This is the most exciting release from Canon in the recent history. Almost everyone thought the rumors were too good to be true, but Canon delivered. They are finally taking mirrorless seriously, and the R5 looks promising. With insane 8K recording and high speed 4K, it’s bringing high resolution video to the consumer without an astronomical price tag. For the photographer, it looks amazing with the new high resolution 45 megapixel sensor and up to 8-stop image stabilisation.
Video Specs
The headline feature is the ability to shook 8K video at 30 frames a second. Surprisingly even without active cooling, the camera can shoot for 20 minutes before overheating. Unfortunately, it does take a long time to cool down, with 10 minutes of cooling down giving the user another 3 minutes of 8K shooting.
The other thing to keep in mind is the storage needed to shoot 8K footage in RAW. It records at a bitrate of 2600 Mb/s, which is 325MB/s. A ten minute clip would require 195 GB of space. On the bright side, you could set the CFexpress slot to just video, and then run a vastly cheaper SD card for stills.
What is a more interesting video spec is the ability to shoot 4K at 120 fps. Finally, some slow-motion b-roll at 4K!
Stills
While photography is not something that Canon has focused on for the R5, it’s still abound in stills specs. With a high resolution 45 megapixel sensor, and 20 shots a second with full autofocus and auto exposure. The new sensor and processor give you an additional stop of dynamic range compared to the EOS R.
Canon claims that the brand new in-body image stabilization (IBIS) adjusts for up to 8 stops with the right lens. With a fast enough lens, travelling without a tripod might be on more people’s lists. If it’s similar to the Panasonic system of 5 axis in body plus 2 in the lens, it would be awesome.
Autofocus
With 100% coverage autofocus and lots of selectable autofocus zones, there’s nothing you would miss. There are 5940 points of selection, add the AF joystick and it becomes a breeze to move the AF around. It’s great to see more and more camera models being released with a joystick. Not only for autofocus movement, but also makes it really easy to navigate menus.
The EOS R5 and R6 are dropping end of July. Be sure to put in your pre-orders to get yours in the first shipment!