# EOS R5 production rate



## jeanluc (Sep 15, 2020)

Anybody have any idea how many of these things they make per day? Or any other high end cameras or lenses for that matter?

Often wondered about that, and right now seems like a lot of others are too!

Still waiting for the R5...


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Sep 15, 2020)

The 5D MK II had a big shortage, at the time, Canon or someone with the knowledge said 35,000 a month. They made several months worth before the announcement, those sold out and 35,000 is not a huge number when sales are good. I don't think they were setup for that many when the R6 came out, but they have probably accelerated to that or even more depending on the availability of components and factory space. With the 6 ft minimum spacing requirement for workers, they may have less space unless they have installed barriers. With generally slow sales, I'd expect that the spread out work stations further leaving the capacity for a lot of workers diminished. That might make it difficult to setup enough work station with the R6 being at a much higher production rate and competing for workers and space. Things can be changed, but not as quickly as you might think, additional specialized tools must be made if more work stations are added.


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## docsmith (Sep 15, 2020)

Maybe it is just me, but I do not find this all that odd. It seems pretty comparable to past releases where they make an announcement, then there is an initial availability...a few lucky people get their cameras and then there is spotty distribution for a few months. Then throw all the issues of the pandemic on top of a more typical release. Even the 1DX III earlier this year, if I recall correctly, announced in January, a few units were in peoples hands February/March but I did not see it consistently available until May/June.

Fast forward, R5 announced in July, some people got their hands on them in August. Seems like the rest of us have to wait until October/November. Pretty much the same timeline, just offset 6 months.


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## PixelTrawler (Sep 15, 2020)

I got a 5d4 very easily in early November 2016 (one of our local stores have this one day a year crazy sale, and they had two for €750 below list price so they had that many they could discount them) and all the local camera stores had plenty. It hit the shelves some time in September 16. 
The shortage this time around is completely different. None of them have any idea when they'll get R5s next and all they'll say that the preorder list remaining is unlikely to be cleared by whatever allotment they get. 

I'm in Dublin and I've put an order in with Calumet Deutschland as its quite a bit cheaper and I'm not expecting to see it before november. 

I've also noticed the grey importers are selling them at barely below EU pricing, so its possibly a combination of Covid and higher demand causing the delays. Perhaps many like myself are finally ready to go mirrorless and all the hype about EYE AF whereas last time it was just an upgrade from 5d3 to 5d4. It wasnt such a huge upgrade.


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## vjlex (Sep 16, 2020)

jeanluc said:


> Anybody have any idea how many of these things they make per day? Or any other high end cameras or lenses for that matter?
> 
> Often wondered about that, and right now seems like a lot of others are too!
> 
> Still waiting for the R5...


I've read on a couple Japanese message boards that about 12,000 units of the R5 are produced per month (16,000 for the R6). Production is rumored to have started in May, so the guess is that about 40,000 units were ready at launch (at least for the R5).


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## vjlex (Sep 16, 2020)

PixelTrawler said:


> I got a 5d4 very easily in early November 2016


Same here. This is personally the first Canon purchase I've experienced with production delays affecting availability.


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## jeanluc (Sep 16, 2020)

vjlex said:


> Same here. This is personally the first Canon purchase I've experienced with production delays affecting availability.


Me too. I did not preorder the 5D4, but B H had them in stock almost right after the launch. I waited quite a while on the R, so no real experience there.


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## SHAMwow (Sep 16, 2020)

Anyone defending this rollout is insane. I mean if you're this behind, you don't start shipping it. Like there's literally no reason to have rolled it out this soon. It's almost like it never released in the first place. Can't wait to not buy another body for a long long time.


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## markwillclick (Sep 16, 2020)

SHAMwow said:


> Anyone defending this rollout is insane. I mean if you're this behind, you don't start shipping it. Like there's literally no reason to have rolled it out this soon. It's almost like it never released in the first place. Can't wait to not buy another body for a long long time.


