Canon isn’t letting Nikon have all the fun. Today, Sept. 5, Canon announced its first full-frame mirrorless camera, the Canon EOS R. Part of the all-new Canon R System, the Canon EOS R is the “just the first model in the system” and “won’t be the last,” according to Canon President and Chief Operating Officer, Kazuto Ogawa, pictured above.
At the heart of the Canon EOS R is a 30.3-megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor that’s capable of up to 8 frames per second in Single AF mode and 5 fps when shooting with Servo AF mode. Canon’s DIGIC 8 processor drives the image processing and Dual Pixel CMOS autofocus system with 5,655 AF points.
The Canon EOS R has a maximum shutter speed range from 1/8,000th to 30 seconds — as well as Bulb mode — and its ISO range is 100-40,000 with extended ISO options of 50, 51,200, and 102,400.
On the video front, the Canon EOS R features 4K/30p video at a bitrate of 480Mbps, 1080/60p video with a bitrate of 180Mbps, and 720/120p video with a bitrate of 160Mbps. Like the 5D Mark IV, the EOS R has a 1.7× crop factor when shooting video. Internal recording is 4:2:0 8-bit and external recording via HDMI is 4:2:2 10-bit. Canon LOG comes pre-installed.
As with all mirrorless cameras, one of the major components is the electronic viewfinder (EVF). The Canon EOS R features a half-inch 3.69-million dot OLED viewfinder with a 23mm eye point — a solid distance for clear views and reduced strain when shooting extended periods of time. On the rear of the camera is a 3.15-inch tilting touchscreen LCD display for navigating the menu, composing shots in Live View, and autofocusing via touch.
Canon has chosen to implement a single SD card slot as the means of storing images — a decision that’s likely to draw criticism akin to what Nikon has been experiencing for the single XQD card slot on its Z6 and Z7 cameras.
As impressive as the camera itself is, it’s the EOS R’s brand new RF lens mount Canon emphasized during its presentation. The 54mm diameter lens mount (same diameter as the EF and EF-S lens mounts) uses a 12-pin connection for data transmission. It’s compatible with the more than 130 million Canon EF and EF-S lenses sold throughout the world using one of the three new EF-EOS R Mount Adapters, but also means a new line of lenses has been developed for the new full-frame mirrorless system.
Specifically, Canon is adding four new lenses for the EOS R system from the start: the RF 24-105mm f/4 L IS, RF 50mm f/1.2 L, RF 28-70mm f/2 L, and RF 35mm f1.8 Macro IS STM. One of the interesting elements of all four RF lenses is a new customizable “control ring” that lets you adjust settings like ISO, aperture, exposure compensation, and more through a physical control ring on the lens.
The Canon EOS R camera is set to ship October 2018 for an MSRP of $2,299 body-only and as a kit with the RF 24-105mm f/4 L IS lens for $3,399.
