Here are the full Canon EOS R specifications

[ahsanford]

It seems like a Mexican stand-off of sorts: they'll be watching the market to see whether to go full RF or stick to EF; I'll be watching the rollout of RF to decide whether to stick to my EF glass and bodies or if I need to start transitioning over to RF eventually. I still think the R seems like a great camera, but really, it's still Canon's move. I'm not sold on RF yet.

Interesting theory, but I disagree with this take:

1) RF and EF must coexist for a very long time. Think 10 years. See Keith's wife's great chart here and look at EF's launch in 1987. There's zero chance in hell we'll see 20+ lenses in the first two years (!!!) like that again. RF won't have a fraction of EF's glass for a long time, and it will take time to even clone the core of EF.

2) There is no Mexican standoff on mounts. Canon wants its current SLR users to go buy a mirrorless rig. This isn't about migrating us from a sedan to better sedan -- they want to sell us another car, not replace the one we have.

3) RF may be better than EF or maybe it has some painful takeaways that some folks don't like. We do not know what aces RF has up it's sleeve until we see how those native RF lenses perform. They might have some slick features (like that knurled mystery ring near the front of each lens), but they also might be all FBW and cost a mint. We will see.

- A

 

[fullstop]

But I agree that this camera's DNA is a blend of 6D2 and 5D4 and will be too small / underspec'd for a lot of people.

no, it is *too big* and underspecced.

 

[ahsanford]

Spent a good part of weekend observing commentary and analysis of this forum. It is fantastic. No better forum for bouncing observations, and on the whole it has been kept very fact focused.

[truncated]

Super thoughtful post. Appreciate your take on this.

- A

 

[ahsanford]

Sony makes more sense. More mature system

Let me know how a more mature system makes your hands feel at the end of a day of shooting with big f/2.8 zooms and f/1.4 primes.

- A

 

[Sharlin]

By the way, interesting how the squarish OLED light-on-dark top display suddenly became trendy. I mean, Leica has it, Phase One has it, Fuji has it, Nikon has it, and now Canon has it.

 

[fullstop]

Go back to the thread where the body photos were leaked. It's nearly unbridled joy from the long-time folks that were waiting for this -- it was like kids opening up their presents at the Holidays.

that was before all the underspecced fuctions, footnotes, caveats and omitted features slowly came into the open.

 

[ahsanford]

I haven't read through all of the (at this point in time 350) comments, but one thing is missing from the eight pages I read so far: What colour are the R's focus points? Do they stay red when focus locks (like a 6D) or black (like a 6D2)? It's a consideration for me.

That's a great question! Don't know the answer myself.

My thought would be that when it's an EVF, you aren't married to the transmissive overlay shenanigans of more recent OVFs in SLRs. In theory, the AF focus points should be something Canon is 'drawing' on the screen along with the image, so not only should that be made as ideally contrasty as possible, I don't see why you couldn't customize that color in the settings.

-- Excerpts from my new book: An SLR-only Shooter Totally Explains How Mirrorless Cameras He Has Never Used Work ​

​

(Someone who has used a bunch of these mirrorless things please straighten me out on this. I'm guessing this is an easy answer.)

- A

 

[ahsanford]

Canon isn’t going to make everyone happy. Some people want the best specs & quickly and some people want the conservative approach. I think for people like me it’s whether they will even mention the pro version tba on the 5th.

Canon doesn't announce available camera X and soon to happen camera Y that often. And there's a good reason for that: folks will hold off their dollars on the first model until the 2nd model's specifics become clear. That could mean 3-6 months of tepid launch sales for a pricey new product.

And if you're familiar with Canon's FF cadence in which they roll out the 1DX# --> 5D# --> 6D# cameras, there's healthy downtime between them so that all anyone hears about is the one that just got launched. Rollout is an art form, and we can argue how it should be done best, but Canon excels at keeping our attention on the one they are rolling out.

Better bodies are surely in the future for this EOS R platform, but other than some aspirational statements on 9/5, like...

• There is interest in a larger camera and we're looking into that
• We want to make the experience as seamless as possible for EF lenses

...I would be stunned if Canon said any of the following:

• A Full EF camera is coming
• Another FF body is coming soon but we're not ready to share that

As that would absolutely take the wind out of the sails of what they are trying to sell at that moment.

- A

 

[ahsanford]

Agreed. I don't think it's a coincidence that this camera is designated simply "EOS R", like the first M was "EOS M". It's clear that this one is way more mature than the original M, but it does appear to be something they can iterate a bit without worrying about what exactly the whole lineup is going to look like in the future.

As a semi-serious note: For a while now Canon has differentiated their high-end/pro bodies with (among others) two features: number of card slots and... number of C modes (two and three respectively). But the new R has one card slow but three C modes! What does this mean?! Is nothing sacred anymore?