If you were one of the people to get one from the first batch, you wouldn't want to wait another 2-3 months so everyone else could get there's at the same time. When I was in the powersports industry and a new hot model came out, it was the same thing. At least manufacturers started to play mostly fair and waited until they could send all of the dealers one at the same time.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Sep 16, 2020)

SHAMwow said:


> Anyone defending this rollout is insane. I mean if you're this behind, you don't start shipping it. Like there's literally no reason to have rolled it out this soon. It's almost like it never released in the first place. Can't wait to not buy another body for a long long time.


There were multiple warnings that the quantities would be extremely limited. Most photo sites warned that you needed to order immediately or risk not getting one. As for your calling members insane, its more a case of failing to read the warnings given well in advance as retailers started warning camera sites not to expect much inventory and to order immediately within minutes if possible.

Its pretty obvious that sales far exceeded expectations. That happened with the 5D MK II as well. A company must estimate sales for a new product and then order components and do all the planning to produce that number. Its a failure to guess that demand for a expensive new model would be so high in a time when sales are poor.


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## Joules (Sep 19, 2020)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> Its pretty obvious that sales far exceeded expectations. That happened with the 5D MK II as well. A company must estimate sales for a new product and then order components and do all the planning to produce that number. Its a failure to guess that demand for a expensive new model would be so high in a time when sales are poor.


We don't really know how much of the slow rollout is due to underestimating demand and how much is actually COVID-19 related impacts on manufacturing and shipping though. So pointing any fingers for perceived failures is difficult, I'd say. 



SHAMwow said:


> Anyone defending this rollout is insane. I mean if you're this behind, you don't start shipping it.



This is a situation that not everybody is happy with. But if the alternative is allowing nobody to get their hands on a new camera before everybody can, that's also not going to make everybody happy. Also, Canon needs money to keep operating. We saw their numbers in the early part of the year not looking too rosy. Sitting on a bunch of stock is not reasonable past some point. If you need money, and have the means to make it, are you really saying that one should not do it?


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## Viggo (Sep 19, 2020)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> There were multiple warnings that the quantities would be extremely limited. Most photo sites warned that you needed to order immediately or risk not getting one. As for your calling members insane, its more a case of failing to read the warnings given well in advance as retailers started warning camera sites not to expect much inventory and to order immediately within minutes if possible.
> 
> Its pretty obvious that sales far exceeded expectations. That happened with the 5D MK II as well. A company must estimate sales for a new product and then order components and do all the planning to produce that number. Its a failure to guess that demand for a expensive new model would be so high in a time when sales are poor.


True enough, but there are so many people who ordered and bought the R5 within a few seconds and minutes that are still waiting at least 3,5 months.
And that Canon failed so epically to predict the sales numbers I simply don’t think is true. It’s not their first rodeo. And they knew very well how good the R5 was. The reason is they wanted it out to be first with a lot of the specs and get that hype.

and it’s also a very good strategy to trickle it out and keep that new product hype and create an even higher demand with releasing very small quantities. And use those who own it already as advertising for the rest of us.


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## docsmith (Sep 19, 2020)

SHAMwow said:


> Anyone defending this rollout is insane. I mean if you're this behind, you don't start shipping it. Like there's literally no reason to have rolled it out this soon. It's almost like it never released in the first place. Can't wait to not buy another body for a long long time.


I've been tested. 

Not insane.

Actually, I would not even say that I am "defending it" just that it is very understandable and really a perfect storm:

COVID interrupts production
Canon is rolling out 3 high end bodies (1DX III, R5, and R6) all in the same year. Plus new cinema bodies, etc.
Canon is rolling out new technologies (IBIS, etc) in multiple bodies all at once
Canon had to estimate demand for their new products in a declining market with some economists forecasting a recession.
Canon underestimated pent up demand for these new technologies or higher end mirrorless (seen lots of Sony/Fuji users come back to Canon in addition to those upgrading from Canon). I suspect this may be worse that people realize as I know people that have received their R5s/R6s. So Canon really did ship bodies at the end of July/August. 
As I recall (can't find the thread so maybe a different forum), we actually discussed/polled what we would prefer given the limited quantities, most preferred releasing what they had when they had even if that meant some demand would go unfulfilled for awhile. Well, here we are.
It really is not that odd for a popular item to go out of stock for a period immediately after release. Its happened with Canon before.


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