Do CFexpress Cards Cause Canon EOS R5 Overheating?

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John Gress has done an excellent test to find out if the CFexpress card is the overheating culprit for Canon EOS R5 when recording externally. Great work! Check out!

I wanted to test is the CF Express or SD cards cause the new Canon EOS R5 to overheat when recording externally, plus I wanted to explore if leaving the camera’s screen on while recording causes the camera to overheat.

All of my tests were battery powered.

Everything discussed in this video was recorded UHD 24p 4k Fine (HQ) and when I was recording externally on my Atomos Shogun, I had it set to 422LT. While I have seen other people test it at 30p, I wanted to test it at 24p because that’s what I use typically when I shoot for clients.

I don’t have any RF lenses or a Ninja V to test and I am sure a lot of people with C series cameras will be adapting EF lenses to this camera and using various recorders too.

Once I completed each of my 7 tests, I waited at least 39 min (five of them were over two hours, details below) with the camera turned off. All of the tests were completed indoors at normal temperatures.

So to get a baseline I did a test with internal recording to each card type.

1.Internal Recording to the SD Card, 1day plus cooldown time before test, Overheated at 28:58

2. Internal Recording to the CFexpress, coodown time before test 41 minutes, Overheated at 27:33

Then I switched over to external recording with my Atomos Shogun, again, capturing 24P 422LT 4k.

3. External Recording, SD Card, Screen on, cooldown time before test 39 minutes, Overheated 15:02

4. External Recording, No Cards, Screen off, coodown time before test 8h11m, Batteries died 2h49

5. External Recording, SD Card Inside, Screen off, coodown time before test 2h53, Overheated at 1h53

6. External Recording, CFEXPRESS Card Inside, Screen off, coodown time before test 2h01, Overheated After 2 Hours

I expected this test to fail quicker based on a video I saw by No Life Digital, so I started anyway with low batteries. The batteries died at exactly 2 hours which is a little suspicious, but it could just be a coincidence. I didn’t catch it right away but I changed the batteries, and had it feeding to the screen within 7 minutes, then it kept going until the card filled 44 min later. but the heat warning on the screen said 5 minutes when I ran out of space. So maybe it would have been good for 3 hours if the batteries didn’t die.

7. External Recording, No Cards Inside, Screen on, coodown time before test 4h34, Overheated After 41:46

In conclusion, having the screen on does seem to be a contributing factor to overheating, but it doesn’t appear having the CFexpress in the camera causes the over heating, even though I got about 90 seconds more internal recording time with the SD card. So I think the moral of the story is keep the screen off as much as you can and the cards out of the camera.

Anyway, the Canon EOS R5 is currently selling like hot cakes, so order now to get it ASAP if you are interested.

Canon EOS R5 body: $3,899 at Amazon, B&H, Adorama.

Canon EOS R5 with 24-105mm f/4L Lens: $4,999 at Amazon, B&H, Adorama.

Read more: Best Lenses for Canon EOS R5 and Best Memory Cards for Canon EOS R5.

Canon EOS R5 on Facebook: Canon EOS R5 Page, Canon EOS R5 Group

Via: John Gress