What We Want to See in the Retro Canon EOS R8 Mark II

[erader]

my first camera was the AE-1 in 1980. i am interested in the retro camera but i would use it as a back-up to my R5, not as a novelty. therefore here's what i'd like to see: ibis, 32mp, silver and black, joystick and LP-E6P battery. i don't care about video nor do i care about flippy screen, one card slot is fine. i don't care about lenses and other accessories

 

[daveohig]

I love my R8. I also envy retro design. For me the R8ii should have the following things:

33mp sensor same as R6iii
Longer battery life
Up/down (not to the side!) tilt screen
IBIS
High res, big, clear EVF
Included thumb and hand grip (removable?) to facilitate handling when needed (i.e. so regular RF lenses can still be used without buying 3rd party grips)
Metal body & gorgeous, design - make Nikon ZF / Olympus OM3 jealous!
Exp triangle dials (aperture on lens)
This should be a camera for photography - if video is included keep it basic
Detachable matching lenses made of metal with clicky aperture dials
- 28mm f2.8 pancake with distance scale for zone focus and manual override
- 43mm or thereabouts f1.4 (obviously bigger!) without focus issues of recent 45mm 1.2
All above ip53 weather sealed
Personally not fussed about 2 card slots, never needed more than one!
Keep it small! (Compared to chunky bloaters R5 / R6)

 

[mimbu]

A ‘retro’ camera is not for me, as I already have a real one. I’ll leave it to the influencers and trend-setters.

Yeah, I've also never been a fan of the retro designs. They just seem like modern tech combined with retro (lack of) ergonomics. But I have a friend who bought a Zf and loves it. I gave him a grip as a gift so at least the ergonomics are not as bad as they were, but man, it just seems like it makes the camera harder to use. But, to each their own. They seem to sell well.

 

[scyrene]

chunky bloaters R5 / R6

Coming from DSLRs, this made me chuckle.

 

[Traveler]

We know that the Canon EOS R8 Mark II …
See full article...

- I don’t think they’ll do a boxy design. Canon is too proud of their ergonimics.
- no brighter EFV. The reason is power consumption (and costs)
- I wouldn’t expect a retro EF-RF adapter. I don’t think this is a transition camera for DSLR users. And they want to sell new (RF) lenses.

I also wish canon makes something new (better screen, new menu, etc). Retro or not.

 

[Eric84]

I don't see Canon replacing the LP-E17 battery anytime soon.

Why cant a R8 mkII have the same battery as the R6 mkII ?

 

[davidespinosa]

But they need to level up the RF 50mm 1.8.

How about the 45mm f/1.2 ?

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1930513-REG/canon_7198c002_rf_45mm_f_1_2_stm.html

 

[SnowMiku]

Why cant a R8 mkII have the same battery as the R6 mkII ?

I also wish the R8 II would have the same battery as the R6 II, but the R8 is smaller and market segmentation.

 

[neuroanatomist]

Why cant a R8 mkII have the same battery as the R6 mkII ?

The camera would need to be larger.

To sum up several posts (not singling yours out)…why not just make the R8 the R6 but keep the R8 price? Because…no.

 

[Uneternal]

35mm pancake. Even F5.6 if necessary but make it 35 not 28. Or 22mm rf-s f2 or 2.8 would be fine too.

Crop the 28mm by 1.25 and you have a 35mm. On a 32MP sensor, you'll have 20.5MP left.

 

[Eric84]

I also wish the R8 II would have the same battery as the R6 II, but the R8 is smaller and market segmentation.

I know that the body would have to be a little bit bigger, but if they are making a mkII there will have to be some improvements

 

[Exploreshootshare]

The camera would need to be larger.

To sum up several posts (not singling yours out)…why not just make the R8 the R6 but keep the R8 price? Because…no.

Hehe, yeah, there are so many posts with upgrade wished that basically make the R8 a mini R6. That's why I had list in my post and said a maximum of two upgraded or new features are possible. Canon being Canon they might even just give it a new design be through with it.

 

[neuroanatomist]

I know that the body would have to be a little bit bigger, but if they are making a mkII there will have to be some improvements

More than a little bit bigger, which for some would be a significant negative and not at all an improvement.

