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Friday, 29 December 2023

Canon EOS R10 long term user review (still photography) 29 December 2023

 

R10 with RF 100-400mm lens

The Canon EOS R7 and R10 were announced together in May 2022 and became available soon afterwards.

When it was introduced the R10 was the entry model into the Canon RF mount system. Since then two lower spec models have been released, the R50,  probably representing an RF mount replacement for the popular EF-M 50,  and the R100 which is a low spec model stripped out to achieve the lowest possible price point.

The R10 now occupies an upper entry level position in the catalogue.

At the product announcement Canon representatives said that the R10 uses a new sensor, not seen on any previous camera. Measurements at PhotonstoPhotos do indicate a slight improvement in technical characteristics such as dynamic range and noise for the R10 sensor over that used in the M50 and 80D. I will discuss image quality later in this post as I think there are elements of image quality not captured by standard tests but revealed by long term real world use.

In Canon-world, cameras designated with high numbers have the lowest specification. Those with low numbers have the highest specification. Go figure.

Thus the top camera model is, or will be when it eventually appears,  the much rumored but not-yet-seen R1.

Trawling through the Canon Camera Museum, I find no camera with the number 2 as primary designation. 20 yes, 2, no.

Models with a 3 designation are common but I see no models with a 4 designation.  40 yes, 4, no. The top level R mount camera at the time of writing is the R3, a specialised high performance model.

Canon likes the number 5 which designates one of their best and most popular high spec models of recent years, the EOS R5.

6 is also popular, giving us the R6 and R6.2.

At 7 we have the R7 acting as the RF mount equivalent to the EOS 7D APSC DSLR models of several years ago.

The R8 has the same imaging capability as the R6.2 in a less expensive body.

The 9 slot is empty at present.

The R10 is the subject of this post.

And below the R10 we have the R50 and R100.


R10 with RF-S 18-150mm hand held. This has been downsized and compressed for the internet. The original file contains a great amount of clearly rendered detail, sufficient for a poster size print. 

One of the advantages of a long term user review like this one is that over time we come to understand a camera’s limitations, capabilities, strengths and weaknesses and figure out how to make best use of the strengths and find workarounds for the weaknesses.

What are the limitations ?

The R7 has two card slots, IBIS, the large LP-E6NH battery, weather sealing, 32Mpx, 30 frames per second for stills with the electronic shutter, a deep buffer, higher spec touch screen and advanced video capability.

R10 has a lower specification all round.   It has 24 Mpx,  the smaller LP-E17 battery, one slot for a UHS-II SCXC card adjacent to the battery, body sealing is not specified, the buffer is smaller, performance is slightly down at 23 fps with the E-Shutter and there is no in body image stabiliser.

These limitations enable Canon to market the R10 at a substantially lower price point than the R7. It is still a very capable and versatile device however as we shall see.

Now let us delve into the weaknesses. In my judgement there are three which require a thoughtful management strategy.

These are the mechanical focal plane shutter, the E-shutter scan speed and the buffer.

When the shutter of the R10 is released it makes a sharp snapping sound. At full speed using [H+] drive mode  it sounds like a little jack-hammer.   Compare this to the sound of the shutter in the R5 which is more a soft shuffle, even when running at the maximum frame rate.  The difference is not merely aesthetic.

In the R5, as the shutter blades approach the end of their travel a damping mechanism slows them down so they hit their stops gently. The R10 (and R7) lack this damping so their shutter blades bang hard into their stops.

This produces a shock wave in the form of vibration which passes through the camera and lens. We can easily feel this when operating the camera. This shock wave can in some circumstances cause blurring of the image. The R5 is not prone to this problem.

There are a series of strategies which we can utilise to prevent shutter shock from adversely affecting sharpness.

With single shot operation simply setting the shutter menu to electronic first curtain operation (EFCS) solves the problem. In this mode the exposure is initiated electronically on the sensor and terminated mechanically with the focal plane shutter. This produces a shock wave after the exposure is finished so it has no deleterious effect on the image.

When we use continuous [H+] or [H] drive mode the vibrations produced by the first shutter activation can still be present when the shutter is opened for the second exposure of the series, and the third….and so on. We can demonstrate this by observing the first exposure of a sequence to be sharp, and all subsequent exposures not-sharp.

To eliminate this problem we can switch to full electronic shutter BUT  this brings its own set of problems to the capture experience, see below.

Fortunately we can avoid shutter shock with EFCS by using a fast enough shutter speed. Just exactly how fast has to be determined for each lens and each end of the zoom range.  After systematic tests, I find that with the RF-S 55-210mm lens at 210mm on the R10 a shutter speed of 1/200 second or faster gives consistently sharp pictures.

What about the fully electronic shutter ?

