Canon’s new EOS R5 C looks like a fine new hybrid camera, but its compromises make the EOS C70 a better filmmaking tool.
This week Canon launched what looks like the perfect camera for videographers who need a run-and-gun filmmaking tool: the Canon EOS R5 C. Unlike its close sibling, the Canon EOS R5, the R5 C comes with cooling fans and a host of other video upgrades, including actual Cinema EOS menus. But despite all this, I’ll likely be picking up Canon’s other entry-level Cinema camera, the EOS C70. It’s not a simple decision – I’m firmly in the Canon ecosystem when it comes to film and video production, and definitely in the target market for both cameras. I run a small production company, which we started with an original Canon EOS C100 back in 2014. We then bought an EOS C200 – an incredible camera that still does virtually everything we need it to – not long after it was launched in 2017. Finally, we purchased a Canon EOS R at around the time the EOS R5 was released (as it saw a significant price drop), which has been a great B-cam and gimbal cam. Last year, I wrote about how impressive the Canon EOS R5 was as a filmmaking prospect, even though it lacked key video features (like XLR ports and internal Neutral Density filters). The spiritual successor to the Canon EOS 5D Mark II, which was the camera that started it all for affordable, cinematic-looking video, the EOS R5 was and still is a great camera, despite the complaints about over-heating and limited recording times in 8K. But in an attempt to remedy some of those issues, Canon has announced the EOS R5 C. That little red ‚C‘ that now appears on the camera’s body denotes that it is officially part of Canon’s Cinema range – a range that includes cameras like the truly awesome (and truly expensive) C500, the ever-popular C300, and one of the greatest, professional video cameras ever-made, the C200. Despite this, the EOS R5 C does lack some crucial missing features that mean I’ll likely be plumping for the EOS C70 instead. Even if the EOS R5 C isn’t for me, is it the camera that hybrid shooters wanted the original R5 to be? On paper, it seems like it might be.
