Saturday, March 16, 2024

Review Canon EOS R10

Introduction

The Canon EOS R10 is a tiny new mid-range mirrorless camera aimed at beginners and less experienced users looking for a compact, affordable yet still very capable camera for both still photos and video.

It has a 24.2 megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor which is partnered with the very latest Digic X processor.

This is a fast camera – 15fps burst shooting is available when using the R10’s mechanical shutter and 23fps when using the electronic shutter, both with continuous auto-focus and auto-exposure.

The native ISO range runs from 100-3200, which can be expanded to ISO 51200, and the top shutter speed is 1/16,000sec when using the electronic shutter.

Thanks to its Digic X processor and Dual Pixel CMOS AF II autofocus system, the EOS R10 offers the same deep-learning artificial intelligence based automatic face, eye, animal and vehicle AF tracking modes as the full-frame R3, R5 and R6 models.

On the video side, there’s 4K/60p recording for up to an hour and Full HD footage at frame rates up to 120p, which potentially makes the Canon R10 just as appealing to videographers as to stills photographers.

The Canon R10 features a 3-inch 1,040K-dot LCD vari-angle monitor with a touch-screen interface and an integrated OLED electronic viewfinder with 2.36M dot resolution, magnification of 0.95x and 120fps refresh rate.

There’s also a UHS-II SD memory card slot, built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, integrated USB Type-C, mini HDMI, microphone port and a new multi-function accessory shoe.

The Canon EOS R10 is priced at £899.99 / €1079.99 / $979.99 body only in the UK, Europe and USA respectively. It is made in Japan.

Ease of Use

Intended to be the spiritual successor to the popular EOS Rebel / EOS xxD series and EOS 77D DSLRs, the new Canon R10 is specifically targeted at people who may be new to photography or those who have outgrown the photographic capabilities of their smartphone.

Along with the R7 model that was announced at the same time, the EOS R10 is the first ever Canon APS-C sensor mirrorless camera to use the same RF lens mount as the company’s full frame cameras.

This is the main differentiator between these two new R-series models and the existing EOS M-series, which use a different EF-M lens mount.

Consequently, you can either use Canon’s equally new range of RF-S lenses which are designed specifically for the R10 and R10 (and all future Canon R-series APS-C cameras), or you can use the more established full-frame RF lenses, with an accompanying change in the focal length due to the 1.6x crop factor involved with mounting full-frame lenses on an APS-C sensor.

In addition, Canon’s huge number of EF and EF-S DSLR lenses can be used with the R10 and R7 by attaching the optional EF-EOS R Mount Adapter, which is very handy if you already have a large collection of legacy lenses.

What you can’t do, sadly, is use the EF-M lenses that were designed for the EOS-M system on the R10/R7, which means that there’s no clear upgrade path for users of Canon’s first APS-C sensor mirrorless system other than to start over again.

It also means that there aren’t very many lens options for the R10 and R7 from day one – Canon only released two rather uninspiring lenses alongside the new bodies, the super-compact RF-S 18-45mm F4.5-6.3 IS STM standard zoom which has a collapsible design and the more versatile RF-S 18-150mm F3.5-6.3 IS STM zoom.

Both lenses commendably have built-in optical stabilisation and don’t cost the earth, but the maximum apertures are very slow and neither are particularly wide. They’re fine if you’re just starting out and don’t already own any compatible Canon lenses, but we’d hope to see some more inspiring RF-S lenses launched as soon as possible in order to compete on a more level playing field with the likes of Sony and especially Fujifilm.

The 24.2 megapixel sensor in the Canon EOS R10 is a re-engineered version of a sensor design that has previously been used in many Canon models, including the Canon EOS M50 Mark II and the Canon EOS 850D.

Although both of those cameras used the same sensor as the new R10, they only featured the Digic 8 processor rather than the latest and greatest Digic X processor that the R10 benefits from.

The ISO range runs from 100-32,000, which can be further expanded up to ISO 51,200, exactly the same as the EOS R7.

