Canon EOS R5 C Is Cinema EOS Version Of R5
Is this the camera Canon should have built in the first place? There’s certainly some facesaving in making the new EOS R5 C a cinema EOS system camera, but all the upgrades look to be pretty much what everybody – well, certainly video-makers – have been requesting since the R5 was launched and promptly ran into its overheating imbroglio.
Not surprisingly then, Canon has made sure that the R5 C can’t overheat no matter what you ask of it… in fact, the claim is “nonstop recording”. Consequently, the biggest change externally is the extra bulk – primarily additional depth to what is otherwise the R5 body – the result of adding active cooling via a fan and venting. Canon is taking no chances here then, and the R5 C gets a nifty heat level display for each of its memory card slots. As the result of the cooling fan installation the LCD screen is out a little.
Being essentially an R5 under the skin – based on the same 45MP full-frame CMOS sensor and DiG!C X processor – the Cinema EOS camera gets the same extensive suite of photography features (including full-res shooting at 20fps), but with added video goodness, so it’s a hybrid to challenge the likes of Panasonic’s Lumix S1H and Sony’s Alpha 1. Despite the added depth to the body, by cinema camera standards, the R5 C is comparatively compact, which is why Canon sees it as an ideal fit for documentary work or, indeed, any application that demands the ‘run and gun’ flexibility of a handheld camera.
The headline act in terms of video recording is 8K at 60fps in Cinema RAW Light with 12-bit colour, but there is a caveat in that the massive bit rate of 2.6Gbps requires that the camera use external power via the AC coupler accessory or the USB power adapter. This is a penalty of sticking with the R5’s small capacity (in pro video camera terms) LP-E6 battery pack. However, 8K RAW at 30fps or 8K/30p in the MP4 format with either the H.265 HEVC or H.264 AVC codecs or in the 10-bit Canon XF-AVC format – and obviously anything lower res won’t over-tax the battery. Internal 8K recording is also available at 5.9K/60p and 2.9K/120p, and there’s a choice of three quality settings (High, Standard, Light).
For 4K recording, the R5 C oversamples from 8K using the full width of the sensor and with 10-bit 4:2:2 colour. There are the options of 17:9 DCI or 16:9 UHD with either LongGOP interframe or All-Intra intraframe compression routines. The 4K frame rates extend up to 100/120p at full frame or in the cropped
Super 35 format (still with 10-bit colour, and with audio).
The R5 C also offers 8K HDR recording (both HLG and PQ), Canon Log 3 gamma builtin, a time-code in/out terminal, electronic IS (with co-ordination with the OIS in selected RF mount lenses), and simultaneous recording to its dual memory cards with a myriad of combinations. There’s no IBIS on this camera and the electronic IS comes with a small
1.1x crop. As on the R5, the card slots are for CFexpress Type B and SD with UHS-II speed support. The R5’s fully adjustable
3-inch LCD screen is also retained, but with the touchscreen operability from the Cinema EOS C70, including for high-speed continuous AF. The R5 C has Dual Pixel CMOS AF II with eye/face/head detection and tracking. It gets the ‘Advanced Accessory Shoe’ hotshoe introduced on the R3 for data communications and camera power to dedicated accessories such as Canon’s DM-E1D stereo microphone. The micro HDMI (Type D) terminal outputs up to 8K/30p in ProRes RAW to an external recorder.
The EOS R5 C is available in Australia now priced at $7,499 for the camera body. Purchases from an authorised Canon Australia reseller are backed by a five-year warranty. For more information visit www.canon.com.au.