Kolari mod solves EOS R5 over heating – Costs $399 and probably voids your warranty
Jun 22, 2021
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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The folks at Kolari Vision have been working hard on trying to solve the Canon EOS R5 overheating issues for a while now. They were the first to tear open the EOS R6 and publish what they saw. They also identified the timer that was causing the camera to shut down at the predetermined times with the original firmware.
When Canon updated the EOS R5 firmware, though, it now seemed to be looking at the actual temperature rather than using a timer – which opened up the possibilities for cooling. Matt Perks had a go at it quite successfully, but now Kolari Vision has also solved it, with a passive cooling mod. But, it costs $399 to them implement it and it will almost certainly void your warranty.
So far, the modification only seems to be available for the EOS R5, although that’s not surprising. While the EOS R6 isn’t completely immune to overheating issues, it less impacted by them due to the fact that it shoots relatively limited video compared to the 8K and 4K 120fps of the EOS R5 – which are still the main culprits for its overheating issues, despite numerous firmware updates.
The modification essentially involves installing a custom copper heatsink to draw heat away from the camera’s processors. This decision was made as the result of a number of thermal analyses performed by Kolari to see where the most heat was assembling – something which was also tested by the folks over at Lensrentals.
According to Kolari’s tests with their new modification installed, the new heatsink assembly will double the record time of the camera at 20°C room temperature. And after 5 minutes cooling down time, you can record again for almost three times the duration of the stock camera. Cooling the environment down just slightly to 15°C means you can record internally indefinitely – according to a chart on the Kolari website.
The one issue with the Kolari Vision solution, though, is that it isn’t a bolt-on external doohicky, like the EOS R5 Cooling Kit Tilta announced last year (that never actually seems to have gone on sale). It’s an internal modification to the camera that’s going to require that they open it up, add some bits, and likely void your warranty in the process.
If you need to be able to shoot longer, there’s an option now. But if your camera dies for whatever reason after you’ve had the modification done… Well, that could get very expensive to fix.
Will you be getting the mod for your EOS R5? You can find out more about it on the Kolari Vision website.
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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6 responses to “Kolari mod solves EOS R5 over heating – Costs $399 and probably voids your warranty”
But I thought there was no overheating issue…..
Why is Canon not doing this themselves, is the real question.
Don Smith yep !!! it’s crazy !!
the mod still doesn’t address low temperature burns or heat damaged rear LCD if it is turned in. Yes, you could say that if you are taking video then the rear screen would be turned out but it is not mandatory.
Canon needs to cover all scenarios and be in compliance with laws around the world with their products. The only other option( IMHO) is to transfer the heat via the tripod mount to a special grip that had a fan and extra battery in it. Charge a lot and people would pay for the option if they needed it.
The A1 has only 400MB/s 8K 4:2:0 video vs the R5’s firehose 1800MB/s 4:2:2 RAW so we are talking about completely different quality video. Firmware improved the temperature measurement/algorithm but still not enough for some people to complain about…. even though the R5 performs to specification!
I haven’t seen the 8k raw lite record times yet with the recent firmware update.
Frankly, it is hard to imagine that the number of users that are shooting >20 minutes of 8k raw are great in number that are not already using cinema cameras.
My issue has never been that is overheats in 8k but that it overheats in 4K HQ. at all frame rates and then has a non useable recovery time. Honestly I don’t know why people would choose this camera for video other then casual shooting. I would never ever use this camera on a paid job for video. And before anyone even starts there are paid video jobs that don’t require a fully blown out cinema camera so save the “if your shooting video buy a video camera nonsense”. This camera was marketed as being able to shoot video for weddings in 8K raw. And it didn’t deliver.
Canon never marketed the R5 as being able to shoot 8k raw for weddings or any long-form recording. The internet punters would incredulous that Canon could be the first 8k raw camera thinking that it must be 8k timelapse at best. The reviewers suddenly changed to needing unlimited record time instead of being satisfied with ~20 minute record time. I never understood this especially as there wasn’t any other camera that could do close to this. Not to mention the enormous card capacities and relevant cost needed to record that length of time. It took another year and substantial cost premium before the A1 could record 8k but it still isn’t raw or 4:2:2
If you need unlimited 4KHQ then then solution is to record externally with no cards in the slots. Shouldn’t be an issue if you are recording wedding videos – right?
I wish that 4k/120 didn’t overheat but I only need a few minutes of it when I do use it