Today you guys are getting a 2-for-1.
We're going to be taking a look at the Canon EOS RP.
and since so many of you have been requesting
that I review the Canon M50,
that's exactly what we're going to be comparing it to.
Let's get Undone.
[offbeat music]
♪ Gerald undone ♪
♪ He's crazy ♪
What's happening everybody? I'm Gerald undone,
and yabba-dabba-doo. Alright, so chances are
this probably isn't the first video you've seen on the EOS RP.
I can almost guarantee that's the case for the M50.
So, I'm gonna do my best to try and skip more
of the redundant specs and common complaints
that you've probably already heard a dozen times
and give you my hopefully unique impressions.
But before we do that, I'd like to thank Camera Canada
for supplying me with all of the Canon gear
that I used to make this video.
I don't buy a lot of Canon gear myself these days
but I do use Camera Canada for all my other camera needs
and I highly recommend them for their vast
product knowledge and terrific customer service.
So, if you're looking to get any of the products that
we mention in this video, make sure you check
their links in the description below.
So, when the EOS R came out, I made a video dedicated
to the pleasant surprises and underrated features
that I thought that camera had.
So, let's start out by seeing how many
of those features made it into the EOS RP.
The first thing I loved about the EOS R
was the EF to RF lens mount adapter that you got
for free and that's still the case with the RP.
You still get this excellent adapter for free
and it still works beautifully.
I tested it on my favourite Canon lens,
the 35mm f/1.4 Mark II and it worked just as well
as I would have expected it to work on an EF camera.
The RP still has manual focus peaking
but it doesn't have that cool focus guide that I liked so much
on the EOS R. So, no more fun little green box
and little arrows when manual focusing.
They also removed that dust-protecting shutter feature
on the R that would happen when you turn off the camera.
On the RP when you turn the camera off,
the sensor still stays exposed. This is kind of unfortunate
because I thought that was a pretty novel feature on the R,
and I wish that it would have made it down to the RP.
But one thing they've removed on the RP that I approve of,
is that touch bar thing.
I never liked it on the R, and I'm glad that it's gone.
But I do wish that they would've used that extra space
to make the AF-On button a little bit bigger
and take it off that funky angle.
Seems like a little bit of a missed opportunity,
but overall, I think that's a bit of an improvement.
Lastly, it still has the fantastic
display customization options that I liked on the R, but sadly
the histogram still disappears when recording, just like the R.
Overall I still really like the design
and I'm okay with the top LCD being missing on the RP
that was featured on the R, because I never really used it.
I really like the grip and the textures.
Overall, I just think it looks and feels pretty great.
It's lower resolution than the R,
and is missing a few key features that I'm sure
you've heard before in other reviews.
There's no dual pixel autofocus in 4K.
there's no 24fps in 1080p.
No C-Log, and no 10-bit over HDMI, and so on.
But it is smaller, lighter and much cheaper.
At only $1,300 US, or $1,700 Canadian,
it's one of the cheapest full frame Solutions available.
So, comparing it to a camera that cost $1,000 more
probably isn't going to yield great results.
But my biggest issue with the EOS R was that I didn't
feel that it was a very good value-- But perhaps the RP is.
So, let's talk about what the RP excels at.
First off, it takes nice pictures.
You get all the benefits of full frame
including pretty fantastic low light performance.
As per usual with Canon, its dynamic range
is nowhere near what some of the competition can produce,
but if you're someone who cares more about getting
the stops that it can create to be clean and pleasing,
this camera does a pretty good job.
I would however suggest that there are some limitations
on the scenarios in which this camera can be used.
For instance, I wouldn't recommend it
for sports and wildlife shooting.
It only has a 4fps burst and continuous autofocus
and it's not the fastest focuser I've seen from Canon.
One thing I can say about the burst mode
on this camera that's pretty cool
is that it essentially has an unlimited buffer.
It's probably because the camera can't take that many frames
to begin with, but it's able to clear them
before it ever runs out. That's kind of neat.
The eye detection is pretty good.
And I like that you can switch the eyes with a single press
and for stationary subjects it has an excellent hit rate,
but the face does have to be sort of large
in the frame in order for the eye detection to kick in.
