Judging by my title, you'll be shocked to know that I have always been a Canon loyalist. From learning with the Canon A-1 inherited from my grandmother in 1999, to the latest mirrorless models, I have been a devoted customer and an advocate of the brand for over two decades. That is, until the Canon EOS R5. The Canon R5 is where my bond to the brand was systematically dismantled as the hardware itself did.
Let me walk you through how I'm falling out of love with Canon as its product went from buzz-worthy to broken, held together with rubber bands.Good pics when it works
— Canon Reviewer
Why I Have Loved Canon
If I could sum up my sentiment about the Canon EOS R5 in the most condensed phrase it would be this simplistic but accurate review at the top of the Canon review site. Canon has always been my uncontended choice. I have worked with files from almost every major brand and for me, Canon leads in what is most important to my work: color, sharpness, and dynamic range. For my commercial work, it gives me everything I need to capture color, detail, and texture. It delivers sharp, crisp images. For my sports work it gives me incredible burst rates and great dynamic range. They have top-of-the-line of lenses for every different subject matter. As my peers left Canon for the award-winning Sony mirrorless cameras or the game-changing Nikon Z9, I stayed the course with Canon... until my R5.
What the Short-Term Versus Long-Term Reviews Are Uncovering
If you read many of the glowing reviews online regarding the R5, a large portion of them are from newly acquired bodies — i.e written within the first two years of owning the camera. With these reviews, I would agree.
The viewfinder is terrific. The files are very large, so is the ability to crop dramatically and still get a great image. I've been using it for about 6 months with no problems. Animal, people, and eye tracking for autofocus is really impressive
— Canon Review
I've had the R5 for a little over a month. I'm using it with an RF 70-200mm f2.8 and an EF 17-40mm f4 with a control ring adapter. I continue to be amazed by the versatility of this camera and the stunning image quality.
— Canon Review
I have been using the Canon R5 for a couple of months. I have several EF lenses and it works flawlessly with them. In December I purchased the RF 100-500 L lens. What an incredible combination. I do photography only (no video) and I can honestly say that this camera impresses me every time I shoot with it. Best camera I have ever owned.
— Canon Review
I agree with all of these reports and more: color is what has sustained my love affair with Canon for over two decades now. But what is being echoed by users of over two years?
Good pics when it works. I've had the R5 for over a year now and am glad I read the reviews about it frequently freezing up before buying it. If [you] leave it on for several minutes it may freeze up requiring it to be turned off for several seconds before it resumes normal functioning again. If you leave it on for more than several minutes [while] shooting it can shut down for half a day, however. I've had to adapt by frequently turning it off then on again when I'm shooting so that I don't miss (more) shots.
— Canon Review
Great camera but fragile shutter system. The R5 is all I wanted. A better autofocus than my 5D Mark IV, rotating screen, IBS, etc. and I was very happy with it until an error code No 20 appears on the screen. I sent it to Canon and the shutter system had to be changed. The camera had 40,000 shoots.... less than 10% of the 500,000 promised. Now I am not so confident with the Camera.
— Canon Review
Long-term review: frequent crashes, subpar build quality. I loved the camera at first. After over a year, I'm still mostly happy with it. In terms of features and image quality, it's a winner. The autofocus is amazing. However, it crashes too often for a pro camera. Lately, it's been OK, but it went through a nearly unusable phase in the last version of the firmware and I missed many shots because of camera crashes. It's also not well weather sealed and if I'm out in light rain, I quickly get condensation behind the viewfinder. Honestly, I just don't trust it out in the weather and that prevents me from getting the job done. Similarly, the build quality in general is nowhere near the standard of Canon's older pro cameras. Unfortunately, for me, Canon just doesn't have the right offerings anymore. I'll likely be moving over to another brand. It's such a shame because Canon still has great technology, features, and optics. But build quality, repairs, customer service, have all gone downhill and those things are critical for professionals.
— Canon Review
I could continue this with more reviews from Canon's site, additional ones from B&H, and a whole slew of messages on Facebook groups, discussions on Quora regarding the recurring "Error 20" code, camera malfunctions, and cameras just plain falling apart. Now though, let me now tell you my story.
