R10 user reports

drmikeinpdx

Celebrating 20 years of model photography!
Hey Gang,

Got my R10 yesterday from Amazon. It's going to replace my trusty 77D that has been used primarily as a travel camera and theoretically as a backup to my R6 for professional work. I took it out for a short trial run today with tripod and various lenses. Here are some things I've noticed so far.

It's really nice to have a joystick to move the focus box, like I have on my R6.

The menus are quite familiar and seem to have a few new options I need to explore later.

The sensor performance is very similar to my old 77D, which was also 24 mp. No real improvement that I can see. In Lightroom, ISO 800 is usable without noise reduction. Shots above that ISO respond well to noise reduction. 3200 is the highest I tried, since I don't plan to use this camera for low light work.

I was really hoping the RF 18-45 kit lens would be better than the horrible kit lenses in the EF-S line. It looks like there is substantial improvement, but you will still want a better lens or three if you are a pixel peeper like I am. I haven't tried any RF L-series lenses yet, but I did try the consumer grade RF 16, 35, 50 and 85mm lenses. They were all noticeably sharper than the kit lens, as you would expect. They were best when stopped down to the F4 to F8 range. The kit lens did not get sharper when stopped down.

The kit lens has a strange setting on the zoom ring to retract the lens. It takes more force than you might expect, but you won't have to worry about lens creep. There is a choice in the menu to automatically retract the lens when the camera is turned off, which sounds like a nice option. Unfortunately it didn't work with my kit lens. Anyone know the story on that?

I'm pleased with the small size of the R10. It's smaller than the Rebel bodies I've used as travel cameras for years, but still has a nice grip and controls. My travel cameras have to ride in backpacks or motorcycle tank bags, so size and weight are critical. They also have to compete for attention with my cell phone when it's time to pick which camera to bring along on a trip.

Overall, here are the advantages over my 77D: It's smaller and lighter. The kit lens is better, but still not great. The autofocus system is excellent and very similar to my R6. It allows me to use my small but growing collection of RF lenses.

What would I like to see Canon offer in the future? These high density crop sensors really deserve L-grade optics in a small form factor that don't compromise portability. I would pay a lot for an 18-45 kit lens about the same size as the current one, but built with high grade glass. Sure, you can put full frame L lenses on these little bodies, but that totally defeats their purpose.

I tried to attach a RAW file, but this site doesn't allow that. Sorry!
 
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koenkooi

CR Pro
Feb 25, 2015
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The Netherlands
[..]The kit lens has a strange setting on the zoom ring to retract the lens. It takes more force than you might expect, but you won't have to worry about lens creep. There is a choice in the menu to automatically retract the lens when the camera is turned off, which sounds like a nice option. Unfortunately it didn't work with my kit lens. Anyone know the story on that? [..]
The 'retract' feature is not meant from retracting zoom lenses in to their 'park' position, it's for retracting the focus barrel in lenses like the non-L RF primes you mentioned. Try focussing the RF16 to its minimal focus distance, you'll see the inner lens barrel sticking out of the outer barrel. If you then turn off the camera, the inner barrel will retract.

The barrel movement mechanism is quite fragile, the manual cautions against setting your camera down on the lens when extended. This is why I use lenshoods on all lenses :) With the lens hood on, I can set the camera down on a table, on the hood, and look at the pictures I took on the back LCD.

When I set the camera down on the RF85 non-L and turned it on, it showed errors, which worried me a lot. Then I noticed the lens hood on the table, not being attached to the lens :)

Related to this: the "Turn off your camera when changing lenses" advice also means that the focussing barrel will be retracted when you remove the lens and put it in your pack.
 
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drmikeinpdx

Celebrating 20 years of model photography!
Do you happen to have any RF lenses that you could post a few photos mounted to the camera? I'd love to see the 16, 35, 50, and 85...along with the 24-105 and 14-35 just for fun.
I do, but I don't know what format would make the most sense for posting here. Obviously we can't post RAW files, but do my fellow Canon Fanboys prefer uncropped maximum resolution jpgs? Or perhaps cropped sections? What do you guys use?
 
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