Canon Gets Serious About Mirrorless Cameras With the Highly Powerful R5

Canon Gets Serious About Mirrorless Cameras With the Highly Powerful R5

Canon's mirrorless lenses have been lauded for their high quality and boundary-pushing designs, but their mirrorless cameras have generally seen mixed reviews for being a bit middle of the road and not challenging the likes of Sony. That is no more, as Canon has announced the development of the R5, with many firsts for the company and marquee features like 20 fps shooting and 8K video.

The R5 will contain a bevy of improvements and new features that should be sure to satisfy those who have been waiting for a true professional mirrorless model from the company. 

Canon says the camera will have a brand new sensor and image processor, which they claim will utilize "new state-of-the-art optical technologies." Beyond the sensor and processor are some highly noteworthy features. First, the camera will have 8K video recording. While the company has not specified a frame rate or potential crop factor, just the presence of 8K should be quite intriguing for many filmmakers. For photographers, the camera will offer 20 fps continuous shooting when using the electronic shutter and 12 fps using the mechanical shutter, making it a capable machine for sports and wildlife shooters. The R5 will also be the first Canon camera to feature in-body image stabilization, which can be coupled with in-lens image stabilization for even greater benefits. Lastly, the camera will have dual card slots and will support automatic transfer of images to Canon's new cloud platform. 

It's worth noting that a camera that can shoot 8K video needs to be at least about 33 megapixels, so the camera should have decent resolution as well.

The company has not given a date of release for the camera, but has said a preview will be shown at WPPI (February 25-27 in Las Vegas). It looks like the mirrorless race just got a lot more interesting. 

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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24 Comments

I'm very interested to see the back side of this camera and the full set of specifications.

But are we really expecting the patented Canon Cripple Hammer not to do its worst on this rig?

Here you can take a look at it from all sides:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qY_G9lW07uo

I don't care for Canon but I really hope they introduce an amazing camera.
Really good competition is good for all of us.

sign me up. I am ready. got rid of all my other gear. just have the Eos R and a powershot, which isn't all that bad. but I need something to make the lenses shine even more. a few more pixels and some stabilization would be very nice. This image is my friend Steve Kennedy, a professional picked baller. I needed a little more fps to shoot the game.

My Nikon is 36 megapixels and is not capable of 8k, so it probably will be 40 megapixels.

8K is about 33 megapixels

but you need more resolution in 3:2 aspect ratio if you want 33 mpixels in 16:9

Oh, true. My calculator forgot to tell me that.

Exactly.. 8K = 7680 x 4320

7680 as 3/2 ratio = 7680/5120

7680 x 5120 = 39,321,600 pixels

I think Canon wins the award for most useless naming convention.

The first thing that went through my mind, when I saw that picture was; Canon EOS 620
The "old" film camera look.

I am not of unlimited means... anyone have an idea of what it might set one back? $4K? Or same as 1DXxxx?

Well if you include all the lens to go with switching to mirrorless it cost plenty.

I could totally see myself selling off my Nikon DSLR kit for this. The Z's aren't totally convincing, the touchbar on the R was dumb, and the Sony's..yeah no, never.

A decent Nikon Z/S kit is about €10K (two bodies, two pro zooms, a few primes). A decent Canon R kit would be about €25K. I'm happy to keep my €15K, thanks. The photos won't be any worse for it.

What don't you like about your Z6? I find mine fabulous, apart when trying to photograph a dark subject in front a bright background (generally not the best photograph in the first place and now that I know this weakness it's easily worked around).

Remember you're being lied-to by the DSLR folks.

They're selling you SENSELS (single color receptors), NOT real full-color pixels (like you get on a display device). They're INTERPOLATING the output (and they hide this with the obfuscating terminology "demosaic"). So the "8K" sensor could really deliver beautiful crisp FULL CHROMA RESOLUTION 4k (UHD). _IF_ they want to actually deliver a product that competes with their pro gear.

Watch closely for dumb-down of the video capability: cropping of sensor read-out area when shooting video, 4:2:0 and 4:2:2 sub-sampling, 8-bit, limited frame-rate and/or rolling-shutter problems, thermal management problems, lack of USB-PD external power, slow storage media (SD-cards) that can't support in-camera video storage at high data rates, etc.

Canon has the know-how to deliver top quality. But it will take a real change in leadership direction from top management before they give the good stuff to the unwashed masses. [It appears that Sony is just toying with us prosumers too. Panny and Black Magic seem like they are actually trying to deliver quasi-leading-edge at the prosumer price point. I hope they scare Canon and Sony enough to make them actually deliver pro-grade specs and features to us pro wannabes.]

I feel the same. That camera looks awesome, but what is the catch?

Then there are those of us that don't give a hoot about video. If the budget supports it, this is going to be a terrific events/wedding shooter's workhorse.

Nothing solid here.

Interested? Yes
Impressed? No
Expected? Two years late to the photo specs but releasing a non-gutted/cropped 8K (or even a full frame 4K camera from Canon) is far from what is actually going to be released.

At some point 8k would be gorgeous thing to have, but personally I do not feel the need for it right now. So for me ergo, lagtime and build would be more important.

Canon has been readying a very sophisticated entry to mirrorless consistent with mature management of the world's largest camera company.
Pundits and gadflies have spent years excoriating Canon for not bring us magic in an instant despite the fact that they sell a huge amount of cameras to a loyal global following.

Taking the time to develop what is looking to be a legendary RF line and a couple of stopgap bodies (of very capable abilities) they are about to loose (apparently) the hammer of awe upon the camera industry.

Apparently Canon is not doomed.

“Legendary” in what sense, mate? what specifically in RF makes you so excited?

28-70 f2 for starters and the 85 f1.2 with performance significantly ahead of the current EF version just for starters.
Even the lowly 24-105 L f4 is a real improvement over the EF version.
They are making a line that is calibrated for the new high res sensors as opposed to carrying on with lenses designed for film.
Nikon makes decent glass and Sony has some but at this stage in the life of mirrorless Canon is delivering a lot of native glass without a turkey in the flock.

I’m hoping the EVF is fast enough for sports and wildlife and no lag. 45mp and 12 FPS is nice. About time, Canon.