Cameras


Three’s Company: Canon Launches EOS R Full Frame Mirrorless Camera

September 5, 2018

By Greg Scoblete

Canon has entered into the full frame mirrorless camera market with the launch of the new EOS R.

The R features a new RF mount that is the same diameter as the EF mount, but with a shorter flange distance. Canon will offer adapters for EF, EF-S, TS-E and MP-E lenses.

The EOS R is notable among its competitors for the number of autofocusing points it has: 5,655 manually selectable points (up to f/11). It uses Canon’s Dual Pixel CMOS autofocusing system and can acquire focus in very low light–down to -6 EV. It also acquires focus quickly. Canon says that it’s .05 sec. focus acquisition makes it the fastest in the world.

The AF area covers 88 percent of the frame horizontally and 100 percent of the frame vertically (though the exact area will depend on the lens).

The new camera has a 30.3-megapixel CMOS sensor with a native ISO range of 100-40,000 (expandable to 50-102,400). It supports continuous shooting speeds up to 8 fps with focus fixed on the first frame or 5 fps with continuous autofocusing.

On the design front, the body is dust and weather resistant. It also features a new Multi Function bar to the right of the EVF to access custom settings.

Video

The EOS R can record 4K (3840 x 2160) movies at 30p and full HD at 60p. You can record in Canon Log format (8-bit 4:2:0) internally or send a 10-bit 4:2:2 file out of the camera via HDMI. When recording in Canon Log, you’ll have 12 stops of dynamic range.

Additional Features

  • 1/8000 sec. mechanical shutter
  • 3-inch vari-angle touch screen display
  • 3.69-million dot EVF
  • silent shutter in single shot mode, firmware update will enable silent shutter in continuous shooting soon.
  • metering to -3 EV
  • a single SDXC card slot
  • USB 3.1 with in-camera charging support
  • Bluetooth and Wi-Fi

The EOS R will retail for $2,300 (body) and ships in October. It is available for pre-order now.

The EOS R with a RF 24-105mm F4 L IS USM lens will set you back $3,399.

RF Lenses

To kickstart the EOS R, Canon is launching four native lenses: The RF 28-70mm F2 L USM, RF 50mm F1.2 L USM, RF 24-105mm F4 L IS USM and RF 35mm F1.8 MACRO IS STM.

All of the new lenses are dust and water resistant and use a new control ring to adjust exposure compensation, shutter speed, aperture or ISO.

Canon EOS R 28-70mm Lens

According to Canon, its new RF 28—70mm F2 L USM lens produces “better optical image quality and sharpness over similar focal length EF-series lenses” in the company’s initial tests.It can focus on objects as close as 1.28 feet and has nine aperture blades. It will retail for $2,999 and is available for pre-order now.

The RF 50mm F1.2 L USM lens uses Canon’s Air Sphere Coating (ASC) technology to minimize flares and ghosting. It has a minimum focusing distance of 0.59 inches and 10 aperture blades. The 50mm will retail for $2,299 and is available for pre-order now.

RF 24-105mm Lens

Nine percent shorter in length than the EF 24-105mm f/4L IS II USM, the new RF 24-105mm f/4 has image stabilization good for up to five stops, per CIPA standards. It’s the first L-series lens to use NANO Ultrasonic Motor technology to drive autofocusing. It supports full time manual focus and can focus on objects as close as  1.48 feet. There are nine aperture blades. The RF 24-105mm will retail for $1,099.

RF 35mm Macro

The Canon RF 35mm F1.8 MACRO IS STM lens has a magnification of 0.5x and five stops of image stabilization, per CIPA standards. It will retail for $499.

Mount Adapters

Canon will support its EOS R system with three mount adapters. The EF-EOS R will let you use EF, EF-S, TS-E, and MP-E lenses on the EOS R. Autofocus, metadata and image stabilization will all work with the adapter. It will retail for $200.

The Control Ring Mount Adapter will adapt the same lenses but adds a customizable control ring for controlling camera settings (like the control ring on R lenses).

Drop in Mount Adapter

There will also be a Drop-in Filter Mount Adapter which lets you use circular polarizing or variable neutral density filters behind the lens. This last adapter won’t be available until February of 2019 and will retail for $400 with a variable ND filter included or for $300 with a polarizing filter included.