The EOS R5 made big headlines when it was launched back in July 2020, but Canon has just gone and raised the stakes by unveiling the R5C; a mirrorless camera that turbocharges the video feature of the R5 into something truly spectacular.
Essentially, what Canon has done is taken a lot of their technology from the brand’s range of video cameras and merged them with the stills capabilities of the R5 to make the R5C. The result is a camera that can not only shoot 45-megapixels stills, but can also record 8K video making it the ultimate hybrid camera on the market.
Sporting the RF mount, the R5c will appeal to the growing number of professionals who are being asked by clients to supply both stills and video and the R5c can shoot non-stop, uninterrupted 8K/60P thanks to an active cooling system – this makes the R5C a lot deeper in profile to the original R5, but the reward is that high quality video. What’s more the R5C can shoot High Frame Rate (HFR) video up to 120P at 4K resolution in 4:2:2 10-bit without cropping the sensor, enabling videographers to capture epic slow motion scenes.
Canon is well known for its advanced autofocus technology so it’s great to hear the R5c includes the brand’s Dual Pixel CMOS AF, which is functional even in HFR shooting and the the R5C can even record audio in HFR mode by creating a separate .WAV file, should you need it.
Canon says the R5C is the first Canon camera to provide internal 8K (8192×4320) 60P Cinema RAW Light recording. Cinema RAW Light, which is a popular format found in the brand’s Cinema EOS cameras such as the EOS C300 Mark III and, now thanks to a firmware update announced at the same time as the R5C, the C70.
With a dedicated mode switch on the top plate, users can switch from Video to Photo mode and take advantage of the stills features on the R5C, including that 45-megapixel resolution, which is backed up by the DIGIC X image processor that enables an ISO range of 100-51200; expandable to 102400.
Sports and wildlife photographers will appreciate the rapid burst rate of up to 12 frames-per-second (fps) in mechanical shutter mode and up to 20 fps in silent electronic shutter mode. The advanced iTR AF X focusing system uses 1,053 Automatic AF zones, and along with detection for humans and animals, also includes vehicle subject detection to track cars and motorcycles accurately. The R5C is available from March and will cost $4499/£4499.