Agree the spec choices are weird. This thing feels like a plausible 6D/5D hybrid, engineered to scoop up as much pent-up demand as possible with one body. I don't think Canon have as firm a read on FF mirrorless segmentation as their considerable FF SLR experience might imply. Perhaps this first body is just a smash and grab of pent up demand from enthusiasts as they figure out their real strategy in this market.

- A

 

[ahsanford]

Anyway, another thing I don't see in the RF camera body is a wired remote plug. It wasn't in the pdf spec. Call me old school, but I don't want to be doing dawn patrol for sunrise shots fumbling around with a softphone as my only remote option.

Top left port of the body on its left hand side. Cable release. You're good:

- A

 

[Apepper]

No IBIS. UHS-1??? No 1080p/120fps. No mention of BSI or improved sensor tech. Ugh. Disappointing.
Lets see at least Canon is coming back, hopefully they dont cripple it like they did with the m50.
Will still instabuy if it's actually ~2 grand like the initial rumor.

The AF points number sounds insane, but we'll have to see what that number actually means in reality.

 

[nchoh]

Its not impossible to make a *good* focus by wire. After all, cars are now steered by wire and airplanes flown by wire... Just my thoughts.

Could be the reason for the new mount. A more responsive focus by wire might need a fast communication link.

 

[Canedo]

Sony have a track record of reliability in the vast majority of tech market segments they got involved.
The vast majority of the products they aimed to be quality and/or high end tech, usually excelled. I owned and used in various circumstances Sony products since 80s.

That was in the past, and Mobil phones are of the lowest reliability in the market.

 

[Tangent]

Top left port of the body on its left hand side. Cable release. You're good:

​

- A

Right. Thanks!

 

[Kit.]

They might have some slick features (like that knurled mystery ring near the front of each lens),

It is called "control ring", and you will definitely be able to program it an aperture ring. Then you have two more dials for ISO and exposure compensation, and M.Fn. bar for AF mode selection. Or something like that.

 

[Canedo]

that's the problem. It is a hard sell to owners of current Canon FF DSLRs. EOS R gets you basically a 5D IV sensor [reviews pending], fully articulated Display, but less fps performance than even a 6D II, especially with Servo-AF. Video features are not fully clear yet. And it is not much smaller and lighter than a 6D II.

Price not known yet. So value proposition unclear. Relative to 6D II and 5D IV.

Only target groups i really see is if you 1. shoot mainly stationary/slow moving subjects and 2. drool over big fat fast glass and/or 3. with EF adapter as a backup FF body.

If you need fast Servo/Tracking AF, forget it - don't buy, wait for higher up model coming some day or look elsewhere.

That's Canon strategy all the time, add new features and remove others, flip screen is not a novelty, has been there for years, but sometimes they remove it on purpose.

 

[-pekr-]

We could read these tea leaves a host of ways:

1) Lenses really draw people to the system so regardless of the body spec at launch, the bright shiny thing would be the L lenses.

2) Canon may have a full EF mirrorless model at a pre-production stage (timing-wise behind the EOS R we've seen) -- ready if Nikon did the same with F mount -- but in absence of that announcement from Nikon there's no urgent need to commercialize it.

3) Canon honestly thinks the FF mirrorless market won't be segmented like in the past (Nikon: good/better/best, Canon: Good / all-arounder / best) and wants a 'tweener' play-to-all-comers starting model to frame up what the next move is.

But I agree that this camera's DNA is a blend of 6D2 and 5D4 and the form of it will be too small / underspec'd for a lot of people.

- A

I still debate myself, if the high-end MILC is going to use EF directly. At first sight, it might sound logical, but in my book, it would kill EF-R. Imagine having two MILC bodies, buying an expensive EF-R lens, which you can't use on a higher end body? Both being FF? If Canon wants EF-R to succeed, even a high-end model has to have it. Well, imo.

 

[nchoh]

My worry is what will happen with the M mount. It will obviously not be compatible with RF. My guess is that Canon will keep it as a cheapo system and will release 1 plastic lens per year with M mount. Quite disappointing.

Small and light.. and as good as possible under the design specifications. If they are cheap, it's because the mount is smaller and the lenses Reggie plastic instead of metal to keep weight down. Based on the intent and design language of the current EF-M lineup, there won't be too many new lenses to release. For example, the excellent EF-S 55-250 translated into the EF-M 55-200 due to size. I believe Canon will fight tooth and nail to build upend I keep dominant the M series segment.

 

[Sporgon]

Fascinating that Canon have introduced just two small(ish) lenses with this really quite small FF camera, and two whoppers. Hardly fits the "mirrorless is meant to be small" philosophy. Must be some subliminal message there from Canon on how they intent to take the "R" series forward.

I believe it's got an AA filter ? If so congratulations on getting that bit right.
.

 

[sdz]

That was in the past, and Mobil phones are of the lowest reliability in the market.

Sony is not the only company that sells bug- and cripple-ware to the lower market segments. HP does this as well.