How My R5 Systematically Fell Apart
Error 20
I bought my R5 just over two years ago. Similar to the experience of other reviewers, I was over the moon about my new gear. It delivered on advanced auto-focusing, state-of-the-art image stabilization, high-speed continuous shooting, and showcased many of the flagship Canon characteristics such as rich color, sharp images, and high-resolution files. Just past its first-year mark, however, I started getting the error 20 code. This code is described vaguely on the Canon website.
As the message describes this error required me to turn off my camera, remove the battery, and restart the camera. At first, it was once or twice a week, then every day, and soon up to to a dozen times a day. This happened for weeks on end. I did some research and it is a widespread problem. There was everything from Quora discussions about it to YouTube tutorials, Facebook chats, and more.
This problem occurs nowhere near the promised shutter count. After researching the problem, I reached out to Canon directly with the data I had gathered in 2022. I was redirected many times until I reached the Sr. Specialist Public Relations for Canon. She replied to my email positively and requested me to gather information and specific testimonials. After collecting the requested data, I sent the testimonials with the users' full names and additional information to Canon. Here are two of many examples I provided.
Photographer 2: He works in the studio as a fashion photographer and his camera is around 105k actuations. It happens when he is shooting normally (not live view). The mirror gets stuck and frozen and the camera displays error 20 and this cycle repeats itself. He brought it in for repair, it was 600 euros to swap a new shutter and mirror. This cycle has started happening again. The mirror gets stuck. The camera says 'error 20'. He doesn't know why.
Photographer 7: 'I purchased my R5 in February of 2021. It worked well for two months then died completely. I contacted Canon and then sent it back for repair. Turned out that the entire main motherboard failed. They replaced it and two weeks later it was back at home with me.'
Per the request of the Canon PR contact, I kept track of what I was shooting with when receiving the error 20 messages, noting if there were any commonalities. I took notes on:
1) Whether it was a Canon battery or an off-brand battery
2) What type and brand of memory card I was working with
3) If I was using strobes or shooting natural light
4) If I was shooting bursts or single shots
5) If I was using an RF or EF lens
6) If I was shooting tethered
There were no patterns. No matter what lens, battery, card, or lighting I shot with, the error 20 code continued. By the end of my data collecting it was around a dozen times a day. I offered to send my camera in for the engineers to look at it. After meticulously tracking all the requested information and providing it to Canon with the offer to look over the problem on my camera, the PR woman stopped responding. That was in 2022.
It was a $479 repair for a shutter that stopped working after only one year of purchase. This is a shutter that was listed to have a half-a-million count shutter life on it.
Canon never answered me again.
Gray Pocket on Screen
Earlier this year I was shooting in my studio. My camera was on a tripod and I was shooting products on a simple white background. When I set the next product up to be photographed, I came back to my camera and my LCD had a large grey pocket that took up about 1/5th of the screen. Initially, I thought there was a shadow on my scene. There was not. I hooked my computer up for tethering and looked at the shot on my Mac. Nothing was in the image; It was the LCD.
I was told in my repair report that the LCD had been impacted. At the time of this occurrence though there was no impact. I had a very simple "shopping cart" on white set up with the camera on a tripod.
LCD Detaches and Dangles by Wires
I had intended to send it in for repair but I was in the middle of a hectic month of back-to-back contracts so I decided to work my way through them shooting tethered. One day as I was working camera in-hand, the LCD just plopped out of the frame and dangled by a braided set of small colorful wires. Shocked, I pushed it back in and it fell right back out. I was forced to hold it together with a rubber band.
The Hot Shoe Becomes Unscrewed
So there I was, my two year-old camera broken again, being held together by a rubber band. I contacted CPS about sending it in for repair, planning to do so upon my return from my weekend contract. I head out to my job, strap on my flash, and walk to my starting point. As I'm walking though, the flash feels as though it's wobbling around on the hot shoe. I stopped and had a look. I discovered that the screw which holds the hot shoe down had become loose and had made the connection between my flash — as well as my pocket wizard for the strobes — unusable. I thought perhaps that if I could find a screw driver I could tighten it back up; but in the R5 model they moved the screws to the inside of the camera body. Now, 15 minutes into my two-day shoot, my rubber band-jimmied camera is officially unusual able for flash or strobes. I had to pivot and use my Mark IV all weekend — a big step down from the dynamic range and ISO capabilities of the R5. The images suffered.
