Canon R100 Review

[SECTION]INTRODUCTION[/SECTION]

The 24.1MP CMOS sensor has a “35mm equivalent” crop value of 1.6x, giving an equivalent field of view of the supplied 18-45mm lens as 28.8-72mm. The sensor is very exposed when the lens is removed, so changing lenses in dusty or wet conditions should be avoided. There is no low pass filter, meaning that sharpness should be enhanced. Speed of operation is assured by the Digic 8 processor.

WiFi and Bluetooth are built in and there is compatibility with Image.Canon and the Canon Camera Connect App. There are sockets for microphone, wired remote plus USB-C and HDMI Type D. Battery charging is taken care of using the supplied charger, and it is refreshing to see that Canon have not reduced costs by including this. Extra batteries might be helpful and they can be rotated to even out the usage and hence service life.

Dual pixel CMOS AF + Face detection + Tracking and Eye Detection all works well, locking in confidently for example on the eyes when shooting portraits. Add scene modes, creative filters and burst shooting up to 6.5fps and we have quite a versatile set of features.

Canon R100 Features

• 24.1MP CMOS APS-C sensor

• Electronic shutter 30s – 1/4000s

• Stills burst rate up to 6.5fps

• SD card slot

• LP-E17 battery – 340shots (EVF), 430 shots (Monitor)

• Built in flash, GN 6 (ISO 100, metres)

• Movies MP4 FHD: MPEG-4 AVC/H.264. Audio: AAC

• Movies 4K UHD: IPB (Standard). Audio: AAC

• 8.3 MP JPEG possible from 4K UHD movie

• EVF 0.39-type OLED 2,360,000 dots, 100% coverage, 0.95x

• Monitor 7.5cm (3”) LCD TFT 1.040,000 dots, 100%, fixed, no touch sensitivity

• ISO 100-12800

• AF range -4 to +18 EV

• AF range with f/1.2 lens -2 to +18 EV

• Face/eye detection

• AF tracking

• WiFi

• Bluetooth

• Scene Modes

• Creative Filters

Canon R100 Handling

Bearing in mind the camera is aimed at beginners, it is no suprise that there are lots of helping features that guide the photographer through the settings. For those more experienced with photography, this can all be switched off in favour of more conventional menus and operations. There can be some frustration with systems that are so busy helping us that they get in the way. In reality, it is impractical to sudenly want to shoot a portrait, refer to the camera, set portrait setting and then finally get to the subject. As an initial guide to operations maybe, but hopefully the user will quickly progress to understanding the camera just a little more, with a little less guidance.

Conventional controls are there, and most operations can be carried out without having to delve into the menu system. On the top plate, the shutter release and video start/stop buttons are placed conventionally, but as always the video button seems to have second billing and requires a stretch of the finger to operate. The on/off switch is at the right hand edge of the top plate, not round the shutter release button as I prefer, but placed in the next best location. The single control wheel falls naturally in place and the mode dial covers the basics, such as Av, Tv, P, M, but also scene modes, video operation and iEnhanced operations.

The back panel is very compact-camera in design. The fixed monitor is easy viewing, as is the EVF. The four way controller gives access to the Q menu, but has its own direct access to ISO, exposure compensation, flash and drive settings. Additional buttons access menus, info displays, plus various minor functions.

All in all, a slick little design that could appeal to beginning and developing photographers and even the most experienced might find it great fun to use.

[SECTION]PERFORMANCE[/SECTION]

Canon R100 Performance

The performance section is where we look at the image quality performance of the camera. Additional sample photos and product shots are available in the Equipment Database, where you can add your own review, photos and product ratings.

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Canon EOS R100 Sample Photos

Lens Performance – The R100 was supplied with the Canon RF-S 18-45mm f/4.5-6.3 IS STM, previously reviewed. The conclusions on performance were as follows:

At 18mm, central sharpness is excellent from f/4.5 to f/8, very good at f/11, good at f/16 and fair at f/22. Unfortunately, the edges do not keep up with this excellent standard and are just fair at f/4.5, good at f/5.6, very good at f/8 and thereafter just fair again from f/11 right throught to f/22.

