Canon R10 review: 4K and fast capture speeds for under $1,000 | Engadget

The best feature of this camera is the AI-assisted dual-pixel autofocus, which is similar to what you’ll find on the R7 and even the pro EOS R3. It allowed me to keep fast-moving subjects in focus either by keeping the AF point on it or using face and eye tracking. You can track people, animals and vehicles, but it doesn’t really support tap-to-track like other Canon models.

For humans or animals, it smoothly tracks the head or eyes and switches between the two seamlessly. On racing vehicles, it tries to focus on the driver’s helmet. Responsive, reliable and nearly foolproof, the system tracks subjects smoothly whether you’re in spot or wide-area AF mode. That makes it ideal for beginners who might not want to delve into the manual to figure out complex subject-tracking settings.

picture quality

The R10 delivers precise colors with warm skin tones, as most photographers desire. 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 low-light performance is a weak point. You can think of ISO 6400 as a hard limit, and even then you’ll get a lot of noise trying to boost the blacks on underexposed shots. ISO 12,800 is possible in a pinch, but I wouldn’t recommend it if you need a clear photo. The lack of in-body stabilization also means you risk getting blurry photos at shutter speeds below 1/100 unless your hands are spectacularly steady.

However, as I often forgot, the R10 has a built-in flash that will at least get you a clear, if not very artistic, photo when you don’t have enough light. Just make sure you turn down the flash strength in the settings to avoid blocking out your subject.

Video

The R10 is one of the best APS-C cameras for video. You get crisp, downsampled 4K at 30 fps or less, and cropped video at 60 fps that’s not as sharp, but certainly still usable. If you want it super slow, it can record at 120fps at 1080p, but the video is obviously even smoother.

It’s also the only sub-$1,000 APS-C camera I can think of that offers 10-bit video via HDR-PQ mode. However, unlike most log videos, you won’t find a standard lookup table (LUT) for it in Adobe Premiere or other editing systems. So unless you’re playing the video directly on an HDR TV, it can be difficult to work with.

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. That doesn’t happen often though, so the video I captured was usually sharp, except in a few cases.

The lack of in-body IS means you’ll have to use stabilized lenses for handheld video. And for anything like vlogging, you should also turn on electronic stabilization or even use advanced IS. Electronic IS adds a substantial crop on top of the 1.6x APS-C crop, leaving the two kit lenses just wide enough at the 18mm end of the zoom.

Vlogging at 60fps adds another level of difficulty as you get another 1.56x crop, making the 18mm lens almost a 50mm lens. While vlogging, I found I could barely fit my head in the frame even when using a Joby Gorillapod to add some extra arm length.

Rolling shutter can also be an issue, particularly with oversampled 4K 30p video, although it’s far less severe than Sony’s APS-C cameras. It improves in 4K 60p mode, with less sensor to read out, but again you’re in for a serious crop and smoother 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, again, the colors are accurate and skin-friendly. You can get extra dynamic range shots in HDR mode for sunsets and the like, but again, be aware that it takes some work to look good.

Wrap up

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 solid video capabilities.

However, there is room for improvement. It’s not as big a jump as I was hoping for with Sony’s two-year-old $900 A6400. And while it has 10-bit capability and better autofocus than Fujifilm’s $900 X-T30 II, the latter is better overall for video and has a slightly higher resolution. It’s also a bit too expensive to qualify as a true budget camera.

Still, this camera will appeal to users looking to step up from a smartphone and be tempted by Canon’s solid reputation. You won’t be disappointed with the R10, as it’s easy to use and delivers sharp, good-looking photos and videos where it matters most.