17 June 2019

Dustin Abbott: “Canon EOS RP Review”

Like most of Canon’s recent camera releases, the Canon EOS RP is a mixed bag. In some ways I am more inclined to be charitable to it, as I enjoy enjoying the camera due to have wonderfully familiar ergonomics and that it fits the hand so much better than many competitors and because the price point is so reasonable. For these reasons I suspect a lot of people will end up buying an EOS RP. I certainly would choose it over a Canon 6D Mark II for the simple reason that the autofocus system is better by orders of magnitude and the new RF lenses (while expensive) have been excellent. The seamless experience in using EF lenses via the Canon adapters is also compelling. But Canon’s “blind-eye” approach to what competitors offer has become somewhat vexing. The EOS RP’s sensor is not really competitive with much of anything (it is surpassed by a number of APS-C sensors in certain areas) and the video performance is near insulting… to me. Some people could care less about video, and others think that dynamic range is for bad photographers or obsessive internet pixel-peepers, so these limitations won’t matter to some. I think that those who are not put off by the EOS RP’s faults will find a camera that is genuinely fun to use, and, at $1299 in the US, the EOS RP represents the current lowest price of entry into the world of full frame mirrorless cameras. That alone will probably assure that Canon will sell a bunch of RP’s.

Dustin Abbott

As a follow-up to the Canon EOS R review, I wanted to share a couple of my own observations. Over the past months I’ve participated in a couple of workshops to test the new EOS mirrorless system – and also Sony mirrorless cameras and lenses. Overall I must agree with this conclusion about the EOS RP – it’s the only camera I tested, since I have no intention of spending extra for the EOS R. The biggest weakness seems to be indeed the sensor; I’ve been disappointed by the amount of noise the camera generates, even under relatively good lighting. It seems comparable to the performance of my older APS-C camera, the EOS 760D, which is now more than three years old(!). In my first testing session I’ve also been put off by the EVF, which seemed to activate rather slowly when the camera was on stand-by, compared to the instantaneous image through the classic DSLR mirror. On my second testing session tough, I haven’t felt the same lag, so maybe I just needed to accommodate to the new system.

Otherwise the camera feels great in the hand, sturdier than my current EOS 760D, with a similar articulating screen (which I love), but with more customizability and fine-grained control. I’m just not sure that this justifies the upgrade cost for me, as a hobby photographer. I’m pretty sure I’ll switch at some point, and I’m confident that mirrorless will get a lot of improvements and updates over the coming years, but I see no reason to rush things form my side.

I spent a few hours last night poking around the Web reading the conclusions of reviews of the RP, and here’s my meta-analysis summary report:

It might not technically be the greatest camera with the latest features, but it’s a lot of fun to shoot with and the reviewer enjoyed it

That’s all the reviews I read in a nutshell.

So my question is, how did strange concepts like being a lot of fun to shoot with and enjoyment somehow get separated from our notions of what a great camera is?

Mike Johnston

Since I mentioned testing Sony mirrorless cameras as well, I have a couple of impressions to share. I tested the A7R II, with two different lenses, the Sony FE 90mm F2.8 Macro and Sony FE 24-70mm F2.8. I have to say, I wasn’t particularly impressed. Coming from Canon, the user interface is a mess (so much so that the first time around I shot everything in jpeg, even though I went into the menu and enabled RAW capture, but apparently not in the right spot…) and the articulating screen is horrible (it seems impossible to use it with a portrait oriented camera). On top of that, the focusing felt inconsistent, at least with the FE 90mm F2.8 Macro compared to my EOS 760D and an EF 50mm F1.8 STM lens. Under the same conditions, using a video light, Canon delivered better focusing, albeit with much higher levels of noise, while the Sony photos are mostly soft – I’ve used mostly the same aperture on both cameras, f/3.2. But missed focus is almost impossible to correct in post-processing, while digital noise can be handled, so I guess I still prefer Canon to Sony any day (not to mention the better color Canon delivers).

To conclude, a couple of photos with the Canon EOS RP:

Spheres (Canon EOS RP + RF 24-105mm F4 L)
Spheres (Canon EOS RP + RF 24-105mm F4 L)
Astronaut (Canon EOS RP + RF 50mm F1.2 L)
Astronaut (Canon EOS RP + RF 50mm F1.2 L)
Mona Lisa smile (Canon EOS RP + RF 35mm F1.8 macro)
Mona Lisa smile (Canon EOS RP + RF 35mm F1.8 macro)
Memories of Paris (Canon EOS RP + RF 35mm F1.8 macro)
Memories of Paris (Canon EOS RP + RF 35mm F1.8 macro)

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