The following Monday, I finally sent it in to CPS and a whopping $759 repair got me functional again for the 2nd time.
In total the repairs were priced at $1,238 for the $3,699 camera: I spent 33% of the cost of the camera to keep it working. Within two years the repairs totaled a third of the cost of the camera.
I am not the only one.
Why Isn't the R5 Lasting?
Why are so many Canon users experiencing these problems with the R5? Why the surge in reports about mechanical shutter errors, overheating, and the camera falling apart structurally? It used to be that cameras were built for durability. I remember shooting in the desert and seeing my peer throw his camera into the sand — actually throw it — leaving it there for a good 15-20 minutes while he resolved an issue with a staff member. Then, he just picked it back up and kept shooting. Canons were built for it. My Mark II, III, and IV have been through water, mud, and sand. They have been dropped; they have suffered through hot, cold, wet — yet I never once had to send any of them in for repair. It's one of the many reasons I loved Canon. The cameras were built like vaults. What happened?
I've discussed this question with many peers over the last year that I've been working on the article. I've received a wide array of answers but they have all fallen under an umbrella theme: durability is not at the top of the list of values for Canon anymore. Colleagues hypothesize that it used to be that Canon built cameras for career photographers. Durability was a central value. Now, they suspect, their audience is different.
"They build cameras for vloggers, and hobbyists now who go out to capture lifestyle work. They want their mirrorless camera to be lightweight and have great sensors. They don't care about durability anymore."
Others hypothesize that since photographers clamor to upgrade to the latest model every time it comes out, Canon doesn't feel the need to build a camera that's going to last five or six years anymore.
Is it true? Is durability an extinct value in the generation of city-slicker vloggers who care about the sensor, weight, burst rate and video capability?
Not all brands are skimping on durability and resilience. OM Systems, for example, runs their cameras though rigorous testing such as this impressive splash test.
Closing Thoughts
It used to be that Canon and Nikon were the uncontested kings of the jungle. Any camera they made was the top of the line model available. Some other cameras like Leica held a close third spot especially for a certain look — but if you look at the sales numbers, historically Canon and Nikon were at the top. Over the years though, other brands have impressively stepped up their game. I feel there's rarely a month that goes by that I don't have someone asking "You're still shooting Canon?" as if Sony was now the only brand to flaunt. Nikon came out with their Z 9 and showed they they are maintaining their stance as industry leaders.
...And here is my R5 being held together with a rubber band and no hot shoe.
I had planned to purchase the EOS R3 but since my experience, Canon has lost my trust to invest thousands more towards a new body. Canon: this is my message to you. You have to worry about retaining your photographers. Other brands are stepping up and the reputation Canon once had is being challenged.
I recently walked to the meeting point for a shoot and an obnoxious photographer who always touts his mouth asked, "What are you shooting with today?" I responded, "The R5." He laughed and looked at the other photographer standing with us, sarcastically commenting, "Really?"
He had the Z9 and the other photographer had the Sony a7R V. In retrospect, I am glad the shoot wasn't a few weeks later when my rubber band was holding my camera together.
I invited the PR contact for Canon to comment on this article. She didn't reply. I still love Canon. For me, the colors and the quality of the image is just untouchable. But I'll close with the same quote I opened with from the Canon website reviews, it's the best camera... when it works. Is it time to switch brands? Canon needs to earn my trust again.
Wouldn’t wanna be the devil’s advocate here, but we’re talking about the R5 all the way from top to bottom and one of the quotes from a user says “changed the mirror”. Well that kinda destroys the whole article. Maybe change that part of the text and post it again? Meanwhile: R6 Mark II here, not a single problem after over 6 months 🤞
Thanks for your reply. Glad the R6 Mark II has been solid for you. One of the many reasons I have always stayed with Canon till the R5 was the durability. This experience and research has made me really apprehensive about the R3. What are your thoughts about photographers hypothesyzing that with the new generation of users durability is not as high on the priority list. Cameras performing well post 2-yesr mark?
