Canon EOS R5C VS Sony A1 Comparison

today we’ll be talking about the Canon EOS R5C vs Sony A1 I’m going to talk about the two camera bodies in this blog I’m putting two powerhouse cameras head to head.

And look up the specs of each one of these to see what they have and to see what they don’t have and take a look at how they compare with each other.

I will give you my opinions about some of the positives and negatives and differences between those mirrorless cameras to help you decide if this could be a real video production camera.

What are Differences Between Canon EOS R5C vs Sony A1?

the difference between the Canon R5C and the Sony is that the R5C has phase detection whereas the Sony has contrast detection and phase detection.  

So I have a brief overview between the R5C and the Sony Alpha A1 now the R5C does 8K internally and three flavors of raw light standard when recording an hq raw you’re only going to be able to record that in super 35 mode whereas the A1 gives you 8K and an xavc format and a H.265 compression rate and that’s 420 color up to 30 fps and you could do that in either 200 or 400 megabits per second.

Menu

the menus look just like the Canon R and the Canon R6 whereas on the Canon R5 look is very similar, but the menu on the Sony is much easier because it has a dial to change for your frames per second.

Image Quality

the color of the two cameras is almost identical both have excellent images head to head the Canon is a little overexposed but it’s just giving a great color.

Video Mode

When you go to 800 I certainly see the grain start to build the contrast or the grain pattern looks better on this Canon.

So when you go to 1600, the Canon R5C gives you better color but Sony A1 gives a heavier grain at 1600 so the R5C is looking a little nicer than the Sony A1.

At 3200 the grain pattern on the Canon R5C is just really subtle and very clean but with more color issues at 3200 and at 6400 I realized that its slightly nicer on the Canon R5C.

So, what I want to explain here if you ever shot with both with the same exposure the Sony A1 is a little bit underexposed and it makes that background look a little darker which makes the grain a little more prominent and at 6400 it’s pretty tough back there.

At 12,800 the grain is all over the place, at  25,600 the color and grain is everywhere especially with Canon has strong grain and when you jump to 51,200 you will see grain all the time.

When you start with 400 ISO both cameras gives you very clean details but there is a color difference between them but when you jump up to 800 ISO the Canon R5C and Sony A1 both have clean details except at 800 ISO the Canon looks a little nicer than Sony.

At 1600 ISO both look clean the color is a little bit neutral that R5C has a disadvantage here the color looks red and like shifting whereas on the Sony doesn’t look like that.

I was curious to see how they look up to 3200 ISO and the color with the Sony is staying pretty clean whereas the R5C reds are starting to become a little bit pinkish, when I hit 6400 ISO, both cameras have grain starting to build in that video mode.

Screen

The R5C EVF is like 5.76 million dots whereas on the Sony A1 is 9.44 million dots, the monitor on the R5C  is like 2,100,000 whereas the monitor on the Sony A1 is only 1,400,000, you do have a higher sync speed on the Sony A1 whereas R5C has 250.

Autofocus

In terms of Autofocus when you doing at 18 frames both cameras gives beautifully sharp sometimes the Canon kind of struggles in that low light situation but in sonw cases its clean.

So, when you do faster frame rate Canon R5C started to struggle when the subject is closer and lose some frames the Sony A1 definitely is a little better when it came to autofocus.

Low Light

When I look ar low light performances the R5C does struggle a little bit in lower-light situations when it comes to autofocus whereas the a1 may be a little bit better the A1 is kind of edging out the R5C.

Stabilization

If we put side by side and take a look at stabilization the Sony A1 is definitely a step up and looks smoother when it comes to IBIS whereas the Canon electronic is jumping just a little bit.

Video Quality

In terms of the 4K video quality when you shoot into a light situation the R5C is struggling with the refresh rate under the light but when we look at the quality we will get a nice transition of the highlights to the shadows.

Sensor

In terms of sensor capabilities from both cameras, the R5C has a 45megapixel sensor whereas the A1 comes with a 50 megapixels back-illuminated sensor, the A1 does have IBIS whereas the R5C does not.

Now the R5C gives you 16 plus stops of dynamic range as long as you’re recording in C-log or raw whereas the A1 gives you 15 stops of dynamic range in log this is really amazing difference.

Video Capability

In terms of the recording with the new update with Sony A1, you get a 10-bit 4.2.2 external recording through the HDMI port and you can get an external signal out to an Atomos and you can record that raw external recording through the  HDMI cable port out.

With Sony A1 we have large, medium, and small lossless raw compression which is going to give you the same quality as an uncompressed raw, with more card space, and it’s not going to take up as much room. on the card.

Stabilization

They both have electronic stabilization and in the electronic shutter mode with the A1 you get 30 fps up to 155 frames in comparison with R5C you get 20 fps up to 83 frames.

Dual ISO

When it comes to dual ISO the R5C does give you Dual ISO in comparison with the A1 there is no dual ISO however you’re good up to about 10 000 ISO, there is no ibis in the R5C but you do have ibis in the A1.

So, both cameras have great and clean ISO with a beautiful skin tone at 100, but at 400 you will see the grain in the background in that gray panel, they both have a beautiful image except the Canon is a little warm and the Sony s a little more neutral.

Dynamic Range

 If we compare at dynamic range in normal they are exposed exactly the same the Canon is handling the detail a little better with a little better color in the greens and blue.

Storage

the R5C has a micro HDMI whereas the A1 has a full size HDMI, the R5C does have dual card slots one is a CFexpress type B the other is an SD card slot, A1 takes the crown for it’s 8.6k whereas the R5C 8.2K.

the A1 also has dual SD card slots and they also double as CFexpress type A slots both cameras do 24 bit audio recording with the attachment and there are no internal ND filters on either camera.

Resolution

In terms of resolution differences when shooting with the R5C in 8k in a 422 color space 10 bit hevc you will get around 56 minutes in comparison A1 when shooting 8K in 10 bit 420 color you will get around one hour and 30 seconds.

Weight & Size

So if we compare both cameras about the ergonomics they are very similar in weight within an ounce of each other but a little bit different in size the Sony is much smaller it doesn’t have that fan on the back and it’s a little easier to carry.