combination?
The first thing that will likely raise an eyebrow is undoubtedly its price. A price tag of €4.599 is astonishing, but we must bear in mind that this is a professional-grade camera, so you should forget about it if all you're looking for is to photograph a vacation.
The 45-megapixel sensor is a crystal-clear presentation of where this camera is headed, and a few more strokes make it the most advanced model in Canon's portfolio today.
One more leap from the EOS R6
We were able to test the performance of the EOS R6 before, and we really liked it, and this time, when holding the EOS R5, we have had very similar feelings. The manufacturer's construction is to blame, very well finished and with a package that I personally like very much in my hand. You only have to grasp the grip to feel that the camera is in your hand, it is held very securely and firmly, and offers a feeling of security and robustness.
At the level of details, a useful screen has been included that will be used to see the settings and select the shooting modes, but it is not something particularly 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 includes, in addition to the control wheel.
The luxury touch is provided 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 quite well with its 3 million pixels, so this one is simply amazing.
The 45-megapixel sensor gets the most out of it when it comes to taking bursts, a string of photographs that can reach 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's where the new cards come into play.
And yes, we're talking about cards in the plural because this R5 has dared to include two slots, albeit different ones. On one side, we can insert SD cards, and on the other, the new CFExpress cards that allow write speeds of up to 1.400 MB/s, as is the case with the Sandisk card that the manufacturer sent us for testing.
If you have a V60 grade SD card, you may be able to shoot a few bursts, but there will come a point where the buffer can't take any more and must 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 offered by the camera. Seriously, it's amazing. The ability of this EOS R5 to focus 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 metered the scene.
Even when you think it's impossible to focus, due to light conditions, the camera does it. The feeling it gives us is that we are capable of taking any photo. If you accompany that 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 get out of trouble at an extreme level, but little else.
Extremely detailed video
As we have already mentioned, one of the star features of this camera is that it is capable of recording video in 8K format. In order for you to be able to understand what you would be able to record in this format, we have left you several examples in the analysis video, 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 are brutally amazing. The level of detail that we can achieve in this format is something that is hard to believe, but you just have to see some cuts to see 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 shoot in 8K, you need extremely powerful equipment to edit the video. Something especially surprising and difficult to understand at first. In my case, I have a shiny and brand new 16-inch MacBook Pro with a Core i9 processor, 16 GB of RAM and a Radeon Pro 5500M GPU, well, it's useless to me, 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 come to occupy 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 an easy solution. The real problem comes from the 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 we have seen in many mirrorless cameras with a video function, but the problem is exacerbated 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, which is why the sensors maintain extremely high values ​​for a long time, so much so that more than an hour of rest is required to record again.
Canon has released a 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 rest quietly, forcing the user to forget about it for a while, something unthinkable in the middle of production work.
Is the EOS R5 the ultimate camera?
After testing the EOS R6 we felt that the lower model is more of a hybrid camera, as the video was fairly well balanced with the photo (even with slight heating issues). In this EOS R5, on the other hand, due to the limitations suffered by the video modes, we believe that the photographic aspect 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 crazy definition make photographic performance difficult to beat, and its excellent stabilizer and video quality make it a great high-quality option for those who don't prioritize recording too much.