R6 mk II user here and I started getting errors especially when using autofocus. I can get through an entire interior design photoshoot with little to no issue, I photographed a small event and had to restart my camera 4+ times, even got an Error screen.
Wow that's crazy! I just shot a fashion even last week, 4800 photos, not one single problem. So maybe the thing with Canon is not that the cameras are falling apart, maybe it's that there's a crazy variation in quality between units of the same model? I have never had a problem with any of my Canons in over 15 years. 4 different bodies.
Canon is not alone in the quest for mediocrity and yes, I think manufacturers have shifted away from durability as a key engineering directive. The market is shrinking and technology continues to evolve. The refrigerator which one purchased forty years ago and is still running has been supplanted by sleek new designs with LCD’s and compressors which fail after a couple of years. So too is the destiny of digital cameras. BTW are you seeing all of the problems Nikon is having with their z8?
I think you are spot on Adam Rubinstein durability seems to be off the table as a priority. What is most important to you in a camera? If you had to name your top 3? Would durability make the list? I'm not as familiar with the Z8.
True about Nikon Z8 but the problem with the lens getting stuck and eyelets getting loose isn't a deal killer for me.
The Z8 issues are more of a manufacturing defect that can be corrected via recall. For example I get more manufacturing defects on Thinkpads from their outlet where they'll get sent back for repair vs ones on ebay. Once taken care of though they hold up well for a really long time.
Didn’t Nikon have some recalls? I.E. they appear to look to fix any issues in their cameras a bit like the huge plethora of firmware improvements they release in years to come after a camera release
Nikons did have issues, but they acknowledged the problems and a issued a recall. Canon is playing the wait it out and it will go away game. They know what is going on, but are playing dumb. Is not only the R5. The R6, R6 mii, R3 have been reported with erratic focus and crashing software.
I've put over 100,000 images per year on my R5 for the past three-plus years and haven't had a single issue. And I shoot mostly outside with it (ad campaigns, wildlife/hunting/fishing photo shoots all over the world, from -34-degrees earlier this year on a frozen lake in North Dakota to 107 degrees and humid in South Texas.
That's great! I'm so happy to hear! Wanna do an R5 camera swap with me? haha
David, of course you have had good luck with the system....clearly your family owns the company!
On a serious note...nice work on your site.
PS. Go Dawgs!
😂😂😂 I wish I just had one fewer “n”s in my name!
Thank you, Chris!! And Go Dawgs!
I own 3 R5s, 2 R6s and about 15 full frame Canon DSLRs. These are used/abused mostly outdoors as remote cameras in special habitats. Some have been literally taken apart by bears. My impression over time has been that Canon's cameras - and especially the R5, which is my main shooter - have been strangely reliable, despite racoons taking off rain covers and porcupines dragging cameras down talus slopes.
Over the course of these projects, I've shot Sony and Panasonic (not Nikon), and had much poorer results in terms of toughness. Especially Sony, which was demonstrably poor around the time of the A7R4, which was when I finally bolted from that mount.
Two of my R5s are 3 years old, and the other is 1 year. That latter one is exposed the worst sort of animal possible for a camera: my clumsy wife. We've had multiple drop-on-concrete incidents between the two of us.
I think the article overly-expansive in its conclusions based on the single camera and a generalized sense of other reports. I have a lot more experience with the Canon range, but I wouldn't be comfortable generalizing from it. If Fstoppers wants to do something useful to comment on reliability of the mounts or specific cameras, it is one of the few parties that could do something useful to that end: poll its readers for actual personal experiences. I think that could be super useful.
