Tilta EOS R5 Cooling Kit – Fan Accessory To Combat Canon R5 Overheating

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by Tim FokJuly 27^th, 2020

Tilta has announced the EOS R5 Cooling Kit, an external fan accessory plus camera cage for the Canon EOS R5. This comes in the midst of heavy discussions on the recording limitations of Canon’s new 8K and 4K mirrorless cameras R5 and R6 due to overheating.

A seemingly strange product announcement indeed, but it certainly won’t be the last of its kind.

Canon followed up their exciting R5 and R6 announcement with the caveats of limited recording times.

8K limited to 3/10/20 minute recording times (depending on how long you wait) as well as caps on the 4K high speed options.

What are Canon’s suggestions?

– Enable Overheat Control setting (caps recording formats in standby mode)
– Power down between takes
– Keep out of direct sunlight
– Use an external fan

Tilta has made quick work of the latter.

The Tilta EOS R5 Cooling Kit is a cooling board with 7-blade, 6200 RPM fan powered externally by USB-C.

It mounts onto the back of the R5 in the cavity left by the open swing away monitor.

There is an on board temperature sensor that determines when the fan needs to operate (…all the time?).

It attaches to the camera through the Tilta Tactical Cage.

As you would expect, said cage hugs the camera top, bottom and both sides, offering up an array of industry-standard threads, two cold mounts and what looks like a pass-through wheel for the R5 top scroll wheel (neat).

Canon EOS R5/EOS R6 Overheating – Recording Times. Source: Canon

The above Canon recording time caps are all based from a cold start – which, as proved by our recent R6 review can mean a completely different thing in the field.

These results are also based off of ambient temperature levels of 23°C / 73°F. The Tilta R5 Cooling Kit is said to reduce temperature to 59°F within one minute, with also a maximum reduction temperature of 82°F.

It’s unclear whether the Tilta Cooling Fan can indeed get the camera back down to a base temperature (within one minute), therefore the camera remains at a cold start.
Or whether it has the ability to prevent the camera from pausing altogether; it is also unclear at this time whether these recording limitations are in place from Canon, regardless of whether a low core temperature is maintained.

Time will tell in testing, in the mean time I have chased Tilta for clarity on their end, as it is not clear what these temperatures reference.

This is not the first time a camera has struggled for heat dispersion, not least Canon.

The original Canon C500 was notorious for loud on-board fans kicking in. A solution was external fans that were quieter that indeed kept the inbuilt ones completely at bay (essential for sound recording).

Canon’s stance on their new mirrorless line is slightly different, opting not to include a fan system; if you want things small and compact, this is the cost.

There is divided opinion about whether these statements on recording caps highlight the camera is not fit for purpose or merely outlines this particular tool’s limitations.

Either way, one does beg to ask the question that if an external fan is an appropriate solution, why has Canon not made their own.

For now, we have Tilta to thank for a solution, as it goes it looks fairly sleek.

But it highlights the same old story of needing to rig up a mirrorless camera to get it video-ready – Cage, fan, battery solution, filtration.

Pricing and availability of the Tilta R5 Cooling Kit to be confirmed.

We are currently testing also a production version Canon R5 and trying to verify the times quoted in Canon’s statement above. Expect the results from that soon on our site.

What do you think about the Canon R5 and R6 and the entire overheating discussion? Let us know in the comments below.