Cliff Totten

So...correct me if I'm wrong.... R5 firmware has two "heat performance" profiles. 1.) Card inserted forces fake heat warnings and activate crippling "clock-based" timer warnings. 2) Card out and firmware unlocks fake heat restrictions and deactivates clock-based cripples? Wow...what a screw up! Cannot should have checked that before they released the R5. How will they explain the next firmware patch that fixes the card in/out bug? Now,...they have to force the heat problem either with card or without....after we discovered it. If they spotted this earlier, we never would have known a hack existed.

Andrew....does your app give you componant temps? Can you get a sensor heat value by itself. There are probably 3 or more key componant temp values that need to be observed. The sensor itself is the largest silicon in the camera.

I talk to so many people who literally don't get the concept or strategic tactic of camera crippling. They say "The R5 does not compete with Cannot Cine EOS models!!" Then they turn right around with "But I don't understand why Cannot DID this..." [Sigh]....YES!,...the R5 "CAN" compete with EOS Cine models....if Cannot allowed it to!!! They will NOT allow this to happen. Hence, we have our reason for all of this. Please people. Don't say "Oh this was just an oversite or accidental mistake on Cannot's part"....people. Wake up. This is 100% completely intentional. And if you think that Cine EOS managers didn't care about the R5 and were NOT in the R5 development meetings?...you are crazy! LOL

Andrew....I have said this over and over and over again. The heat condition of the R5 is not an engineering "mistake" on Cannot's part. It is literally doing exactly as it was designed to do from day one. Cannot wants the R5 to be used only in specific ways and this does not coincide with the way "we" want to use it. We have a need that we want the R5 to fill. However, Cannot wants to sell us a different camera for our need. Yes, the firmware is deliberately highly restrictive. They are actively "steering" their customers the best way the know how with these crippling tricks. As customers, we need to stop thinking the R5 was an engineering mistake and simply let accept it as a casual camera that has zero overlap with any of their true camcorders. Cannot will never stab their Cine EOS team in the back....no matter how bad we want them to. If anybody thinks the Cine EOS team doesnt care about the R5 and was not in many of the R5 devopment meetings and planning discussions....you are crazy!

Message to Sony and Cannot: Please add a real time temp gauge to your R5 and S-III. A small, simple 5 dot heat meter line. (Looks like an audio level meter) have 2 green, 1 yellow 1 orange and 1 red colored dot. This gives people more warning that their camera is getting hot. The more you know BEFORE a shutdown the better. I'd rather know it comming in 10min than find out 30 seconds before! How hard would that EXTREMELY valuable information be to add to the display?

Lol....its actually "Cannot". CT 🙂

So,...the R5 can circumvent Cannon's carefully placed recording restrictions IF the camera does not detect that a card is inserted. Hmm...looks like a firmware back door "hole" that the programmers missed. That oversight could get could get at Cannon firmware programmer fired. It's not easy to think of "every" way that Cannon owners can hack an R5 to make it do what its not supposed to. Looks like they can probably fix that on the next R5 firmware release. Should be an easy hole to patch. Just reprogram the heat condition no matter if the card is in the socket or not.

My Cannon insider source told me that the R5 had "strict recording limiatations" back in January. Before that, he knew this way back last year when he saw early test units. Here's the thing....the R5 simply was never designed to run cool from day 1. Its not an engineering mistake in any way. Through the entire design process, managers thought "Ok...it does enough for us to be OK with it" and it was given the green light to go into manufacturing. Canon did not realize that people would be this upset about it. They expected us to grumble about it,...sure. They expected us to nit-pick and be a little irritated....but NOT super crazy angry about it. Cannon does not want us to use the R5 the way "WE" want to use it. Cannon made it for short clips only. It was designed for casual, light use only. They want you to buy Cine EOS cameras for durable, pro shooting or event work. Guys....the R5 overheats because it is "supposed" to. It's NOT designed...to NOT overheat.

