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Product images by Richard Butler

The Canon EOS R8 is an entry-level full-frame mirrorless camera, featuring the 24.2MP CMOS sensor from the EOS R6 II. It brings Canon’s latest AF capabilities and much improved video to the same body as the existing EOS RP.

Key specifications:

• 24.2MP full-frame CMOS sensor
• Up to 40fps continuous shooting with e-shutter (6fps with mechanical)
• 30fps Raw Burst mode with 1/2-second pre-buffering
• Full-width 4K video from 6K capture at up to 60p
• 10-bit C-Log3 or HDR PQ video capture
• 2.36M dot OLED viewfinder (0.7x magnification)
• Fully-articulated rear screen
• 4-channel audio with optional XLR adapter

The EOS R8 will be available from Spring 2023 at a recommended price of $1499. This is $200 more than the launch price of the EOS RP that it closely resembles, though Canon says the RP will stay in the lineup for around $1000. It’s $300 less than what the EOS R launched for, though, and it seems the EOS R8 will effectively replace that model.

The EOS R8 will also be available as a kit with a new retractable 24-50mm F4.5-6.3 IS kit zoom lens, for $1699.

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What’s new | How it compares | Body & handling | Video | Initial impressions | Sample gallery | Specifications | Press release

What’s new

The EOS R8 fits the excellent 24MP sensor and Digic X processor from the EOS R6 II into the more compact body of the EOS RP.

The EOS R8 essentially takes the body of the entry-level EOS RP and adds the sensor and AF system from the EOS R6 Mark II, a camera that’s $1000 more expensive. It effectively replaces the original EOS R and possibly the RP, in the long-run, and represents fierce competition to the likes of Nikon’s Z5 and Sony’s older a7 models that remain available.

Canon says that both the sensor and processor in the EOS R8 are the same as those of the EOS R6 II, and it can match its bigger brother in many key respects, including image quality, autofocus performance and video quality. There are key differences, though, that mark this as the budget model; for example, there’s no mechanical first curtain shutter in the R8 (something Sony did in its comparable a7C), which significantly reduces its high-speed credentials. There are appreciable differences in the hardware and handling of the two cameras, but high-speed photography is the biggest performance distinction between them.

Autofocus

Squirrels aren’t one of the animal types that the EOS R8 is explicitly trained to recognize, but it did a good job of picking up this little fella in the split seconds he’d sit up from the grass, before hunkering down and scampering around again. Canon RF100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM @ 500mm | ISO 1600 | 1/500 sec | F7.1 Photo: Richard Butler

The EOS R8’s autofocus system is essentially borrowed wholesale from the R6 II, which means it has been trained to recognize a wide selection of subject types. This is built on top of the EOS 1D-style system for telling the camera how you expect the subject to move as it approaches the camera.

The interface itself is very simple: you choose the AF area size you want and whether you want the camera to track subjects under or immediately around your chosen AF point or area. Like the R6 II, the R8 has been trained to recognize the following subjects:

• People (Body / Face / Eye)
• Animals (Dogs / Cats / Birds / Horses)
• Vehicles (Motorsport cards and motorcycles / Aircraft / Trains)
• Auto (auto-selects from the above groups)

One of the features absent from the EOS R8 is an AF joystick. Instead you can tap the screen or use it as a touchpad that can be touched or swiped to position the AF point while the camera is to your eye. As before you can limit the area of the screen that acts as a touchpad, to prevent ‘nose focus.’

Touch-and-drag or ‘tap to cycle through recognized subjects’ options let you use the rear screen to position the AF point when the camera is held up to your eye.

There’s now also an option to tap the screen to cycle between recognized subjects, when the camera’s to your eye. The camera doesn’t indicate how many subjects there are, so you essentially have to keep tapping and trust that the camera will have recognized the subject you wanted to focus on, but it adds another option.

Finally, there’s the option to configure the cardinal points of the four-way controller to nudge the AF point. So, while it definitely would be nice to have an AF joystick, you’re not exactly left short of alternatives. As with the Sony a7C, it’s a price paid to keep the body size down.

Single curtain mechanical shutter

Like Sony’s a7C, the Canon EOS R8 features a mechanical shutter mechanism to end exposures, but not the corresponding shutter blades to initiate exposure. This results in a lighter, less expensive shutter assembly but also has some minor knock-on effects.

The most obvious is the reduction in the camera’s burst rate: just 6fps in electronic first curtain mode, compared with the EOS R6 II’s 12 fps mechanical shutter. But there’s also a potential image quality glitch that creeps in at very high shutter speeds (typically 1/1000 sec or faster) when used with very wide aperture values.

