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What the Canon EOS R Needs Via Firmware Updates

Chris Gampat
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09/19/2018
3 Mins read
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Canon EOS R First Impressions Product Images 14

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.

autofocus canon Canon EOS R eye ef face detection firmware update fujifilm nikon olympus ovf sony
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.