Big test
PERFORMANCE: EXPOSURE LATITUDE
GREAT SCOT! The Royal Scot 46100 at Appleby, en route to Carlisle. An RF 14- 35mm f/4 lens at 35mm was used with an exposure of 1/800sec at f/8 and ISO 400. The Raw was edited to taste – the highlights and shadows were adjusted. The tiny dots are raindrops!
the camera. It worked very well on a cat in poor indoor lighting, too. Overall, the EOS R8 acquitted itself superbly, with nothing seriously off-putting either in use or from the results – which were impressive. One of several highlights is the advanced AF system, which is excellent on a camera at this price. PN
how you like to work. You might not want the camera switching to face detection when you are set up to a single point, but it can definitely work as a benefit. Face/eye detection is impressive, sensitive, efficient and works from a good distance. I had accurate eye detection with a subject 8-10m from
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Final word
Verdict The Canon EOS R8 is a capable camera with smart and accurate AF and impressive ISO that’s great for travel. Its price is a strong attraction, and will appeal to aspiring Canon full-frame converts, as well as existing system owners seeking a second body. My time with the R8 was short, and though I got to try it in a variety of situations, I didn’t test it as extensively as I would like. That said, it performed very well, giving excellent results. 24 /25 FEATURES It’s well-endowed, but Canon has ditched features like IBIS and a focus lever to keep the price and size down
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24 /25 HANDLING
Generally very good, but no focus joystick is a negative, and a couple more customisable buttons would have been nice
We tested the exposure latitude of the EOS R8’s Raws by shooting a ±4EV bracket in 0.3EV steps at ISO 100 in manual exposure mode. On a sunny day, the metered correct exposure was 1/250sec at f/8 and the Raws were exposure corrected in Adobe Lightroom. Tolerance to overexposure was pretty good, with the +2.3EV shot recovering to look identical to the correctly exposed frame. Any more than this and the highlights looked veiled, although the shadows were fine. Underexposure tolerance was much better, and even the -4EV frame could be successfully recovered in software with little gain in digital noise. In fact, you need to check files at 200% to see any noise, so this is a creditable performance.
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24 /25 PERFORMANCE
The EOS R8 turns in clean images with plenty of detail, and digital noise is not an issue until you get to very high ISOs
23 /25 VALUE FOR MONEY
The EOS RP is still available, so you could go Canon full-frame for nearly half the cash, but the EOS R8 is four years newer
95 /100 OVERALL
There’s much to like about Canon’s latest full- framer. It is a capable performer, handles well and is compact
THERE’S NEVER BEEN A BETTER TIME TO MAKE GOOD USE
PROS Price, lightweight, decent sensor, weather and dust resistance, high frame rate with electronic shutter, good high-ISO performance, in-camera focus stacking, USB-C charging CONS No IBIS, Raw burst/pre-shot not user-friendly, no high-res mode, single card slot, no focus lever
Where will your kit go next? Inspire others, earn some extra cash and make a difference. Sell your used kit and let someone else love it as much as you have. Make good use of your used gear. Sell yours today at mpb.com/sell
Issue 106 | Photography News 19
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