Bottom line: Canon wants this camera to be used only in certain ways for specific applications. So, they design the R5 for that and that only. We, however want to use the R5 "our" way. We want it to "fit" into the way "we" work. We pretty much all want to use the R5 "our" way and we are getting pissed that its not working. The problem is "us". We expect too much from the R5 but we eventually need to learn how to accept it for the limited application it was designwd for. The R5 is not a pro camcorder. Its not for paid video work. Its made to capture your kids in your backyard in 8k or your cats playing with a laser pointer. Its made for casual home shooting and nothing more. Its failure us our fault, no Cannon's CT

Many Cannon fans are saying "That's OK,...I can work arround the heat. I only shoot short clips anyway..." These guys ARE going to find that they get burned with shutdowns more than they anticipated. Its going to hit them when they LEAST want it to. I predict that the used market will be FLOODED with R5's starting in 6 months and we will see WAY more R5's for sale on eBay than we would normally see. The R5 resale value is going to be terrible and Cannon makes zero dollars from resold cameras.

Camera crippling, market splitting and camera model protecting tactics have been serving the camera industry well for 30+ years. Did anybody really expect it to end in 2020? Truth is that camera crippling will continue long after we are all dead. Its too important of a business model for the camera companies to ever stop.

Andrew,...I can tell you that my Cannon insider had seen early test R5 units last year and knew that it was overheating back then. He told me about it in January. This issue was absolutely no surprise to everybody in Cannon that saw it early. This problem has been going on with the R5....from day ONE...right from the very engineering beginning. They KNEW it was this way. They did not want to "fix" it because they didnt think it was a problem that we would freak out about. In their minds, the R5 was acting exactly as they wanted it to. They just COMPLETELY underestimated the amount of backlash it was going to cause. Its not an engineering mistake, those guys built exactly what they were told to. Its a public relations mistake. We were supposed to be "a little" upset...not raging pissed upset! LoL

For all the people that believe that Cine camcorder markets and mirrorless markets don't overlap. I'm a perfect example that the DO. I sold my Sony FS7 and was literally 2 days away from buying a Panasonic EVA-1. Then Lumix announced the S1H and that stopped be cold in my tracks. I wound up buying the S1H instead and I'm perfectly happy about replacing my FS7 and (almost) EVA-1 with the S1H. I pre-ordered the A7S-III because I want one of my cameras to have PDAF and will add it as B-cam to my S1H. The rumored Sony FX6? Sounded tempting at first....but with the A7S-III, I no longer have any use for an FX6. Yeah...the mirror less and pro camcorder markets DO overlap....substantially.

Andrew....Canon employees knew about this last year when they started seeing early R5 units. I was told by my Canon contact about this in January. They have all known about this for a while now. The R5 was never designed from day 1 to "not" overheat. Overheating was ALWAYS on the engineering list of features....they just never thought people would be THIS angry about it. It is not an "engineering" error,...its a "marketing" error.

Look guys.....my Canon contact who had seen the R5 in development told me this problem in January and he knew about the problem LAST YEAR. Non of this is a surprise to Canon. The overheating was allowed to happen because it was "not designed"...to not overheat. That never was the design strategy from day one. What IS surprising Canon is that the design problem is angering people more than they expected it would. The technical design is 100% on target....the public relations backlash was unexpected. They didn't expect THIS much of it. Canon will never stab it's Cine EOS line in the back. The thought behind the strategy was to keep the pro video people away from it. Its designed for "casual" video shooters only and certainly not for event shooters. Canon has camcorders they desperately want you to buy for that. This was not an engineering mistake. It was a marketing and public relations miscalculation.