An example of the bokeh from two images shot with the Canon RF50mm F1.2L USM, the left-hand example in electronic first-curtain mode, the right in fully-electronic mode, shot with the Canon EOS R6 Mark II, which uses the same sensor as the EOS R8. These are extreme examples: a very wide F1.2 aperture and a very high 1/8000 sec shutter speed were used. Canon RF50mm F1.2L USM | F1.2 | 1/8000 sec | ISO 320 Photos: Jordan Drake

It takes the form of the truncation of the bottom of bokeh (most noticeably with distinct highlights). It occurs because light can creep behind the mechanical shutter blade as it falls, adding a little extra exposure to the top half of the bokeh circles. However, because the exposure is initiated by turning on the pixel rows, there’s no way for this extra light to creep in at the start of the exposure. For most shots, this tiny difference is imperceptible, but in very short exposures, the extra light gained while the shutter is closing becomes a meaningful proportion of the overall exposure, and you can see an exposure difference between the top and bottom halves of the bokeh.

It’s something that only happens in a rare combination of circumstances, but it’s worth knowing about if you plan to fit fast primes to the EOS R8.

Raw burst with pre-buffer

From the EOS R6 II, the EOS R8 gains the ability to shoot at up to 40 fps using its electronic shutter or to shoot 30 fps bursts of Raw images. The Raw Burst mode includes an option to pre-buffer: keeping images in the camera’s memory when you half-press the shutter button, then recording 15 of these frames to the card when you fully press. This means you capture half a second’s worth of action before the full shutter press, helping you capture the perfect moment.

The Raw Burst images are combined into a non-standard CR3 Raw file, which only Canon’s own software can currently extract (or you can use the in-camera Raw conversion system to generate JPEGs or HEIFs of the best shots). Both this and the 40fps mode use the camera’s fully electronic shutter, which is reasonably fast (~55ms) but is likely to horizontally distort anything that moves quickly across the sensor as you capture it.

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How it compares

Arriving at the $1499 price point still makes the EOS R8 one of the least-expensive full-frame digital cameras ever launched: only the EOS RP and Nikon Z5 have launched for less. Despite this, it arrives into a competitive environment, as Sony has continued to sell its older a7 models at increasingly low prices as time has gone on.

However, the EOS R8’s use of Canon’s latest AF system makes it feel a lot more capable than the likes of the a7 II, and even at its launch price it undercuts the current a7 III tag, so we think it makes most sense to compare it to Sony’s a7C model: the only Alpha-series camera to be explicitly designed with the upgrader and traveller in mind.

We’ll also compare it here to the Canon EOS R6 II, just to show what you do and don’t get, relative to the more enthusiast-focused model.

A side-by-side comparison should make clear that the EOS R8 stands out from its peers in the video department, but lacks their in-body image stabilization systems. Its viewfinder is comparable with its immediate rivals, but is obviously an area that’s been pared back, relative to the EOS R6 II.

From what we’ve seen so far, the EOS R8 appears to match the EOS R6 II in terms of rolling shutter in e-shutter mode, which means its 40fps burst shooting (and 30fps Raw Burst mode with pre-buffering) is pretty usable for reasonably fast subjects.

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Body & handling

The EOS R8’s body is an exact match for that of the EOS RP, a body we found it very simple to shoot with. It doesn’t offer as many direct control points as the EOS R6 II (with the absense of a joystick being the most noticeable), but it places two control dials in comfortable relation to a decently-sized handgrip, which is a pretty important detail to get right.

Canon says dust and water ingress has been factored into the design, but that it’s not sealed or built to the same degree as the EOS 6D II, instead adopting lighter construction with greater use of plastic.

There are corners cut though: there’s only a single SD card slot and, perhaps more significantly for most photographers, it’s placed in the battery compartment under the camera. There’s also no option for adding an accessory battery grip, though the R8 is compatible with the EOS RP’s little grip extender that makes the camera settle better in larger hands.

The EOS R8 has the same five ports as the EOS R6 II: micro HDMI, USB-C, headphone and mic sockets and a wired remote port. As with the bigger camera, the EOS R8’s USB port lives up to the 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbit/s) standard.

Battery

One of the most significant downgrades in the EOS R8, relative to the more expensive R6 II, is the use of the LP-E17 battery. This is plausibly as much a question of keeping the camera’s size down as it is of cost-cutting or ensuring some differentiation between products, but it has an appreciable impact on shooting with the R8.

