Anyone Ordering The R5C?

[shadowsports]

Greetings,

Anyone else considering?  The R5C was not the road I anticipated taking, but I'm tired of waiting and since this body doesn't overheat, I am more confident about it over the standard R5.      

Although I am a stills shooter, the Cinema EOS side of the body is intriguing.  Its so much smaller than a C70.  I'm not serious enough about video that I'd miss Clog2.  The body has 16 14 stops so plenty of DR for my use.  Its also not limited to Super35 or 16 (which isn't so much a limitation), but Canon has really stepped up here.  I don't care about ibis.  All of my lenses except 1 are IS and the body has digital IS built in.  I have purchased a bunch of accessories.  Control Ring Adapter, 2 512GB CF ExpressB, 2 128GB UHSII, 2x Watson batteries (Canon was out of stock), and I've not tried Manfrotto batteries yet.  

Going to try the AngelBird CFExpress cards and ProGrade for the XD Cards.  I've always used SanDisk so going to try something else.  Both are highly rated.

I also contacted EasyCover in the Netherlands and my contact there has said they do not plan to make a skin for the R5C.  Was hoping for this, but am more excited about a new body.  Haven't pulled the trigger quite yet.  I have a quick business trip and wanted to be back for the arrival.  Plan to wait a week.  If nothing glaring is reported, I will finally move to mirrorless.

[wobbleman99]

Hi Rick,

Thanks for the link.  The video was interesting, and covered many of the highlights of the R5c. Of interest to note is the fact that on one screen shot he showed the audio menus that were grayed out on his camera as well.  I"d called Canon Tech Support today about that very issue and spent more than an hour on the telephone with the techie.  He could not figure it out and said that he would get back to me on Tuesday. But it may be that those menus only become active when a microphone is plugged into the camera's 3.5 mm input jack, and Tech support suspected that might be true as well.  Other than that, the camera is great.

Addendum:  When addressing the audio menus, the manual references the Canon DM-E1D Directional Stereo Microphone that slides onto the multifunction hot shoe.  I have a feeling that the menus might be microphone specific, and that attaching the aforementioned mic might serve to make those menus functional.  It is backordered everywhere, so there is no way to test my theory at the present time.

Regards

Ron

[John_SD]

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@shadowsports wrote:

Plan to wait a week.  If nothing glaring is reported, I will finally move to mirrorless.

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Congrats on the move. For me there has bee no looking back and I am just a lowly RP owner. I thought I would struggle to adapt to the EVF, but no. I love it and it has exceeded my initial limited expectations. You mentioned a concern about battery life in a later post. That is a valid concern with mirrorless. I mitigate that issue by switching  the camera off between shots/shooting and it helps immensely with battery life. I also carry a spare. You have a far greater interest in video than you're admitting, so I think the substantial increase in price over the R5 will be worth it to you. Enjoy the camera and I'll be looking forward to your thoughts regarding it. 

[wobbleman99]

Hi John,

I've been using the R5c for the past month and have grown to enjoy it. I'd originally purchased it as an intended 'B' Cam for my C300 MK III, but I am embarrassed to admit that the MK III has not been used for the past 3-4 weeks since the arrival of the R5c, but I expect that dynamic will change. As for the battery life, I have the battery grip permanently attached to the R5c, and that does help some but, if I anticipate a long shoot I carry a USB-C PD power supply that can carry me through the day, so there are solutions.

One thing to be aware of, is that 8K clips are not the easiest to edit in post, even with my maxed out 2019 Mac Pro Tower, and I have had to resort to the creation of proxies to overcome that issue, but it is not as big a deal as one might assume.

Regards,

Ron

[wobbleman99]

FYI:

I had spoken with Canon Cine Tech Support —for the second time—more than a week ago about the grayed out audio menus on the R5c.  The tech had promised a call back but that has never taken place.  But after reading and re-reading the manual, I got the impression that those menus might be microphone specific.  The manual points to the Canon DM-E1D Stereo Microphone, and I have a suspicion that sliding that mic onto the multi-function hot-shoe will open up those menus.  The mic is backordered everywhere, so there is no way to test that theory at the moment.

