I have had my eye on several Mirrorless cameras in the past year. My interest was split among the Sony a7 III, the Fuji X-T3, and the Canon EOS R.
When Canon sent me an email last month that the Canon EOS R’s price was being discounted by $700, it was a no brainer. I quickly purchased the camera and lens. I ordered it before Christmas and it was delivered on December 19, which made a nice Christmas present to myself.
My first impression when I took it out of the box, was that it was much smaller and looked a little different than a Canon DSLR. As a previous Canon user, the controls are familiar; however, I have had to learn many new things about the camera. To understand them, I have visited YouTube many times. Still, the best aid has been David Busath’s book on the Canon EOS R. David does an excellent job of explaining how to use the features and also provides a refresher on lighting and exposure. I highly recommend David’s books which cover most of the popular DSLR and Mirrorless cameras.
The Canon EOS R is the tenth digital camera I have owned since I went completely digital in 2003. The majority of the cameras I owned were Canons, except for three, including a Nikon, a Sony, and an Olympus. Not only have cameras changed since then, so have my preferences and genres of photography. So far, the camera is beyond my expectations as I continue to learn about it.
In a nutshell, the reasons I like it are:
- The small size (because there is no mirror)
- The large articulating LCD screen
- The touch focus
- The face and eye detection
- The RF lens mount
- The built-in time-lapse feature
- The capability of using all Canon lenses with a special adaptor
- Over 5,000 AF points resulting is very sharp images
- Can connect to your smartphone using Blue Tooth/Wifi
In addition to the features listing above, I also love this camera is because it has an electronic viewfinder that shows precisely how the picture looks, including all Picture Style (color, contrast, etc.) settings, distortion corrections, white balance, highlights and shadows and exposure all LIVE as you look through the finder. It will be an excellent camera for travel and working on location. The camera feels great in my hands, and I cannot wait to use it when I visit Panama next month.
Will I stop using my Canon 5d Mark 1V? I probably will not. That camera is a workhorse, and I will continue to keep it in my arsenal as a second camera.
If you would like to read more information about the Canon EOS R check out the Canon website or Google the Canon EOS R and read many of the reviews.
