2024 has definitely been an interesting year for Canon. There have been some great professional cameras released that we’re only starting to learn and create with, along with some innovative lenses designs. Canon even took care of the golfers out there, which is true innovation for an imaging company.
You may or may not care, but I figured I’d write my opinion of Canon’s new camera products in 2024, and I imagine Richard will do the same thing in the coming days. We don’t always agree on things, outside of the inevitble heartbreak that the Toronto Maple Leafs will provide.
First up, I’ll talk about lenses. We’ve seen some interesting releases that have been surprising, controversial and downright impressive.
Right off the bat, my favourite lens of 2024 is the RF-S 3.9mm f/3.5 Dual Fisheye. Only because of the absurdity that it even exists. There would have been many other super-niche lenses Canon could have brought to the world, but no….
Favourite: RF 28-70mm f/2.8L IS USM
In all seriousness, I really like the idea and execution of the RF 28-70mm f/2.8 IS STM. A lot of us have enjoyed our time with what I call the “Cinderblock”, the RF 28-70mm f/2L USM. However, that lens was out of reach price wise for a lot of people, along with being extremely big and heavy.
Canon made some great design choices with the RF 28-70 f/2.8L IS STM, first by using a UD (Ultra-low dispersion glass) for the front element, which we first saw in the brilliant RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1L IS USM. This choice was a big part of the reduction in size and weight.
Canon has also continued to advance the capabilities and reduce the size of STM motors. Of the STM lenses that I have used, the RF 28-70 is the best when it comes to autofocus performance. The STM motor in the RF 10-20mm f/4L IS STM is great and all, but at 10mm, what’s not in focus?
If you’re looking for a small, “affordable”, constant aperture, standard range zoom lens, this should be on your list of considerations. If you’re on the fence, it may be worth a rental if that’s available to you. I have used the lens on the EOS R50 and EOS R3 for various duties, and I don’t regret picking one up, even at full price.
There will be endless comparisons with this lens and the RF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM, but for me, the insanely small size wins out, I do have the Cinderblock available when I want a workout.
I would expect that this will be a lens that will drop below $1000 in the new year once new rebate programs start.
Looks Impressive: RF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM Z
I haven’t had the pleasure of using one of these lenses. It’s large, it’s expensive, but it’s exactly what a lot of sports photographers and others asked for. An internal zoom 70-200 f/2.8 with a short zoom throw and the ability to take teleconverters. Check, check and check.
The added bonus? This may be the best zoom lens Canon or anyone else has ever made from an optical standpoint. We have seen some very impressive testing, but we’re going to have to wait and see what a larger pool of technical reviewers have to say.
Controversial: RF 35mm f/1.4L VCM
Canon finally addressed the missing fast wide angle prime lenses, first with the RF 35mm f/1.4L VCM and later with the RF 24mm f/1.4L VCM. As you know, after 30 years of not giving us a new f/1.4 50mm, they finally announced an RF 50mm f/1.4 VCM. The latter two have not shipped yet, but I do have the 50 on preorder and I’m looking forward to it.
Now the RF 35mm f/1.4L VCM wasn’t without some controversy. To keep the price and size down for the lens, there were design choices that haven’t been well received by everyone. Most notably, the extreme amount of distortion on a modern 35mm lens, which Canon wants software to correct.
I don’t yet have an opinion one way or another about optical designs utilizing software correction. I respect both camps on this debate, but I think it’s probably going to be a big part of lens design choices in the future. Unless people don’t buy them.
One should be impressed that Canon has made all three of these new hybrid lenses nearly identical in size and weight and it’ll be interesting to see how all three of these lenses are received in the coming year or two.
The Cameras of 2024
On the camera side of things, Canon had four major releases in 2024. Two on the EOS R side of things as well as two new Cinema EOS cameras.
Choosing a favourite between the EOS R5 Mark II and EOS R1 is probably pointless. The EOS R1 was a no-brainer for my use case, and I’ll likely never own an EOS R5 Mark II. However, far more of you will buy an EOS R5 Mark II, and you’re not wrong.
Both of these cameras are still in their infancy, and we’re going to see a lot of features and tweaks added to them via firmware over the coming months and years. User feedback is going to influence a lot of things that will come to the cameras, along with things Canon already has in the works.
The Cinema EOS side of things, we got the Cinema EOS C80 which is a follow-up to the much loved Cinema EOS C70 and we also had the arrival of Cinema EOS C400, which has been well received.
I don’t have near enough experience on the cinema side of things to form an opinion on these two cameras, but hopefully it’s a sign of things to come for the Cinema EOS line. If Canon wants to sell the more expensive Cinema EOS cameras in their lineup, they need compelling “entry-level” offerings.
Not all was great.
One of things that did bother me, was the quality of the firmware in the EOS R5 Mark II at launch, as there were a lot of major bugs. I feel a lot of them had no business existing. I don’t know how Canon tests cameras and software across the lineup, but it was clear that the EOS R5 Mark II needed to be in more photographer and videographer hands prior to release. I really hope this was an outlier and Canon cameras coming in the next year won’t suffer from the same issues.
Thus far with the EOS R1? I haven’t run into any bugs and I don’t see a lot of them being reported on the forum or elsehwere. However that’s a small sample size and we’ll keep looking for issues anyone may be experiencing.
