Peter McKinnon has completed his review of the brand new Canon EOS R camera body and has come away quite impressed.
From a vloggers perspective, he loves that the camera shoots c-log, he doesn't find the 4K crop a big deal since you can use inexpensive wide EF-S lenses easily.
Check out the video review above.
We're giving away a Canon EOS R camera body here.
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Credit where credit is due, he's been doing great stuff and has earned himself a lot of respect. (same for Devin Graham, etc.)
Now Peter does has a very good/close relationship with Canon and there is no doubt there is a touch of the sales team in there and he is, he would agree, a bit of a gearhead, but as a creator he has always been honest and open about his process, he has taken the time to explain not only his techniques but the thought process behind the decisions about those techniques. He is motivational (for some) and his comments on his motivation are very important for his brand, if he says he is feeling like he is going into auto pilot with his video making I believe him, he raises some interesting creative questions as well as gear questions. 'Struggling' artists tend to make better art, if you are forced to rethink your creative process it can make you a better creative, he is looking at the gear from a content creative point of view and how each feature, or missing feature, will interact with his creative process and for me that is a more interesting point of view than a straight review.
You can take it either way, model X doesn't have Y feature is a good thing (obviously it isn't), or because model X doesn't have feature Y I have to work on my creativity (but I'm going to keep my old camera that does have feature Y anyway for when I need it). Or even, Canon came out with something new, buy buy buy.
I like that he at least talks about his creativity and his process. About what he thinks of his creativity and his output.
Over caffeinated? Watch his videos, he is a coffee addict and aficionado!
And I expect soon that there will be youtube channels like Tony Northrup starting to eat their words as well and adding the EOS R to their daily kit just like in the case of the 6D II.
But his reasoning makes sense. He's producing so much content every week, I understand the desire to try something new and find new ways to challenge yourself. He mentions in the video that he filmed the entirety of his new short film with the EOS R he was loaned by Canon. Seems like that was enough to make him feel like it's possible to switch for the new year. This makes me more confident in the EOS R as my next camera, but obviously I'm going to wait for more actual full reviews first.
I honestly think the EOS R is going to play out a lot like the 6D Mk II did. Panned by a lot of people when it's announced and before release, but then after release vloggers and others flock to it and people realize it's actually a really great camera. To that end, I'm disappointed when I see the comments section of any article or YouTube video that praises the EOS R. They're all filled with comments accusing the person making the content of being a shill, paid by Canon, or a rabid fanboy - like it's impossible for anyone to have a positive opinion of this camera or something. Not everyone cares about 4k 60 fps. I rarely shoot video at all and am just a stills photographer so I don't care that Sony cameras do 4k 60.
He already owns and uses a 5D Mk IV as a backup camera. It's listed in the gear list of every YT video he puts out.
I don't think the 120 fps thing is a contradiction. He's saying he's trying to challenge himself to not rely on slowmo b roll so much so he can become a better photographer and learn new things. He also did a followup video to this yesterday and said he's not getting rid of any current cameras. He'll still have the 1DX Mk II to do 720p video if he needs/wants to.
My bad. That's what I meant to type. Thanks for the correction.
The more I look at the R the more I like it. I really like the drop in filter adapter - a drop in polarizer could potentially let you polarize really wide scenes and make some of the wider bulbous glass more versatile. I did see another review of the camera which had a really interesting point for those using tilt shift lenses. Face/eye tracking still operates in manual focus lenses but it will show you the focus assist diamonds on your subject so you can tell if you've got focus on the eye even without AF. This was the video - skip forward to 6:35 or so for that commentary - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hEKMFN8Y8Q
I also don't like how the aperture works with adapted lenses, I don't recall seeing that with a 5D IV.
It seems that it is optimized for the RF lenses where the aperture can open and close much faster than EF.