Canon has announced quietly that they are going to be focusing more on the mirrorless market segment than the traditional DSLR. While this does not mean that the DSLR format is dead, it is a significant sign that the photography and film making industry is moving forward and championing mirrorless technology, after many years in the making that is. It is also quite hard to believe that Canon, the largest camera brand that has championed DSLR and made countless lenses for the market, would move to mirrorless systems completely. The newly launched Canon EOS R100 should make you believe that Canon is really moving toward the mirrorless direction.
Unlike their higher end EOS R series of cameras, the EOS R100 is an APS-C format camera and is meant to be one of the more compact options in their mirrorless line-up. It is, in effect, Canon’s lightest camera at merely 356g (body only). Unlike their old M-series of mirrorless cameras, the EOS R100 is compatible with Canon’s latest RF and RF-S lenses, which also means that this camera will have plenty of future support still. Of course, you can still adapt it to older EF lenses with the EF-EOS R mount adapter if you already have some EF mount lenses on hand.
The APS-C CMOS sensor found in the EOS R100 is a 24.2-Megapixel unit that is also capable of shooting videos at 4K (24p) resolution and up to 120p Full HD high speed videos. The new EOS R100 also offers Eye and Face Detection even in video recording mode to ensure that your subject is always in focus. With compatible lenses, you also get the highly acclaimed in-body stabilization features for both your videos and photos. While there is a high-resolution EVF and a 1.04 million dot LCD for you to work with, the built-in LCD display is fixed in its place, meaning that you might want to think about getting a secondary monitor when it comes to video work. It is also not a touch sensitive display, which means you do not get touch focus functions here.
Content creators might enjoy the EOS R100 still though. There is a Hybrid Auto mode that puts together a bunch of your phones and video snippets into an easy to digest movie of the day of some sorts. There is also a 4K Timelapse video mode for you to quickly and easily shoot a timelapse video with pre-determined intervals for a smooth looking, high-resolution timelapse video that usually takes hours to stitch together. On top of all of that, the camera offers plenty of Creative Assist modes that offers you things like ‘background blur’ for that desired portrait effect. You can even quickly change your ‘brightness’ and ‘saturation’ settings without messing about with things like ISO, shutter speeds, and aperture; the camera does it for you. If not, there is Scene modes and Scene Intelligent Auto that automatically adjusts your camera to whatever it thinks is best for your frame. To complete the look, there are Creative filters for you to play around with too.
Price and Availability
Currently, at US$ 480 (MYR 2,379*) onward, the Canon EOS R100 is Canon’s most affordable mirrorless EOS R series to date. There are no mentions of any other colour option currently except for black, as usual. They are also no mentions of the official arrival of the camera in Malaysia currently. Based on the quoted official price in Malaysia though, we can expect the camera to be coming to Malaysia soon. More on the Canon EOS R100 can be found on their website.
*Official pricing as confirmed by Lowyat.net