[AtticusLake]

I just got my R5C -- given the tight supplies, I pre-ordered it thinking it would be a nice surprise if it arrived in August and I had it in my hands 6 days later! So now I have to find a constructive use for it... 😉

Anyhow... like you, I see that all the audio controls in the menu are greyed out if there's no mic attached. It just records the built-in mic to all 4 channels.

Plugging anything into the 3.5mm mic socket changes that. The 3.5mm input is mapped to channels 1 & 2; the internal mic still records to channels 3 & 4. The menus are now active, and let me choose how to set the levels for channels 1 & 2, only.

You can see this in action using the status screens. If you haven't already, I suggest mapping a button to be Status; the audio screen in Status will show you what all the audio channels are doing.

I don't have anything that connects to the hot shoe, to test that out.

Hope this helps...

Ian

[shadowsports]

Good Morning,

Have returned from Kauai and am back to work.  The trip was relaxing, senic and enjoyable.  We didn't get to see as much of the island as we wanted, but I did visit the property where Jurassic Park and about 87 other movies were filmed.  We were on ATV's and the staff recommended that I not bring my camera.  Only a phone, which I did.  At the end of the day, I was glad I did. I looked like I had been sprayed with a mud canon after the excursion.  We had a full face gater on with goggle and helmets.  I had my ears covered too.  It took 2 days to get the dust out of my ears.  Multiple showers, pool, steam shower and 20 Q-tips...  and dirt was still present.  The staff's advice to leave my camera was a good one.  I have a great LowenPro sling bag, but even it wouldn't be a match.  The red dust was like playa dirt, and I already know why car rental companies don't let you take their vehicles to places like burning man. You're stuff is never the same.

OK, so the status of the R5C on B&H's site has changed from Backordered to New Item Coming Soon.  I think we're closer.  The is the same thing it showed before the first round shipped in April.  I also tried ordering this hot shoe protector which will ship later this month.  There are two models...  for R series cameras.  Canon's site has them listed for Pre-Order, but there I was not able to complete the transaction after adding it to my cart.  Kept saying "No stock".       

The SC1 fits the R3

Even if I put a SmallRig cage on the body, I think the cover (which used to come with DSLRs) will be good protection.  Or...  might be overkill as well.

[wobbleman99]

Hi Rick,

Sounds like your trip had been wonderful.

I would guess that your camera will arrive soon.  The R5c comes with a hot shoe protector, and there is a 3rd party protector on the market that includes a bubble level on its surface.  But it appears that the audio menu can be engaged by inserting a 3.5mm trs mic plugged directly into the camera's port.  However, it further appears that the camera's audio menu only applies to an external mic, and not the internal mic.  Therefore, at the current time, there is apparently no way to either adjust the internal mic or defeat it, and that is a major omission on the part of Canon, and takes the audio side of the camera out of the professional realm.  I don't know if this had been intentional hobbling or an oversight, but since Canon has claimed that the video OS is a modification of that contained in the C70, it is suspiciously intentional.  That said, I will continue to do what I have been doing, and that is, delete tracks 3&4—the internal mic's audio tracks—in post. 

[AtticusLake]

I gotta tell you, I don't think anyone in "the professional realm" will be using the built-in mic.  Any built-in mic is going to produce cheesy audio, and won't be good for much more than reference audio.  Auto level control is fine for that.  If you want decent audio, on any camera, an external mic is the way to go.

[wobbleman99]

I agree 100%, and that is why Canon should address the issue with a firmware update that allows the internal mic to be turned off either manually, or when the camera senses the presence of an external mic.  My C300 MK III allows one to defeat the internal mic, and I would guess that the C70 does as well.  But given Canon's tendency to hobble certain features on their various cameras, this issue may have been intentional.

[shadowsports]

Thanks Rob for the heads up.  I'll cancel the shoe protector.  I was very surprised when I saw it for sale and puzzled why it wouldn't have been included...  so I'm happy it is. 

I would also believe the mic issue might be addressed in the future FW update.  I understand not allowing you to disable it on its own, but for sure if an external mic is connected.  I wonder if it has something to do with the ability to record a separate audio track in some of the recording modes?

I guess if enough people make noise about it, they might consider it.  I'll certainly raise it as a feature request when I get mine.    

Rick