There were teasers, no rumours (at least that I’m aware of) and so when I heard the announcement, I was completely caught off guard but now that I’ve regained my bearings, let’s talk about the new camera and what it means for the EOS R line up going forward.
The R5C is the successor of the widely famous and well received (for the most part) EOS R5 that was released in the middle of the 2020 pandemic. The camera features the same 45 megapixel CMOS sensor that is capable of 8K RAW video and superb picture quality and for all intents and purposes, the R5C is the R5 but with a major improvement for cinematographers; it has a cooling fan that actively dissipates heat and keeps the camera cool when shooting videos.
If you’re not familiar with the withdraw of the original R5, the camera was/is plagued with overheating problems especially when shooting in 8K Video resolution. While the company tried to fix this problem with firmware updates that did help to a certain extent, it was more of a hardware issue since the camera couldn’t find ways to disperse the heat build up when shooting really high density videos. The R5C has had Canon rectify this problem by installing a fan to ensure that the camera is kept cool for long (unlimited based on current reviews) periods of time when when shooting at 8K 60fps (something the original R5 couldn’t do as it capped its recording prowess at 8K 30fps). The R5C has a split menu system controlled by a knob on top of the camera. In photo mode, the camera reverts to the standard Canon camera settings with its menu system very much like any standard Canon mirrorless/DSLR camera but once switched to video mode, the camera takes a more cinema camera styled approach looking very much like its C70 counterpart.
The R5C doesn’t has an inbuilt ND filter system like most cinema cameras in the Canon line-up and unlike the R5, the R5C doesn’t have an IBIS system but most it does have electronic image stabilization and most of Canon’s lenses have lens image stabilization so that front isn’t exactly a problem.
Canon is categorizing the R5C as a cinema camera rather than a mirrorless system and its starting price is $4,499 unlike the R5 which is currently priced at $3,899. The R5C is currently available for preorder here.
Below is a detailed review and comparison against the R5.
