Three years with the cannon eos r: he has damn well aged

Presented in September 2018, the Canon Eos R celebrates its 3 years in this school year.This first full -format hybrid proposal of Canon has certainly been talked about, delighted some, disappointed with others, but was the first step towards the very extensive range that we now know with the R, RP, R6, R5and R3.What can we say 3 years later?Here is my personal return to the EOS R after 3 years of use.

Introduction

Once is not customary, this article will be very different from our usual publications.He will be more personal.At Phototrend, we are fortunate to test the best in photo equipment.We endeavor to make you fields, going further than the simple reading of a technical specifications sheet.We have also been able to see how opinions can be decided in the community of photographers, how the marketing of certain brands can pass products for more than they are or how certain faults can be magnified more than necessary on the web.

There is no perfect box ... or at least, not yet.We all have different sensitivities, different use cases and different needs.Before continuing, it is important to specify that the lines that will follow will describe my experience, that of a professional photo practice, in marriage and a chouïa of portraits in the studio.This experience is not necessarily transposable for the one who has an animal, sporting or is closely interested in video production.

EOS R + RF 24-70mm f/2.8 L is usm

My editorial colleagues consider this post as my declaration of love to the canon eos r.To think about it, as with a good wife, we had our ups and downs but after getting to know her, I know that I can count on her.I bought my first EOS R in November 2018.Like many photographers equipped with full format at that time, I was eager to see my kit lose weight and I confess that I would contemplate a passage to Sony for lack of credible proposal at Canon.The EOS R fell timely.Bonus: he let me keep all my goals of the time.

The points of the EOS R which seduced me

Weightloss

My favorite travel kit consisted of a Canon 5D Mark III, a Sigma 24-105 mm f/4 and a Sigma 35 mm f/1.4 Art for a total of 2.5 kg.The adoption of an EOS R, a 24-105 mm f/4 L USM cannon and the 35 mm RF cannon f/1.8 macro made the whole pass to 1.6 kg.When traveling or hiking, this 900 g difference is huge.

Gain of multiple features

The arguments for the benefit of the hybrid in comparison to the SLR is already well known and the EOS R is not lacking in assets.A tool as simple as an adjustable screen on ball joint-that the Canon EOS 5D does not have-offers incredible practical advantages to shoot above the crowds or to the ground.Using a height of 1 m 40 with an adjustable screen, rather than a 1 m 80 tripod when composed via the viewfinder, can save up to 500 grams on the weight of his kit.It is not surprising to see this screen renewed on the Canon R6, R5 and R3: it is a real force.

The new features offered do not stop there.One can also think of the detection of the eye, the autofocus points spread over the entire sensor rather than in the center, the possibility of controlling its exposure in real or the PEAKING FOCUS which resuscitates our 100% manual objectives.

Craw format for reduced RAW files

Cloud services as well as hard safeguard records quickly represent a certain budget when you are professional.The Craw format (compressed Raw) makes me earn money.

A 64 GB card that normally hosted 800 JPEG+RAW optional photos can now record 1800 photos with the craw.3 years later, I still haven't noticed visible quality losses when I need to make 2-day exposure corrections on a counter-day.

Hyper reliable adaptation ring

With the EF/RF adaptation ring, the performance of the EF objectives are improved.The Sigma Art, famous for their trends in the back/front focus, become super reliable.The very dear stews Serial L Opening at F/1,2 which even asked the most experienced among us to make multiple attempts to ensure a successful snapshot find here a youth and a reliability that we did not know them.

The EF/RF ring is above all the assurance of benefiting from an impressive park of transferable objectives on the new RF mount.

Some new very special objectives

The RF mount brought back its share of nuggets.We can evoke the excellent 50 mm f/1.2, the RF 28-70 mm opening at f/2 or the RF 70-200 mm f/2.8 whose dimensions are revolutionary, but these objectives are displayed atA little unreasonable prices.

A much more banal, more accessible but also revolutionary goal is the RF 24-105 mm f/4.It is compact and light, its stabilization 5 It is infallible and it does not concede, in my opinion, not a lot of optical performance to its elder RF 24-70 mm f/2.8.

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At the time of SLRs, it was customary to have f/4 equivalents less expensive than the variants f/2.8 but this was always done at the cost of a drop in quality in terms of the dive or resistance toflare.We can now say that with the exception of the maximum opening, it is difficult to distinguish these 2 objectives.This observation is also verified with the 2 objectives 70-200 mm.

This list is not exhaustive, we can add other points like the very good 30 Mpx sensor taken from the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV whose dynamics and ISO climb are impeccable, an excellent electronic viewfinder, the Dual Pixel Autofocusand an ergonomics always as well thought out.

Since 2018, Canon has offered no less than 8 firmware updates to improve various features, the most notable being autofocus monitoring and eye detection.In use, this case is now very different from the one I bought, much more efficient, a pleasure to use ... But it is not perfect.

Eye detection

My few grievances with the cannon eos r

We are not going to lie, this case comes with many curiosities.Some are anecdotal and not really penalizing, others can be a brake for a certain photographers.

The first is certainly the absence of a second location for memory card.On a wedding, I don't like the idea that I can have a corrupt card and be unable to deliver my performance.

It turns out that my style implies the simultaneous use of 2 boxes, one with a wide focal length (generally 24 mm) and another with a tight focal length between 50 mm and 85 mm.I only choose post-processing the photos or the look that I want to deliver.Because I create my backup in the field, I am not bothered by this lack of redundancy in the case but for a product launched at 2500 €, it should have offered a 2nd memory location.