The EOS R10 is the latest Canon camera to support Dual Pixel RAW. This allows correction of the focus and contrast in the background using the Background Clarity mode and changing the lighting in portraits via the Portrait Relighting mode after capture, just using your finger/thumb on the EOS R10’s touchscreen LCD.

Somewhat amazingly at this price point, the Canon R10 features exactly the next generation Dual Pixel CMOS AF II focusing system as used by the flagship R3 and R5 full-frame cameras and its EOS R7 APS-C sibling.

It has 651 automatic focus points and 4,503 manually selectable AF points, the latter of which is slightly less than the EOS R7, but offers similar 100% frame coverage in Auto selection mode and 90% vertical and 100% horizontal in manual selection.

Impressively the EOS R10 can focus in light levels as low as -4EV (when used with an F1.2 lens) or with maximum apertures as small as f/22, which enables autofocus even when using ultra telephoto lenses with teleconverters.

Shutter speeds as fast as 1/4000s are supported using the mechanical shutter and up to 1/16000s using the electronic shutter.

Thanks to its Digic X processor, the EOS R10 offers exactly the same deep-learning artificial intelligence based automatic face, eye and animal AF tracking modes as the R3, R5 and R6 models.

Therefore Canon R10 can recognise and track eyes from much further away than previous models, and it works even if the person is wearing a mask, helmet or sunglasses. Subject tracking works for humans and also dogs, cats and birds, the latter even in flight.

The EOS R10 also has the ability to track vehicles, including cars and motorbikes. What’s more, if the driver is wearing a helmet, the AF system will lock on to that, ensuring that the most important subject is in focus.

Turning to the R10’s headline-grabbing continuous shooting speeds, the camera can shoot at a very fast 23fps when taking advantage of the silent electronic shutter, complete with full AF and AE tracking, which is only 7fps slower than the flagship EOS R3 full-frame sports camera.

What’s more, the new R10 actually betters the R3 if you prefer to use the mechanical shutter, offering a burst rate of 15fps versus the R3’s slower 12fps.

The buffer allows bursts of up to 460 JPEG or 29 RAW images when using the mechanical shutter at 15fps and 70 JPEG or 21 RAW images when using the electronic shutter at 23fps. So you can only shoot RAW bursts for between 1-2 seconds depending on which shutter mode you’re using.

By direct comparison the more expensive R7 has a smaller buffer when using the mechanical shutter – 224 JPEG or 51 RAW images – but a larger one when using the electronic shutter – 126 JPEG or 42 RAW images for the R7.

The camera only has a single UHS-II SD card slot that’s rather inconveniently housed in the same compartment as the battery, a direct consequence of the camera’s small, compact design.

Unlike the EOS R7, in-body image stabilisation is unfortunately not supported by the Canon R10. Instead you have to rely on a mix of lens stabilisation (if the lens offers it) and /or in-camera digital stabilisation. This is one of the key differences that you should consider if choosing between these two cameras.

File format wise, the R10 is Canon’s latest EOS camera to support the ‘next generation’ HEIF (High Efficiency Image File) file format, enabling images with 10-bits of data to be saved in a file the equivalent size of a JPEG, while suffering less compression.

Of course Raw files can be shot in tandem with JPEGs (or indeed HEIF files) as per usual – here with Canon’s own .CR3 (Canon Raw) file extension, which requires the likes of Photoshop or Lightroom to access and open.

The Canon R10 offers the ability to record up to 4K UHD / 60p / 10-bit footage internally with dual-pixel auto-focus and auto-exposure for up to 2 hours, which is considerably less than the 6 hour time limit offered by the EOS R7.

Note that whilst 4K/30p is oversampled from 6K and therefore uncropped, 4K/60p suffers from a 64% crop which gives a frame similar to Super 35mm. The R7 can record uncropped 4K/60p footage.

There’s also a dedicated 4K/60p UHD crop mode which provides extra telephoto reach (55% of the horizontal area).