In this case the mechanical focal plane shutter is not used at all. Some cameras with stacked sensors enable a very fast E-Shutter scan speed which makes the mechanical shutter redundant. So most EOS R3 users report using the E-Shutter 99% of the time as this camera has an E-Shutter scan time of about 1/200 second.  The Nikon Z8 and Z9 do not even have a mechanical focal plane shutter. Those cameras have a sensor scan time of about 1/280 second.

But the R10 has a much slower E-shutter sensor scan time of about 1/25 second.

As a result if we pan (move the camera side-to-side) quickly to follow a moving subject, any static structures in the frame will appear to be  slanted diagonally across the frame. This is because what the camera sees at the beginning of the exposure is different from what it sees at the end of the exposure.

This phenomenon is often called “rolling shutter”.

In addition the E-Shutter operates at 12 bits (the M-shutter and EFCS operate at 14 bits) so there is some loss of dynamic range with the E-Shutter.

So with the R10 the E-Shutter can be used for perched birds but can be problematic with birds in flight because of the rolling shutter which can distort static subject elements and also cause severe distortion and fragmentation in the rendition of the fast beating wings of small birds.

All this is a somewhat long-winded way of saying that with the R10 there is no set-and-forget shutter mode which will give satisfactory results in any situation.

My practice is to use EFCS for single shot work, handheld or on tripod. There are some technical issues affecting image rendition with EFCS when used at fast shutter speeds with very wide aperture lenses, but this is unlikely to be an issue with the R10.

I never use the standard mechanical shutter which utilises the shutter blades to start and end the exposure as this can cause loss of sharpness due to shutter shock from the impact of the first curtain.

The situation gets more complex when we are using one of the high speed drive modes, particularly  [H+] and possibly [H].

My practice is to use EFCS with a shutter speed 1/200 second or preferably faster unless the situation requires quiet operation when I switch to E-Shutter. This is actually silent although by default the camera adds a little electronic ticka-ticka sound to confirm that the camera is actually taking pictures.

E-Shutter works well when we want a fast drive mode and a quiet camera with a subject which is not moving anywhere quickly. Perched birds are a common example of this situation.

E-Shutter can also work well with medium to large birds in flight provided the background is the sky and not trees or other fixed objects.

The R10 has a rather small buffer. This is the electronic place to which the sensor sends picture files and from which those files are loaded onto the memory card. Files do not go direct from the sensor to the card. The process of loading files from the buffer to the card is a performance roadblock. Thus the larger the buffer the more shots we can fire before that roadblock brings the capture process to a sudden crawl.

We can capture image files as RAW (full size), CRAW (Canon proprietary lossy compressed Raw) or JPG at several levels.

My tests and the tests of others show no significant loss of image quality with CRAW when compared to uncompressed RAW. I do not work with or recommend JPG capture, we lose too much image data that way.

So the first strategy for managing the small buffer on the R10 is to use CRAW capture, all the time, for everything.

My tests show that using CRAW I can capture on average about 25 frames in [H+] drive mode before the frame rate slows abruptly. This gives us one second capture time with the E-Shutter at full speed and 2 seconds with EFCS.

My second strategy is to fire the shutter in short bursts about 0.3-0.5 seconds each. This gives the camera time to clear some of the buffer between bursts thus prolonging the duration of an action sequence which we can capture.

Clearly the R10 is not intended to be anybody’s primary sport/action camera but for occasional use it can do a pretty good job if thoughtful capture management strategies are used.

Noisy miner. R10 with RF 100-400mm plus RF 1.4x extender


I like to evaluate a camera in terms of availability, versatility, capability and likeability.

The R10 rates highly on each of these dimensions.

The R10 is very versatile. It is a jack of all trades so to speak. With the 18-45mm kit lens it is very compact and light, effectively rendering many dedicated compact cameras obsolete. It can be used for high quality portraiture, landscape, documentary and street work. It can produce good, sometimes very good,  results for amateur  sport/action/wildlife and bird photography.

This post is about still photography but the R10 is also a very competent video camera suitable for professional use.

It has some features not seen on high end models such as in-camera auto-panorama generation, auto focus bracketing with in-camera compositing and Raw burst mode.

The R10 is very capable.

It has a very advanced autofocus system able to identify and track people, animals including birds and vehicles. In either single or servo mode the autofocus is very capable. With a telephoto lens  it can identify and track a birds eye 50 meters away even when the bird is in shade or backlit, surrounded by branches and leaves and the eye is not prominent. This is so good it is a bit spooky, like something we don’t believe could happen but it does. Having said that I should also say that not every frame is sharp. Sometimes focus wanders off the eye causing blurry frames.  The technology is amazing but not perfect.

It also has very good image quality which on my careful side-by-side tests is only slightly less impressive than the IQ delivered by the EOS R5, a camera costing five times as much. One of the reasons I have been using the R10 quite often lately is just this matter of image quality which I think is better than we might infer from DXOMark and PhotonsToPhotos published technical data for color depth, dynamic range and high ISO noise levels.

