No, Not a Leafblower…
The Canon R5 & R6 are hot, hot, hot! Literally. If you’ve been following the world of videography and photography, you’ll know the latest releases from Canon have brought up a ton of controversy, mainly due to the camera’s thermal limitations. It’s very reminiscent of earlier Apple laptops, which were criticized for not allowing manageable thermals. Now, regardless of the thermal limitations, it’s still the camera I’m going to be picking up (in fact, I’m going with an R5 over the R6 and I’ll explain why once the camera gets in). But with this added controversy has come a wave of opportunists. Camera accessory company Tilta is already jumping on the train and offering an active cooling fan that slaps right on the back of the Canon R5, to try and mitigate the heat.
Now from the images provided by Tilta, we can see they’re claiming a “Maximum Temp Reduction of 82F”. I’m not sure if this means that the camera can disperse 82F temps, or it can only manage 82F temps – I think it’s left unclear and vauge for a reason. But I’m more interested in seeing if the product works at all. Mainly because we know the overheating deals with the phsyical sensor itself. The sensor builds up too much heat, and to evade damage, it limits itself. In other words, it’s not like the camera’s processor overheats like what we see in computers. This would mean, unless the sensor is connected to the body of the camera, which it’s not since there is an IBIS motor built in, this fan would do very little work. Don’t believe me? Well watch Armando’s recent video where you see him using leafblowers on the camera, and later in which he states they did almost nothing.
A Real Solution
So unless Tilta is working some real magic (which who knows, maybe it does work and make a difference), I don’t see this type of cooling method working. However, recent reports from CanonRumors.com show a new patent that displays an active RF mount cooler. This, by far, make much more sense. In the patent, you can see how the fan or active cooler sits behind the lens and in front of the sensor. This direct connection to the sensor would surely reduce temperatures, much more so than literally any method short of watercooling. Not only this, but it also enables the camera to keep its watersealing. This is PERFECT in my case, where I want a watersealed body some days, and other days, a fully fledged cinema rig. If something like this were to release, I think it would make the R5/R6 so much more appealing to many. There are almost no downsides to this type of cooling method.
