Lensrentals did their famous camera teardown, and this time the Canon EOS R5 was the victim.
We’ve always known higher-end Canon cameras to be very well built. But when the Canon EOS R5 was torn apart by LensRentals, we were shocked. This is the camera that’s supposed to be the equivalent of the 5D series to the mirrorless camera world. And of course, it has to boast comparable build quality. We’ve taken it out into the rain, which is shrugged off. Rain typically hits the top section of a camera. But believe it or not, that’s not the most impressive section of the Canon EOS R5.
“The new rubber seals on the bottom 2/3 is clearly superior to anything else I’ve seen,” stated Roger Cicala to the Phoblographer in an email interview asking about the weather sealing. “It appears watertight.” That’s incredibly high praise: some of the highest I’ve heard from Roger about a camera. He’s speaking specifically about the lower parts of the camera. That means the stuff towards the top isn’t as well sealed. In our own tests, the camera survived a whole lot of NYC summer rain. However, Roger still thinks you should be careful around the hot shoe.
“The little plastic hot shoe covers aren’t really weather sealed, a piece of tape works better. I personally don’t shoot anything in the rain without a baggie on it, but I realize people do.”
If you hold the Canon EOS R5 in your hands, you’ll realize it’s very similar to the Canon EOS R. But internally, there’s a lot more going on. The image stabilization is a big part of it. Roger and his team tell us that there’s way less air inside. “Far more intense set of chips, heat sinks and transfers, the IBIS unit, etc.,” is how Roger describes it to us. “It’s like looking at a turbo supercharged V-8 in the engine bay versus an inline 4 when you compare it to the original R.” This is probably the sort of feedback professional photographers want to hear.
Roger and his team decided to not beat a dead horse and look at the Canon EOS R5 for video. In my own tests, I got the Canon EOS R5 warm at 4K 24P. It shot a half-hour long clip. Then I shot an extra 15 or so minutes. I turned it off afterward because I can’t see someone recording a single clip for that long. Much of the tests on YouTube are 4K 60P or 8K tests. I’m not sure how many people are going to use this camera for 8K work vs. a proper cinema camera. But the 5D series was always popular with journalists, so we’re more likely to use it for actual work. And we’re not shooting 8K often. Lots of others shoot in 4K with their Fujifilm, Panasonic, or Sony cameras.
Returning to the subject of photography, timelapse is a concern for photographers. But we shot a 4K timelapse in 94 degrees Farrenheit heat for five hours. The camera wasn’t the slightest bit warm. In fact, it could have kept shooting. You can say that the camera has more time to recover for Timelapse, but it’s also still processing the images. Landscape photographers will really enjoy this, as will astrophotographers. In all the times I’ve shot with this camera, I didn’t have any significant issues with it because I exercised good judgment. And I think that this is what’s missing from lots of reviews out there. We, as photographers, are moving so far away from relying on our own skills. We’re trying to let the camera or AI software do work for us. But, we need to learn how to walk before we can run.
Be sure to check out the full Lensrentals write up.