Mirrorless Camera News

We have been, by and large, big fans of Canon's latest mirrorless cameras, including the recent full frame Canon EOS R and EOS RP. One area, however, has bugged us to no end. For left eye dominant shooters, using these cameras can be a bit of a nightmare.

As pointed out in our review of the Canon EOS R and our first look review of the Canon EOS RP, because of the way the rear controls and displays of these two cameras are laid out, photographers who use their left eye to look through the electronic viewfinder (EVF), will find their noses pressing against the camera's touchscreen LCD. Consequently, this will cause your nose to trigger the camera's Touch and Drag AF (autofocus) feature, which may inadvertently move the AF point. Right eye dominant photographers don’t, typically, experience this problem because their noses protrude off the side of the camera when they shoot.

While it may sound like a small thing, it can be maddening to find the AF point accidentally switched to a corner of the screen causing you to miss focus on your subject. You can, of course, turn Touch and Drag AF off, but then you're losing a major feature of these cameras.

As expected, we're not the only ones to experience this problem. In the below video from photographer Michael Andrew (aka Michael the Maven), he notes that a third of respondents he polled said they were left eye dominant, like himself.

While he thinks the RP is a great camera, he has experienced the "left eye problem," which he says is not solely restricted to these two models.

"The left eye problem deals with cameras which lack a joystick and are asking photographers to use their right thumbs on the touch screen while looking through the viewfinder to move their focusing squares," he says. "The left eye problem is not unique to Canon, the Sony A6400 has the same issue, as well as a few other cameras. The reason I'm picking on Canon is because I have seen this three times now on the Canon R, RP and M50."

Watch his video below where he explains the problem while offering some possible solutions and workarounds. Then go visit his YouTube channel where Andrews discusses technical and usability issues relating to photography gear, including camera ergonomics.