Mirrorless Camera News

Canon jumped into the full frame mirrorless camera market in a big way tonight. Shutterbug is currently in Hawaii for a special Canon press event where the company announced the new Canon R full frame mirrorless camera.

The new Canon EOS R system features the newly designed RF mount and Canon will begin by offering four new lenses in that mount: the Canon 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 lens. You can read more about these RF mount lenses for the new Canon R camera here.

UPDATE: You can see ten full resolution images we shot with the new Canon R and 24-105mm F4 lens and read some of our initial thoughts and impressions here.

Canon’s new RF mount features the same size diameter as the EF mount (54mm) and shorter back focus distance, according to Canon. “This allows for lenses to sit closer to the sensor (the focal plane) and allowed Canon optical engineers to reimagine lens design utilizing larger rear lens elements to produce an image on the full-frame sensor,” Canon said. “In addition, the Canon RF mount features a high-speed 12-pin communication system that provides faster and more in-depth communication between the camera and lens over existing Canon mount systems.”

As with the Nikon Z 7 and Z 6 mirrorless cameras that were announced a few weeks ago, Canon introduced an optional mount adapter that makes the Canon R compatible with all current EF, EF-S, TS-E and MP-E lenses. The Mount Adapter EF-EOS will sell for $99.99. In addition, Canon will sell an optional Drop-In Filter Mount Adapter and Control Ring Mount Adapter.

Here’s a rundown of the key topline specs for the Canon R:

• 30.3MP Full Frame CMOS Sensor and DIGIC8 image processor

• RF mount with RF lens/All EF/EF-S lens compatible

• Dual Pixel CMOS AF with 5655 manually selectable AF points

• 4K video at 30P with Canon Log and 10bit 4:2:2 HDMI output

• EVF with 369M dots, Vari-Angle and Touch Screen LCD, and OLC

• Lightweight and compact size, but with “advanced feeling of use”

• USB 3.1 in-camera charging support

• Silent Shutter

• Built-in EVF with 3.69 Million Dots, Vari-angle Touchscreen LCD and Dot-matrix LCD Panel

• ISO range of 100-40,000, expandable to 102,400

• Built-in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi providing easy sharing to compatible smart devices and social media sites

• Single UHS-II SD card slot

• CR3(RAW/C-RAW) and Dual Pixel RAW Support

• Dust and weather resistant

While the Canon R seems like an exciting new mirrorless offering, three things from the specs we gathered at tonight’s Canon press event in Hawaii could cause some concerns for photographers and videographers. For starters, the Canon R mirrorless camera has only one SD card slot. (When the Z 7 and Z 6 were announced recently, Nikon caught a lot of flak over its decision to include only one XQD card slot on those cameras, with photographers saying it prevented them from backing up their images to the separate card slot.)

Secondly, while the Canon R can shoot 4K video, it does so at a 1.7x crop factor, similar to the Canon 5D IV DSLR, which was also criticized for not offering full frame 4K. And finally, the Canon R does not have in-body camera stabilization (IBIS), which is a feature available on the new Nikon Z-series mirrorless cameras.

We'll have a better idea of how these omissions affect usability when we have a chance to shoot with the Canon R mirrorless camera.

The Canon EOS R full-frame mirrorless camera will go on sale in October 2018 for an estimated retail price of $2299, body only. It will also be sold as a body-and-lens kit with the new RF 24-105mm F4 L IS USM lens for $3399.

This is developing story. We’ll add more info has we gather it. We’ll also have hands-on time with the new Canon R tomorrow and will share images we shot with the camera along with our thoughts and impressions of it.