RCicala
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 p.13 #11 · R5 overheating is horrible .... | |
I don’t know what Canon thinks about all the R5 discussion, I get no inside stuff from Canon. I have an idea, though, because I spend a lot of time talking to various engineers from most manufacturers. When engineers show me a new product, they aren’t interested in what it doesn’t do. They are like giddy schoolchildren showing me what new widget and capability they’ve built into their latest and greatest.
Canon's most recent ‘camera that changed everything’, for those of you that don’t recall, was arguably the 5D Mk II. Because it did HD video. Not extremely capable video. It gave you a max of 4k worth over 12 minutes at 30p with little manual control over video filming. But it was full-frame, HD video, and no other SLR did that to any usable degree. You’re probably yawning, especially if you weren’t in the middle of it, because who cares, right? But I find the parallels striking.
Early 5DII reviews were pretty mixed. It only had a mono built-in mic, AI servo wasn’t great, it didn’t have a built-in flash, dynamic range rather sucked. It came out of the box with banding issues. As one reviewer put it (I’m paraphrasing a bit), a decent upgrade with a cool video function, but only time will tell if that function has more than niche usability. People quickly became fixated on what it didn’t do and, lord, did they complain about it. And while people complained, they bought it and bought it and bought it. To give you a perspective, at the time we carried maybe 30-40 copies of the most popular cameras. We quickly had 150 copies of 5DIIs; the demand made us borrow money. All while people complained constantly.
That camera changed everything and it not only sold like nobody’s business, an entire “shoot video on SLR” industry sprang up around it. At the time of the 5D II release, if you used an SLR lens to shoot video, it was probably a Nikon-mount lens. Over a couple of years (and I lived this) the SLR camera video market became almost entirely Canon mount. And the shoulder mounts, sliders, cages, and peripherals were all made with the 5D II in mind.
So, if you asked me to guess what Canon people thought about the R5's video capabilities upon release, I expect they really thought “It can shoot some 8k video; it’s going to be the 5D II all over again.” Because that’s how engineers think. This new thing we did is so awesome, people will be amazed and ecstatic. (FWIW, that's not what I think, the market is way different now.)
But for those of you thinking that Canon is freaking out, that’s not going to happen unless sales don’t meet expectations. I don’t know about you, but I sure am having trouble buying them. (Yeah, I’ve seen the “my cousin’s brother-in-law talked to a Canon rep who said there was a recall." If you believe a Canon rep has the slightest clue about stuff like that, much less said something the corporation didn’t approve beforehand, I’ve got some essential oils that cure Covid I want to sell you.)
On a positive note, the complaining about the 5D II worked over a year or so, between Canon’s releases and Magic Lantern’s hacks. It will probably work, to the degree firmware and software fixes can correct things, this time, too.
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