Canon’s roadmap for 2019, included an EOS R camera that no one is expecting? [CR2]

justaCanonuser

Grab your camera, go out and shoot!
Feb 12, 2014
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So confused.

My whole life I’ve looked forward to the next upgrade, or been excited about what I can save up for, but I feel a bit lost now!

What am I saving up for!? ‍
Buy a good lens, digital cameras are short life-cycle products anyway. If organic electronics would see faster progress, I'd recommend the industry just to sell 3D print data for their latest camera models in future. So you could easily upgrade and deposit your camera. ;)
 
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I would buy an EOS Ra for astrophotography. Especially one that has H-alpha sensitivity while still providing useful color for daytime photography. But we’re leaving out the true head-scratcher specification: a 10MP full-frame sensor.

Not only would this provide nice big pixels for good low-light sensitivity, it would allow for full-width native-resolution 4K video. DPAF. No compromise on the AA filter. No moire effects. Insane high-ISO performance for not only framing astrophotos but filming video in near darkness. There’s a synergy here! The astronomer’s camera is also the videographer’s camera.

Take my money, Canon!
 
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justaCanonuser

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Please Canon.... Give me a MF camera to compete with PhaseOne for 10K. "YOU CAN DO IT!!!
Old discussion and rumors since many years, but it doesn't look like Canon makes a move into the MF market. Too small for them. That said, there are more offerings in MF than Phase One. If you want a real MF beginning with 6x4.5 image size, not those MF crop sensors currently used in those relatively compact Hasselblad and Fuji cameras (or Leica S), you can go for a Pentax 645Z as an affordable system. With such a camera, you have access to this special look in your images that sets MF apart from the 35mm world.
 
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justaCanonuser

Grab your camera, go out and shoot!
Feb 12, 2014
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I would buy an EOS Ra for astrophotography. Especially one that has H-alpha sensitivity while still providing useful color for daytime photography. But we’re leaving out the true head-scratcher specification: a 10MP full-frame sensor.

Not only would this provide nice big pixels for good low-light sensitivity, it would allow for full-width native-resolution 4K video. DPAF. No compromise on the AA filter. No moire effects. Insane high-ISO performance for not only framing astrophotos but filming video in near darkness. There’s a synergy here! The astronomer’s camera is also the videographer’s camera.

Take my money, Canon!
Looks like you want a Sony A7S with better ergonomics, AF, and colors, made by Canon. I'd join your club. My wife still uses 12 MP Nikons. She makes A3 prints from those low MP sensors that are impressively so fine detailed - you could easily sell them to people as shot with a 40 MP camera.
 
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justaCanonuser

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How about a form factor change for the body - an R mount on a cube. Canon has a similar start with an entry level video camera (xc-10). It would solve the vertical/horizontal dilemma with a square image (new square sensor perhaps), could offer interchangeable viewfinders (lucrative accessory market) , provide internal space for larger (or multiple) batteries (another option?), utilize the R mount to stimulate lens sales, have a variety of "handle" options and provide some industry innovation Canon seldom gets credit for.
Looking back in history, Canon quite frequently tried such innovative concepts, but unfortunately, most consumers are too conservative to accept new concepts.
 
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justaCanonuser

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From a 7D2 user's perspective, the question is: will Canon really come up with a crop sensor in the RF mount biotope? Not sure about that. If not, a logical step could be a high resolution FF ML camera with a, say, 24 MP crop mode, connected with an enhanced burst and buffer rate. Highest burst rate of course with full AF and tracking features.
 
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justaCanonuser

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Think 8 hours or so at a bird nest, waiting for the occupant to poke its beak out. Surely that’d just flatten a mirrorless body’s battery?
You nailed it. This is exactly what I tell people why I still prefer DSLRs for wildlife shooting.
 
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I don't care about it either. But hundreds of thousands / millions do. They travel on vacation, stay at AirBnB's or hotels most of which have wi-fi , and at the end of each day they typically want to upload the day's pics to instagram or other social media sites. If they could do it directly from their camera when they were in a wifi zone instead of downloading to a laptop first it would be of tremendous value.
If you can tether your camera to your smartphone, you don't need to look/wait for WiFi hotspot. You can just use LTE.

But then you can use an app in your phone and don't need an app in your camera.

Canon once had a camera with a Facebook button, though.

But unlike Apple, Canon, or to be fair most Japanese companies, are not in the business of improving user experience.
I like my user experience with Canon.

On the other hand if Apple - and I am no fan of Apple - were to design a mirrorless camera you can bet the first things they would be thinking of would be about making users lives easier.
One-button camera?

Apple's "user friendly" caters to the category of users I don't belong.
 
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Apple's "user friendly" caters to the category of users I don't belong.

Indeed, it's actually inverted. You have to be a user who is friendly to Apple's One Way of doing something.

I think Canon's UX is fairly good and very consistent. A Rebel user could pick-up a 1D and start shooting without worrying about the boggling permutations of configurations under the surface.

The only thing I don't understand about Canon is the half-press-trigger-to-focus. Why does that exist as a default, instead of being on the AF-ON button? It trips-up newbies who don't understand why the camera is refocusing when they try to recompose.
 
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Apr 25, 2011
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The only thing I don't understand about Canon is the half-press-trigger-to-focus. Why does that exist as a default, instead of being on the AF-ON button? It trips-up newbies who don't understand why the camera is refocusing when they try to recompose.
Because of the "*" button, which exists even on cameras that lack the "AF-ON" button.

