Canon R5 and R6 For Video

[VidThreeNorth]

If you have been following the "overheating" issues of the Canon R5 and R6 cameras, be prepared to start over again.

The Background:

Testing the R5 and R6 set the initial situation and warnings were made that the two cameras had surprisingly bad overheating problems, or, more specifically, that the cameras when used in the advanced modes (which were the modes that attracted attention from video makers) overheated fairly quickly and worse, did not recover, even when shut down completely and physically cooled. This did not make sense because the cameras never really go hot to the touch:

[Note: You can skip these two videos because they are now "history"]

"Canon EOS R5 vs EOS R6 Which is REALLY BETTER?",
Posted Aug 7, 2020 by "Armando Ferreira", [length 9:20]
""

Canon has responded by releasing version 1.1 firmware for the R5 that extended recording times for various recording modes (the R6 is not yet available):

"Canon R5 Firmware 1.1 - Is the overheating fixed?",
Posted Aug 26, 2020 by "DPReview", [length 5:09]
""

 

[VidThreeNorth]

Starting (Testing) Over Again:

Matt Granger has apparently discovered that the recording time limits can be fairly easily be bypassed. This sets the stage for completely new tests finding the real "overheating" limits of the cameras:

[Note: This one is worth watching]

"Canon EOS R5 Overheating HOAX - 1 Cent SOLUTION",
Posted Aug 23, 2020 by "Matt Granger", [length 11:31]
""

 

[Space Face]

I watched that and found it very intriguing indeed. Sounds like a bit of skullduggery from Canon.

 

[VidThreeNorth]

I don't know. What Canon did might turn out to be fairly reasonable from an engineering standpoint. If Canon sees a lot of dead R5's and R6's coming in for repair, then what they did was reasonable. But for now, I think it goes to show that getting all excited about cameras you cannot actually buy is often not worth it.

 

[VidThreeNorth]

Reading through the comments from the DPreview video, Jordon put the R5 w/1.1 firmware in a freezer and got around 45 min record time at 8K, so the new firmware is definitely considering ambient or internal temperature and adjusting. Beyond that, well, I'm not really checking seriously, partly because I will not be buying a camera in that price range in the near future, and partly because I think that there is probably room for more firmware upgrading for this and other cameras -- the S1H and a7Siii in particular.

 

[VidThreeNorth]

Where The Heat Is for the R5:

Lens Rentals tore down an R5, and I already linked it, but they have gone a bit further and have been looking at where the heat comes from and goes to by using heat sensing photography. Since this is mainly of interest for video (neither camera has shown significant problems with heat during still photography), I am putting this link "here":

"Part II: Lensrentals investigates the Canon EOS R5's heat emission",
Written by Jeremy Gray, published Sep 10, 2020 by DPreview.com
"Part II: Lensrentals investigates the Canon EOS R5's heat emission"

 

[VidThreeNorth]

Having thought about the commentary in the articles (including the original posting in the "Lens Rental" blog), it looks like the ability to improve the situation is limited. To much of the heat appears to be generated too deeply in the guts of the camera. The most promising things I see are maybe replacing the back of the camera with a mag-aluminum piece, and similarly re-designing the base of the camera and replacing it with a forged and machined mag-aluminum piece, enlarging the body, and maybe adding cooling fins. It does not look like any further heat-sinking or heat-piping can be retro-fitted since that would require access to the "guts" of the camera to do any good. Aside from this, there might still be room for improving the firmware. That is something that "experience" might show.