Canon and Nikon between them shared over 85 percent of the D-SLR market in 2018. Sony’s success in the full frame mirrorless market spurred up development efforts by competitors. This included Panasonic, a Micro Four Thirds player so far. Both Canon and Nikon launched their full frame mirrorless cameras last year at Photokina 2018. Nikon’s approach was more aggressive and both, the Z6 and Z7, met with near universal acclaim from the world press. Canon’s approach appeared to be more defensive and indicative of its desire to protect its D-SLR market share. The EOS R was a good camera but not as good as Canon’s own EOS 5D Mark IV. It also lacked proper 4K video and in-body image stabilisation. Canon was quick to react and has now launched the EOS RP which is aimed at the enthusiast market. SP has the EOS RP on its test table. Read on…
Design and Build Quality
The Canon EOS RP is a compact and lightweight version of the EOS R. The body is made of magnesium alloy and offers dust and moisture resistance. This is the smallest and lightest of all EOS cameras with a 35 mm full-frame sensor, and we believe Canon has done a great job here. The camera has two command dials. The camera has a metal lens mount and the overall construction feels good. The body and the lens are made in Japan.
Key Features
The EOS RP is a 26.2 megapixel mirrorless interchangeable lens camera, which uses a 35.9 x 24.0 mm (Full Frame) CMOS sensor. The sensor uses self-cleaning feature to keep away dust along with dust delete data acquisition and appending. The camera uses a Canon RF mount, compatible with Canon RF lens group (excluding EF, EF-S and EF-M lenses). EF lenses can be used along with the
EF-EOS R adapter. The EOS RP uses a DIGIC 8 processor.
The camera features Dual Pixel CMOS AF, which uses phase-difference detection system with image sensor for autofocus. The camera provides 4779 selectable AF points arranged in a 59 x 81 grid. Focus modes available are One-Shot AF, Servo AF and Manual focus. AF points can be selected using Face +Tracking, Spot, 1-point AF, Expand AF Area, Expand AF Area: Around and Zone AF methods. Exposure is controlled by real-time metering with image sensor. Metering modes available are Evaluative (AF point-linked), Partial (approx. 5.5% of the area at the centre of the screen), Spot (approx. 2.7% of the area at the centre of the screen) and Centre-weighted average. Exposure can be compensated up to ±3 stops in 1/3 or 1/2-stop increments. Auto Exposure Bracketing is available ±3 stops in 1/3 or 1/2 stop increments.
The camera provides shooting modes such as Scene Intelligent Auto, Flexible-priority AE (Fv), Program AE (P), Shutter-priority AE (Tv), Aperture-priority AE (Av), Manual exposure (M), Bulb and Custom (three settings). Both Tv and Av modes provide Safety Shift feature. ISO sensitivity ranges from ISO 100 to 40,000, which is expandable to ISO 50, H1 (51,200) and H2 (102,400). Picture styles include Auto, Standard, Portrait, Landscape, Fine Detail, Neutral, Faithful, Monochrome and User Defined (three settings). White Balance options are Auto (Ambience priority/White priority), Daylight, Shade, Cloudy, Tungsten light, White fluorescent light, Flash, Custom (Custom WB) and Colour temperature. Colour temperature compensation is available along Blue/amber and Magenta/green axes.
