Canon’s EOS R10 brings Sony-like AF capabilities to their “budget” APS-C camera. It also offers some nice features for a sub-$1,000 camera, like 4K 60p, 1080p 120p, a fold-out display, a built-in flash, and very fast capture speeds. The sensor isn’t stacked, however, so it has slow capture speeds that can produce rolling shutter, and the lack of back lighting and in-body stabilization means it’s not the best camera in low light. Still, its reliable AF makes it ideal for casual users who will likely buy it for holidays, kids’ sporting events, and more.
video transcript
Steve Dent: Canon has launched its RF Mount APS-C mirrorless range with a bang, unveiling not one but two new models. One of these was the $1,500 33-megapixel flagship EOS R7, which I’ve already looked at, and the other is the $980 EOS R10, the subject of today’s review.
Of course, with a price difference of €500, something has to come from it. The R10 has a lower resolution, 24-megapixel sensor and is missing some key features like in-body stabilization, a second card slot and a headphone jack for video recording. However, it’s almost on par with the R7 in terms of recording speeds and offers similar video specs. Also, it has the advantage of being smaller and lighter for travel. But how does it hold up in terms of focus, image quality and other key areas for real-world shooting? Let’s dive in.
Like the R7, the R10 shares the same RF mount as the R-series full-frame cameras and supports any RF lens. It also works with the new RFS lenses developed for the R7 and R10. But so far there are only two of these, and they’re kit-style lenses.
The R10 isn’t as pretty as Fujifilm’s XD-32, but it looks better and is easier to use than any Sony APS-C camera. It’s also small, weighing just 426 grams, far less than the 612-gram R7, just a bit more than the Sony A-6400. It has all the necessary controls, including a pair of exposure dials, a mode dial, a joystick, a directional pad and an AF button.
You also get a focus selector, a record button, and five programmable buttons. Everything is easy to find, especially if you are used to Canon cameras. The grip is deep and while your fingers may get cramped, the tiny size makes it worth it.
The menus are typically Canon, so a bit clunky, but easy to use. Like every other recent R-series camera, the R10 has a fold-out screen for vlogging and selfies. That’s smart considering it’s aimed at vacationers and aspiring YouTubers. The EVF is mediocre, however, with a low-resolution 2,368 kdot screen. To be fair, other cameras in this price range have similar EVFs.
The R10 has a single card slot and a smaller battery, which is also par for the course in this category. So a damaged card could spell death for your photos, and battery life is on the low end, with a maximum of 450 shots, compared to 660 on the R7. You get a USB-C port for transferring and charging, but it’s choosy about which charger you can use.
It has a micro HDMI port with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and a microphone input, but no headphone jack. In comparison, Fujifilm’s XD-30 lets you connect headphones with an iPhone-style USB-C adapter.
With the R10 you can quickly take sharp photos. In mechanical shutter mode it can shoot at up to 15fps, an outstanding number for a consumer camera and the same as the R7. In electronic mode it can hit 23 frames per second, just seven frames per second slower than its more expensive sibling.
However, as with the R7, beware of rolling shutter, which can distort photos if the camera or subject is moving too quickly. With a smaller buffer, it can only sustain those bursts for around 2 seconds, but that’s enough for capturing sporting or other moments. Although it only has a single slot, it supports UHS2 cards, so the buffer can be emptied fairly quickly.
The best feature of this camera is the AI-assisted dual pixel autofocus system. It allowed me to keep fast-moving subjects in focus either by keeping the focus point on them or by using face and eye tracking. They can track people, animals or vehicles. In humans or animals, it focuses on the head or eyes or the helmet of a driver in a racing car.
Responsive, reliable and fairly foolproof, the system tracks subjects smoothly no matter which mode you select. That makes it ideal for beginners who don’t want to mess with settings. The R10 shoots color-accurate photos with skin tones that are on the warm side. JPEGs offer a good balance of sharpening and noise reduction, while RAW files offer decent but not spectacular dynamic range.
This leaves a lot of leeway to optimize images. However, the lowlight performance is not amazing. ISO 6,400 is pretty much a hard limit, and even then you don’t have much room to boost blacks without getting tons of noise. And they don’t have any stabilization in the body to help at low shutter speeds, so you need lenses with optical stabilization.
However, as I often forgot when using it, the R10 has a built-in flash, which suffices in a pinch when you really don’t have enough light. Just make sure you turn down the illuminance in the settings to avoid blowing out your subject.
The R10 is a solid video camera. You get sharp downsampled 4K video at 30 frames per second or less, and crop videos at 60 frames per second that are smoother but still usable. If you want super slow motion, it maxes out at 120 frames per second at 10 ADP, but video is even smoother. It even offers 10-bit video via HDR-PQ mode, but that requires some tweaking during editing.
Autofocus isn’t quite as good on videos as it is on photos, as the system occasionally focuses on the background instead of the subject. But that doesn’t happen often. So the video was usually nice and sharp.
The lack of in-body stabilization means you’ll need to use stabilized lenses for handheld video. And if you’re doing something like vlogging, you need the electronic stabilization too. Using this setting adds significant crop in addition to the 1.6x APS-C crop, so you’ll need a fairly wide lens like the 18-150 that was designed for the R10.
Vlogging 4K at 60fps is particularly tricky, as you get another 1.56x crop. That’s the best I’ve been able to do with all these modes combined at a focal length of 18mm. Rolling shutter is also an issue, particularly in oversampled 4K 30p mode, although less so than Sony’s APS-C cameras.
It improves in 4K 60p mode as there is less sensor to read. But again, you’re in for a serious harvest and softer footage. As with photos, video quality is excellent, with dynamic range on par with competing cameras, albeit slightly less than what Sony has to offer.
The oversampled video is very sharp and the colors are accurate and easy to use. You get shots with extra dynamic range in HDR mode, but editing can be a little tricky.
The $980 EOS R10 is a solid start for Canon’s budget crop-sensor HF cameras. It has fantastic capture speeds, great autofocus, good image quality, good handling, a fold-out display, and decent video specs. However, there is room for improvement.
It’s not a huge leap from the two-year-old $900 Sony A-6400. And while it has better autofocus than Fujifilm’s 900 XT-32, the latter outperforms it for video and has slightly more resolution. Still, this camera fills many needs and is bound to appeal to casual users who want to up their camera game.
You won’t be disappointed as it’s easy to use and delivers great looking photos and videos. Thank you for watching. And if you enjoyed this video, please like and subscribe. And for more technology, visit engadget.com.
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