-tig
PS: I find that when one of the 6d or 5d III cameras I'm running gets eaten by a large creature, I'm able to fix it 3 out of 4 times by just replacing a button or two and thoroughly drying it out. The pic below is the last frame taken by a camera that was dragged 100 yards from its mount in a tree. The lens was broken in half, with part of it still on the mount. Dial removed, deep tooth gouges in the leather. It was left upside down to gather rainwater for the better part of a week. It's back out in the woods as I write this, after getting dried out and a couple plastic bits replaced. The lens didn't make it, though. I'm pretty certain this would not be the case with cameras from the other mounts I've used. To be clear, this was not an R5.
Someone asked me if this was a picture of a bear's legs. Of course not. It's two wookies surveying the scene.
I'm so glad to hear that you've had a great experience with your R5s. As a long-time Canon proponent, I was disappointed to find in over 1 year of data collection from photographers all over the world that these long-term problems have occurred to many users. WOW your story about the camera being dragged 100 yards! I feel like my 5d Mark IV would have survived that like a champ!
The Canon Community Forum & DPReview Canon R Forum are full of complaints from R5 owners all experiencing the same problem & it goes back years. It’s impossible to know if it’s a QC / manufacturing problem, a component supply problem or something else, but it does seem to be unique to the R5 and Canon themselves don’t know what it is (but are diligently not acknowledging that it is endemic, so thank you Michelle for writing about it).
Note to self: Do not buy a second-hand camera from Tig Tillinghast. :-)
He seems to hang onto them, looks like he has at least 20 :)
bahahah
That's a paw photo, but maybe great for a bear.
I had the same "Error 20" problem with my Canon R6 which started happening after about 10 months of ownership. When I checked the number of shutter actuations using a free Mac OS program called shuttercount it came up with 105K which I find hard to believe as most of the high volume work I have done with the camera (e.g. sport) was shot using the electronic shutter. The error 20 got more frequent and I eventually took it to Canon for repair and they replaced the shutter and the main PCB board of the camera, costing £630 and 6 weeks away. Not very reassuring for a camera less than a year old. I know the R6 doesn't have the same promise of shutter life as the R5 but I still don't think it has been used all that much.
I have only just received the camera back so can't comment on whether the error 20 will return yet or not. I hope not!
Thank you for sharing your experience. What is your opinion about why there is such a widespread reported problem with this issue? Did you ever have cameras that had problems like this so new into their shutter count before the R6? Do you think that durability has taken a backseat to Canon's values?
It's hard to say why this is such a widely reported problem because the explanation from
Canon for the error is so vague. I have owned every 5D since the MK2 and 1D MK3 through to 1DX and the build quality of these latest Canon models certainly doesn't feel as durable in the hand. My friend dropped his R5 with a flash on the hotshoe from about waist height and it ripped the whole of the top of the camera "bump" (where the prism would be in a SLR) off. This would not have happened on any of the 5D series of cameras.
I've never had a shutter problem with any of these previous models and still have my 1DX, it's still going strong 10 years on. The camera bodies of all previous cameras I owned were made from a magnesium alloy whereas these latest mirrorless bodies are made from a plastic composite. Although this makes the camera body lighter it's a compromise on toughness and durability in my opinion.
How were you charged for repair when less than a year it would be under warranty?
Canon actually charged you for the repair, when it happened within the warranty period? What's up with that? Do they really not honor their warranties anymore?
The camera was just out of warranty when I took it into repair. Although the error first appeared after about 10 months it was about 4 months after that when it became so frequent that I needed to consider repairing it. I had an extended warranty that covered the cost of the repair but I was still shocked at the cost and the fact that a camera that old needed a new shutter and PCB board already!
Oh bummer. I guess now we all know that if a Canon starts to have any trouble at all within the warranty period, we should send it in ASAP so as to have the problem covered at no cost to us.
This is a really disturbing post. The thing that bothers me the most is that the Canon rep just cut you loose and quit responding. There is no excuse for this. It reflects as badly on Canon as the continued failures of your R5. I am an R5 owner myself, coming back to Canon after nearly a decade with Fujifilm. I can only imagine the frustration you must feel.
