I read Sarah’s early review (October) of the Canon EOS-R, and having just had one on loan from CPS, I thought I’d offer my own, recent thoughts…
I was given the use of a EOS-R body and the R-EF adapter with the control ring. I didn’t ask to borrow a R mount lens, because I wanted to see how the camera did with my existing lenses…if I buy one of these, I’ll be using it with my existing EF lenses. For most of the time I used the R, it was paired with a 24-105L. It was also used for a morning at the Butterfly Pavilion in Westminster where I coupled it with a 25mm extension tube and Canon 100-400L II.
I found that once coupled with the lens adapter and an EF lens, it wasn’t a whole lot lighter than my 6DII and the same lens. I didn’t have a scale to weigh them on, but since I have two 24-105’s I was able to put one on each body and see how much relative heft they had. If you’re looking to save some weight and still use your existing EF lenses with a lens adapter, the weight difference, I think, will be minor.
I set up the R’s shooting settings to be identical to my 6DII so the output would be similar to what I normally view. I found the R’s RAW images to be very sharp, with excellent color rendition, and I found it’s dynamic range to be very, very good. I was very pleased with the RAW images from the R.
Operationally, I found it to be pretty similar to the 6DII, but I also found that I wished it had the rear control wheel. It sometimes took a while to make changes without the rear wheel. That said, the control ring on the adapter can be programmed to do almost anything that you might do with the rear wheel, so if that is the route you go, you can somewhat make up for the missing control wheel. I programmed the control ring on the adapter to change the camera’s ISO, a setting that can take a few steps to change otherwise. The articulating LCD is a huge plus since I spend a lot of time working at odd angles. I could not use my RC-6 infrared remote on the EOS-R, but the Canon Connect app on my phone linked up to it pretty easily and allowed me to shoot remotely.
My biggest concern to using mirrorless cameras is that the viewfinder is also a LCD screen, and typically they do not have great resolution. The viewfinder LCD was VERY sharp, and almost as good as a mirrored body.
I never could figure out the the control bar on the back of the camera’s body (above the rear LCD), and it appears to be one of the universally disliked features of the EOS-R. I agree with those sentiments.
I’m not getting too technical here, just giving one users opinion. Based on nothing more than image quality (and that’s what it’s all about, right?), I like the EOS-R. I like it A LOT.
I’ll be happy to answer any questions.
Anyone wanna buy a 6D and a 6DII?