Full 1080 slow-motion recording at up to 120p with autofocus is also available (but no sound), which is actually something that the flagship EOS R5 doesn’t offer.

Both live streaming on YouTube and vertical video capture are both supported, the latter being ideal for reels and stories.

Canon have also included zebra display during movie shooting, which can be used as a guide to exposure adjustment, especially for highlights.

The EOS R10 has a largely plastic body rather than the more substantial mixed polycarbonate/magnesium-alloy body used by the more expensive R7.

The R10 doesn’t offer any level of weather-proofing, so you’ll need to jump to the R7 if you need this feature. Note that the two new RF-S zoom lenses are also similarly not weather-proof.

It measures 122.5 x 87.8 x 83.4mm, making it quite a lot smaller than the Canon R7 and it’s significantly lighter too, weighing in at 382g body-only or 429 with both a battery and memory card fitted.

Despite its diminutive stature, the Canon R10 benefits from having a deep handgrip that comfortably accommodates three fingers.

The minimalist front plate houses two controls. There’s an unmarked Function button that can be customised, including controlling the auto-focus. By default it activates the classic Depth of Field preview function, which helps you determine what your photos will look like before the image is taken.

This button is encircled by the MF/AF mode switch, which is especially welcome as the two new RF-S lenses both lack this handy switch. There’s also a porthole for the AF assist light and a lozenge shaped button for releasing the lens.

The new Canon EOS R10 has a similar top plate layout to the EOS R7 model, with a couple of notable exceptions..

There is a conventional shooting mode dial on the right-hand side to change the shooting mode, with the usual P, Tv, Av and M options, Bulb mode, two Custom modes, Movie mode, 10 different Creative Filters, and three options for less experienced users – a selection of Scene modes, the set-everything Scene Intelligent Auto mode, and Flexible-Priority AE mode, which bridges the gap between full auto and the PASM modes.

There’s a small On/Off switch over on the far-right, with the camera leaping into life almost instantly. The camera remembers separate settings for each of the Movie and various stills settings.

There’s a small but responsive shutter release button at the top of the handgrip, with the tiny M-Fn behind it. This provides quick access to some of the camera’s key controls, including ISO, continuous shooting, AF, white balance and exposure compensation.

Behind that is the front control dial for principally setting the aperture or shutter speed, and behind that a small, red one-touch movie record button and an equally small Lock button sitting proud of the camera body. We would have much preferred this to have been the ISO button, as on the R7.

The Lock button, as its name suggests, locks the two control dials on top of the camera so that you can’t accidentally change the camera’s key settings.

The R10 has a more conventional second control dial on the top-plate that’s ideally placed for thumb operation, as on the EOS R6 and other R-series models, rather than the R10’s “innovative” combined AF point selector and rear control wheel at the top-rear of the camera body.

This means that the welcome AF joystick on the rear is not surrounded by a scroll wheel, as on the R7, making it much easier to use, especially by those with larger hands.

While the inclusion of the joystick is very welcome, we were struck by just how high the joystick is positioned. It’s almost inline with the centre of the viewfinder, rather than where the Magnification button is, which at least initially seems rather too high to find easily, especially compared with most other cameras that have this key control. We eventually got used to it higher position, but still can’t help wishing that it was lower down.

What the R10 does lack is a third exposure control in the form of Canon’s popular scrolling control wheel, which here is replaced by a small d-pad with various options arranged around it, including ISO, Flash settings, Delete and the burst/self-timer settings.

The Menu bottom on the far left is the only control found on this side of the back-plate.

The new Multi-Function Shoe provides data communication and power for accessories such as the ST-E10 Speedlite Transmitter, DM-E1D Stereo Microphone, and AD-P1 Smartphone Link Adapter, as well as acting as a traditional hotshoe for existing Speedlites and triggers via the AD-E1 Multi-Function Shoe Adapter.

Just like the Rebel DSLR models that it succeeds, Canon have included a handy built-in flash with a guide number of 6, so you don’t have to carry a separate flashgun. The more expensive R7 does not have this feature.