The relatively small 7.5Wh LP-E17 means the EOS R8 can’t shoot for particularly long periods and achieves a rating of just 150 shots per charge in standard ‘smooth’ mode, if you use the viewfinder. This perks up a bit to 220 shots in power saving mode, while the LCD figure of 370 jumps to 440. As always, these CIPA standard numbers can tend to significantly underestimate the number of shots you’re likely to get, but keeping the R8 powered for extended periods will require some planning.

The camera can be charged over USB or powered, if you have a powerful enough USB-PD power source, but if you’re someone who shoots a lot of photos, you’ll need to plan how to keep the camera topped-up or carry extra batteries. This is even more pressing for video shooters.

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Video capabilities

Despite Canon’s reputation for holding back features from its more affordable models, the EOS R8 gets an impressive amount of the EOS R6 II’s video capabilities.

The EOS R8 can shoot 4K video, derived from full-width 6K capture, at up to 60p. It can shoot 10-bit footage in either C-Log3 or HDR PQ, it has headphone and mic sockets, and like most Canons features a fully-articulating screen. It even has the connectors in its hotshoe to allow the connection of accessories, such as Tascam’s XLR adapter that allows four-channel audio capture.

Interface pins at the front of the hotshoe allow the use of various connections, including the Tascam CA-XLR2D-C audio adapter, which provides XLR and TRS inputs, allowing four-channel audio capture.

Temperature concerns mean that 4K/60p and 1080/120 have a 30-minute limit per clip (20 minutes for 1080/180). 4K or FullHD 30p can shoot for two hours per clip (though it’s likely that card or battery capacity will have stopped proceedings before then, anyway).

The camera’s 8-bit video modes can all be shot on relatively affordable U3-class SD cards. You’ll need a more expensive, V60-rated card for 10-bit C-Log3 or HDR PQ capture.

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Initial impressions

The retractable RF 24-50mm F4.5-6.3 IS STM helps the EOS R8 present a compact package.

Back when it was announced in 2019, we rather enjoyed the pared-down nature and low cost of the EOS RP. Our main reservations pertained to its limited battery life and rather elderly sensor, which performed well in many situations but lacked the dynamic range we’ve become accustomed to. All that said, in many respects it was a more enjoyable camera than the more ambitious EOS R.

The EOS R8 is a slightly more expensive option but more than addresses our concerns about the sensor by bringing the improved image quality, video capabilities and AF performance from the significantly more expensive EOS R6 II. In fact, the R8’s specs impress enough to make it worth asking whether you really need the extras that the more expensive camera brings you.

The EOS R8, even paired with its kit lens, can create attractive images, while being small and light enough to extend between brambles. Canon RF24-50mm F4.5-6.3 IS STM @ 45mm | ISO 500 | 1/80 sec | F6.3 Photo: Richard Butler

The differences do add up: the EOS R6 II has in-body image stabilization, better build quality, a higher-res viewfinder, an AF joystick and larger battery. It also shoots at twice the rate of the EOS R8 in mechanical shutter mode and gives you twin card slots (and those slots are separate from the battery compartment). You certainly get more more camera for your money with the EOS R6 II, but it’s well worth thinking about whether you’d rather get the R8 with a 24-105mm F4 for the amount you’d pay for an R6 II body, or perhaps grab an 85mm F2 Macro and still have $500 left over.

As it is, we were impressed by the EOS R8. As someone who’s been shooting with the EOS R6 II these past few weeks, it took a while to adapt to the lack of joystick, but no accommodations needed to be made for the image quality. Once I’d adapted to the R8’s handling, it was only really in-body stabilization that feels like it’s been cut from the R8 to keep to such an attractive price.

Add the $500 85mm F2 Macro and a couple of lights and the R8 can shoot images every bit the equal of the higher-end EOS R6 II. Canon RF85mm F2 Macro IS STM | ISO 6400 | 1/125 sec | F4.0 Photo: Richard Butler

Perhaps it is the APS-C EOS R7 that is put most at risk by the arrival of the R8. Both cameras command the same list price but, while the R7’s 15fps shooting is a significant benefit over the R8, and its smaller sensor makes it easier to get long-lens reach, the difference between the two models feels smaller than used to exist between the EOS 7D and EOS 6D DSLRs. The full frame model appears a closer match for the APS-C camera’s feature set, and without the price differential that used to exist. Given that Canon’s lens development is likely to be heavily full-frame weighted for the foreseeable future, the EOS R8 looks ready to carve out a significant place in the midst of the company’s lineup.

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Sample gallery

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