I'm not convinced that Canon has relaxed their QC standards, though I might be asking the same question if I had experienced the issues that you have. Sadly, you can find stories and experiences like this one about Sony and Nikon as well. In fact, I would argue that they are more prevalent. This is not to excuse Canon. Cameras are getting increasingly complex but that's not an excuse for having them come apart during use.
It would be really interesting to hear from Roger Cicala at LensRentals to see if he has observed increasing QC problems with the R5 or Canon in general on a large scale. I would guess he has several thousand R5 bodies in circulation. I've never heard him talk about the R5 one way or the other in terms of reliability. I have heard him talk about Canon's service and it has only ever been positive. I get the impression that the company is at the top of his list in terms of quality of service and responsiveness—better than Sony or Nikon, the latter of which has outsourced its service IIRC.
All this said, I think your best chance for resolution is to stick to documenting and discussing the specific issues you are having with your R5. Certainly, other R5 users reporting similar issues is helpful and relevant. But, true or not, trying to make the general argument that Canon's QC has gone downhill and the company is losing respect on the street won't get you anywhere with Canon. There's nothing Canon's reps or engineers can do with that. And I agree with Marco that you should remove the "Photographer 2" quote about the stuck mirror. Canon's newest bodies, the ones you hypothesize are built to a lower standard, don't have mirrors. The bodies that have mirrors are the ones you argue are more reliable.
It's hard to believe so many things have gone wrong with a single body—particularly the loose parts. It makes me wonder if your R5 was not re-assembled correctly after your first repair. Best of luck getting this issue resolved.
Thank you for your thorough and excellent response. It would be a very interesting investigation to interview companies such as LensRentals about patterns with the R5- or in general if certain brands each have their own Achilles heel. I was also very surprised that the PR woman for Canon stopped replying altogether after I tediously documented everything she requested. I sent her the article a few hours ago. Thank you for your feedback. Hearing our readers' thoughts is always one of the most rewarding parts of writing when they are informed and well-articulated such as yours.
Gannon's QC has been weird for me over the years. I used to have to keep a set of boxes at one of my old jobs because I was always sending bodies back for repair.
My 7D from back in the days went to Cannon four times and it was still busted. I purchased a 6D and a 35 mm IS from them used, and both of them were busted. The 35 was busted to such a silly degree I'm 100% sure it didn't get looked at before they resold it.
To this day I still tell the story of how crazy the images work of the 35 coming out of the camera. After they fixed it, it has been absolutely miraculously good. I'm glad it only took one time.
In Singapore I was able to go to the awesome Canon office to get my 24 to 105 fixed. Dropped it off came and picked it up back in the morning They said to go outside and take some shops and see. Of course the focus was still off . That said I was actually able to go and sit with an engineer while they put the camera and images on the screen and we can see the problem. They fixed it up nicely the second time.
Then there was a m62. I'm on my third version from Canon because the first two exhibited the dreaded time battery failure. You know you pop out a battery put it back in and the clock resets. Every single time.
I bought the body new, and they send you a refurb which should be illegal. The second one had the same exact issue. Now I'm on my third one that's been working fine until whoops what's that... The clock bug again. Again I bought this new got two refurbs back, and the error or failure is still there. Then I learned that they don't look at their small cameras they toss it in the bin popping another one in the box and send it to you. They actually don't have parts for the m62 at all - so good luck if you have one because they're not fixing anything.
My R62 has seen minimal use since I got it in November of last year and I'm about to take it with me on an important trip. I can tell you I'm still kind of spooked because the AF tracking was all over the bloody place back in February. Lazy me still haven't gotten it checked out but I'm likely going to bring my 5D3 just in case.
Cheers. Overall I'm still pleased with Canon because at least they have a good service unlike Nikon nightmares I've read about over the years. Sony never built out a customer service portion so only Lord knows what happens with them.
While I'm on this trip I hope that CPS will be available in case of anything. Fingers crossed.
I must say that CPS has provided EXCELLENT service to me. I tried Lockton Affinity through PPA and that was a nightmare. What a bad string of events you have had! I'm sorry to hear that.
Just a reason to bash Canon in light of the incredibly poor QC of Nikon especially the Z9 and Z8.
