Thanks to Atomos, the Canon EOS R5 has been saved from the ‘overheating stain’. A test performed by ProAV showed s continues shooting of the R5 in 8K RAW (ProRes RAW), for more than 90 minutes, without any temp’ warning. However, you will need to buy the Ninja V+ for that privilege, which costs 40% of the camera itself. Does it worth investing $1,500 more on a camera that costs $3,900 in order to be able to shoot unconstrained 8K videos?

Ninja V+ absorbs all the heat

The Canon EOS R5 1.4 and Atomos OS 10.68 firmware updates allow the R5 to shoot 8K ProRes RAW straight to the Ninja V+ 8K recorder vis HDMI. That means, the Ninja V+ will absorb all the heat generated by the 8K RAW recording, instead of been accumulated by the R5 which will lead to a shutdown.  Atomos emphasized that the Ninja V+’s screen and enclosure will get very warm during the 8K & 5K RAW recording. However, Atomos explained that this is completely normal and expected behavior. The Ninja V+ has various safety features designed to manage the thermal performance of the unit. Indeed, the heat management of the Ninja V+ is way better than implemented in the EOS R5. The Ninja V+ has vents, as opposed to the Canon EOS R5 that is sealed.

You’ll have to initiate 8K RAW recording on the Ninja V+

There’s a 29:59 minute record time limit imposed by the EOS R5 if you trigger the recording via the camera’s record button. For extended RAW recording, users should enable the “Standby: Low res” mode on the R5 and trigger recordings by touching the record button on the screen of the Ninja V+ and not the main shutter button or movie record button on the EOS R5. Triggering the recording from the Ninja V+’s touch screen will bypass the 29:59 minute record time limit, allowing continuous RAW recording to the media in the Ninja V+.

By the 1 hour 34 minute mark, the EOS R5 had actually drained two canon batteries filled over 1.5 terabytes of storage and was still rolling with no sign of that overheating warning.

Real-world testing: Over 90 minutes of 8K ProRes RAW recording time

The guys at ProAV have been testing this hypothesis, trying to see if there’s a still recording limit when shooting 8K ProRes RAW on the EOS R5 together with the Atomos Ninja V+. They set the camera up with a battery grip on it and the Ninja V+ plugged into, and then started recording by just hitting record on the Ninja V+ rather than on the camera in order to avoid the record time limits programmed in the R5. The results confirmed the good news. By the 1 hour 34 minute mark, the EOS R5 had actually drained two canon batteries filled over 1.5 terabytes of storage and was still rolling with no sign of that overheating warning.

Check out the ProAV test below:

Summary

That is a piece of good news for Canon EOS R5 owners. Here you have a confirmation that the overheating issue when recording in 8K RAW has been solved. Which means, now you can record 8K RAW (full sensor utilization) without been worried about recording time limitation. Nevertheless, there’s a catch (like always), as for that privilege you’ll have to pay $1,500 more. The camera costs $3,900, plus Ninja V+ ends up with a hefty price of $5,400 for a basic setup.

Would you invest in the Ninja V+ for that unlimited 8K ProRes RAW recording time? Or should you be satisfied with the 30 minutes of internal recording?

Product list

Here’re the products mentioned in the article, and the links to purchase them from authorized dealers. 

• Canon EOS R5 Mirrorless Digital Camera (Body Only)
  • BUY on B&H
  • BUY on ADORAMA
• Atomos Ninja V+ 5.2″ 8K HDMI H.265 Raw Recording Monitor
  • BUY on B&H
  • BUY on ADORAMA