Personally, I like that the R8 uses the LP-E17, because it shares that battery with other cameras that I have and often travel with – the PowerShot V1, M6II and my full spectrum M6. Three of those bodies can charge the battery in-camera, meaning I don't even need to bring the wall-wart charger.

 

[Sporgon]

When adding the little grip extender to the RP I found it to be one of the most comfortable cameras to hold (without large lenses) that I’ve ever held. The smaller battery and grip size is an important part of that.
The only reason I sold it and bought an R6 was because I wanted to use manual lenses and the R6 is much better in this regard for a number of reasons.

 

[neuroanatomist]

When adding the little grip extender to the RP I found it to be one of the most comfortable cameras to hold (without large lenses) that I’ve ever held. The smaller battery and grip size is an important part of that.

I don't find it particularly comfortable to hold, which is why I use a 1-series for my everyday camera. Instead of the grip extension, I use the RRS modular L-bracket that provides the same form factor on the bottom, which is tolerable for me (whereas without that extension, it would be very uncomfortable to use). Having said that, I don't handhold the R8 much – it's on a tripod or in a shoulder bag and pulled out just to take a couple of shots.

 

[Skux]

I don't think Canon will put much effort into this unfortunately. They have never gone all-in on a niche retro design like Nikon or Fuji, and instead just do recolours like the white versions of the 100D/M200/R50 or the gold edition of the RP. At the end of the day they still have to make a mass market product.

The most I'm expecting is a silver top cover to 'pay homage' to the AE-1 design.

 

[SnowMiku]

I know that the body would have to be a little bit bigger, but if they are making a mkII there will have to be some improvements

I'm hoping that the R8 II can get the joystick.

 

[brianb2011]

The R8, albeit not being a great all-around camera, is the closest thing you'll get to a perfectly small, compact ff and very capable camera for occasions you need or wish to pack light. Just a few tweaks would turn it into a perfect camera for such events. It seems like a lot of people are posting "just change this one thing and baaam... perfect". This "one thing" is very different for everybody. For me, the one thing would be a joystick. First day preorder improvement.

Agreed. IBIS and dual card slots are non-factors for me, plus they seem like pretty obvious ways to maintain market segmentation with the R6. I'm guessing Canon would like to keep encouraging people that actually need the redundancy of dual cards to keep buying the R6. A joystick is definitely top of the list of upgrades I'd love to see come to the R8 line.

The main thing I want to see is a non-retro option, though I'm not going to be upgrading until at least the R8 Mk III anyway. Used a t3i for 11 years. No way I need to upgrade the R8 after only 3. I hated the straight edges on the Sony cameras I tried out in the store. Please keep modern Canon ergonomics.

Keeping size and weight and cost down are more important to me in future R8 models than any other upgrades that bring this closer to an R6. The one caveat is that I don't find it comfortable to one-hand shoot with anything other than the smallest lenses (28 pancake, 50 f/1.8). The extender lives on my R8 full-time, so I'd be in favor of canon making that the permanent size.

 

[gwb]

Remove the AA filter from the sensor.

 

[blobmonster]

Crop the 28mm by 1.25 and you have a 35mm. On a 32MP sensor, you'll have 20.5MP left.

Yes that's why it would be great to see Canon bring back the 1.3 crop mode from the 5DS (i.e. like aps-h) where you can compose in the focal length you plan to keep, and still have the raw file.

Digital cropping is amazing with the lens quality and resolution these days. Thats why popular compact cameras like the leica q3 and fuji x100 employ it. I'd often rather crop a f1.4 prime by 1.3x or 1.6x than use an f4 zoom of the same size. Even cropped, the f1.4 output will have potential for shallower depth of field. The 1.3x raw crop would be amazing for the 28mm pancake.

As photographers we typically want to compose and think in the focal length of the output. So technically while the image quality would be much more than adequate, the actual photographs would still have been composed at 28mm unless I use a 35mm ovf (something I love to do on flat top cameras but which looks silly and gives up a lot with an r5 or r8 etc...) not to mention cropping every file in post is time consuming. The Leica q3 files keep the full raw but apply the crop automatically in the file so you don't have to adjust unless you need to...