Last week we mentioned that we were told a “head scratcher” of an EOS R body was coming later in 2019, and not the high-resolution body that a lot of us are expecting to be next for the EOS R lineup.
An unknown source is telling us that the “head-scratcher” of a camera body will be a dedicated EOS R body for astrophotography with a full-frame sensor. This would be Canon's first full-frame astrophotography dedicated camera body.
The first astrophotography camera Canon ever released was the EOS 20Da back in 2005. As a side note, it was the first commercially available digital SLR with live view, just in case you like some trivia.
The second astrophotography DSLR Canon released was the EOS 60Da back in 2010, so it has been a while since Canon addressed this niche market of camera bodies.
Take this with a grain of salt and mind the [CR1] rating.
This is obviously realistic, but we're not sure what sort of market there would be for such a camera, especially with the lack of ideal RF mount lenses that astrophotographers generally like to use.
Question: Are there other uses for these cameras besides astro photography?
I don't think an EOS Ra would need to be anywhere near that sensitive, but if they made it 12-13.5MP on full-frame, then that's still a 8-9 micrometer photodiode size (which is plenty large). And that might also give it the possibility of uncropped 4k recording (with competitive frame rates) with only 12-13.5 million pixels to readout.
Maybe Canon will introduce a completely new sensor and style with this camera...but since they havent for either of the R cameras so far...and because this camera will inherently be a super niche camera, Id be very surpsied to see that. I'd expect an EOS R with a modified IR filter at about a 30% price premium.
The most important property is a modified IR filter that lets more deep-red and near-IR light through, especially the important H-alpha wavelength. I think this is the only difference between the 60D and 60Da; the 20Da also added Live View which the 20D lacked, as CRG mentioned. But the "a" versions were fully general-purpose cameras in other respects, with the same features as their siblings.
Besides broader-spectrum sensitivity, extremely low noise characteristics are very desirable, especially when it comes to thermal noise during exposures that might stretch anywhere from minutes to hours. High-end exclusive astro cameras often have active Peltier coolers, capable of cooling the sensor to subzero temperatures. Dedicated astro sensors are also purely monochromatic, without a Bayer filter in the way absorbing precious photons. Separate exposures with different bandpass filters are used to composite color images.
Certainly anecdotal, but for many of the people I see doing astrophotogrpahy, it is only part of what they're shooting and not all of it. Likely hard to justify a dedicated astrophotography camera for many potential customers. And for those who are willing to buy a dedicated astro camera, I suspect that they may not need or want a full frame - most seem to be using cropped sensor cameras on trackers and the bulk of the investment goes into the telescope it is mounted to. I wonder if the image circle in those telescopes is large enough for a full frame sensor? No idea admittedly.
I am indeed scratching my head.
I guess I’m not sure who an XXa camera is for?
One of the other posters made a good comment - the real investment is in the mount, even more than the telescope.
I would love to get more latitude on both ends of the light spectrum with the sensor. It would also be great to have a dedicated intervalometer for ramping holy grail timelapses. Some other features could be an internal closure for the eyepiece to block light, dedicated color temperatures for night skies, a better way to regulate sensor temperature, a simple process that takes blackout frames for noise compensation in camera, a night-mode for all screens, better battery performance (think ability to connect to a battery pack), improved infinity focus peaking, and illuminated or glowing buttons externally.
I think Canon's biggest hurdle is lenses as almost all their fast primes exhibit the annoying coma aberration. I saw this at f/1.8 on the 35mm lens in my most recent tests. It's Milky Way season this week, and this news is exciting!
IIRC 5"-8" Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope easily fill a 35mm film - larger 11"-14" one could fill 70mm film - so I believe there will be little issues in using a FF sensor. I don't know today how many 30Mpx astro cameras are available at what could be an R camera price point.
While you one could do better science with a cooled monochromatic camera and filters, for those just after images it could work and be less expensive.
Not sure Canon would consider the lack of dedicated lenses a problem. They certainly didn't let that stop them with the 60Da. Most people are assuming it would be a modified R body, but if Canon is trying to hit a price point, it could be a modified RPa, which would be more consistent with the 60Da. I know nothing about astrophotography, but it seems like I see two genres most frequently: Photos taken through a telescope, where lenses would be irrelevant, and wide shots of star trails or time lapse. Given the broad range of full frame wide to normal lenses available from Canon in either EF or R mount, it makes sense that the body would be full frame.