Canon has unveiled its most affordable R-series camera, the $480 EOS R100 which is identical to the older EOS M50 II with a new mount. It’s “designed for new, first-time mirrorless camera or existing interchangeable camera users who previously enjoyed EOS Rebel or EOS M cameras,” the company said. For that price, however, it’s missing some key features you’d expect in a modern mirrorless camera.
The EOS R100 has a 24.2-megapixel APS-C sensor, and offers a slow 6.5 fps burst speed and Dual Pixel AF with face and eye. To frame your subjects, it offers a basic but respectable 2.36 million dot OLED electronic viewfinder.
Canon
The 1.04 million dot rear LCD display is where Canon really cut corners to make that price point work, though. It doesn’t even tilt, let alone talk, and is a non-touch screen. That means you have to set the focus point with the D-Pad and navigate the menu options with the buttons. The EOS M50 II, by contrast, has a fully articulating touch display for $120 more at launch.
Like the M50 II, you can shoot 4K video at up to 24 fps, although it has a significant yield and you only get contrast-detect autofocus in 4K. 1080p can be captured at up to 60fps and uses the Dual Pixel AF system. Canon didn’t specify the crop, but it’s a significant 1.5X over the M50 II.
Other features include support for an SD-UHS I memory card, microphone and HDMI micro inputs, Bluetooth/WiFi and a light 356 gram (12.56 oz) weight.
As mentioned by Canon, the main advantage compared to a smartphone is the ability to use multiple lenses. That said, the company also unveiled a new pancake lens, the full-frame $300 RF28mm f/2.8 that should be great for tourism and street photography. When set to R100, the latter is lighter than most mirrorless cameras at around 480 grams.
The R100 is as basic as it gets, but if you’re looking for a new mirrorless camera, it’s the cheapest by far at $480. Plus, you can get it in a kit with the RF-S18-45mm f/4.5-6.3 IS STM lens for $600, cheaper than the EOS R50, or $829 for that lens and the RF-S55-210mm f/ 5 -7.1 STM. Neither has stellar quality, but offers beginners a solid range of focal lengths and is R100 less than the price of most camera bodies. That said, if you can afford $200 more, Canon’s EOS R50 is a better choice.
Canon
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