Right from my early experiences using the R10 I had the impression that it delivers image files with better than average sharpness and micro-contrast (which approximately equates to Adobe Clarity in Camera Raw and Lightroom) compared to other APSC cameras. With any of the RF-S lenses currently available the R10 can reproduce remarkable levels of detailed subject information in files able to be greatly enlarged. The R10 does this with “only” 24 Million pixels on the sensor.

I find that if I start with a properly focussed and exposed image it can be enlarged in Photoshop to 9000x6000 (54 million) pixels using [Retain details.2] followed by a little sharpness tweak using [Smart Sharpen].  With the right image the results can be quite remarkable.

Adobe also comes to the game with high ISO files in the form of Adobe Denoise AI via the Enhance tab. This can remove even very intrusive levels of high ISO noise while preserving and even enhancing details. This AI feature opens the door to the creation of high quality, low light images from crop sensor cameras which was not previously possible.

One issue with crop sensor cameras is that they are less able than cameras with a larger sensor to render backgrounds which are soft and smoothly out of focus. This can be a blessing, for instance with street and documentary work when we generally want everything sharp, or a curse as with sport or wildlife photography which often requires us to manage intrusively busy backgrounds.

Fortunately Adobe offers a workable solution to this problem. In Camera Raw or Lightroom, if we have a suitable image, we can select the subject and background separately. Then we can sharpen and brighten the subject and soften the background.

For a camera to endear itself to us over the term of a long acquaintance it must be likeable. I have at various times over the years made the mistake of buying a camera which may have attracted much praise for its image quality or some other characteristic only to find that the more I used this thing, the less I liked it.

The likeability factor devolves to ergonomic considerations and various irritations.

The R10 offers a very well considered ergonomic realisation. It has a well shaped handle which is comfortable to hold. The shutter button, Fn button and front control dial are just where my right index finger wants to find them. The rear control dial, thumb stick, AF-On button * button and magnify button are all well located for easy operation by my thumb. The thumb support is well located and is just the right shape.

The fully articulated touch screen is a pleasure to use from the front or the back of the camera..

All the controls have been thoughtfully located and configured with good haptics.

The strap lugs are the usual recessed Canon handlebar type. I wish every camera maker would copy these.

All this adds up to a camera which is a pleasure to use and one which remains so over a long time acquaintance.

The positive user experience is a composite of large and small factors, many too numerous to mention. But for instance, even without the focal plane shutter acting as a blind over the sensor when the lens is removed, I have never had to do a wet clean of the sensor which appears to have a dust repellent characteristic unlike some other cameras I have used which attract dust to their sensor like meat attracts flies.

I should also mention availability. This includes the obvious such as is it available for sale in my location. It also includes the price. Expensive gear is not as available to many of us as moderately priced kit. Another aspect of availability is the immediate one. We cannot take pictures with a camera which is at home in the drawer. The camera most likely to accompany us when out and about is compact, light and easy to carry. Just like the R10.

An interchangeable lens camera must have a range of lenses to fulfil its purpose.

All RF and RF-S lenses designed for the RF mount can be mounted onto and will work on any RF mount camera body, full frame or crop sensor. The camera will recognise which lens is mounted and adjust the field of view to match the lens.

In addition most EF and EF-S lenses can be mounted and will function properly on the R10 using one of the EF to RF mount adapters from Canon and other makers.

However some lenses are more in keeping with the “small is beautiful” theme of the RF-S subsystem than others.

At the time of writing (December 2023) Canon offers four RF-S stabilised zooms specifically designed for RF mount crop sensor bodies. These are

The ultrawide RF-S 10-18mm f4.5-6.3 [FF equivalent 16-29mm]

Basic kit zoom RF-S 18-45mm f4.5-6.3 [FF equivalent 29-72mm]

Advanced kit zoom  RF-S 18-150mm f3.5-6.3 [FF equivalent 29-240mm]

Compact medium tele-zoom RF-S  55-210mm f5-7.1 [FF equivalent 88-336mm]

I have each of these and find that in practice they give very good results on the R10.

Each offers very good sharpness and contrast, very good autofocus and very good stabiliser function.

The only real downside of these lenses is the limited aperture range which can be used for best quality output. None of them has a very wide aperture at the short end of the zoom and all have a narrow f6.3-7.1 aperture at the long end of the zoom.

The camera sensor starts to show loss of sharpness due to diffraction from around f8 so we are for most photographic purposes wanting to operate in the f4.5-f8 aperture range. For close-ups I find f11 gives the best balance between sharpness and depth of focus.

