Photography

Canon launches EOS R5 and R6 full-frame mirrorless cameras

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The EOS R5 full-frame mirrorless camera flagship (shown) has been launched alongside a less capable and cheaper sibling, the EOS R6
Canon
At the heart of the EOS R5 is a newly-developed 45-MP full-frame CMOS sensor
Canon
The EOS R5 full-frame mirrorless camera flagship (shown) has been launched alongside a less capable and cheaper sibling, the EOS R6
Canon
Around back of the R5 is a 0.5-inch electronic viewfinder and 3.2-inch vari-angle touchscreen panel
Canon
The EOS R5 can record to external devices over HDMI at up to 4K resolution at 59.94 fps
Canon
Canon has chosen to give one media card slot over to CFExpress and the other to UHS-II SD cards
Canon
The EOS R5 features a small settings display up top
Canon
The EOS R6 is aimed at advanced consumers, and is essentially a less capable version of the R5
Canon
The EOS R6 features a 20.1-MP full-frame CMOS sensor
Canon
The EVF on the R6 is the same size as on the R5, but at a lower resolution, and the touch panel is smaller with a lower resolution
Canon
There's no settings display to the top of the EOS R6
Canon
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Canon first revealed its plan to take the lead in the prosumer mirrorless camera market back in February. Fragments of information were set free in the months following, and now the company has completely pulled back the curtain to reveal its new full-frame mirrorless flagship, the EOS R5, along with a consumer-focused R6 model.

First up, the highly anticipated EOS R5. Inside its weather-sealed chassis you'll find a newly-developed 45-megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor, which is married to the Digic X image processing engine from the 1D X MkIII. This pairing offers a light sensitivity range of ISO100-51,200, which can be extended to 102,400, and up to 20 frames per second continuous shooting when using the silent shutter, or 12 fps with the mechanical shutter.

The flagship mirrorless camera comes with the latest flavor of Canon's fast and accurate Dual Pixel autofocus for 100 percent coverage of the AF area, and 1,053 automatically-selected AF zones have been made available. As well as face, head and eye-tracking for humans, special enhancements have been made to add tracking AF for dogs, cats and birds, not only their faces but also their bodies.

At the heart of the EOS R5 is a newly-developed 45-MP full-frame CMOS sensor
Canon

There's 5-axis in-body optical image stabilization too, which enables up to eight stops of combined lens and body shake reduction when used with IS-equipped RF glass.

Elsewhere, the R5 sports a 0.5-inch, 5.76-million-dot OLED electronic viewfinder with a refresh rate of 119.88 fps, a 3.2-inch, 2.1-million-dot vari-angle LCD touch monitor, integrated dual-band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for wireless image transfer from the camera to Canon's new cloud platform, and dual media card slots, though Canon has opted not to have both as SD – one is CFExpress and the other is UHS-II SD.

While its photo chops look impressive, Canon has really gone to town in the video department. As we noted in April, the R5 seems to be the company's first serious effort on the video front since it essentially opened up cinema-friendly video recording to non-broadcast professionals with the launch of the EOS 5D MkII DSLR in 2008.

Most notably, the R5 offers in-camera recording of non-cropped 8K RAW video at 29.97 fps in 10-bit 4:2:2 Log or HDR using H.265 compression. If you reduce the quality to 4K, 119.88 fps recording is available for high resolution slo-mo. Dual Pixel AF is available for all video modes, all resolutions, and all frame rates. External recording via HDMI is available, but limited to 4K resolution at 59.94 fps.

The EOS R6 is aimed at advanced consumers, and is essentially a less capable version of the R5
Canon

A second mirrorless camera was announced today in the shape of the EOS R6, a less capable and cheaper version of the R5 that comes with a 20.1-MP full-frame CMOS sensor, the same Digic X processing engine as the R5 but with ISO100-102,400 light sensitivity that can be expanded to 204,800. Continuous shooting speeds stay the same.

The electronic viewfinder on this camera has a lower resolution of 3.69-million dots, the LCD touchscreen around back is 3 diagonal inches at 1.62-million dot resolution, and video recording tops out at 4K at up to 59.94 fps. Sensibly for the consumer market, the two media card slots here both take UHS-II SD cards.

Canon is also making four RF lenses available to go with the new cameras – the RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM, RF600mm F11 IS STM, RF800mm F11 IS STM, and RF85mm F2 MACRO IS STM. Two lens extenders have been announced too.

The EOS R5 flagship is due for release at the end of this month for a body-only price of US$3,899, or $4,999 with an RF 24-105mm F4 L IS USM lens. The R6 follows in August for $2,499 body only, or $2,899 with an RF 24-105 F4-7.1 IS STM kit lens and $3,599 with an RF 24-105mm F4 L IS USM lens. Over to you Sony, Panasonic and Nikon.

Source: Canon

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1 comment
David V
I watched the "reveal" live on line yesterday. Pretty impressive stuff. Both of them. I had tried the first R last year but was really waiting for this as the R doesn't cut it for sports at all and with the Olympics planned, it was just a question of waiting. I was stunned by what the auto-focus seems to be capable of in the presentation yesterday. Maybe it's time sell my 1D Xs and move to mirrorless. Can't wait to try them out this summer but the choice will be pretty hard as even the R6 seems more than a capable beast.
Check out the "reveal" on Youtube. It's interesting.