Canon EOS 5D Mk IV £3,249/$3,099

Good, but overtaken by rivals

Canon has always been ahead of the curve in the DSLR video market. The EOS 5D Mark IV is an all-rounder which has proved a big hit with pros for its durability, versatility and affordability as a pro DSLR – and shoots 4K video too.

There are some limitations. First, the 4K video mode does not use the full width of the sensor, so there is a fairly substantial 1.74x ‘crop factor’ in this mode. Second, the EOS 5D IV supports Canon’s Log Gamma mode for extended dynamic range, but only via a paid upgrade at a Canon service centre. Most surprisingly, it can only record 4K to internal memory cards; you can use an external HDMI recorder, but only for Full HD resolution.

Performance

The 5D IV’s Motion JPEG video files are huge, and the 4K crop factor makes ‘wide’ shots more difficult, but the quality proved very good in our tests. The rolling shutter was the worst of the cameras in this group, though.