Canon has officially announced its mirrorless full-frame camera and associated lenses. The EOS R system comes out in October, the camera costs 2540 euros. At the end of December, the RF 28-70 mm f / 2L lens comes out for 3,300 euros.

Canon says that the EOS R system is designed to enable better optical performance. The new RF lens mount has the same diameter of 54mm as the EF-mount, but because the glass is placed closer to the sensor due to the absence of the mirror, new designs are possible. This results in the arrival of an RF 28-70 mm f / 2L USM lens. Such a bright zoom lens was not yet available for Canon SLR cameras.

The EOS R includes a 30.3-megapixel sensor of the full-frame format. It is a Dual Pixel CMOS sensor, where the pixels are also used for phase detection focus. Almost the entire sensor surface can be used for autofocus: the full height and 88 percent of the width. When automatic selection of the focal point, 143 areas are used. With manual selection, users can set the focal point to 5655 different positions. Canon also provides the EOS R with eye-detection auto focus, with face recognition focusing on the subject’s eye.

Due to the absence of the mirror and the optical viewfinder, the EOS R camera is a lot smaller than Canon’s DSLRs. The housing has dimensions of 136x98x84mm and weighs 660 grams including the battery and the memory card. The camera uses the LP-E6 batteries, which are also used in some dslr’s of the brand. In the EOS R the battery is good for making 370 photos according to the cipa standard.

The maximum shooting speed of the EOS R is 8bps, but no continuous autofocus is possible. With continuous autofocus, the speed drops to 5bps. Canon provides the device with a 4k movie function with up to 30fps and choices like 25fps and 24fps. When filming in 4k, the whole sensor is not used, but a crop is made of 1.8x. The bitrate is up to 480Mbit / s and the Canon Log profile is available. The HDMI output sends a 10bit signal with 4: 2: 2 compression, which can be recorded with an external recorder.

Canon gives the housing a 3.2 “touch screen that can be tilted The electronic viewfinder uses an OLED panel with 3.7 million pixels, photos are stored on an SD card, the single card slot has support for fast uhs-II memory cards.

Canon EOS R (1/11)

At the back of the camera, where the user places his thumb, there is a ‘Multi function’ bar. This is a touch-sensitive button that users can swipe over and tap on. This makes it possible, for example, to change the autofocus mode and to change the iso value or white balance.

Canon introduces four RF lenses together with the system. The lenses are equipped with a so-called Control Ring on the front, which can be set to, for example, set the shutter speed, aperture, ISO value or exposure compensation. First comes a 24-105 mm f / 4L IS USM lens. A 50mm f / 1.2L USM will follow later, and by the end of this year the 28-70mm f / 2L USM will have to be released, along with a 35mm IS STM Macro lens.

Canon also releases several adapters to use EF and EF-S lenses on the EOS R camera. The simplest version offers no extra functionality, there is a more expensive version with a Control Ring and early next year there are even more expensive versions that have built-in filters, such as a variable nd filter and a circular polarization filter.

Canon sells the EOS R from October as a loose body for 2540 euros. At the same time, the 24-105 mm lens comes out for 1220 euros. At the end of October, the bright 50mm lens comes onto the market and by the end of this year the 28-70 mm f / 2 and the 35 mm f / 1.8 Macro have to find their way to the shops. Canon also releases a battery grip and a flash for the system.

Product Recommended retail price availabilty
Canon EOS R 2540 euros Mid October
Battery handle BG-E22 340 euros Mid October
RF 24-105 mm f / 4L IS USM 1220 euros Mid October
RF 50mm f / 1.2L USM 2540 euros The end of October
RF 28-70 mm f / 2L USM 3300 euros Late December
RF 35mm f / 1.8 Macro IS STM 560 euros Late December
Mount adapter EF-EOS R 120 euros Mid October
Control ring mount adapter EF-EOS R 230 euros mid-October
Mount adapter EF-EOS R with variable nd filter 460 euros February 2019
Mount adapter EF-EOS R with circular polarizing filter 340 euros February 2019
Speedlite EL-100 230 euros Mid October
The announcement of the EOS R system will follow a few weeks after the announcement of the Nikon Z-system . Both Nikon and Canon now have a mirrorless full frame camera in their range, something competitor Sony has had for several years. According to rumors , Panasonic also plans to announce a mirrorless camera system with full frame sensor this month. That would be on the market next year.

Canon and Nikon are the two largest players on the camera market and long stuck to traditional SLRs for their top models. In recent years, non-mirrored system cameras have evolved over time and are aiming for mirror reflexes on various levels. Tweakers published a background article at the beginning of this year.