After a long wait, a development announcement and an extensive teaser campaign, Canon has fully revealed its new flagship EOS R System mirrorless camera, the Canon EOS R1.
The legacy EOS 1 series finally makes its mirrorless debut. Described by Canon as “ahead of the game”, the Canon EOS R1 is a 24-megapixel camera aimed squarely at professional photojournalism, sports and wildlife photographers.
At the heart of the new camera is a 24.2 megapixel back-illuminated sensor developed by Canon and a new DIGIC X and DIGIC Accelerator processing pipeline. The full-frame sensor promises improved readout speed, reduced rolling shutter, and improved autofocus performance.
Thanks to the most powerful processing engine and fast sensor, the R1 can read and analyze large volumes of information, which forms the core of its autofocus system. Canon says the camera can understand and differentiate between different sports, predict body movement and deliver Canon’s best autofocus performance. The sensor also has a new design with different cross-type autofocus pixels, which improves its performance when shooting vertically.
Like the R3, the R1 also includes Eye Control AF, which allows the photographer to move the autofocus area through the viewfinder by looking at where they want to focus. This feature now works even better, thanks to a new, larger electronic viewfinder. Up from 5.76 million dots on the R3, the R1’s OLED EVF has 9.44 million dots. It’s also bigger, going from 0.76x to 0.9x magnification.
Returning to processing, Canon hopes to separate the R1 from its competition in this area. Although the R1’s sensor may only be 24 megapixels, the camera can upscale images to 96 megapixels in-camera, albeit only with JPEG files. Deep learning algorithms also drive new in-camera noise reduction features. In addition to the artificial intelligence that helps autofocus performance, there’s plenty of new AI technology in the R1.
In other ways, the R1 is a bit more traditional. It sticks with a typical image sensor, albeit stacked – no global shutter sensor here. The R1 is still Canon’s fastest camera, however, capable of shooting up to 40 frames per second (full resolution RAW images with full autofocus) using the electronic shutter. The camera reaches 12 FPS when using its mechanical shutters. The R1 promises a large buffer (over 1,000 frames) and can shoot up to 20 frames in its burst mode before half-second capture.
The R1 has two CFexpress Type B card slots, both using the CFexpress 2.0 standard instead of the new CFexpress 4.0 standard. So far, no cameras use CFexpress 4.0, despite the potential performance benefits it offers. The camera has a full-sized HDMI port and independent microphone and headphone jacks.
As for videos, the R1 can shoot 4K/60p footage. It can also record video at 6K resolution, which is tied to RAW recording, a relatively intensive way to shoot video. Alongside a faster sensor readout, which means reduced rolling shutter, the R1 has a distinct advantage over the R3 for video: the ability to capture Canon C-Log2.
Price and availability
The Canon EOS R1, first teased and now fully revealed today, won’t hit stores until sometime this fall. When it launches after its long introduction period, the Canon R1 will cost $6,299, putting it in the same price bracket as the Sony a9 III ($5,999). The Canon EOS R1 will launch for $200 less than the R3 in 2021, though that camera is now down to $4,500 after a permanent price cut and subsequent Canon discount.
Image credits: Canon