Canon sat down with Petapixel, and the conversation came up about the R1. Will users who want more than 24MP on the flagship get their wish?
Canon once had the Canon EOS-1Ds and Canon EOS-1D lineups at the same time, so Canon has previously produced a high-resolution and a lower-resolution “sports” camera.
Amusingly, back then, the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III was 21MP, and that was considered to be stratospheric resolution at the time. I remember when the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III came out, and everyone was screaming about how the megapixel race was out of control and “no one needs” more than 16MP, but here we are today when 24MP isn’t good enough.
We have an excellent resource for examining the history of the Canon 1 series: our Exploring Canon’s Digital EOS-1 Legacy article. Be sure to give it a read.
High Resolution Canon EOS R1 Series?
When PetaPixel asked about the high-resolution camera, Go Tokura, the executive vice president of Canon and head of the Imaging Group had this to say;
We consider the flagship to basically be at the pinnacle of our lineup, which means we’re not going to have two flagship models because we’ve basically put everything that we have — the best performance and the best trust — into the EOS R1. So I would say that we would probably never consider developing another model using the same body as the EOS R1
https://petapixel.com/2025/03/10/canon-has-no-plans-to-make-a-high-resolution-version-of-its-flagship-r1/
I think I get where he’s coming from. If you want a camera to excel at autofocus, calculations, and delivering the highest level of performance, that makes you balance resolution against the raw performance of the camera. You can’t have both simultaneously – at least for Canon.
You must recall that a Canon DPAF sensor has twice the number of pixels as a regular sensor, so Canon is processing 48MP of pixel data at the auto focus sampling rate, which is most likely far higher than the frames per second rate to be able to perform predictive subject tracking.
So, there are definite limits to what Canon feels they can accomplish in one package.
The Evolution of the 1-Series Segment
The Canon EOS-1Ds and Canon EOS-1D lineup were compromises because Canon couldn’t combine high resolution and high performance in the same camera body at the time, and full-frame sensors were prohibitively more expensive. However, times have changed.
The Canon EOS 5D Mark II effectively killed off the Canon EOS-1Ds lineup because the EOS 5D lineup became as good as the EOS-1Ds lineup. This made the entire EOS-1Ds lineup redundant outside of the very small niche that wanted the 1 series camera body and EOS 5D features.
Mr Tokura implies this by stating
For example, if we have higher resolution, then we know that that will skew the balance, and the sensitivity will be lower. That is a physical mechanism. So, in a flagship, we would never focus on just one aspect of the performance that would destroy the balance. I believe our current strategy is to have the 5-series be responsible for the high-resolution quality.
So what does this mean? Well, that’s it for the 1 series. There is no high megapixel R1s coming out yet. But that doesn’t mean that Canon won’t come up with an R3s or an R5s if Canon feels the need to create a higher MP camera. Until then I’ll continue to whine about not having my R5s camera.
Source: PetaPixel
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No one would buy it, which is at least one reason. The echo chamber of the internet gets in the way of logic sometimes.
How many do you know who would ACTUALLY buy it?
See: https://phototrend.fr/en/2025/03/canon-interview-cp-plus-2025/
I wasn't aware that Nikon sold 0 units of Z9 and Sony 0 units of A1 I/II
Well.. Canon sold more R3's and now R1's than Sony and Nikon sell of their "flagships" combined times 10. Sony gives away half of theirs just to be relevent in the segment. Nikon sells less cameras a year than Canon sells a quarter, if one goes by their financials. Nikon actually doesn't matter in this segment anymore. For better or worse.
There hasn't been a high-resolution 1 series for 17 years. The 1Ds III is older than this website! It seems the strategy is working?
The 1/3 series cameras aren't retail consumer products, the bulk of units sold come from agencies and CPS. CPS programs in each region purchase the cameras from Canon Japan. Agencies are not buying another 1 series camera, They have already bought 5 series cameras if they desired resolution. So no, there is no market for it. Even if PhotoMan2005 from DPR is crying for one, but in the end will never spend $7000 on such a camera.
While I am not one to say "Canon is d00med" or some such nonsense, and I am well aware that Canon is outselling the competitors, that doesn't change by a single iota the fact that I am not satisfied with Canon's choices in recent times and that I much prefer the direction Nikon has taken, market shares be damned.
I am nowhere near to the point of even starting to consider jumping ship, but this is my hobby and my passion, so if I am not happy I air it.
For many for sure, not for me.
Agencies seems to be shopping around and Canon has lost some.
I would...
I'm under no illusion that my money matters to Canon in the grand scheme of things. But if Canon does want more of my money, then they will have to make some different moves, simple as that.
In the meantime, DJI will get some and so will Hasselblad second hand sellers for my beloved (and truly and sadly dead) HC system.
Agency 'shopping' is done by the procurement department, not by the photographers. CRguy's comment about Sony giving away half of their flagships referred to that – agencies switched to Sony because free cameras are the best cameras available...to accountants.
As you say, Canon doesn't care if they get your money, so they will have to...do what they are going to do anyway. What they've done for the past two decades has been 'right' as far as the camera market is concerned.
did they purchase them solely on the basis of resolution or the fact that they are the flagship models of those respective brands?