After the R5 and R6 had reports of overheating, it seems Canon has gone into heavy damage control mode and probably paying bloggers to write well about these two cameras. DPReview has even given it awards for being best camera, even in video category.

In the words of DPReview: “in its media release, Canon stated the approximate recording time for 8K 30p video with the R5 before the camera overheated is about 20 minutes. After letting the camera cool for 10 minutes, users can expect to record another 3 minutes of 8K footage before the camera overheats again. It's a better, albeit similar, situation when recording 4K 60p and 4K 30p (8.2K oversampling) video. The feature set of the R5 and its performance is impressive, but in many settings, overheating is problematic.”

Then they go ahead and award it best runner up camera for video! When that award should have gone to Nikon Z6.

With its overheating issues, the R5 and R6 are NOT CAMERAS ANYONE WOULD RECOMMEND FOR VIDEO.

I Shoot Video professionally and 90% of the time my camera of choice is Arri Alexa.
I once shot with Sony A7 series DSLR because the client didn’t have money. We were shooting in the oppressive summer heat of Mumbai and the camera kept shutting down because of overheating. It’s a pain. Actors get into the mood and camera won’t start. In the middle of a scene, camera stops. It’s not forgiveable.
Thankfully, the client who was sitting there, understood, and offered a little more budget and we got a Red Camera from a regular vendor on discount and finally completed the shoot.

Each minute of production is very very crucial and expensive. One cannot be waiting for a camera which isn’t starting because it got overheated. Moments lost cannot be recreated. Yet if you search around every blog and photo website is singing praises of the Canon R5-R6.

My Canon EOS 5D Mark2 has died. I wanted to buy the R6. Even my camera vendor is suggesting I shouldn’t and wait it out because his customers are complaining. But bloggers are writing well.

I have recently shot with Nikon Z6 recording to external Atomos Shogun in 4k 10bit and was very happy with the results. I always use a DSLR on a rig camera, unattended (obviously). Reliability is super crucial in film making. I strongly recommend Nikon Z6 or Panasonic S1H or even LUMIX GH5-6 for video.