Very predictable to deflect the junk Nikon is producing and rebranding.
That comment is just a reason to bash Nikon in the light of the of the incredibly poor QC of Canon especially the R5. Very predictable...
The article was not what you were suggesting at all. It was reporting a serious concern by a fan of Canon gear about a dream camera that's become a nightmare. Hopefully it will send a message to all manufacturers that brand loyalty requires them to play their part, which in this case, Canon seems to be failing to do.
I am sure that if a writer that uses Nikon, Sony, or any other brand, had similar experiences, they would do the readers a service by reporting that too.
Yes exactly. As I wrote, I have been a Canon proponent since my A-1 film camera two decades ago. If the intention was to bash Canon I wouldn't have made so much effort to work with a contact at Canon, collect and deliver all the data she requested offer to send my camera in for the engineers, etc. My hope is that if Canon is falling short on things like shutter durability etc they will re-think some of these values in their next models. I want to keep loving and buying Canon and my year of data collection and communication with them is evidence of this.
this is a small excerpt
Wow, seriously? This was a well-researched, well laid out article detailing what many of us already know that Canon, and others, are dealing with declining QC and build quality, and you think this is a bash against Canon to deflect from others? Fanboy much? SMH
So in your mind, Michelle saw the Nikon issues with the Z8 and she said, "Hmmm, let me find a way to make it look like Canon is having quality control issues as well." What would be her reason for doing this?
Todays cameras are like computers and have a life cycle of IMO 6 years or so until the newer version has enough new bells and whistles (faster better AF comes to mind) to replace the older one.
So does Canikony design the cameras with that in mind, maybe. Will it save $ to put in a shutter that is designed for 500,000 shots compared to one built for 1 million when most folks won't ever shoot that many?
I agree with you that 6 years is a reasonable life expectation for a camera. I would even say 4 to 5 depending on how it's used. But two years and under seems unacceptable. What would you like to see as the top values for the next Canon camera?
I don’t see manufacturing cost of a cheap vs good shutter bankrupting Canon. If one cost $5 more than the other in parts, I would even be shocked.
That camera had issues on day one and I don’t think overheating is good for any component even with extreme low occurrences. For example over heating an aluminum cooking pan one single time will most likely result with permanent distortions visible to the eye or not, but it will start spinning the next time it’s used (gas burners apart). So when you submit unventilated or cooled tiny elements, glues, plastic and rubber parts, to extreme conditions, there is no way the shutter and other elements will not be affected, misalign, crack, or possibly melt. I would not be surprised at all if cameras with small shutter count but many over heating instances will fail much faster than cameras with 1million impressions that never overheated.
I skipped that camera because I thought it was rushed in favor of the big launch of their new lens line.
Benoit. I always enjoy your replies. Even, times in previous articles where you disagree with me your comments are always highly educated and wonderfully articulated. I have not had issues with overheating; however, this complaint came up repeatedly in my data collection on the R5. Error 20 and overheating were the two big issues. That's an interesting observation you have. I remember the time you're referring to. I was waiting and waiting for Canon to put out something to compete with Sony and as soon as they did, I jumped right on it. Interesting thought there.
Like you, I am a loyal Canon shooter. My first Canon was an FT back in 1965. I preordered and got my R5 in the first month of release. I've shot over 100,000 frames with no issues at all. Sorry you've had bad luck with the camera, but it's never failed me yet. I still have my F1 with a motor drive, and it's still working also. @VegasCameraGuy
I'm thrilled to hear that! Thank you for your feedback
Do you shoot videos or did your camera ever over heated?
I think a healthy supply of rubber bands will do wonders, possibly some elastoplast. I'm still running an old a7rii admittedly on an amateur basis so guess it doesn't count, understand that, but seems a shelf life these days of a couple of years heavy usage flashes lights, time for an upgrade. Can sort of imagine the execs sitting round a table going the camera is too good, how can we make it fail early, can someone speak to engineering about that
Lol them and the car makers!
Having worked in that industry I would think that the car makers would use the term "over engineered" for that "market segment" and "price point"
Yes, you're right. The engineers