The EOS R is officially announced.
Some of the best info describing the new system — mount, cameras, and lenses — is on Canon USA’s page. They’ve got a great page explaining the RF mount and why they think it’s great, with the same large 54mm throat but just a 20mm flange distance from the sensor, which enables new lens capabilities. Also included are descriptions of the RF mount adapters supporting drop-in filters as well as the innovative ring control.
The Canon USA EOS R camera page walks through some of the details of the camera. One exciting claim is their “world’s fastest AF focusing speed” of 0.05 seconds on their 5,655 manually selectable AF points through a touch-and-drag AF system — impressive! Video shooters will find 4K 30p, Full HD 60p, and HD 120p, and finally focus peaking shows up without the need for Magic Lantern. Initial price for the body will be $2299 and available at the end of October.
The info on the new lenses is decidedly sparse. They’ve focused on the controllability aspects via their innovative ring control, as well as their ‘electronic’ focal length. The RF 28–70mm F2 L USM looks stunning and we can’t wait to try it out!
Price will be $2299
2300? This should be 2000 at most, to compete directly with the A7III. Feature wise the Sony is still superior, especially with IBIS and video frame rates, as well as some other pretty important areas. Where I think the Canon kills the A7III is the build quality, all magnesium alloy chassis means this thing will take a beating. The Sony can’t even take a punch. Was really glad to see drag focus as well as focus peaking thrown in, not to mention the DPAF in 4K with the vari angle screen (would bet there will be no overheating issues). Not sure why they couldn’t get edge to edge coverage on the AF points with the insane 5,655 points, but I feel like that is more a marketing gimmick. When was the last time your in focus elements were on the very edge of your VF? 88% will probably cover everything a shooter would ever need and for anything else there is focus peaking. The burst rates are a really big disappointment and feel like typical Canon “gimping”. Why only 5ps in servo? What was the point of the “fastest AF ever” on a camera that can only shoot at 8fps single shot and 5fps continuous? I would bet the buffer is also part of this. One card slot means it will be all but ignored by pros, and important demographic for this class of camera. Silent shutter would have been great for events, if it had two cards. DIGIC processor likely will not be higher than 13 stops DR, but we won’t know that until reviewers get their hands on it. Didn’t see anything about a crop in 4K, maybe I missed it or they didn’t say? If they didn’t say then I would think that means it has a crop. EF-S compatibility is kind of cool, first time ever for a Canon FF to have that, and there was no reason not to.
I think the 2300 USD price tag is typical Canon. Intro price is high so they can discount it later. A lot of the rumors were 1900, and like the 6DmkII I think we will see this price drop off pretty sharply at some point. If on the fence you could probably wait, I doubt this will be the sell out that the D850 or A7III have been. I could see this being a great vlogging camera, unless the next A7S will have a flip out screen and be a similar price. Photokina is likely where that is going to be announced. I personally might get this if the price drops to be my first FF camera, I don’t know. Still on the fence. I have some thoughts on the lenses too, but that is for another post.
1.7 crop in 4K. 🙁 Same as the 5D. Better than the M50. A neat feature though is you can drop EF-S lenses onto this camera, and so that means you can shoot 4K the same as you would 1080 on a crop with the same lenses. And since most Canon’s video lenses are made as EF-S lenses, that isn’t a total loss. Still disappointed. Canon can do better.
The only improvement for the 4K feature is that no more mjpeg. The price will have a major impact on the 6D II and 5D IV. eBay is pushing brand new 5DIV at $2500 already. I predict it will drop even lower once the EOS R starts shipping.