|
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. |
Okay, so the rumors are sounding as if it appears that the Canon EOS R7 Mark II is indeed set to arrive in the first half of 2026 with a new 39MP APS-C sensor of BSI variety, either stacked or unstacked. As someone who enjoys delicious megapickles, I’ll be happy with 39 versus 32.5, even though the competition has 40.
For the rest of the article, we are going to assume that the current rumors are true, that Canon is going to release the R7 Mark II with a 39MP sensor.
Fujifilm is Already There
The elephant in the room is that other brands are already pushing 40MP cameras out into the market, so Canon’s move to 39mp at this time is mostly defensive and not class-leading, especially with the 40MP Fujifilm cameras being out for around 3 years now. But, while the X-T5 suffered from supporting the throughput of that sensor with sluggish autofocus and slow sensor readout, Canon seems to be waiting until they seem to have gotten the mixture correct.
Now I know a lot of people out there are probably thinking, “Why mess with the 32.5MP of the original R7? Why raise it at all when full-frame sensors are 45MP, and if you need the resolution, then go to the R5 series?”
There is still a fundamental difference in cost. An APS-C sensor costs less to manufacture than a full-frame sensor, and if that sensor is stacked, then it costs significantly less for an APS-C stacked sensor. Some people are also, are just generally happier with APS-C cameras. The lenses can be smaller and less expensive. The kit is easier to travel with. Sigma makes primes and zooms for RF-S.
Yes, I really want this lens for my next APS-C camera, as Canon doesn’t think we deserve a modern fast kit zoom.
Why Megapixels Matter
Photographers whose lenses are limited in focal length and who simply cannot walk closer (Craig, don’t read this) may need to maximize the amount of pixels they have on their subject so they can crop in tighter. The higher megapixel count here helps. This isn’t a really significant amount of pixels. The actual resolution difference between 32.5 and 39MP is only around 11% greater. For most applications, the difference will not be profound. Your lenses will suddenly not turn into trash.
With more pixels, you can capture much more information straight from the camera. This leads to more lifelike, less pixelated pictures that give the impression of the organic, film-like quality of the objects in nature. With higher resolution, and lenses of any type that you put on the camera will be able to render that information at a higher sampling, simply due to the fact that there are more pixels to record the information.
Yes, you end up losing a little on the worth of “per pixel” in terms of per-pixel image quality or noise performance, but overall, with better sampling, your images should look as good, and in most cases, should look slightly better.
The lenses aren’t going to become “not good enough” simply due to the increase in resolution; in fact, they provide you with much more, much in the same way that the Photozone tests proved when increasing resolution from 8MP to 15MP APS-C.
 |  |
While pixel peeping the pictures at 100% may have revealed the inadequacies of some of the older lenses, in practical use, the resolution difference is a huge advantage that doesn’t require optimal lenses to take advantage of.
Is an EOS R5s Or R3 High Megapixel Camera Next?
So, let’s begin with the most obvious point: the 39MP APS-C sensor is equivalent to 100MP when you factor in the difference in pixel density for a full-frame sensor. This is in the same league as the medium-format sensors or the high-resolution dreams I’ve been chasing for the past few years. And, as I’ve been going on and on about in the context of a hypothetical R5s (or whatever we’d end up calling the 100MP+ full-frame sensor), but this was really Canon’s fault for doing a development announcement on a 120MP DSLR. So don’t blame me, Canon caused this.
We’ve long thought of where the R3 may fit in with a new Canon landscape that includes the R1, and perhaps a very high MP camera would be the positioning. It’s not going to sit close enough to the do-it-all professional R5 Mark II, and it’s not going to go for the speed of an R1. It would be akin to the older 1D and 1Ds timeline. Canon had two professional camera bodies, one with low resolution and the other with high resolution.
Though amusingly, at the time, 21MP was considered stratospherically high resolution. So here we are, and Richard is complaining that 32.5MP isn’t enough. But I digress.
Difraction Limitations
Whenever someone mentions high MP, the Diffraction Limited Aperture statements always come out. But the bottom line? It doesn’t matter nearly as much as people seem to think it does. Diffraction is only a problem if you’re actually looking for it. And interestingly enough, in a lot of cases, how we are looking for it, is part of the problem. If you are looking at it using a monitor, comfortably 18 inches away from your face, viewing at 100%, then that’s going to give you a difference of appearance for diffraction than a 40″x60″ print when viewed from 4 feet away. Basically, diffraction limitation is when the airy disc caused by diffraction is larger than the circle of confusion. But to calculate the circle of confusion accurately, you have to take into account the person’s eyesight and viewing distance. Something that is never done in the simple calculators.
That’s why we did this calculator to come out with this article.
With 39MP on the APS-C sensor (or 100MP on the full frame, for that matter), you’re looking at f/11 and even f/16 for landscape shots, and printing them huge enough that you’re standing 2 meters back and diffraction isn’t even a concern. Back up some more, and you’re looking at even smaller apertures before it even shows up.
Data Rates May Suffer – but not much
Now, on the data rate side of things, there are reasonable concerns that a 32.5MP to 39MP jump may hurt burst speed or readout performance. However, let’s run the numbers quickly with the R5 Mark II as our example. It shoots 30 fps in electronic shutter burst mode at 45MP. If we scale strictly on MP, we can say that the R7 Mark II at 39MP should be able to shoot around 35 fps in electronic shutter burst mode (30 x 45/39 = 34.5 fps). With a modern DIGIC X processor and current-generation sensor, there’s no reason that the R7 Mark II cannot be as quick or quicker than the R7 with a 32.5MP sensor.
As well, the data rate is arguably more limited by the number of rows, so in this case the sensor shouold have a faster readout rate than the R5 Mark II of around 5152 / 5464 * 6.3ms or around 6ms (assuming the R7 Mark II sensor is stacked).
Closing Thoughts
All this assumes the rumors are correct, but if they are, it’s a camera I’m looking forward to.
Canon could have played it safe and left the resolution alone, but increasing it to 39MP shows that they are still advancing APS-C sensor technology by increasing the density. Hopefully, at the same time, following the trend of increasing the readout speed of the sensor as well.
This also leaves the door wide open to my eventual dream camera, the R5s.
If the R7 Mark II is a 39MP stacked sensor, they are giving those who want the pixel density, such as sports and wildlife photographers, the ability to put even more pixels on distant targets, while increasing the speed of the sensor to be more adept at a variety of shooting disiplines including video.
So, Canon, if you’re listening, hopefully you are going to decide to do this.
