Canon EOS R5 Teardown by LensRentals

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Roger Cicala at Lensrentals has done a teardown of the brand new Canon EOS R5 full frame mirrorless camera. This teardown focuses on the camera design choices by Canon.

Canon EOS R5 Key Features:

  • 45MP Full-frame CMOS Sensor
  • Powerful DIGIC X Image Processor
  • Impressive 8K DCI cinematic video capture
  • High-precision 0.5-type OLED EVF
  • 3.2-inch 2.1M-dots TFT color LCD (aspect ratio of 3:2)
  • Built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technology
  • Dual UHS-II SD media card slots
  • Highly responsive Dual Pixel CMOS AF system
  • High-performance coordinated Image Stabilization

From Lensrentals:

Not much that was surprising. What with the IBIS unit and a more intense chipset, the camera is pretty thoroughly filled up, there are lots of parts and not much air. There’s a new weather sealing method in the lower 2/3 of the camera that seems to give a really, really tight seal. And there we some pretty new flexes which matters not a tiny bit to anyone but me.

The IBIS unit is very compact but well-engineered. There are no tab connections that might be weak points; the sensor is connected to a flat plate around all its edges. That doesn’t mean there can’t be problems, of course, this is a new build, so we won’t know for a year or so.

There seem to be two separate heat sinks, one under the voltage board, another between the main PCB and the sensor assembly, with thermal pads to direct heat to each. At least one of them connects to the tripod plate, which might provide a secondary sink. This is a lot of heat sink compared to most photo cameras, but not even a fraction of what we see in a video camera. What I can’t tell from this is how that heat then gets out of the camera. It’s sure not air circulation.

Given how tightly sealed things are, I’m curious as to where the heat goes to get out of the camera; some further investigation is required there. A lot of people are talking about how the heat should move around inside the camera, slapping some thermal paste around, and doing things to manipulate the heat cut offs.

I’m a simple person. All I can think of is, ‘how does the heat get out of the camera?’ Sure it goes into the metal sinks, but once they heat up, then where? In a small photo camera, there’s not a lot of ventilation/convection current to get let the heat out. This camera is better sealed than most; I doubt there’s very much ventilation at all.

Somebody should look into that.

The Canon EOS R5 teardown comes with a huge set of images with descriptions. You can see the whole teardown at Lensrentals.com

Canon EOS R5 body: $3,899 at Amazon, B&H, Adorama.

Canon EOS R5 with 24-105mm f/4L Lens: $4,999 at Amazon, B&H, Adorama.

Read more: Best Lenses for Canon EOS R5 and Best Memory Cards for Canon EOS R5.