The 0.39 inch, 2.36 million dot EVF on the EOS R10 isn’t the most cutting-edge technology wise, but it’s still fairly impressive to look through, working up to 120fps for minimal lag when shooting fast-moving subjects and offering an adequate magnification of 0.95x.

The EOS R10 has a 3-inch, 1.04 million dot, vari-angle LCD screen, which tilts out to the side and faces forwards for more convenient vlogging and selfies. It can also be usefully folded flat against the back of the camera to protect it when in transit in a camera bag.

A tilting LCD screen always helps to encourage shooting from creative angles and it also helps make the EOS R10 ideally suited to movie-shooting. The screen is OK but rather beginning to show its age now, and it’s not as high-resolution as the screen on the R7.

A proximity sensor is located directly beneath the viewfinder, which automatically switches between the EVF and LCD screen. When the LCD screen is swung outwards, the EVF is cleverly turned off automatically.

The LCD screen is touch-sensitive, allowing you to control everything from setting the AF point and firing the shutter, navigating the menu systems and browsing your images during playback. It’s a very precise, responsive system that’s a veritable joy to use.

Alongside the rear joystick are three classic Canon controls – the AF-On button for people who prefer back-button focusing, the Auto-exposure Lock button (denoted by a star) and the AF area selection button which makes it easier to switch the autofocus point when holding the camera to your eye. The latter doubles up as the Magnification button during playback.

Underneath are the Info Button and then the shared Quick/Set button, which opens the Quick Control screen and provides instant access to 10 key camera controls. The aforementioned d-pad with four navigation buttons surrounds the Quick/Set button.

Completing the rear of the EOS R10 is the self-explanatory Playback button located underneath the navigation pad.

On the left hand-side of the camera are two rubber flaps housing four different connections. The Canon EOS R7 has a microphone port, remote control port, USB-C 2.0 port and a mini-HDMI connection – nearly all the things that any enthusiast photographer or videographer would need from an accessory point of view, with the notable exception of a headphone port for sound monitoring.

On the bottom of the camera is the shared battery and memory card compartment. The EOS R10 supports SD UHS-II cards via a single slot, which instantly demotes it below the EOS R7 which has dual slots in the side of the its body.

The Canon R10 uses a smaller capacity battery than the R7, with the LP-E17 unit used by lots of previous Canon DSLR and mirrorless models like the 850D and 250D.

Consequently the R10’s battery life is 430 shots with the LCD and 260 with the EVF, versus 770 and 500 shots respectively for the R7.

Unfortunately and somewhat bizarrely for such a speed-oriented camera, Canon have chosen not to make a battery grip available for the EOS R10, or even provide the grip positioning holes in the base for any future release.

As well as making the camera easier to use in portrait mode and/or for users with larger hands, it would also have greatly extended the battery life, all things that this camera’s target audience would have benefited from.

With built-in Bluetooth Low Energy and both 2.4Ghz and faster 5Ghz Wi-Fi support, the EOS R10 can be easily connected to a smartphone and networks allowing high-speed file sharing and FTP/FTPS transfer.

The R10 can also be remotely controlled and even updated using Canon’s Camera Connect and EOS Utility apps and tethered to to an Apple iPhone via its Lightning port or a PC or Mac via Wi-Fi or USB-C 2.0. Live streaming to YouTube is also supported via wi-fi and Canon’s image.canon service.

Intended to be the spiritual successor to the popular EOS Rebel / EOS xxD series and EOS 77D DSLRs, the new Canon R10 is specifically targeted at people who may be new to photography or those who have outgrown the photographic capabilities of their smartphone.

Along with the R7 model that was announced at the same time, the EOS R10 is the first ever Canon APS-C sensor mirrorless camera to use the same RF lens mount as the company’s full frame cameras.

This is the main differentiator between these two new R-series models and the existing EOS M-series, which use a different EF-M lens mount.

