Canon’s first mirrorless camera EOS R has been brought to me for user’s review bundled with the 24-105 f/4 L IS USM kit lens. As I’m a Nikon user, it took a bit of time to get into the groove. And once I’m in, I started exploring all the beauties lied in this little giant. I found this beauty most suitable for portrait, landscape and street. So I started exploring portrait with my little twin angels. And I found some amazing results while using different light conditions along with minimum to maximum ISO settings at the comfort of great control-customisation in exposure and other settings. The first three things that immediately caught my interest were the Multi-function button, control ring on the lens and slide/tap Multi-Function bar which could boast of some out of the box new technologies for me. Mf button is the easiest way to tweak your on screen controls over five different essential settings(optional from ISO, DRIVE MODE, AF, WB, FLASH EXPOSURE COMPENSATION, PICTURE STYLE & METERING MODE) which proved to me very handy while shooting in changing light conditions…as I did the shoot in complete manual mode(except focusing). The slide/tap MF bar was a great help again for instant control of the on screen controls components, like AF, ISO and WB. I really enjoyed the eye tracking through this. Eye detection AF may be the biggest advantage of this little beauty to bring forth a tack sharp image while shooting portrait in extreme low light with aperture kept wide open. In the execution, the control ring, another innovative device incorporated in the system, this time on the lens body, to keep the exposure controls more handy, played now a major role. I assigned ISO with the ring and used it optimally to get the exact desired exposure through EVF or the screen without checking the value every time. Though it leaves a danger of spoiling your shot with high ISO noises, but I took up the challenge to serve the testing purpose better. But to my surprise, the high ISO result too came out with great success. In 2500 ISO, I got the best shot of the series.
ISO 2500, F/7.1, S-1/200sec
In 40,000 ISO, though good bit of noises were there, but it was very much presentable.
ISO 40000, F/4, S-1/100sec
So for me, in the shoot, ISO performance, focusing and ease of controlling the exposure settings steal the show completely. The images are tack focused with the help of eye detection and dual pixel on sensor AF system with huge 5655 AF points spread all over the screen, by which I could focus any required point on my screen without recomposing the frame. Images successfully passed the extensive test of highlights and shadow with the great performance of exposure latitude with flying colours.
The other factor which moved me a lot was the manual focusing system…the accuracy in extreme low light was never so perfect even in the days of complete manuals.
The non-presence of IBIS on the camera body (which is present in all other leading mirror less makes) might be a cause of concern, but I found it extremely fine when found the nano USM technology on the lens to perform an ultimate silent way to find the tack focusing point in no time…a big YES reason from me for this little monster.
The single SD card slot is just the only concern for my way of rigorous travel, event or festival shoot where many a times I can’t even change the card. And obviously I would advocate assigning some more tasks to the front and rear dials.
