6 things I hate about the Canon EOS RP

1- The viewfinder eye sensor does not detect my eye when wearing glasses

The eye sensor on the right of the viewfinder does not detect glasses well. As a result it often disables the viewfinder when I try to shoot trough the viewfinder. The Canon EOS R does not have this problem because the sensor is below the viewfinder which is the right location to place it.

2- The eye sensor thinks my hand is the eye

The eye sensor often turns of the main screen, when I do want to use set screen. That’s because it detects my hand somewhere in front of it, and the camera disables the main screen. And there is no easy way to control this. There is a display control setting, but it only has an auto and a manual option. And when set to manual you can’t choose to keep both the viewfinder and the screen on at all times. A firmware update could solve this but in a perfect world it would not detect “things” in front of it but the viewfinder could have real iris or real eye detection.

3- The USB C port is not a regular USB C port

The USB C port is not a default USB C port. It is a Power Delivery 2 or PD 2.0 port which means it won’t support your average USB -> USB C cable.

Most modern USB C chargers (and cables) support the (3 amp) PD 2 standard. I have found 2 USB -> USB C cables (out of 23 tried) which did support PD2. But a big booh for not making this easy.

4- The USB C port does not really power the camera

Even when you find the right cable you can’t power the camera using only that cable. The camera also won’t charge the battery via USB C when the camera is turned on. You’ll need to buy something like a LP-E17 dummy battery to USB adapter if you want to record longer video’s and you don’t want to buy (and switch out) multiple batteries.

It’s not difficult to let a camera be powered via a battery, a USB C adapter or both. You phone can do it, so can your camera.

5- Touch control when in live view

You can use the screen to select a place where the camera focuses on when it’s in live view mode. You can even use it when you use the viewfinder. This feature is called Touch & drag AF.

If you have been shooting for a longer period, you’ll probably use half press or back button focus, but if you spend some time using touch and drag its a real nice feature. And it’s smart because you can select the starting point area for touch an drag detection to limit incidental touches.

The only problem is that your nose often touches the screen when you switch from viewfinder to display. Especially if you wear glasses, because the camera will decide to switch for you. This results is the camera selecting a different focus point after you have taken a shot. When you line up for your next shot the focus point will be somewhere totally unexpected usually near the edge of the screen.

You can disable Touch & drag AF (Camera menu, Tab 7), but this will only disable it for shooting via the viewfinder. It will still be active for shooting via the display.

You’ll learn that the delete button will reset the focus point, but it would be awesome if you could disable Touch AF for screen shooting as well.

6- You can’t program a dedicated button for eye auto focus

Eye autofocus is awesome, but you don’t want to use it all the time. That’s why most camera have a dedicated button for it. If a camera doesn’t have a default button you can often reprogram a button to do the eye autofocus for you. With the EOS RP you can’t.

The fact that you miss this eye autofocus button option is the biggest issue I have with the EOS RP, but this could be fixed via firmware.

The best way to switch AF modes fast is to set your camera up like this:

First remove all the AF modes you don’t use at Menu > Custom C.Fn.II: Autofocus > Tab 5 > Limit AF methods > and uncheck all the types of AF you don’t use. I only use the Face + Tracking, Spot AF and the default single-area option (the only one you can’t disable).

There are many ways to select among these AF Area modes. I prefer to tap the rear AF-area selector ([ + ]) button (below the ✱ button).

With the big issues out of the way the annoyances remain.

5 things I don’t like about the Canon EOS RP

The stuff you wished was different.

1- The sensor is just not great

The sensor is simply not that great. I even feel like the 5D mark III had a better sensors mostly because I liked the noise/grain better.

2- The auto minimum shutter speed is too low

If you’re a camera veteran you know which shutter speed is right for you. If you are new to photography you’ll want the minimum shutter speed (Min. shooter. spd.) to be 1 to 1.5x your focal length. This to make sure you get sharp images for still images.

You up that to 3x for moving subjects (read your kids). So a 35mm lens will result in a minimum of 1/100 if you want to photograph people who are not sitting still. A 50mm will be 1/160. If a lens is stabilized, you can take the minimum shutter speed down a little.

The auto mode should know this all these parameters. The focal length, if the lens is stabilized, if eye detect sees people etc. All these factors should result is the best calculation, but the Canon RP is often wrong and shoots way to low, which means blurry images. I rather have noisy that an unsharp image. My solution for this is programming the C1 feature to be a “everybody should be able to handle the camera now” setup with the minimum shutter speed set to 1/125 not matter which lens is up there.

3- The silent mode is hidden (thus not really there)

There is a silent mode but it’s hidden under the scene mode. And in this scene mode there are very little “pro” setup options available. The camera is very silent though, so it’s annoying but no more than that.

4- Spot autofocus in low light

The spot autofocus in low light is just bad. You can solve this by moving to the 1-point AF, but spot is far more accurate. Spot autofocus was difficult for moving objects but that got a lot better with the 1.4 firmware update. And Canon dual pixel autofocus is blazing fast with 1-point AF.

5- The articulating screen

The articulating screen hits the top of the body easily because of the lower build quality of the camera.

So I should not but the EOS RP?

Don’t get me wrong. The EOS RP is the best camera you can buy at this price range. The problem is you don’t buy a camera, you buy into a camera system. And camera systems have lenses. And where Canon has awesome “pro glass” it does not have any competition in that area which means it’s very expensive and heavy. The only cheap option is the 35mm which I would recommend you to buy as the kit lens or combo with the RP if you want to go Canon.

If you don’t have any gear yet and you are new with photography I would urge you to buy second hand. If you want to go mirrorless (read light and easy to pack) I think the Fuji XT series is your best bet. The cameras very well build and easy to handle. There are a lot of lens options and the quality to price ration of their lenses is amazing.

If you are thinking of going Full Frame the Sony system is the best system to step into. The Sony A7 III is amazing and since Sony has been playing the full frame game the longest their are loads of (third party) lenses. Sigma has their ‘ART’ series of primes which are amazing. Tamron has the versatile and well prices 28-75mm f/2.8 Di III glass.

Just to make the comparison.

• The Sony with the Tamron lens will set you back $2700,-
• The Canon with the Canon RF 28-70mm f/2L USM will set you back $4000,- because the glass is a whopping $3000,-.

The difference becomes even bigger when you add a 50mm to the mix. The Canon RF 50mm F/1.2L is the only option for the Canon R lens system. You can buy three Sigma 50mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art lenses for the Sony A system for the price of the Canon RF 50mm.

Yes the Canon glass is better, but not 3x better than the Tamron or Sigma glass. And yes the Sony body is 2x as expensive as the Canon, but that Sony A7 III is a better camera then the Canon RP on nearly every front. The EOS RP has one big plus: it is the lightest full frame camera you can buy, especially with the 35mm on there. Since I wanted to slim down with my every day camera the RP was the right option for me. And if the best camera is the one that’s with you, I’m more than happy with my new 6 month old companion.