The lack of stabilization of the sensor is also a disappointment.First because all the competitors offer it.Then because even in photo, there may be a practical interest in stabilizing a fixed focal length to gain in ISO or in depth of field.Fortunately, the brand's zooms are excellent in the field of stabilization.

The absence of a photo intervallometer is one of these purely marketing curiosities of which Canon has the secret.The 5D Mark IV is provided, the 6D Mark II and the EOS RP, R5 and R6 also.You can make a video time-lapse but impossible to program a series of photos to edit them manually or choose only one.

The absence of joystick was a fear that I quickly overcome.You can control your crosshairs via a screen caress and this works much better than the traditional joystick.

It is more responsive, more precise and much faster to get from one end to the other.Now on my Fujifilm boxes, I rest on this technique and no longer use the joysticks.I still feel forced to specify that if you live in a polar region and wear gloves, the touch screen no longer works very well.If you use a waterproof cover for scuba diving, it becomes impossible to control the autofocus via the screen.

Finally the last limitation that comes to my mind is that the electronic viewfinder is not suitable for the animal or sport.With 3.69 million points, the resolution is excellent but if you follow a bird in flight to make a burst and it has erratic movements, the image in the racid viewfinder is slightly offset with reality andmakes follow -up difficult.It is very low and it is not noticeable in a more common use but in these somewhat extreme cases, the burst and the refresh of the viewfinder are not fast enough.

If the case is not ideal for this practice, animal shots remain possible

La concurrence et l’arrivée des Canon EOS R5 & R6

With the few grievances mentioned higher but a global satisfaction in front of the performance of the EOS R, I was impatiently waiting for the arrival of the "pro" boxes on this frame.When the R5 and R6 were officially announced, I chose to invest in RF objectives and to keep my eos R.

Example of the excellent RF barrel 15-35mm f/2.8 L is usm stabilisé, compatible avec des filtres standard et très compétent en paysage comme en astrophotographie

Astrophotography with the Canon RF 15-35mm f/2.8 L is usm

Like any case, EOS R has its strengths and weaknesses but it must above all appreciate in relation to its price.Now available nine at 1800 €, this is a very attractive proposal and I would even say one of the most attractive quality/price boxes on the market.1799 € is 400 € cheaper than a Sony A7 III (excluding promo), certainly stabilized but with a viewfinder slightly limited to 2.3 million points and whose ergonomics are not unanimous.1799 € is only 100 € more than a Fujifilm X-T4, very well endowed but whose autofocus technology and the ISO climb remain behind the EOS R.

The full penalty of the full format is no longer what it was

In the Canon ecosystem, the EOS 5D Mark IV is still offered at € 2599.In addition to the 2nd memory location and the joystick, it does not offer much more.He will remain the favorite of those who wish to keep their optical viewfinder or enjoy the autonomy of the XXL Batteries of the SLRs, but in the only chapter of image quality, it appears expensive for what it offers in 2021.

EOS R6: The return of the good old joystick

Canon R5 and R6 are undoubtedly great achievements.The return of a traditional joystick and a 2nd memory location respond to those who do not wish to do without it.The stabilized sensor is also a beautiful bonus.However, Canon invoices at a high price what it presents as new products that have been available for competition for many years and at much more reasonable prices.Let's talk for a moment about what they bring.

Launched at 2689 €, the EOS R6 is even more expensive than was the EOS R when it was released.The sensor is now stabilized, the possibility of creating a copy of its backup and a burst up to 20 i/s requires 50% additional cost.In my opinion, this box suffers from a double personality.On the one hand, for those who need this burst for action scenarios, sport or animal, the Canon R6 is quite cheap.But on the other, by obscuring the speed argument, 20 MP is not a very impressive figure in 2021 and Sony, Nikon or Panasonic offer more defined and much more attractive boxes at the price price.

In marriage or traveling, I rarely use the 8 i/s of the EOS R and generally limits myself to 5 i/s: it is rare to have married married in the church.Suddenly, I have a lot of trouble justifying such a high price to win a second memory card, knowing that the sacrifice in resolution will harm my ability to resize my images in post-treatment.This is still possible with an R6, it would be just less comfortable.

A 24mm transformed into 35mm via a knife cut

From a strictly photo point of view, the Canon Eos R5 is identical to the R6, the resolution near.The possibility of saving 20 i/s of 45 Mpx each is unprecedented and if this resolution gain would be welcome, at € 4499, we can offer ourselves 2 EOS R and the excellent RF 24-105 mm f/4 L ISUSM.

Very few of us need 45 mpx.It is more a question of gaining in flexibility in post-processing and offering yourself resizing capacities when one is not ideally placed.It will be up to everyone to decide whether the additional cost of € 2,700 is justified in relation to an EOS R for their use case.We are not going to lie, the R5 is very desirable ... But 30 MP, it's already not bad 🙂

EOS R, a “cannon” case, small, light, inexpensive and efficient

After lingering on all the parameters of this equation, for my use case, the EOS R is a canon case (without puns), small, light, cheap and efficient and efficient.If the geek in me dreams of acquiring an EOS R5, I find it difficult to justify it from a purely professional point of view.Once again, all use cases are not identical and my equation does not include video considerations because there ... it's a whole different story.

Before leaving you, here are some photos that I could take with the EOS R, a case that I am not ready to leave.