This is the Canon EOS R.
The company’s first full frame 35mm mirrorless camera.
If you’re already a Canon shooter, this ticks all the boxes —
It boasts killer saturated colors, works with LP-E6 series batteries, and via your choice
of adapters, offers full compatibility with every EF lens made since 1987.
More on those later.
So, what’s different?
The EOS R is mirrorless.
Yup, electronic viewfinder, smaller form factor.
You know, mirrorless.
The big story here is the new RF mount.
This frees designers and engineers to develop new technologies for an entirely new class
of lenses.
At launch there’s the 24-105mm f4, 35mm 1.8 macro, 50mm 1.2 and 28-70mm f2.
That’s right — a zoom lens with a maximum aperture of f2.
Look at the size of this thing!
While the body is small, the glass is not — and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
From my very first shot with the camera, it was obvious that these lenses are at the heart
of new system.
I’ve always been a huge fan of the somewhat difficult to use and always in need of micro-adjustment
50mm 1.2 L EF.
The RF 50mm gave me incredible results wide open with no calibration or prep on the backend.
In fact, you’re able to shoot wide open with this or any of the other RF lenses without
loss of sharpness or AF accuracy.
This is all thanks to the shorter flange distance and Canonʼs dual pixel AF tech.
Added bonus: because the new native RF mount move the rear element of the glass closer
to the focal plane, chromatic aberration is incredibly well controlled without the need
for any computational photography.
Photo quality is stellar.
The EOS R rocks a 30MP CMOS sensor — striking a sensible balance between resolution and
low light performance.
Video is pretty basic, but the autofocus is crazy good.
If you’re vlogger, the flip out screen and face detection AF are a match made in heaven.
AF is really one of the most distinguishing features of the EOS R.
With an EV -6, this isn’t just the best AF mirrorless performer I’ve tested in low
light, its one of the best low-light focusing cameras, period.
AF speed is rated .05 seconds.
That’s basically instant AF when you’re using single point autofocus.
The face detection mode is excellent, the eye AF is good, but doesn’t support tracking.
For folks that like to use extenders with long glass, the EOS R supports apertures as
small as f11.
That’s pretty fantastic.
Ok — handling.
This is an EOS camera, but ergonomically its a cut from a different cloth.
Gone is the rear command dial that’s been a hallmark of EOS SLRs from the beginning.
But — RF lenses offer a customizable control ring.
You can set this to exposure compensation, ISO, white balance.
For me, I programed the ring as my aperture and I’m never going to change it.
You can feel the stops as little clicks as you turn the ring.
The physical feedback is one of those thoughtful, little details that makes the shooting experience
that much more pleasurable.
On the back of the camera is a little touch bar.
It recognizes taps and swipes and its functions are also fully customizable.
I haven’t used this enough to really get a handle on its utility.
I have it set for ISO and seems to be working just fine.
Lets talk about the lens adapters.
Generally, I don’t like lens adapters.
They malfunction, they’re awkward, they wobble around and cause me anxiety.
That’s not the case with Canonʼs 3 new Lens Mount Adapters.
Yes.
There’s 3.
1 is a straight up conversation adapter.
No bell and whistles.
It adapts EF and EF-S to RF.
No Muss no fuss.
Option 2 — same option 1, but with the super cool customizable control ring.
Option 3 — EF and EF-S to RF, super cool customizable control ring, and drop in filters!
That’s right — it just got super easy to ND, variable ND or circular polarizers
to all of your EF and EF-S glass.
There’s also announcements today for 2 new L Series telephoto lenses. There is a brand new, 400mm f/2.8, and a 600mm f4.
Looking forward to checking those out soon.
For EOS M users, there’s the brand-new, EF-M 32mm f/1.4 STM. That’s the fastest aperture prime in the EOS-M line.
And the brand-new, Speedlite EL-100 flash. Got some bounce, got some tilt and look this thing is soooo small.
I had an excellent time playing with the Canon EOS R today.
Really looking forward to working with a full production model soon.
For more on the Canon EOS R, photography and all things imaging, visit B&H.
I'm photographer David Flores, see you next time.