Major photography exhibitions, such as Photokina, are not only an opportunity to see new products being unveiled, but also to meet the people who were directly involved in their development. At last yearâs Photokina 2018, Les Numé Rques visited Canonâs booth, where he met with the development team of the new EOS R mirrorless system. Topics ranging from the alliance around the L Mount to the design of the new camera and lenses were discussed.
Full review of the Canon EOS R mirrorless camera
From left to right: Mineo Uchida, Masato Seita and Shingo Hayakawa, who are responsible for developing the EOS R © R. Labracherie Les Numé riques .
Les Numé riques: With the Leica-Panasonic-Sigma alliance you have new competitors in the mirrorless 24Ă36 market. How do you feel about the fact that now youâre moving in the same direction as them?? Is this good or bad news for you?
Mr. Hayakawa: Of course, we wouldnât like to see anyone else come our way, but overall this is good news, as the presence of new players will stimulate the market. Itâs even reassuring that several companies have the same strategy. You know, not all photographers want to use mirrorless cameras, and the market reacts differently in different countries. There are always those who value the optical viewfinder more. at the moment the electronic viewfinder is inferior to the optical one, because of its inertia, which is unacceptable for a professional camera. Others appreciate some of the advantages of a mirrorless system, such as compactness, e.g.
Les Numé riques: Coming to the question of compactness, you canât say that the models presented by Nikon or Canon are really compactâŠ
Mr. Hayakawa: At the moment, we have the capabilities and technology to make our camera bodies much smaller. This is not a problem. Thatâs the choice we made for the EOS R.
Les Numé riques: The reduction in size, in turn, must have some limits so as not to compromise ergonomics. The main advantage of a mirrorless system is the ability to shoot photos and videos more effectively. The problem is rather the size of the optics which, compared to DSLR optics, for the most part, doesnât look more compact.
Mr. Hayakawa: Youâre right, and thatâs our starting point for the EOS R lineup. We wanted to rethink our photo and video shooting solutions and surpass what we could get with the EOS EF. When it comes to optics, the lack of a mirror makes it possible to create more fast lenses such as our 50mm f /1.2. A short focal length makes development easier in many ways, allowing you to create more compact optics with better performance.
Makoto Lemura and Masato Seita © R. Labracherie Les Numé riques .
Les Numé However, your 50mm f/1 lens.2 doesnât look too compactâŠ
Mr Hayakawa: It is, but if we tried to make a similar lens for the EF system with similar parameters, it would be more impressive. The short working distance offered us more flexibility in terms of design. Designing the 50mm f/1.2, we paid attention to its performance, although we could have focused on size. Making a lens with an f/2 aperture in the EF system is a very complex task with the advent of the usa mount, a lot has been made easier. This mount offers us more options, which we wanted to show with our new series of optics.
Les Numé Introducing the 50mm f/1.2 and 28-70mm f/2 canât be called cheap. How justified is the use of such lenses on the EOS R, which sits between the 6D Mark II and 5D Mark IV?
Mr Seita: You know the EOS R is the first camera in our new lineup. And we wanted to show you the full range of optics on its mount, from fast lenses to the fast 24-105mm f/4 lens with our new Nano USM technology, as well as the more affordable 35mm f/1 macro lens.8 with Stabilization System.
Les Numé Letâs focus on stabilization. Your new camera has been subjected to a number of criticisms, such as the single memory card slot, limited 4K video mode and, among others, the lack of internal stabilization..
Mr Seita: Yes, we understand that internal stabilization is an important request from users, but given the positioning of the EOS R, we chose not to include IBIS internal image stabilization because our priority was to create a compact camera. The dimensions we wanted didnât allow us to use this system. But I am more than sure that in the future we will be able to realize it. Itâs our first camera and we have room for further development. Regarding memory card slots â again, itâs a matter of compactness. We believe that a single slot is sufficient. This also applies to video mode. In our opinion, this mode is quite enough.
Fluted ring on the 50mm f/1 lens.2 © Pascale Brites
Les Numé With the new camera you tried to implement new ergonomics of control, such as ribbed rings on the lenses or the âM-Fnâ touchpad. But why did you remove some elements, such as the navigation dial, which was a hallmark of Canon cameras?
Mr Seita: Itâs also about compactness. If we had wanted to integrate a navigation dial, the EOS R would have been wider or we would have had to abandon the screen rotation mechanism. We had to make a choice and for the EOS R we chose the pivoting screen. You may not have known, but the grooved ring on the lens can be made to run as smoothly as possible to make it easier to shoot video. For that, however, you need to do some operations in the SAV.
Les Numé Sony was able to use the same mount for APS-C and 24Ă36 cameras. You have two completely different camera ranges with different mounts and working lengths. What does this decision have to do with?
Mr. Hayakawa: The EOS M line has a compactness that SLR cameras donât have. We think that different mounts are better for getting the most out of the cameras. Small mount size for EOS M offers more compact optics. The larger bayonet for the EOS R, as we said, provides high quality optics and more flexibility in its design.
Sensor protection system on EOS R © Pascale Brites .
Les Numé So you have to develop three different series of EF, EF-M and usa lenses. Sure is a challenge?
Mr. Hayakawa: Yes, itâs really complicated, but we think there are three different categories of photographers, and we have to meet the needs of each of them.
Les Numé The system of protecting the sensor with a shutter looks interesting, but it doesnât scare you that this rather fragile mechanical part will be subjected to harsh tests?
Mr. Seita:No. Photographers who have to work with the EOS R should understand that the shutter will not be affected when changing lenses. We think our system is very efficient and prevents dust on the sensor. We introduced it because we understand that photographers using the EOS R will change optics frequently while shooting. We could offer a similar solution on the EOS M, but we know that owners of those cameras donât change lenses very often.
Les Numé There are still some limitations we donât understand about the EOS R, such as the 1/8000s shutter speed or the 60p viewfinder refresh rate?
Mr Seita: Itâs very difficult to get a mechanical shutter faster than 1/8000sec. In that case we have to use electronic shutter, but then we face other problems like the rolling-shutter effect. We prefer to limit the shutter speed to 1/8000s for the mechanical shutter for now. But weâre working to make it faster. This also applies to the viewfinder: at the moment we cannot make a high speed for the first camera, but in the future we will offer a faster system.
What were the main challenges you encountered while developing the EOS R system and how did you overcome them?