For MONTHS I have been posting here and other places what my Canon insider contact told me in January. The R5 will have serious recording restrictions. He wouldn't tell me why specifically. He simply told me with a chuckle and rolling eyes and shaking head. He knew a long time ago about this. Why?...because these cameras were specifically NOT designed to not overheat. They knew it last year and were 100% perfectly happy to allow it into the design. Believe me....Canon EOS Cine cam managers were there in R5/R6 development meetings....and they all sleep very well at night knowing the R5/R6 "properly" overheat. I warned everybody MONTHS ago and people just called me a negative synic. Now look......he was 100% correct.

Guys....Canon never intended the R5 to "not" overheat. Overheating was known by Canon a long time ago in development. They "specifically" did "not" try to fix this problem early in R&D. Canon was and is perfectly fine with its recording capabilities. My Canon rep friend told me "Cliff, the R5 will have strong recording restrictions"...over two months ago. And....he knew about this LONG before that. Again, Canon did not want the R5 to "not" have "recording restrictions". By the way...Canon's camcorder division is perfectly happy with the fact that you can't use the R5 for long form event recording. This was part of the R5 plan from day 1 decelopment. You cannot use the R5 in place of a "camcorder". Sorry....

Sigma does not have a professional camcorder line or business division to protect. Canon does and does not want us to use the R5 like a true camcorder. This overheating problem and 29 minute time cripple was well known inside Canon during the R5 development. I have a contact inside Canon that told me over 2 months ago "Cliff,...the R5 WILL have heavy video recording restrictions" He wouldn't tell me why or any more about it. But yeah,...if you look at my posts here and everywhere where I told people this. I was called a "negative troll" for stating this! See? Anyway....Canon has always known about this are were 100% perfectly fine with it. Canon Cine division managers are perfectly happy with it too.

No,...Im not picking on Tesla. I have no idea about that car's reliability. I'm just a generic point that all the tech in the world is not very good if it's not reliable. If Canon is saying,..."yes, you get overheating and short unreliable record times....but we give you 8k raw!!" Yeah....nobody wants 8k raw. We want a stable camera that records 4k without stupid limitations.

If you think that XDCAM managers don't attend the Alpha A7S-III technical planning and marketing meetings?....you are wrong.

I now fear that Sony will think its OK to cripple their answer to the R5 with 29 minute recording restrictions. Im sure that is what XDCAM wants.

Canon does not want us using the R5 for this purpose. They sell camcorders for this. They CLEARLY want to protect their camcorder market with 29 minute limits and fan-less overheating. Yeah....Canon's camcorder division managers and sales reps are breathing a sigh of relief today. So yeah...R5...safe for short, high quality clip recordings. CT

High technology at the cost of reliability and trustworthiness? I suspect that most of us here would have traded 8k technology and given it back in favor of RELIABILITY. A Tesla is a very high tech car but what good is all that technology if the car breaks down all the time and leaves you stranded? Canon should have used a SIMPLE "low tech" cooling fan. The R5 is going to have a 3-4 year sales life. Now?....the R5 is going to have to live with 3-4 years of hundreds of overheating YouTube video complaints. And rightfully so. Canon created this mess and they will have to live with it..... This was 100% their choice.

I mean...sigh...this is not the end of the world, I guess. You "CAN" still use the R5 for events if you plan it carefully. Stage play - Use 2 R5's and start one 10 min later than the other. This allows one to force time stop before the other. Then just stager the record start/stops back and forth between them. Your kids school singing play - Time your record stop when some other kid is singing to as to make sure your time is rationed in favor of your kids performance. Wedding - Plan in advance with the priest. Setup a hand signal to let him know you are stopping. This triggers him to tell the audience...."we will now have a moment of silence for the bride and groom"...assuming the room is not hot, you can stop/start again without missing anything. See?....the R5 "IS" doable if you PLAN your work and RATION your time wisely. CT

The past 3 months of R5 waiting and wondering and hoping has turned into a virtual train wreck for many of us. This is bad for any kind of moderate long form event shooting. Downright impossible. The Canon Cripple Hammer has struck again! Again...I'm sure that the Canon video camera division managers and sales people are sleeping perfectly fine tonight. CT