Canon EOS R5 Mirrorless Digital Camera

Good news for those who don’t like their video modes cropped and prefer to use the entire sensor. A leaked image, shown below, suggests the upcoming Canon EOS R5 will likely not be cropped when shooting 8K video modes. (and prospective buyers will need to find other things to complain about which won’t be hard these days… there’s always something hampering creativity and productivity…).

Mirrorless Rumors broke the news/rumor. With three exclamation marks (!!!) in the post title you can tell people are excited about the prospect of shooting full 8K with a new Canon full-frame mirrorless body.

In related news: hard drive manufacturers are also very pleased. Expect massive files especially when shooting in RAW on the R5. Per the MR article that features the below image of the R5 video rec. size settings, a 512GB CFexpress card will fit about 21 minute of 8K RAW footage. SanDisk currently sells a 512GB CFexpress card for $600 USD ($28.50 per minute) — that may seem like a lot, but in the past I’ve bought RED media (mini-mags), so this is a veritable bargain by those standards.

First Canon EOS-R5 8K video test report
Purported ‘Move rec. size’ settings on the upcoming Canon EOS R5 suggest the new full-frame mirrorless camera will not crop the 8K sensor when shooting video.

Those eager to learn every little bit about the upcoming R5 — which Canon is expected to announce this week — should also take a quick look at PetaPixel which covered the 8K no crop story as well.

I haven’t bought a Canon body since the EOS 80D (great camera with a few faults that now make it less than ideal for video in 2020). Mostly it was used as B cam to our main C100 II when shooting events, backstage Broadway, and red carpet stuff in and around the San Francisco Bay Area (days long gone). Now that we’re doing more studio work and planned shoots for Stark Insider we’re predominantly shooting on the phenomenal RED Dragon (Scarlet-W body) which produces gorgeous filmic Redcode; files that I believe are the best in the business to manipulate in post production. Redcode is robust and pretty hard to break apart no matter how hard you adjust exposure, color temperature, etc.

However, the R5 holds a lot of appeal. 8K is nice, sure. But for me that’s mostly future proofing. 4K is more than enough these days. Even 1080p for narrative can be absolutely fine in many situations. Sports shooters and wildlife shooters and those that want razor sharp footage will probably jump all over the detail afforded by 8K. Rightfully so. Certainly something like the R5 could represent the best hybrid camera, allowing high megapixel photos and with the flip of a switch the ability to also capture incredibly high resolution video from a inconspicuous touristy looking Canon camera body.

… if Canon piles on all the specs into the R5 that it’s been teasing in the upcoming announcement this week then it’s not hyperbole to say this could be the biggest they’ve released since the storied EOS 5D Mk II in 2008.

Currently for on-the-go stuff we’re shooting video when traveling abroad on a Panasonic GH5. Released three years ago that mirrorless MFT camera is still a wonder. Absolutely insanely effective image stabilization, combined with all sorts of frame rates and the camera tool goodies you need (zebras, waveform, focus peaking, etc.) conspire to create, in my view, the ideal small format video camera. However, on the downside is the limited 18MP sensor. For video it’s absolutely fine. Photos not so great — as I discovered when trying to use it to capture detailed photos of Loni Stark’s oil paintings. Instead an APS-C body with a 24MP sensor works better (Sony a6000 with Rokinon prime is what I currently use). A FF sensor of course would yield even better results, at a price.

In any case if Canon piles on all the specs into the R5 that it’s been teasing in the upcoming announcement this week then maybe we’re not drumming up hyperbole when saying this could be the biggest camera body they’ve released since the storied EOS 5D Mk II in 2008. And that’s saying something!!!

On Peloton: ClintTheMint