herein2020

No AF definitely does not make a camera unusable; I guess Arri and Red should just stop making cameras since they don't have AF. I know on small budget shoots no AF is a real pain and that's why I was so interested in the R6 but to say no AF makes a camera unusable isn't even close to the truth. My GH5 has no usable AF and I have been shooting paying gigs with it for years. My C200 has great AF but I shoot in MF 90% of the time. The only time I find AF useful for video is when shooting solo on a gimbal and even then I can usually get useable footage with MF. For me it's very hard to trust any AF system for important situations. You did imply hours and hours of unlimited recording is what it would take to require a different camera No one is talking about hours of non stop recording. But to having to worry about overheating during a 30min interview is unacceptable in my opinion. Since Canon chose to forego traditional recording limits and let the camera shoot wide open until it overheats. Shutdown due to heat can be considered a thermal limitation vs a firmware enforced limitation. I have already stated why I am looking at the R6 (not the R5) but in case you missed it here is a more complete list: Color Science - No explanation needed Lens compatibility - I have lenses from my C200 and 5DIV that I could use on the R6 Color Matching - While possible, it takes extra work in post to match GH5 to the C200 Photography - The GH5 is useless for photography, the R6 might be the only camera I need to bring to a hybrid photo/video shoot Ecosystem - I am already knee deep in the Canon ecosystem, the GH5 is an outlier that does not fit as well with the rest of my Canon gear Autofocus - No explanation needed This statement doesn't even make sense...for one thing I started this whole thread about the R6 not the R5 and for the other the only creative thing you can do when a camera overheats is find faster ways to cool it down.

I love the idea of the R6 but it does not record video to both card slots; there is no way I'm going to shoot a wedding with a single card or a major event with a keynote speaker with a single card, or pretty much any paying gig and have no backup. Profit margins in this business are razor thin and all it takes is one bridezilla posting all over the Internet that you lost her priceless wedding footage to tank your company. Canon is so frustratingly close to perfection, one firmware update away from getting it right. I think 20MP is perfect, the 1DXIII has 20MP and it is in the hands of many pro shooters, in fact I think 20MP makes the R6 even more attractive since it will be a lowlight beast not to mention you can take stills using a $2500 body that is used in their $6500 flagship. Most images these days end up on Instagram at 960x1200...that's only 1.1MP.

The problem with your logic is that all of the shortcomings are clear, well defined and can be easily worked around. I shoot with the GH5 nearly daily, everyone knows you need to nail the WB, do whatever you can to not shoot HDR scenes, keep the ISO below 1600, and always use MF....simple, clear concise and if you stick to those rules you can get quality footage every time. Oh and if you fail to follow any of those rules a simple retake can fix the issue or you may be close enough to fix it in post. Overheating is completely different territory where you have no idea if a hot day in direct sunlight with multiple takes will render your camera a brick, if the fact you just pulled it out of a 120 degree car will prevent it from even turning on, and when it does overheat there is no workaround.....you are sitting around waiting for it to cool. No one is complaining that there is a limit (me least of all), the problem is with thermal limits there is no way to know what is going to push it over the edge; Will 20 or 30 rapid takes make it overheat? Will pulling it out of a hot car make it overheat within seconds vs minutes? Wil turning off AF and IS make it take longer to overheat? Will shooting a photography session on a hot day then switching to video push it over the edge? And why can't you use a $4000 camera or a $2500 camera for simple interviews? Who has lowered the expectations bar so low that you will accept the fact that your hybrid camera can't even shoot a 30 min event or interview, we are not talking hours like you are trying to imply; I've had simple interviews need multiple 20min takes and the GH5 was perfect for this. The S1H can, the S1 can, the GH5 can, even the EOS R can, and I'm sure the Sony's can...why does Canon's latest hybrid flagships get a pass? Do you not see the difference yet in thermal problems vs easy to workaround well documented and well known limitations?

What bothers me the most is that nowhere on the Canon R5 or R6 ordering page are these limitations clearly identified. I almost feel like Canon themselves are not sure how pervasive the problem will be or they do not yet have a cohesive message for the buying public. There was a lot of hype around video leading up to this launch; all Canon had to do was put in a fixed 5min time limit or clearly communicate that in certain modes it would be time limited due to thermal issues; everyone expected some sort of limit, but just letting the camera run until it overheats and not clearly communicate that it is a known issue is a page from Sony's playbook.

I don't even know what blog you are rereferring to or if you are even responding to the right thread. But no one is expecting a $2500 or $3500 camera to perform like one costing 20x as much. On the other hand, if a manufacturer puts features into a camera that make you decide to buy that camera then you find out you can't actually use those features because it will overheat....that is a problem. Would you buy a car that has amazing features but randomly shuts down half way to your destination depending on many factors that are beyond your control? Canon is known for stability, not innovation and I think this time around they chose to go all in on innovation which is great for them but I would take stability over innovation any day. My clients aren't going to care why we are all standing around when my equipment doesn't work, they are just going to hire someone else next time.

