The Canon EOS R Real World Review with Kai Wong

You’ve been palming your credit card and staring at your cart on B&H debating with yourself to finally press the “Place Order” button for four weeks, but you're still unsure. Will your full-frame mirrorless dreams meet your real world expectations? Will the hype of new lenses for the RF mount and the promise of never before seen glass like the RF 28-70mm f/2L USM Lens be what wins you over? 

Kai Wong has taken the Canon EOS R on the streets and given a play by play of what it’s like using the new full-frame mirrorless camera from Canon. In many ways it’s what you expect from the camera brand; a consistent and well thought out camera system that takes most of its design and software cues from the previous full-frame cameras in the Canon line up. That, unfortunately, may be where you and Kai begin to scratch your heads knowing that Canon can do some things much better but then they simply don’t put those options into their system launch camera body.

Kai delves into the stills portion of the camera body and shows how well this first generation full-frame mirrorless from Canon performs and may be a great option for those looking to get a leg up and into the RF system. It’s great to see how a more real world test of the auto focus system can dispel any wild expectations for those looking at this new body for their kit. Kai also goes through the video options for this new camera and how working with the cropping and EF-S mount lenses affects the functionality of the body overall. If you’re looking at this camera specifically for video then definitely watch this portion to see if you are willing and able to deal with the limitations that seemingly just don’t make much sense, especially to Kai. 

Have you placed your order for the Canon EOS R or the RF 28-70mm f/2L USM Lens are you still on the fence with adding the new mirrorless system? If you’re using any other mirrorless systems, what is the Canon EOS R doing better or worse in contrast to that system?

JT Blenker's picture

JT Blenker, Cr. Photog., CPP is a Photographic Craftsman and Certified Professional Photographer who also teaches workshops throughout the USA focusing on landscape, nightscape, and portraiture. He is the Director of Communications at the Dallas PPA and is continuing his education currently in the pursuit of a Master Photographer degree.

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28 Comments

My friend, seems like you didn’t even watch the video or what?
No dual card slot is where everything fail already. Camera is for amateurs.
Cropping the 4K is a miserable experience.
And loosing the histogram, Auto ISO issue. Noisy hi iso performance, DR in image quality is behind the competition...
They will have to fix this all up next year. But Sonykon won’t be sitting and staring during that.

Too mean haha

Because nobody ever touched up their photos in LR right? So “colors” are a huge deal...they’re not by the way, I was being sarcastic.

Sony and Nikon colors aren’t shit either, that’s nothing but marketing drivel parroted now ya fanboys of Canon.

Ps I love canon, and Sony...I use them both professionally and I have zero problem with colors.

I don’t use presets but I see your point shooting weddings. Plus mix in a little OCD in there (not that you are) but the eye reacts to color differently.

It’s just something that’s never ever discussed in motion picture production at all...cameras and lenses aren’t chosen for color. Ever.

It all gets changed and unified depending on the narrative it’s helping to illustrate.

Most photos I work with are medium format, but again...it’s about focal length, lighting and story of the photo, it’s never aboht thr colour...it all changes a million ways anyway.

Weddings I admit are a breed of their own, I won’t argue that, but documentary films aren’t shot on 100k cameras often. GH5 is popping up more and more actually for B cam and gimbal stuff.

But they do have online editors who will correct every frame.

Weddings...workflow and taste matter, you guys handle an insane amount of volume.

I do shoot both Sony and Canon, I cut between them often. I have to grade different but I know what I have to apply to each to match. Wouldn’t recommend it for your workflow, camera bodies need to
Match so there is a consistency; just too
Many photos

The cinema industry spent endless time debating and choosing both film and processing for colour reasons in the day. And debating telecine systems and operators. The default camera presets are really pretty much like your choice of telecine and artist/operator. Easier if you choose the right one (for you) in the first place. People look better on Canon (I've regularly shot Canon, Sony, Fuji stills).

"The new 50 1.2 and 28-70 f2 are ridiculous, I can’t wait to try them in the real world."

I guess this sentence sum it up all!

3? who needs 3 of the same anything ? you only have 2 hands.

5 cameras for a wedding ? nope. maybe instead you should get ones with 2 card slots if you are gonna capture magical days like weddings. i'm not one of those guys that says you have to have 2 slots to have a "pro" camera, but for a wedding, you need 2 slots in your camera.

By strategically shooting multiple bodies, a photographer is effectively providing worst case disaster recovery. The bride will not be left without photo memories. With the price of bodies these days (used), shooting on two to four bodies and not changing lenses in the field makes a lot of sense.

The three look pretty cozy, that’s for sure.

Ryan Stone -- People switch brands often. Sam Hurd switching to Canon doesn't make up the fact that The EOS-R is also a turd the same with the Nikon Z7. No matter how much you try to defend the EOS-R, it lacks a lot of important features. Don't try to tell us that it has less restrictions than the Z7 when its actually worse. The massive 4k crop and the softest 4k video, less fps, etc. etc. The video Af isn't that stellar either according to Jordan Drake from Dpreview. And by the way, the greenish and yellowish cast you see is created by Adobe. It doesn't happen on Capture One. Watch Ted Forbes and Matt Granger's comparison of Lightroom and Capture One. Lightroom and Photoshop has that yellowish/greenish cast (on Sony and Nikon) on raw files that you Canon fanboys love to point out but its very easy to fix just by using Capture One. You cannot fix many of the EOS-R's restrictions. The turd EOS-R is the camera of the year to you? OMG hahahahaha what a fanboy...

indeed. a turd that creates images like this.

Kai is a very entertaining guy, but his reviews focus way too much on video and jokes. You can never tell if it's a good stills camera.

As the commentary said: "Kai delves into the stills portion of the camera body and shows how well this first generation full-frame mirrorless from Canon performs and may be a great option for those looking to get a leg up and into the RF system."
So he does go into the stills side of things—while managing to stay entertaining.

No he doesn't. I watched the video a few days ago and was frustrated regarding the lack of info regarding stills. He mostly talks about video.

Yet another Canon R / Nikon Z review... oh boy!

My thoughts..

Canon oh Canon, what's happened to you?
This EOS R dud, another "6D Mark 2."

Remember, I beg you, the first 7D?
Back then Canon faithful were top of the tree

Back before in your Boardroom was heard
"Captive Client", "Cinema EOS", and "Let's sell them a turd!"

You've crippled the video, with footage so soft
Enough to turn even the staunchest fan off

A USB charger for 190 bucks?
No time-lapse, no IBIS; it all frankly sucks

And let's not forget the exhorbitant price
For an out of date sensor? It's just not very nice.

Canon oh Canon, wherefore art thee?
Sayonara big C, hello A7 Mark 3

Quite brilliant and all true. Still very happy with my 5DS R (purchase used from someone "upgrading" to mirrorless) and my 5D III. Forget about video on Canon though. Have an A6300 for that.