So, if you're used to a Sony system,
you might find this one a little bit underwhelming.
Still life will be a breeze for this camera,
but erratic subjects rapidly approaching the lens seem
to be a bit too much for the autofocus system
to handle at times, especially when they get close.
It does have AF customization in the menu,
but even when everything is set to max,
I still found it a little bit slower
than what I've come to expect from the competition.
And it's not weather-sealed.
So, when you factor all these aspects together,
it kind of limits its usefulness to calm weather landscapes
and predictable portraiture, as well as still life
and studio work where maximum dynamic range isn't crucial.
Now this may sound like serious limitations,
and I suppose they are, but this camera will still be
applicable to a huge amount of photographers.
Even if you remove those categories.
Battery life is another concern, however;
it just doesn't last that long. I only got about
450 mixed LCD and EVF shots, and that's doing
everything I could to save the battery life,
and I got less than 90 minutes of record time.
When I mixed photo and video, I only got about 200-250 shots
and 45 minutes of record time. And that's just not a lot
for a full frame camera, and that's because the RP
is actually using a smaller battery, the LP-E17.
Now, speaking of video, the 1080p video is quite good.
But as many people have already pointed out
it doesn't have 24fps in 1080 P.
But the autofocus is quite impressive in video mode.
The point-to-point focusing is responsive and accurate.
The tap to focus produces nice transitions,
and the face and eye tracking is also very good.
4K video, on the other hand, is a non-starter.
It's probably best to think of this as a 1080p camera
because the 4K has a huge crop and completely
unusable autofocus. It just drifts in and out
and does pretty much whatever it wants.
So, unless you want to shoot on manual lenses
with a 1.6 times crop, I'd probably pass on the 4K.
Another thing it does well for video though,
however, is separating your exposure settings
between photo and video. You can just switch
back and forth between the modes, and don't have
to worry about re-putting in your video shutter speeds.
I always appreciate it when a camera does this.
The dials did take some getting used to though,
as there are fewer buttons than on the previous camera,
and it does require some combination presses
in order to change ISO and drive modes.
But the touchscreen on this camera is fantastic, and makes
these changes easier to perform if you want to go that route,
and the touchscreen is also fully capable
in the menu as well, and is fast and responsive.
I tested the kit lens combo
which includes the RF 24-105mm f/4.
It's a very good lens, very sharp,
and probably one of the best Standard zooms,
at least at f/4, that I've ever used.
However, it is a bit too big for the body
because the RP is a shorter camera.
So, it just kind of rolls around when you set this down
on a flat surface because of the lens girth.
Now there are grip extensions that make this a bit better
which you get included for free if you're a US shopper,
but Canadian shoppers get an extra battery instead.
But don't feel compelled to go with the kit
if you already own Canon lenses
or you prefer a certain focal length
because the included mount adapter works flawlessly.
So, is the EOS RP worth $1,300?
Well, for the most part, I'd say yes.
It's cheaper than 6D Mark II, and it's pretty much
a mirrorless clone of that camera, but you get a smaller,
more compact body, as well as some of those
computational features we just talked about.
Now the 60 Mark II is better weather sealed
and shoots a little bit faster, but for $200 less,
I think I'd probably get the RP.
And overall, it allows for an entrance
into full frame at Canons best price yet.
But what about the M50? Just as easy as it is
to claim that this is the mirrorless 6D,
you could also make the claim that it's the full frame M50.
And it Compares surprisingly close to that camera.
Now the M50 is a lot smaller, and has even fewer buttons.
So, it might take you a little while to get quick at exposing
or adjusting focus, but it does have that same
excellent touch screen to make that process easier.
It also has all those awesome display customization options
we were talking about on the RP, except for
one thing about audio levels, which we'll get into
a bit later. And it also has that same
problem with the disappearing histogram.
The M50 has a very similar resolution to the RP,
and as very similar video options.
So, again, no C-Log, no 10-bit over HDMI
and no dual pixel autofocus in 4k.
But it does have 24fps in 1080p. But just like in the RP,
the 4K has a huge crop, and the autofocus
just does whatever it wants when you're in that setting.
So, again consider this a 1080p camera.
