NEWS– If you’re in the market for a mirrorless camera in early 2020, you’ve probably (wisely) decided it best to wait and see what Canon has up it’s sleeve for the next R.  An EOS R Mark II should be right around the corner given the EOS R was released in October 2018.  Personally, I have yet to enter the mirrorless space… like at all.  In my opinion they just aren’t there yet.  There’s been something missing from, it seems, every mirorless camera that comes to market.  Take the Sony A7R III & IV.  Both are great cameras, there’s no question.  The Sony glass holds its own against anything you put it up against.  The low-light capabilities of both cameras perform excellently and the Eye AF is probably best in class against Nikon Z series and the Canon R.  So what’s missing?  Well for me, just two things– There’s no 4K 60FPS and the Sony only supports 8-bit color.

Are those deal breakers?  Are they really going to the take my craft to the next level?  Probably not.  But if i’m going to personally make this jump into the mirrorless camera world, I want a body that’s going to the check all the boxes.

What about the Nikon Z?  As a long time Nikon shooter and my current carry being the D850, I really wanted to love the Nikon Z7.  While it’s video quality and color reproduction is outstanding, the AF for video compared to Sony’s just makes it feel archaic.  Ugh.  And the search continues.

The EOS R has seemed to produce divided responses since it came to market in October 2018.  Some swear by it, other Canon shooters are reluctant to give up their DSLR bodies because “mirrorless is just not quite there”.  I don’t disagree with the latter.  I mean, seriously Canon, what professional or even semi-professional isn’t going to want dual memory card slots?  For me, this alone was enough to scratch the EOS R off the short list.

So here we are, 2020.  My D850 has served me well, but I’m ready for the next thing.  I’m also ready to incorporate more video production into my portfolio, and I’m not about to do that without IBIS and all this great mirrorless glass that’s coming down the pipe.

Alright, Canon EOS R5 :  Enter stage left.

The Rumored EOS R5:

Our friends over at Canonrumors.com recently provided an update on the rumored EOS R5 specs.  The items in bold were said to be “CR3” meaning it’s pretty reliable information.  Here’s what we got:

Now at first reading, there wasn’t a gearhead out there who didn’t droll a little bit at the idea of these specs, myself included.  If this is truly the camera body that is coming, this would put Canon a generation or two ahead of Sony and Nikon.  And there’s the problem.  Is it possible that Canon has just been sitting on this tech just to leap frog the competition?  I really don’t think so.  Tony Northrup did a recent news update on the leaked specs and pinned a camera of this caliber around the $6000 mark.  I’d have to agree.  If these specs are for real, we can expect a mighty price tag to go along with it.  However, the $3500 pricing space that the Sony A7R IV currently occupies is still a needed market and it’s one that Canon has to fill.   I think we’re in line to see another $3500 body with 4K at 60fps, dual card slots, and IBIS on the next R release.   8K, as Tony put it, might be a timelapse spec which could still fit the rumor mold.

In any case, the photography world is holding it’s breath for this next release announcement which is currently expected around February 13, 2020.  Until then, if you’re looking to drop around 3 or 4k for a camera body this year, you may want to hold off just a bit longer to see what Canon is cooking up.