Here Comes the New Canon Full Frame Mirrorless Camera

Here Comes the New Canon Full Frame Mirrorless Camera

Canon has done quite well in rounding out its full frame mirrorless camera lineup, offering models like the ultra-affordable EOS RP, the do-everything EOS R5, and the top-shelf EOS R3, with a few other models spread in between. Now that the line is well established, the time to start replacing older models is just about here, and that will begin in just a few months. 

Canon Rumors is reporting that we can expect a replacement for the EOS R in late 2022 or early 2023, which will take its place below the EOS R6. The EOS R was originally announced in late 2018 and was the company's first RF mount camera and first full frame mirrorless body. While it brought mostly modest specs, it has proven to be a nice all-around camera (I use one as a second body) and was a hugely important milestone for the company. In the meantime, the company has made impressively rapid advancements in their cameras' capabilities, and as such, we can probably expect some significant improvements in the new model, which may also be why it will receive a new model designation instead of being called the EOS R Mark II. While details are scarce at the moment, given that it will slot in below the EOS R6, we can likely expect its price to sit somewhere near $2,000. Hopefully, we will hear more soon! 

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

Log in or register to post comments
18 Comments

I am a bit puzzled. as a wedding photographer I tried to switch to Canon but I found the R unsuitable because of only one slot of card while I found the R6 to lack neccesary features such as a top LCD, quite usefull for the way I shoot and an awkard implementation of the photo-video switch

Coupled witht he overly warm auto white balance and the fact that the EVF had too much tearing while panning, I chose a camera from the competion

Not wanting the give up the idea of shooting the canon look, I was looking at an Rp with an 85 1.2 or 50 1.2 EF with adapter

This new camera that replaces the R, where does it fit?

It definitely won't be for pros or serious backed up photography because the R6 barely is, and it would supposed to be much bettter than the Rp to tempt you into spending the extra cash, and I can;t really see a slot there, any thoughts?

Perhaps the R5?

😀 I agree that the R isn't the best choice for a primary camera for wedding photography because of the lack of two card slots. That said, it does work well as a backup camera in a pinch. Meaning it stays in the bag until needed as these cameras are very reliable. I shoot with my R5 five days a week and it's only frozen once. I've had three firmware updates since then and never had any issues. I have access to my friends 30MP R whenever I need it. I use the RP as my backup. It's a full frame 26 MP which I know I can finish out the day with. I only need 20MP to shoot a wedding, but I lose the ability to crop in post without losing details.

I also have the GNARBOX which I back up all my shots for the day. For an extra layer of backup, the GNARBOX will upload wirelessly to my phone then to the cloud which then downloads it to my computer in Capture One 22. The RP doesn't have dual slots which makes me a little nervous but I often look at the images (as I should be doing regardless of how many cards it holds) to see if my shots are turning out the way I expect them to.

I never use the top LCD on my R5. I think it's pointless now all that data shows up in both the EVF and backscreen. Sure it's mandatory for the old DSLRs, but I find myself never looking at that. I've even reprogrammed the light button to switch to my strobe settings. Heck, I thought I would use it for astrophotography but still, I don't use it. I remote in with my phone so I'm not touching my camera whiles it's on the motorized tripod.

For Auto White Priority, the book says, “Choose for whiter whites in scenes lit by incandescent bulbs.” And for Auto Ambience Priority, “Choose for warmer whites in scenes lit by incandescent bulbs.” Essentially, Auto White Priority is the same as Auto White Balance, except it has a cooler tone under artificial light, and Auto Ambience Priority is the same as Auto White Balance, except it has a warmer tone under artificial light. In natural light, all three are the same.

As for AWB and AWB-W, Canon and many other brands offer AWB-W that prioritizes cooler tones under artificial lights. Which I always use for general photography. I'm so done with incandescent bulbs. That said, I never use AWB or AWB-W for weddings. I manually pick my color temperature for both indoors and outdoors. It's the reason why many photographers prefer to have their gallery to be a near consistence color temperature which is best for albums. I guess the best example is a wedding reception I photographed over Zoom, I forgot to switch to a fixed temperature and now I'm adjusting every image to attempt to make them match. I shoot RAW so I'm able to make the adjustments but it slows my workflow way down. I'm so pissed about it, that I've added it to my pre-flight checklist for weddings.

I have an EF-RF adapter with the control ring because I wanted to go back to the days when I used to adjust my aperture on the lens. There aren't enough dials on the R5. The adapter works very well as its main purpose is to increase the distance between the back of the lens and the sensor. I'll keep using it until I can afford to replace all my EF lenses with RF versions. I just used the adapter yesterday night to shoot the super moon on my EF 300mm lens.

