The Canon EOS R isn’t all that bad of a camera; but like the iconic Canon 5D Mk II before it, I hope that Canon gives it a lot of firmware updates.

Let’s be frank here, one of the only ways that the Canon EOS R will really truly survive beyond the glorious lens selection with this much competition is through constant support of the camera. Look at Fujifilm–you can purchase a Fujifilm X-T2 and at the end of the camera’s life cycle you can feel like you’ve got a brand new camera due to how Fujifilm treats their customers. Canon hasn’t always had this same mentality and so it’s time to embrace it even more. After using the Canon EOS R for an extended amount of time, I really think that it’s going to need a few updates via firmware to get folks moved away from other systems.

Eye AF Combined With the Manual Autofocus Point Selection (Yes, Like Sony’s and Fujifilm’s)

With Eye AF, Canon perhaps implemented it in the worst fashion though the reasoning is understandable. Combine it with face detection? Yeah, that makes sense. But in practice it doesn’t work so well. You see, autofocus, as great as it is, still needs help. With Sony you can focus on a spot, it will detect a face, and then you press a button and it will find an eye to focus on. With Fujifilm, you can set it to face detection and then tell it to focus on either the left or right eye.

So how can Canon differentiate themselves? Eye AF ideally should scan the face and figure out which eye is closer to the sensor. Then the algorithms should focus on that eye.

Adjusting Sensitivity of the Magic Function Bar

The magic function bar is honestly one of the coolest things that Canon added to the EOS R. But it isn’t perfect. I’d love to be able to adjust the sensitivity of it. When unlocked, I feel like it is too sensitive to touches and sometimes that makes me change the ISO setting–which is what I currently have it programmed to control. Otherwise I need to lock it, unlock it, set it and lock it again. Obviously, I don’t change ISOs often but I will if I’m switching lenses with another aperture or changing some other exposure variable. For what it’s worth, the Canon EOS R is the first mirrorless camera that I honestly want to shoot in manual mode most of the time too.

A Faster Ability to Beam Images to Your Phone (Sort of Like Sony’s)

Sony arguably has the fastest way to get images to your camera. All you need to do is view the image, hit a function button, and tell it to beam the image. Then Wifi starts up, you start the app on your phone, and it’s there. With Canon you need to connect the camera, then go in, select the image(s) and beam them. It’s a slow and sometimes clunky way of doing things sort of like Fujifilm’s. Granted, they’re not bad. But the process could be less painful.

A Simulated OVF Feature (Although You Can Make Exposure Not Affect the Scene)

Canon’s EOS R has the ability to either display what the exposure will be or to negate that. There are times though where I’ve shot with it and the exposure isn’t still clearly visible. This sometimes depends on the focusing point and area selected. What would be nice is a simulate OVF mode like what Olympus does. Sony and Fujifilm also do this, but I’ve always found Olympus’s to be king here.