The full frame RF 100-400mm f5.6-8 is a budget superzoom which works very well on crop sensor cameras. This lens is very light and compact giving an equivalent full frame focal length range of 160-640mm on the R10, with very good autofocus, image quality and stabiliser effectiveness. This lens is suitable for many kinds of sport/action/wildlife and bird photography. It is compatible with the RF 1.4x extender giving a FF equivalent focal length range of 224-896mm at f8-11. The camera will autofocus at those apertures even in low light when ISO 12800 is required. Not every shot will be sharp, but many are.

What about some fast primes ?

The RF 16mm f2.8  (FF equivalent 25.6mm) is not stabilised and on my tests is soft around the edges on crop sensor bodies.

The RF 28mm f2.8 (FF equivalent 45mm) is very sharp but not stabilised.

The RF 50mm f1.8 (FF equivalent 80mm) is sharp from f2.8 but not stabilised.

The RF 85mm f2 (FF equivalent 136mm),  RF 35mm f1.8 (FF equivalent 56mm) and RF 24mm f1.8 (FF equivalent 38.4mm) are stabilised, very sharp and work well on the R10. In addition they are able to focus very close for macro work.

These lenses might be thought a bit large for the R10. Many Canon crop sensor users have asked on forums if or when Canon might release one or two fast primes specifically matched to the crop sensor cameras.

We already have the EF-M 23mm f2 and EF-M 32mm f1.4 lenses for the now-defunct EF-M system. These could readily be re-mounted for the RF system and many have asked if that will happen. Which it might but I wonder if that would be such a great idea. Neither is stabilised and the EF-M 32mm f1.4 while fantastically sharp is horribly slow to focus due to the design which requires all 14 elements (!!) to move back and forth when focussing.

Canon does not release an official product development road map so we shall just have to wait and see.

In the meantime there are plenty of very good lenses for RF-S crop sensor cameras giving coverage from ultra wide to super telephoto and everything in between, so there is not really much about which we might reasonably complain.

While talking about the R10 we might look at alternatives within the Canon RF system.

The first thing to consider if we might prefer to go full frame. This is more expensive but Canon offers some very appealing full frame gear which is compact and delivers very good image quality. The R8 body can form the basis of a nice compact, moderately priced full frame kit.

The R7 is the sport/action/wildlife performance oriented crop sensor model but is quite a bit more expensive than the R10 and arguably not quite as easy to live with given some ergonomic issues.

The R50 is a bit smaller, lighter and a bit less expensive than the R10 but also offers a lower specification. The R10 offers greater specification and capability and I think is better value.

The R100 is a real cut price job with many of the desirable features of the R10 stripped out to meet a price point. I do not recommend this camera.

Assembling kits

One zoom

The best, most capable and versatile lens for a one-zoom kit is the RF-S 18-150mm.

Second best is the RF-S 18-45mm, which has a smaller zoom range and aperture range. It is otherwise a perfectly good and very compact lens though so don’t ignore it.

Two zooms

My pick for a two zoom kit is the RF-S 10-18mm plus the RF-S 18-150mm.

A more compact choice with smaller zoom range would be the RF-S 10-18mm plus RF-S 18-45mm.

Three zooms

The compact, medium tele option uses the RF-S 10-18mm, RF-S 18-45mm and RF-S  55-210mm.

A substantially larger and more expensive option uses the RF-S 10-18mm, RF-S 18-150mm and RF 100-400mm f5.6-8. To this we can add the RF 1.4x extender giving a combined full frame equivalent focal length range of 16-896mm. The extender is fun to use but autofocus is more reliable without it particularly in low light.

With primes

We have no dedicated RF-S crop sensor primes yet so I suggest two stabilised RF full frame options.

These are the RF 24mm f1.8 IS (FF equivalent 38.4mm) a handy all purpose focal length and the  RF 35mm f1.8 IS (FF equivalent 56mm) which is also a handy general purpose focal length.  These lenses work well on the R10 although they might be considered a bit large and expensive for a crop sensor kit.

Summary

The R10 manages to strike an appealing and capable balance between the (slightly) less expensive R50 and R100 below it on the hierarchy and the more performance oriented and considerably more expensive R7 which occupies the next level above the R10.

To put the R10 into historical perspective, it offers slightly better image quality and very much better autofocus and performance than the full frame EOS 5D, 5D.2 and 5D.3 models of just a few years ago.

At low ISO settings it offers image quality almost equal to the EOS 5D.4 of 2016, with much better performance and autofocus

Bear in mind that these EOS 5D series cameras were near top-of-the-range in the Canon catalogue and were, and probably still are,  routinely used by professional photographers around the world.

Not only does the R10 deliver better performance than these former high end models but it is very much less expensive to buy and use.

In fact the EOS 5D.4 is still available new at three times the price of an R10.

The R10 offers a lot of bang for your buck and I rate it highly recommended.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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