Internet Hate
There has been a lot of nonsense things written about the EOS R1, and it’s all based around pixel count. One of the latest published comments about the EOS R1 that caused a headshake was in regards to print size. Yes, you can print 60″ wide with a 24MP file no problem, period.
Source: Being a part owner/operator of a PRO-6600
Beyond that, it’d be a fools errand to even bother trying to discuss the rest of the chatter. All I can say is to make sure you’re listening to the right people if you’re in the market for any of the remarkable cameras from any brand in the higher end segment of the market.
Conclusion
All-in-all, it was a really good year from Canon on the product side of things. I am looking forward to 2025 and all the APS-C cameras that are in the pipeline. We also have the EOS R6 Mark III to look forward to in the early part of next year.
Now if you’re shooting with a, EOS M, 90D or an original EOS R and you’re happy? Just keep being happy, none of this matters.
Header Image:
(From Left to Right) Mr. Ikuo Niimura, Sr. General Manager, IMG Development Planning Center, IMG Development Unit, Imaging Business Operations, Canon Inc., Mr. Tetsuji Kiyomi, Deputy Chief Executive, Imaging Business Operations, Canon Inc. Mr. Tiger Ishii, Executive Officer, Canon Inc. President & COO, Canon Marketing Asia, Mr. Toshiaki Nomura, President & CEO, Canon India, and Mr. Vishesh Magoo, Assistant Director, Imaging Communication Business Centre, Canon India, at the launch event of Canon EOS R1 and EOS R5 Mark II in Bangalore.
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The R3 had cleaner ISO in almost all iso settings. Even 12,800…the R1 also had noise reduction on.
Method was just simply having a lens cap on and going through the iso range with shutter speed, aperture, kelvin, and fps matching each camera.
I’m hoping I did something wrong … I really want to keep the R1 and sell the R3, but the performance in low light is too good to ignore on the R3 in video mode. I’ll just use the R5 II for daytime video. R1 might not be in the cards with what I have.
In all seriousness, though, I got the R5 Mark II to supplement my original R5 and it's been doing a great job overall. My only complaint so far is about the button info message that appears the first time you do review after turning on the camera. That'll probably be fixed in the next firmware update.
But seriously... 45MP, 30fps ES with pre-shooting and extremely minimal rolling shutter, plus most of the video complaints about the R5 solved? Plus other goodies like eye control? Honestly, until/unless they come out with an R5 with a global shutter, I'm not sure what would get me to upgrade from this. Like, needing to use an external recorder for video + the 30fps ES for baseball were enough to get me to the Mark II. But at this point... hard to top that. It's a far cry from the old DSLR days. And I still love those old hunks of metal.
At this point, the "aspirational" upgrade I might make one day is to go from my EF 70-200/2.8 L IS III to the RF 70-200/2.8 Z. But I have no pressing need to do so. The EF III is still excellent (as easy as it may be to forget it). Actually, in general, I think we live in a sort of unheralded golden age of great cheap DSLR lenses (still). A bunch of DSLR Sigma Arts can be gotten for not too much and are nearly perfect on mirrorless. Tons of stuff on the used market out there.
R6iii for 1Q24 but what other bodies would be possible/likely?
I could see them doing an 85/1.4 Z, perhaps a few upper-midrange lenses, maybe even til t-shift (though who needs more than TS-E)? And maybe a 35/1.2.
I also think that we'll see third-party FF lenses soon, now that the lineup is basically complete. Canon didn't want a Sigma 50/1.4 out on RF before their own. In 2025, I could see that changing. (Though I probably will just stick with my EF Sigmas.)
Definitely not a lens I'd buy.
My disappointment of the year 2024!
The R5 was and is a legend. 45mp, 8-12fps, amazing eye detection AF, amazing EVF and pro build. Dual cards and all the features that you really want or need. However...the 20 fps electronic shutter was great for everything that didn't move very fast...and was pretty pointless in most action situations that has panning backgrounds, action with bats / balls or wings and feathers. The ES exposed us to the need for a faster read out sensor...and Canon certainly delivered this in the MkII. The Cooling has been improved for video (not that is a feature i'm interested as a stills photograspher). The ES frame rate has been uprated to 30fps and the sensor readout speed nearly matches the R3. This is an incremental upgrade that fixes most of the R5's ES deficiency. We are also now getting 14 bit RAWs across all of the frame rates...including the ES mode. This is also a great improvement as well.
Lens wise, I hear you. I also have a EF 135L and a EF 70-200 f2.8 LIS II. Both perform really well optically, certainly well enough for my 24mp R6ii's sensor. With my ef 70-200, I see very similar results to the new RF version, except for weight. The new lens is a lot lighter. I see camera bodies as a loss leader investment for 5-6 years, where I pay top dollar which slowly drops to nerly nothing by the 5th year. Where as lenses, I look at a 15-20 year investment and they seem to be worth nearly as much as i paid for them in the 5-10 year period. Lenses hold their value, camera bodies do not.
For me, my EF 135L is a bit long in the tooth and quite old and battered...it's getting time to side grade to the RF to unleash another 15-20 years of faithful service. My 70-200? it's not quite as long in the tooth yet so it's still got a few years of service in it before I side grade it for new and shiney.
And 28-end is okayish for group photos.