We've Issued a New Update to Our Canon EOS R Review

Before you read on, let me clarify something based on our previous camera review posts. The Canon EOS R doesn’t have a new firmware update. Instead, it got its last firmware update in 2022. However, we didn’t update the Canon EOS R review accordingly. Every time that a camera or a lens gets a firmware update, we try to update our reviews to reflect the changes.

And further, we also try to keep you all informed of those review updates in these blog posts. So while other publications might just let you know that Canon issued a firmware update, we are actually testing it out and updating our entire piece. With all this said, it seems like the Canon EOS R might end the product life. But wow, did it have a great one!

The Canon EOS R was the first Canon RF mount camera. We said that the new Canon EOS R8 replaced the EOS R because that’s what we were told. But apparently, it’s more of an RP replacement. And so the Canon EOS R still hasn’t been replaced. It’s aging technology for sure, though it remains very effective for what many photographers need to do.

Below is the update that we put into our Canon EOS R review. Want one? Check them out on Amazon.

Update March 2023

Firmware 1.8.0 has been out for over a year. And so this review update was long overdue but we simply forgot to do it. Here’s what it added to the Canon EOS R.

Firmware Version 1.8.0 incorporates the following enhancements:

1. Improves color balance when the RF50mm F1.8 STM lens is attached to the EOS R camera.
2. Support has been added for the following lenses*:
- RF70-200mm F2.8 L IS USM
- RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM
*With Firmware Version 1.7.0 and later.

We tested this new update with the Canon RF 100-500mm f4.5-7.1 L IS USM in the summer of 2022 and even into the autumn. You can find a lot of references within our head-to-head against the Canon EOS R5 and the Canon EOS R7.

In the long term, the Canon EOS R didn’t get the machine learning features that the Canon EOS R5 and Canon EOs R7 have. But it still has very good human detection features. And if you’re photographing people, then it still holds its own with those other cameras very well. Here’s what we said in our head-to-head:

The EOS R still kept up with moving subjects during a sports shoot with little to no problems. Any errors that happened are due to the electronic shutter function. But in mechanical shutter mode, this test confirmed that my purchase of the Canon EOS R was one of the best I’d made.

To clarify further, this Canon EOS R Review was done with the Canon RF 100-500mm lens. And I was pleasantly surprised at just how good the camera continued to perform. Truly, if you’re one of those photographers that just shoots headshots or that only photographs people, the Canon EOS R is still a great camera for the most part. Where it and the rest of Canon’s lineup falls apart is with focusing on POCs in low light that have more melanin than folks in Japan, where the cameras are made. You can talk about there not being much contrast all you want, but we should be way beyond that at this point. If cameras can find a subject to focus on in very low light at -7 EV due to the exposure preview, then they should be able to find a person in that too. They also shouldn’t necessarily rely on contrast as small sonar units are readily available these days. And years ago, Polaroid used to focus on people using sonar.