For the last 20 years, I use it this way (when focus tracking is not needed):
frame for autoexposure,
press Star button,
frame for autofocus,
half-press trigger button,
frame for composition,
shoot.
 
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As a matter of interest, have you tried the use of the back screen as a touchpad to move the focus point? I find that alternative to be as good as, if not better, than the joystick. On the list of "please Canon", I would add a lock on the mode dial similar to the one on 5Ds, etc.. I use the camera almost exclusively in FV mode and it is annoying that the mode dial can be accidentally moved.

Are you a left eye shooter or a right eye shooter? I'm a left eye shooter and rented an EOS R for a week. I played with the different configurations of the virtual joystick but no matter what I did, I constantly got false positives with my nose, which caused the focus point to jump to the corner. It was terribly annoying and honestly a deal breaker for me. The rest of the camera is fine, but I NEED a joystick if my camera has more than just a few focus points. I've used the 5Div too and having that joystick made going through all of its points a breeze. Same with my friend's A7iii. My 6D doesn't have enough points to worry itself, so a joystick on that is pointless.

Basically, I haven't found the screen solution to be a great replacement to a true physical joystick. (On a side note, I was impressed the screen pad worked with gloves in freezing conditions...)
 
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Old discussion and rumors since many years, but it doesn't look like Canon makes a move into the MF market. Too small for them. That said, there are more offerings in MF than Phase One. If you want a real MF beginning with 6x4.5 image size, not those MF crop sensors currently used in those relatively compact Hasselblad and Fuji cameras (or Leica S), you can go for a Pentax 645Z as an affordable system. With such a camera, you have access to this special look in your images that sets MF apart from the 35mm world.
The Pentax 645Z is not 6x4.5. It's 44x33. The same size, and actually the same sensor, as the Hasselblad X1D and Fuji GFX 50's.

Which, of course, is the same sensor size and sensor used by several current Phase one and Hasslblad H6D cameras. Cameras which those companies had no trouble marketing as "medium format" until they had some actual competition in the space.
 
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Rivermist

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Apr 27, 2019
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Are you a left eye shooter or a right eye shooter? I'm a left eye shooter and rented an EOS R for a week. I played with the different configurations of the virtual joystick but no matter what I did, I constantly got false positives with my nose, which caused the focus point to jump to the corner. It was terribly annoying and honestly a deal breaker for me. The rest of the camera is fine, but I NEED a joystick if my camera has more than just a few focus points. I've used the 5Div too and having that joystick made going through all of its points a breeze. Same with my friend's A7iii. My 6D doesn't have enough points to worry itself, so a joystick on that is pointless.

Basically, I haven't found the screen solution to be a great replacement to a true physical joystick. (On a side note, I was impressed the screen pad worked with gloves in freezing conditions...)
I understand, indeed the feature is only really functional for right-eye shooters. Another neat feature is the ability to allocate a button to reset the focus point to center screen.
 
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True... An 80D is a “big save up” for me though so it’ll be a good few years before I can afford anything R

I picked up an 80D myself, refurb from canon, during the 15% off friends and family sale last Feb. It's a great camera with plenty of features and I fully expect to use it for at least 3 years. Don't fall for GAS. People were making incredible photographs with a lot less. Unless you make your living from photography, you're not missing out.
 
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Feb 7, 2019
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I picked up an 80D myself, refurb from canon, during the 15% off friends and family sale last Feb. It's a great camera with plenty of features and I fully expect to use it for at least 3 years. Don't fall for GAS. People were making incredible photographs with a lot less. Unless you make your living from photography, you're not missing out.

I agree, I love my 80D. It was a huge improvement over the 70D in my opinion. Went on pretty much the same trip to Costa Rica first with the 70, then with the 80 and this years photos are vastly better! All down to the shadow recovery ability. The thing I want the most is lenses though of course! As far as bodies go, 80D equivalent level is more than good enough for me.
 
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kaswindell

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Old discussion and rumors since many years, but it doesn't look like Canon makes a move into the MF market. Too small for them. That said, there are more offerings in MF than Phase One. If you want a real MF beginning with 6x4.5 image size, not those MF crop sensors currently used in those relatively compact Hasselblad and Fuji cameras (or Leica S), you can go for a Pentax 645Z as an affordable system. With such a camera, you have access to this special look in your images that sets MF apart from the 35mm world.

Unfortunately, the 645Z has the same MF crop sensor used in the Fujis and Hasselblad X1D - you have to go really expensive to get the 6x4.5 (ish) sensors:
Hasselblad H6D-400c: 100MP 53.4 x 40.0mm CMOS Sensor https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/prod...013775_h6d_400c_multi_shot_medium_format.html
vs.
Pentax 645Z: 51.4MP CMOS Sensor - 43.8 x 32.8 mm https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1045517-REG/pentax_16599_645z_digital_slr_camera.html
Fuji GFX 50S: 51.4MP 43.8 x 32.9mm CMOS Sensor https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1283336-REG/fujifilm_gfx_50s_medium_format.html
Hasselblad X1D: 50MP 43.8 x 32.9mm CMOS Sensor https://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/co...A=details&Q=&sku=1260272&is=REG&fromDisList=y - interestingly, this one is marked as "discontinued" - perhaps there is something new coming from Hasselblad in the low-cost MF space?
 
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