And I would say that the usage scenarios
that I described for the RP are also true for the M50,
but I would suggest that the M50 is even more limited
when it comes to sports and wildlife.
The autofocus sensitivity can't be customized
in the same way for erratic movement,
and there's a bit more drag in the autofocus responsiveness
when compared to the RP.
But it does have a faster drive speed when using servo.
You can get about 7.4 fps
on the Canon M50 when using continuous autofocus,
up from the 4fps on the Canon RP.
But it does have a smaller buffer, so you can only maintain
that frame rate for about 1-2 seconds,
where you can maintain it pretty much indefinitely on the RP.
One thing I like about the M50 that's also on the RP
that I forgot to mention is that there's no black out
when shooting in Burst Mode.
You just see a sort of subtle freezing of the frames,
but the screen never goes black and that's pretty great.
The M50 also isn't weather-sealed, and it doesn't
have quite the same face and eye detection.
It does have it, but the eye detection only works
in One Shot Mode, which is kind of silly
unless both you and your subject are staying still.
I also found you had to be even closer
or fill up more of the frame in order for the eye detection
to kick in on the M50 than it did on the RP,
and you can't switch eyes with a single button press
like you can on the RP. The Autofocus in video mode
is still very good in 1080p on the M50, but it does drag
a little bit more when moving in and out when compared to the RP.
The RP only loses Focus for a fraction of a second,
but on the M50 this lasts a little bit longer,
and will probably be noticeable in your footage.
But if you make slow movements,
this won't really be that big of an issue.
But overall I'd put it in the same category
of calm weather landscapes and predictable portraiture
as well as still life and studio work
where maximum dynamic range isn't crucial.
But you will have to consider the reduced low light
capabilities on the M50 due to its smaller sensor.
I'd say it's pretty good up to ISO 3200,
but you'll get a similar noise level on the RP at 12,800.
And I'd say the 12,800 on the RP is quite good considering.
However, the M50 might fulfill the role of travel camera
a bit better than the RP, due to its compact size
and battery life, because despite all
the complaints I'd heard about the battery life
on the M50, I actually found it to be quite satisfactory
and was significantly longer than the battery life on the RP.
I was able to get just under two hours of recording time
in 1080p video, and close to 700 shots of mixed display stills.
And when I did that 250 shots and 45 minutes
of record time, mixed photo and video
battery life test that exhausted the Canon RP,
I still had two bars left when doing that on the M50.
The image quality is very similar between the two
when shooting at lower ISOs. Especially in the 1080p video,
I found the results to be very close.
Neither of these cameras have proper IBIS,
but they both do offer a digital stabilization
that works in video mode by cropping in the image
a little bit to compensate for shakes that way.
It does help, but I don't generally like this type
of stabilization, and generally opt to disable it.
The M50 also maintains separate settings for photo and video
and also has the same articulating screen,
with I believe the same resolution as the RP.
You can also use a mount adapter for the M50
for putting on your favorite Canon EF lenses,
but it does not come included in the package for free.
But it does come with a kit lens at a very affordable price
of $650 US or $850 Canadian.
Where the kit on the RP jacks the price up
from $1,300 to $2,200.
So, if you just compare the bodies only,
the RP costs twice as much as the M50,
but if you compare the kits,
the RP kit is over three times more.
Now the kit lens that comes with the RP is significantly better
than the kit lens that comes with the M50.
But I have seen some more comparable kits
that were included with the RP for about $1,600.
So, in that case, kit-to-kit would be about
2.5 times more for the RP.
Now, there are a few other differences worth noting
about the two systems other than sensor size,
the first being that the M50 does not have a headphone jack
where the RP does, but both have a microphone jack
and have very similar audio performance.
In fact, the M50 actually recorded a little bit cleaner
with the noise level sitting a few DB lower.
Now the RP has a bit more treble in its sound profile,
and so the noise was also a little bit higher-pitched.
But overall I would say you're fine recording
audio internally on either of these cameras.
Here are some samples of the audio and noise recorded
on both of these cameras with their internal gain set
all the way down and then just moved up one notch from off.
And then I adjusted the gain on the external microphone
which was the Deity V-Mic D3 Pro which I set to 6 on the gain
and then I normalize the volume of the clips in post.