At 24mm, central sharpness is excellent from f/5 to f/8, very good at f/11, good at f/16 and fair at f/22 and f/25. The edges are fair through the whole range of apertures, only rising to good at f/8.

At 35mm, central sharpness is excellent at f/5.6 and f/8, very good at f/11 and f/16 and fair at f/22 and f/29. The edges are fair at f/5.6, good at f/8 and f/11 and fair from f/16 to f/29.

At 45mm, central sharpness is very good at f/6.3, excellent at f/8, very good at f/11, good at f/16 and fair at f/22 and f/32. The edges are good from f/6.3 to f/11 and fair from f/16 to f/32.

With such an excellent central result it is a shame that the edges do not raise their game to come even close, but for many of the perceived applicaions the subject may well be in the centre of the field, in which case the result will be very sharp images anyway.

CA (Chromatic Aberration) is measured with any in-camera corrections switched off, as far as we can know anyway. The result here is superb, with virtually no central CA and really low figures at the edges. Clearly something is afoot and the camera software is helping the lens, but in the end whatever is happening the result is virtually no colour fringing.

Distortion is equally low, in fact the lens is to all intents and purposes rectilinear. At 18mm we can measure -0.24% barrel distortion, reducing to -0.03% at 24mm. Thereafter, we move into pincushion distortion, just, measuring +0.03% at 35mm and actually measuring zero at 45mm.

Bokeh is also very pleasant, being quite smooth in those out of focus areas.

The lack of a lenhood has been lamented above, but it has to be conceded that even without that hood the resistance to flare is a credit to Canon’s SSC coating technology. It is very difficult to induce any flare or artefacts and although a hood would still be useful to reduce the chance of damage it plainly is not needed here to reduce flare.

Vignetting is equally impressive, by 35mm having been reduced to close to zero.

Canon EOS R100 ISO test images

ISO Noise Performance – Even with the default noise reduction setting switched on, noise is not the strongest point with the R100. Even at ISO 400 the first signs of noise are creeping in, nothing too drastic perhaps, but nonetheless still there. By ISO 800 sharpness is waning slightly and noise creeping up, although images are still serviceable at this point. By ISO 1600 we are getting close to the limit of what is generally acceptable for the best quality. By ISO 3200 noise is going beyond that acceptable point and by ISO 6400 only usable for drastic situations. ISO 12800 is a morass of noise, with poor definition as well, although everything is relative and some users might like that effect. For highest quality though, we probably need to keep the ISO level to 400 or less.

Canon EOS R100 White-balance test images

White Balance Performance – The usual white balance presets are available: AWB gives a choice of Ambience Priority or White Priority and works highly effectively. There are also settings for Daylight, Shade, Cloudy, Tungsten Light, White Fluorescent Light, Flash, Custom and Colour Temperature. All have their uses, but Shade can be especially useful in shadow areas of woodland, removing purple casts effectively. Cloudy will act in a similar way to the Cloudy or 81A warming filter than many transparency film photographers might have used.

Canon EOS R100 Digital filters

Digital Filters – There are various ways of accessing digital filters, from the menus or from the top plate mode dial, and broadly speaking they are separated out into Picture Styles and Creative Filters. There are also the beginners guides, where perhaps the photographer want a portrait, so can select portrait and the camera will set itself up accordingly. This way of working might be useful as a start, but in the longer term it is a bit impractical and would slow things down rather than help. The picture styles and creative filters are more useful in that they can be used in the same way that we might have selected a type of film. So monochrome is an obvious example, and there is a strong case for this setting as it does change the mindset to an approach where we start to think in mono and look for subject matter accordingly, rather than everything being a colour shot and then mono being an afterthought. Exploring the other settings is well worthwhile, from Toy Camera to Miniature Effect there is plenty to discover.