I get Canon wants consumers to buy something else, but at least dual card slot recording I didn't think was too much to ask. The 1DX III is overkill for what I need, I already have a 5DIV for photography, all I need is a gimbal camera with reliable AF and dual card slot video recording for a gimbal camera. I really like the S1H, it has everything I want but I would have to buy into the L mount which means new lenses that cannot be used for any other camera. Also, I would not use the S1H for photography so after $6K+ for a camera and lenses I'd be in the same situation I'm in now; a gimbal camera with terrible AF and not useable for photography. My plan was to use the R6 mainly for video and test out the photography features as well and maybe eventually replace my 5DIV with the R5. Also, I am not completely convinced that the R5 can record to both card slots in the way that is expected. The only options that I have seen so far is that the R5 can record RAW to one card and MP4 to the other...this is not the same thing as recording MP4 to both slots. It is possible to match the C200 with the GH5, definitely not easy, but I use CLOG3 with the C200 and Cinelike-D with the GH5 and as long as everything else is identical (exposure, WB, etc.) I can get the two to match in post. Once you know it's limitations you can get quality footage out of it, but it falls apart quickly in difficult lighting. For the type of projects that I work on, the client doesn't notice the shortcomings. I don't have a choice with the heat, its easy to say on a forum, but not realistic in reality. Within min of getting out of the car it will hit 120, I've had to leave one camera in the car while lugging the other one around to do the photo shoot portion then changed all of the gear for the video portion etc. My main projects are not in the big budget category; mainly small corporate commercial work, conferences, weddings, music videos, etc. so I'm usually solo and the only way to ensure nothing gets lost or stolen is to leave whatever I am not using at the time in the car.

It could but then it will not fit my workflow. More bulky, still a single point of failure (hard drives can still fail), more batteries to charge and equipment to fiddle with. I have never used an external recorder for these reasons. Also, my main use case is as a gimbal camera, IMO everything should be kept internal. I am typically doing both photography and video in rough conditions (no time for retakes, hot, sandy, difficult to access locations) and simply do not consider an external recorder as a valid solution; at least not when other cameras can do everything internally and other cameras can record to both card slots simultaneously. The R6 has a lot going for it and I still love the idea of owning one, but for my specific use cases and workflow it will be too much of a compromise at least for now. I think the lack of dual slot recording irks me more than any other shortcoming, it might as well have one card slot.

I will start this off by saying I am a huge Canon fan, I recommend Canon gear to pretty much anyone starting out in photography and waited years for Canon to get their act together so that I could replace my GH5 with a Canon mirrorless for video gimbal work. Every spec that was leaked about the R6 seemed to indicate that it was going to be the no brainer replacement for my GH5 gimbal camera work....until all of the specs were revealed. I had only 3 real requirements for the R6 since I already knew it would have excellent AF, color science, and video codec options: Dual card slot video recording - This was my number one requirement for the R6. I will never understand why a camera would have dual card slots then only record video to one of them. My C200 records to both, my GH5 records to both, why doesn't my 5DIV do the same, and now the R6 doesn't either in 2020? I've heard all of the people saying they've never had a failure, Hollywood cameras only record to a single card etc, etc. Well I have had a card reader completely corrupt an SD card after a full day of shooting and the second card saved the day; I will never pick camera that has no backup capability for video over one that does. I also don't understand why more people are not clearly highlighting this fact or the fact that nearly every competitor does have this feature. Unlimited recording time - Once again, it is 2020, why on earth did Canon keep the 30min recording limit due to some obscure tax law that only affects certain European countries? My GH5 has unlimited recording time, I use it all the time as a B cam for the C200 for interviews, conferences, long events, etc. XLR audio module - this remains to be seen, but so far Canon has not mentioned any plans to release an XLR module for the R5 or R6. This is one of my favorite GH5 features, all of my audio gear uses XLR connectors and for run and gun situations I'll use the GH5 for the whole project including high quality audio capture. The GH5 is far from perfect; highlight rolloff is atrocious in WDR scenarios, the color science is a pain to grade in post, and of course my number one problem is the fact I need to use MF at all times when shooting with it which means I'm throwing away an unacceptable amount of footage and working overtime to keep the talent in focus during complex gimbal movements. I had fully planned on pre-ordering the R6 when it was available but every single thing that is important to me is missing from this camera and that was before the overheating problems starting making the rounds. I live in FL where my gear regularly sits in 120+ degree heat inside of cars before the start of the project; I cannot afford to have a camera that overheats on set. My GH5 has worked flawlessly shooting at 4K60FPS in 98 degree heat, after sitting in a 120 degree car and never overheated. That's the type of reliability I have come to expect from all of my gear. Now that the full specs for the R6 are available, the only thing it did was make me realize just how good the GH5 is and further appreciate its features despite it's downsides. I still have some hope that an R6 firmware update will remove the recording limit, add dual slot video recording, and Canon releases an XLR module. If they did that I'd be all in with Canon.