Since all the talk about the new R MKII or whatever they will name it, I'm not counting my chickens until they hatch. But it's fun to speculate. 😊

With some luck, they'll add a card slot like Nikon did with the Z6/7. I'm definitely getting this if it has two slots. I basically want an R6 with a bit less imagage stabilization, fewer frames per second, and worse video specs but ideally 24mp. If that's what this is, I'm in. I was hoping that's what the R7 was going to be

There R is an excellent camera.
The MP count is a sweet spot and 99% do not need 2 card slots. They lived for years with one with no problem. 2 slots is a snob thing. Why not 3 or 4?
All it needs is IBIS and the amazing R3/R7 AF and remove the touch bar to make it a perfect midrange caera.

"2 slots is a snob thing." No, it's added insurance. A pro should do EVERYTHING possible to ensure a quality outcome. Yes, card failure is rare, it's only happened to me once, but that was enough to teach me that a second slot is added peace of mind. But, I lost no data because the SD card that failed was in a 5DIII and right next to it was a CF card.

But, it's up to the individual to choose. Today's pro bodies come with two slots. Well, most. Nikon decided that their first Z7 iteration would only have one...big mistake. Note that the second iteration didn't make the same error. Just a passing thought; you shoot a wedding. Dad is coming up the aisle with his daughter. You fire away and after the procession is over, you find that your single card failed. It's going to be fun telling the family that you missed that moment because your one and only card failed.

You can tell them that two card slots were made for snobs. I'm sure you'll be forgiven.

I've never "needed" two card slots and have lost 80% of the photos I took on a great vacation, along with the last photos I took of a now deceased family member. Sure woulda been nice to have two card slots.

Yep. This happened to me years ago on our Eurotrip. I lost all my Venice photos. I meant to Clean the Sensor, but, muscle memory went for Format. I stored the card until I got back home. I tried several recovery software. They couldn't recover anything.

I feel that for work two cards is a good option, but I never use two cards at once. In the very very early 2000, cards would fail from time to time and they cost a fortune per MB (confirm, not TB). Second slots didn't exist, therefore not an option and we lived with it. This was not a big concern coming from film where we would take much bigger chances. But anyway, when I did wedding with my first digital, I would bring multiple cards and replace them regularly and when I got my second camera, I divided that limited risk that much less. Most of my work is tethered product photography now. I put card in the camera, but that's just extra back up and prefer to back up on drives as the cards wouldn't have the product names and it would be a major pain to rename what's on the card.
I don't think that it would be in Canon's interest to put a second slot in their low end full frame model.

"I don't think that it would be in Canon's interest to put a second slot in their low end full frame model." I agree. But most working pros won't be using entry level cameras. As it is, just about all pro bodies come with 2 slots.

As far as the film days and the early one card camera days, that's all there was so it was fingers crossed that all went well. Today, we have the option of a little extra insurance. For a working pro, that has to be a blessing. Now, that is mainly for one off shoots like weddings or special birthdays, stuff like that that can't be shot again. Studio work, in most cases, can be shot again. It may be inconvenient, but it is there. But, as you mentioned Benoit, more and more studio work is done tethered. Now that's real insurance!

Take the R6, remove the 2nd SD slot, remove IBIS, cripple the FPS, bump up the resolution and bam, new midrange FF camera.

I owned the original R and replaced it with the R5. My only real complaints about it were mostly due to its dumb ergonomics and mediocre video. The “mFn” (touch sensitive strip) bar was just bad and occupied prime thumb real estate. The video capabilities were behind the competition at the time it was released and are somewhat painful to work with today. It has a severe crop for 4k and is limited to 8-bit. That aside, it’s still the second highest resolution camera they have in the R-mount line. The autofocus, while not class leading, is accurate and easy to use. It’s a great portrait camera and good for real estate, which is what I used it for. The lack of a second card slot or IBIS were not issues for me.

Having owned the R since it was released I find it a great camera for most uses except video. I was hoping for a software upgrade from Canon to include focus stacking, but it never came and neither did anything else in the way of improvements. Infact after about a year tney forgot about it altogether. Not a very good marketing ploy for keeping long standing customers on board. I suppose they know that a large investment in lenses keeps you with them. Sorry for the beef, but looking at a replacement I can't see where it will come in below tne R6, because if tne R Mk2 is going to receive the options now on tne R7 and keep its 30MP sensor wouldn't that make it better than the R6 with its 20MP sensor. That's whyI haven't gone for the R6 because I do macro and landscape photography and crop images often. I look forward to seeing the new specs when they come out.

The R7 is a high density APS-C camera meant to give wildlife and sports photographers more "pixels on duck". It has the same basic sensor as the 90D and M6 Mark II. No one confused those cameras being "above" the 20MO EOS 1D X Mark II. Megapixels are not the be all and end all some folks think they are

If it sits below the R6, it's hardly midrange; it's entry.

Any R replacement should rightly sit between the R6 and R5.

There's plenty of room between the $900 RP and the $2500 R6/R6 Mark II for another FF camera with features and performance in between the two.