Test, 1-2-3-4-5. Test.
Now, the M50 does have a limitation
in this regard that I alluded to earlier,
which is that the audio levels don't show up
on the display as an overlay on the video while you record.
You can access them in the menu,
but as soon as you get back to your regular shooting mode,
you don't have the audio levels anymore.
But in the RP this is not a problem.
You can see the audio levels while you're shooting.
The RP also has a useful HDMI port,
where the M50 doesn't really. On the RP
you can pair with an external recorder to exceed
the 30 minute record limit and it offers a clean HDMI out.
The M50 has no such option and will always show
your on-screen display info over HDMI.
And even if you customize the display
to minimize that information, the screen will still turn off
after 30 minutes and thus end your HDMI capture.
So, the HDMI port is kind of useless on the M50
unless you want to hook it up to a TV to display your images
or maybe record the operations of your camera.
However, this combination of features on the RP
makes it one of the best options for live streaming if you can
supply it with continuous power via a dummy battery.
It's full frame so you can get wider shots
if you have a restricted streaming space,
and it has excellent low light performance
and great autofocus. So, might just be the best
bang for the buck streaming camera available.
And If you use it for external recording you can get
8-bit 4:2:2 over a clean HDMI with no record limits.
So, it definitely beats the M50 in that regard.
And the RP also offers USB charging,
where the M50 does not. Now sadly it's only for charging,
and not for active powering of the camera.
Even if you use a USB C power delivery device,
it still will only work when the camera's turned off,
which is unfortunate because if you could actively
power this camera with USB, then it would definitely be
the best streaming camera I've ever seen.
Oh, and due to the reduced size of the M50,
it does have this annoyance where you probably have to
remove your tripod plate if you plan to use this on a tripod
in order to open the battery door, because otherwise
the plate is going to overlap on the battery door.
But because the RP is a bit larger, I don't think
it'll have this issue unless you use a really large plate.
Lastly while both cameras do offer a time-lapse video mode,
which is feature-rich and the same on both,
only the RP offers a true interval photo shooting mode
which allows you to capture raw images in a sequence
that you can later on assemble into a time-lapse in post.
There's also two annoyances on the M50 that weren't fixed
on the RP, and the first is the silent shooting.
Basically, there's no electronic shutter when in manual mode.
You have to use the mechanical shutter. If you want to switch
to a silent mode, you have to go into the scenes
which are these automatic settings,
and then choose a silent mode from there.
So, you can't set your exposure manually
when using silent shutter.
This is kind of annoying and something that
I really wish would have been fixed in the RP.
The second annoying feature is Canon's
famously bad custom white balance tool.
If you thought these new cameras would have a new white balance
selector, like every other mirrorless camera has,
where you just point it at your reference and press OK,
and then your custom white balance is set... think again.
It still uses that same old mechanism where you have to take
a photo and then load that photo up using the white balance tool
and then assign that to the custom white balance date
for which there's only one, so you can only have one custom
white balance, and then choose that
white balance state in the white balance selector.
This is weak and takes unnecessary extra steps
and hasn't been updated in over a decade,
but it's the same on both cameras.
So, I think that's everything that stood out to me.
So, which one should you buy?
Well, if you really think you'll take advantage
of the external recording, or live streaming,
or if low light performance
is gonna be important to what you shoot,
or if you really just wanna try these new RF lenses,
then the RP might be worth the extra money to you.
It's basically an M50, plus all that stuff.
The stills image quality will be better out of the RP.
Now, you might not notice it as much in bright outdoor shots,
but I think you will notice it indoors.
I don't know if you're going to appreciate the quality bump
enough to pay double the price. Only you can decide that.
But outside of those conditions, I'd probably consider the M50
be the better buy, and it has its own strengths as well.
With its compactness and better battery life
it'll probably make for the best travel camera.
It can really hold its own as a 1080p vlogging solution.
Overall both offer a pretty solid value
and it really just comes down to budget and which features
are most important to you.
But that's gonna be it for me. I hope you found
this video helpful or at least entertaining.
And if you did, make sure you leave it the old thumbs up
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Alright... I'm done.