CANON EOS RP
Big sensor, big image quality, big features, medium-sized camera. So where’s the compromise? £1,399 (body only) canon.co.uk
Canon’s newcomer brings high-end full-frame prowess at a lower price. Too good to be true? Let’s hope not
Built for people who have got into photography thanks to the wonder of mirrorless cameras, and who are now looking for a step up in quality without resorting to the massive bulk of a DSLR, the Canon
EOS RP provides a high-end fullframe sensor for a (relatively) affordable price and in a travelfriendly, portable body.
Full of itself
Full frame sensors are so good partly because, quite simply, they’re big. That means they take in more light, for sharper and brighter shots, which is always welcome. But there’s a second benefit to them: they don’t crop the shot. Smaller sensors, such as the APS-C size that’s most common in similar mirrorless cameras, don’t show you the full view of what the lens can actually see. On an APS-C sensor, the crop is usually around 1.5x, meaning that if you attached a 50mm lens, it’s actually like you’ve attached a 75mm.
Full frame sensors capture, well, the full frame. A 50mm lens acts like a true 50mm lens. This gives you much more control over composing your shots, especially if you want to work in wide-angle.
The full-frame sensor featured on Canon’s EOS RP is 26 megapixels and capable of recording 4K video. There are a few caveats here that we should mention, though: firstly, the sensor doesn’t have its own stabilisation system, so make sure you choose lenses that do; and when recording 4K, you actually have a 1.6x crop, so
it’s not so much taking advantage of the full frame anyway.
In fact, 4K video generally isn’t the strongest point here – though it’s very well-detailed, it has rolling shutter issues that create a bit too much of a wobble during movement for our liking. Recording at Full HD is better, but we’re all about Ultra HD, really.
Happily, still image quality doesn’t come with reservations like that. In short, it’s brilliant. Colours look realistic, with the auto white balance tool handling its job very well. There’s tons of detail being captured, and it goes on to impress in low-light conditions, thanks in part to some solid noise-reduction settings.
And it’s easy to take great photos. For a start, weighing just 485g means it’s no problem to cart this camera around. It’s chunkier than an APS-C mirrorless camera, but weighs much less than a DSLR. It still maintains a sizeable grip to aid handling when you’re using a bigger lens, and the magnesium body is built to last.
The viewfinder is nice and sharp, and the rear touchscreen is fully articulated, so you can see what you’re shooting, whatever the angle.
You can tap the screen to focus, and the 143-zone autofocus is super fast. There’s also face tracking, which works great (though gets a bit confused in crowds, understandably).
The continuous shooting mode hits just five frames per second, which is a tad disappointing, but this isn’t a pro camera, so we can live with it. Balancing it out is the extremely generous frame buffer – you can hold that shutter and keep shooting for a surprisingly long time, which really helps make sure you get the one top shot you need.
Speaking of the shutter, it’s a bit frustrating that you can’t make it silent at will. There is a silent mode, but you give up some manual control when you activate it.
Mounting issues
The thing is, capturing these great images has some hurdles. The raw files produced by the EOS RP aren’t supported by Lightroom or Photoshop yet, so you’ll need to go via Canon’s software. More of an issue is that there are only two lenses compatible with it natively (with more on the way), and they’re hugely expensive. There is a mount included in the box for using Canon’s more standard EF mount lenses, which offer tons of options at different prices, but using this adds a level of cropping back into your images.
In the long term, these aren’t dealbreakers – both will be fixed. But if you’re looking to buy and use now, they’re important things to know.
More of an issue is the battery life. It’s rated at just 250 shots, and though you can get much more out of it than that, it’s still poor compared to other mirrorless options. Yes, you can take a spare battery, but that’s a pretty pro move, and this is supposed to be more enthusiast – something that can last a day on its own is preferable.