CANON EOS R
Canon’s first full-frame mirrorless camera displays some innovative thinking, but does it deliver the performance that serious photographers demand?
How do we rate Canon’s first full-frame mirrorless offering?
According to Canon, the EOS R is a mirrorless version of the 5D Mark IV in a smaller body with a new lens mount. However, the EOS R’s 30.3MP fullframe sensor isn’t actually the same as the chip inside the 5D Mark IV. And while the 5D Mark IV has a Digic 6 and Digic 6+ processing engine, the EOS R has the newer Digic 8 processor – but only one.
This processor and sensor combination enables a sensitivity range of ISO 100-40,000, expandable to ISO 50-102,400. There’s also a maximum continuous shooting rate of 8fps, that can be maintained for up to 100 JPEGs, 78 C-RAW images or 47 RAW files. However, that’s in One-shot AF mode: if you want the EOS R to focus continuously, the rate has to drop to 5fps. And in AF tracking priority mode, the rate drops to just 3fps.
Of course another key difference between the EOS R and the 5D Mark IV is that the mirrorless camera exclusively uses the imaging sensor to supply the autofocusing data. Naturally, the sensor is a Dual Pixel CMOS AF device, which means that there are pairs of pixels across its surface dedicated to phase-detection autofocusing. Canon has given the R an incredible 5,655 user-selectable AF points that cover 100 per cent of the frame vertically and 88 per cent horizontally. We found the system snappy and effective in low light but it’s not the best choice for shooting sport and action.
Disappointingly, there’s no mini-joystick on the back of the camera for selecting the AF point. That’s a bit of a surprise given how well received these controls have been on cameras like the Fujifilm X-T2/X-T3 and Sony a7 III. However, if ‘Touch & drag AF’ is activated in the menu, you can set the AF point using your finger or thumb on the touchscreen while looking at the viewfinder. That’s quicker and easier than pressing the dedicated button near the thumb rest and using the navigation pad. It’s also a blessing as we kept pressing the AE Lock button instead of the AF point button.
With approximately 2.1 million dots, the 3.15-inch Clear View LCD II on the back of the camera is able to show plenty of detail and it’s
“Canon got on board quite early with touch control and it’s well implemented in the EOS R”
really helpful that it’s mounted on a vari-angle joint. This means you can use it to compose images from a wide range of angles whether you’re shooting in landscape or portrait format. It also means that the screen can be flipped to face the front if you want to shoot a selfie or video yourself.
Canon got on board quite early with touch control and it’s well implemented in the EOS R. The screen is very responsive and you can use touch control to navigate the menus and make setting selections as well as set the AF point, zoom in and out of images and trip the shutter.
Further good news is that this touch control isn’t at the expense of physical controls, and there are still plenty of buttons and dials. However, Canon has done away with the usual PASM mode dial. In its place is a button at the centre of a smaller dial. To change shooting mode, you need to press the button and then rotate the dial or tap the screen. However, if you want to switch between stills and video shooting you need to press the button followed by the info button/icon, and then select the exposure mode that you want. We can’t help feeling that a mode dial and stills/ video switch does the job more efficiently.
There’s also a new Multi-Function (M-Fn) bar above the thumb rest on the back of the camera. This can be customised to access up to three of six features and it allows you to adjust the selected parameter with a tap or a
swipe. We experimented with it and settled on using it to adjust sensitivity (ISO), but to be honest, we’d prefer a sensitivity dial.
The EOS R’s viewfinder is a 0.5inch OLED electronic device with 3.69 million (1,280 x 960) dots, and it’s a very high-quality unit. However, there were a few occasions when the exposure of the preview changed during the first few seconds of viewing the composition.
While we have a few issues with the EOS R’s handling, there’s no questioning the quality of the images it produces with the RF 24-105mm f4L IS USM lens mounted. Below ISO 1600, its images are clean and have plenty of detail. Noise is also controlled very well all the way up to ISO 12,800. However, we’d avoid the top native setting of ISO 40,000 and the extension settings, as noise or the impact of its removal becomes too evident. Low-ISO images also have good dynamic range and shadows can stand lifting by in excess of 4EV if necessary.
We found the Evaluative metering system a little temperamental at times, but the electronic viewfinder gives a faithful representation of the final image, so you can access and adjust exposure (and white balance) prior to taking the shot if necessary.