Overheating, 5D /7D

[Craig Hollenback]

Hello, Forgive me for posting this as I'm sure it's been hashed to death but I am in the market immediately for an additional HD camera for our wedding business. Our primary cameras are Sony EX-1s and we would like to get either a 5D or a 7D for B roll. We have and older Canon 5D and 20Ds with L series glass. Either the 5D or 7D would be fine for us, my only concern is overheating and we are located in Key West. Has this issue been recently resolved or am I asking for trouble considering these 2 cameras?
Thanks!
Craig Hollenback

[Marcus Marchesseault]

I don't think there is an issue to resolve. I know it is possible, but I think the threat of heat causing significant problems in using the 5D like a regular video camera cropped up early on by doubters and lingered for no real reason. Yes, an overheat warning can pop up as is noted by some forum members. No, it is not something that happens if the 5D is used as you specify. If you are using it as B-roll powered from battery, I don't see how you could have significant issues. If you powered it by AC current and kept it on all day in the hot sun, I'll bet you could find a way to cause a problem. This is a camera that works great in it's own limited way. It doesn't even shoot for longer than 12 minutes at a time and B-roll isn't such a critical job that it couldn't have the sensor powered down for a minute every once in a while to cool. I live in Hawaii and have never had heat be a problem and I suspect your weather is the same with a few weeks a year in the middle of summer being five degrees warmer. You'll probably want the 5D for it's great low light ability which means the sun won't be out to heat things up anyway. Get a really fast prime lens and practice pulling focus and you will be using the 5D as your primary cam as soon as the sun goes down.

[Jon Fairhurst]

I've seen the temp warning on the 5D2 once - when it was on a tripod with the sun shining directly on the LCD for an extended time. If you keep the camera out of the direct sun, and maybe put a white cloth over it, you're unlikely to have problems.

Also, you definitely want to avoid the sun shining on a loupe. It can burn a spot on the LCD. And I would think that you wouldn't want to point the lens at the sun unless you had an ND filter and/or small aperture on the lens. With the mirror flipped up and mechanical shutter open in Live View, a fast electronic shutter speed won't help protect the sensor.

Of course, the loupe and sensor issues aren't unique to DvSLRs. Any video camera can have problems when the sun shines directly through a lens.

[Craig Hollenback]

Many thanks to you both for your info. I'ts been difficult understanding from threads if these issues described by users were recent, early on or havebeen resolved.
A big question is to go the 5D route or 7D route. Again difficult to tell quickly if the 5D currently has all the video features of the 7D.
I do prefer the full sensor on our current 5D over a 1.6 crop, however the 17-55 IS does make it tempting.

What are your thoughts? I do have to make this decision this week for both zoom lens and body.which is why I'm trying to gather my facts.
BTW, I have a 24-70 on our old 5D and a 70-200 IS...both terrific lenses.
Thanks

[Art Aldrich]

Here is a interesting twist on the overheated sensor story.

I was shooting a film for the 48 Hour FIlm Fest last weekend with a 5D and a 7D. The location was a interior of a house with no air conditioning, and temperatures outside around 85ºF with high humidity.

My cameras were running batteries and we were not shooting long 12 minute scenes. I had the 7D get overheated on 3 occasions, while my trustee 5D did not overheat once.

After sitting for about 10 minutes, the 7D fired back up and ran for several scenes before having an issue again.

If I had only the 7D on the set, I would have been in trouble.

[Marcus Marchesseault]

That's good to know, Art. The 7D does have an additional processor, so it makes sense it would build up more heat. Remember that just running the camera on these cameras uses just about as much juice as recording. Unlike a tape camera, just having the sensor on takes up a lot of power. Shut the camera off between scenes/takes or at least take it out of liveview mode. I shut my camera down constantly to save power. It only takes a few seconds to power up. If using Magic Lantern, this might be a hassle, but at least you can take it out of liveview mode.

[Daniel Weber]

I have shot with the 7D in several "hot" locations, Middle East, Africa, etc., and I would go with the 5D.

There was a firmware update to the 7D that seems to make the heat sensor a little bit less sensitive on the 7D, but I think that with the second processor and the sealed body, there isn't much of a chance for the camera to cool down in a hot climate. The issue seems to be more with humidity than heat also. At least in my situation.

Daniel Weber

[Khoi Pham]

I shot a 7D for a couple of hours under 100 degree Texas heat last week, no 12 minutes clip but off and on, and turning off camera when not in use, keeping it away from the sun unless I'm shooting and it did not overheat on me, at one time I felt the body was getting warm and in between take I removed the battery and let the battery door open for faster cooling, I also have some instant ice pack just in case so I think with planning you can use 7D for wedding in hot weather.

[Chris Barcellos]

I just shot the 5D in direct sun this weekend, 90 degree day for about 6 hours. This was a narrative film, with multiple takes. I only had one Canon battery, and since I was shooting with a beta version of Magic Lantern, with firmware 2.04, which will not allow use of the cheap "non-memory batteries", I powered with AC connected to a 12 volt brick with an AC convertor or direct house current.

Automatic shut down was off. A couple of times I got the high temperature warning, This occurred when I left the camera in open sun for too long while setting up the shot. I would shut camera down quickly, place a white towel over it, and restart right away, and the warning was gone. It never shut down and refused to roll.

I did have some spontaneous shut downs in a situation that I traced to power issue as the 12 volt brick wore down.

I had a similar experience with my T2i, getting a warning after the camera sat in open sun a while, but never really shutting down.