Canon R5C Teardown
By Phillip Andrew Iglesias
Canon announced the Canon EOS R5C a little less than a year ago (March 2022), and we were fortunate enough to get our hands on one for a teardown here at Kolari. How different (or similar) is this camera compared to its predecessor, the Canon EOS R5 (released in July 2020)? Before we get into our teardown, let’s first talk about technical specifications.
While the Canon EOS R5C didn’t make the cut for Netflix’s production certification, it still boasts hefty features fit for a cinema camera that puts it a mark above the competition. Its main highlight is its core: an impressive full-frame 45MP 8K sensor and DIGIC X Processor with 8K and 2K sampling that supports 8K in many platforms, including Internal RAW/Cinema RAW Light Recording. Thanks to the built-in fan, it’s capable of non-stop recording in 8K/60p. Overall, it improves on its previous iteration with better autofocus, sensor and viewfinder resolution, and ISO performance, among other features.
The camera also uses an RF-mount, which is compatible with our magnetic clip-in filters; it also accepts an EF-EOS R Mount Adapter for compatibility with our drop-in filters.
With that out of the way, let’s talk about disassembling this camera!
First, we removed the screws at the bottom of the camera. There are seven screws located underneath the camera, including a hidden screw under the battery door.
Many cameras have hidden screws under the leather covering. Often, fully disassembling a camera will require its removal. In this case, lifting and peeling the rear panel rubber grip exposed two silver screws.
On the other end of the Canon R5C, we found four silver screws on the right side below the leather cover grip.
Five screws hold the top panel. The first two screws to remove were located near the strap mounts.
The next one is right under the shutter button, and the last two are inside the body. We will see them later on during the EVF removal.
Popping off the dust caps on the port side, we found three screws. The vent for heat dissipation is held with two screws.
Peeling off the rubber grip on the port panel revealed two silver screws.
After removing all of these screws, we could remove the port side cover.
Here, we can finally start to see some of the internals of the Canon R5C. This is the port side of the camera. Once we removed the vent cover, we found a hidden screw just above the bracket.
The eyecup was held down with two screws and came off easily.
Removing the eyecup showed three silver screws that presumably hold down the EVF and a single screw that held down the diopter adjustment knob.
At some point during the teardown, we had difficulty figuring out why the rear panel wouldn’t come off. It turned out that there were two screws near the BNC time code port.
Before the rear panel could be removed, a large ribbon cable needed to be disconnected. We carefully lifted the rear panel to unfasten the ribbon. This ribbon connects to all buttons and the LCD monitor, so it was important to keep it intact.
Check this out! SEPA is the manufacturer of the cooling fan for the R5C.
With new-found access to the internals, we were able to remove the motherboard power cable and ribbon for the top LCD screen, as well as remove the bracket for the rear panel.
Similar to what we’ve found with the Canon R5, we needed to remove the bottom cover to prevent damage to the interlocking switch on the circuit board. There’s another screw below the leather grip on the camera’s handle side.
We removed the cooling fan wire by disconnecting the PCB and two screws.
The next thing to get done before we could continue was removing the large heat sink. First, we removed two screws holding the ribbon.
The following two screws that needed to be unfastened were at the bottom and top panel brackets.
We needed to peel off the heat transfer tape on the CF express slot to remove the heat sink. Canon used several heat pads and transfer tape on this model.
Now we needed to remove the circuit board to gain access to the camera sensor, but first, the bottom bracket needed to be removed. There were four screws altogether that held it down.
We removed the sensor ribbon and disconnected the EVF.
Going further, we carefully disconnected and peeled off the mic and headphone jack ribbon from the bracket. The flash sync cable needed to be disconnected from the board, and the bracket screws needed to be unfastened.
The last two screws holding the top panel were removed, and the coaxial cable was disconnected. This let us remove the entire top panel.Â
After that, we disconnected all the remaining ribbons and cables from the board.
Then we removed the six remaining screws holding down the circuit board.
This is the circuit board of the camera!
Before we could truly reach the sensor, there was one more layer to remove: the PCB bracket. This was an easy step because only two screws held it down.
Before we could remove the sensor, the heat transfer tape needed to be gently peeled off from the camera body.
The sensor was only held down with three screws, making it easy to remove. We noticed that Canon used blue thread locker glue.
Finally, the sensor was out. The Canon R5C uses shims for focus calibration instead of a spring-loaded mechanism.
The Canon EOS R5C was easy to disassemble, as it was structurally similar to the standard Canon R5 camera, except for having more screws, according to our camera technician Jared.
Thanks for reading. We feature a new camera teardown every month. Be sure to sign up for our newsletter so you don’t miss them!