Consequently, you can either use Canon’s equally new range of RF-S lenses which are designed specifically for the R10 and R10 (and all future Canon R-series APS-C cameras), or you can use the more established full-frame RF lenses, with an accompanying change in the focal length due to the 1.6x crop factor involved with mounting full-frame lenses on an APS-C sensor.

In addition, Canon’s huge number of EF and EF-S DSLR lenses can be used with the R10 and R7 by attaching the optional EF-EOS R Mount Adapter, which is very handy if you already have a large collection of legacy lenses.

Image Quality

he Canon EOS R10 produced still images of excellent quality during the review period.

This camera produces noise-free JPEG images from ISO 100 all the way up to ISO 3200, with noise first appearing at ISO 6400. The faster settings of 12800 and especially ISO 25600 display progressively more noise, but are still suitable for small prints and web images. We wouldn’t advise using the expanded setting of ISO 51200 though.

The RAW files were also excellent, exhibiting more noise than their JPEG counterparts but still producing very usable images from ISO 100-3200.

The built-in pop-up flash worked well indoors, with no red-eye and good overall exposure. The night photograph was very good, with the maximum shutter speed of 30 seconds and the Bulb mode allowing you to capture enough light in all situations, while the HDR mode works well in the right situations.

The various different Picture Styles and the ability to create your own are a real benefit, as are the extensive range of Creative Effects, all of which can be previewed before you take the shot.

Noise

ISO sensitivity can be set between ISO 100 and ISO 51200 in full-stop increments. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting, with JPEG on the left and the RAW equivalent on the righ

File Quality

The Canon EOS R10 has 2 different JPEG file quality settings available, with Fine being the highest quality option, and it also supports Raw. Here are some 100% crops which show the quality of the various options, with the file size shown in brackets.

Night

The Canon EOS R10’s maximum shutter speed is 30 seconds and there’s a Bulb mode for even longer exposures, which is excellent news if you’re seriously interested in night photography.

HDR

The Canon EOS R10 has a High Dynamic Range mode with four different settings – AUTO, +-1 EV, +-2 EV and +-3 EV. The camera takes three shots with different exposures, changing the shutter speed for each one, and then combining them in-camera.

Multi Exposure

The Canon EOS R10’s Multiple Exposure mode combines up to 9 different images together in-camera to create one composite image, with four different ways of combining them – Additive, Average, Bright, Dark.

Picture Styles

Canon’s Picture Styles are preset combinations of different sharpness, contrast, saturation and colour tone settings which can be applied to both JPEGs and RAW files. The seven available options are shown below in the following series, which demonstrates the differences. There are also three User Defined styles so that you can create your own look.

Conclusion

Whilst the more expensive and more capable R7 model may have garnered most of the attention when it was launched, the smaller, lighter and cheaper Canon EOS R10 is just as appealing in its own way, marking a welcome return to form for Canon in the competitive sub-£$1000 camera market.

The R10 may notably lack the in-built image stabilisation, weather-sealing, uncropped 4K/60p movie mode, dual card slots and larger viewfinder offered by the R7, but on the other hand it still offers impressive burst shooting rates and a remarkable auto-focus system from much higher up the Canon food chain that mark the R7 out against its direct competitors.

Thankfully the R10 has a rather more conventional user interface than its more expensive sibling, eschewing the R7’s rather quirky combined AF point selector in favour of dual front and rear command dials and a separate AF joystick, which ultimately make it easier to use.

It’s also considerably smaller and lighter than the R7 whilst still offering a chunky hand-grip and a logical selection of nicely sized controls, resulting in a very small camera that you can carry around all day without noticing.

Our main bugbear is not with the R10 and R7 cameras themselves, but rather the lens support, or lack of it. OK, so the EOS RF-S mount is still very much in its infancy, but it would have been nice to see Canon offering something more interesting than two slow zoom lenses from day one, even if they are very affordable.

You can use Canon’s adapter to mount their vast range of full-frame EF DSLR and RF mirrorless lenses on the R10, but that perhaps rather negates the point of buying a smaller sensor, physically smaller and financially smaller camera.

The R10’s main rival is the similarly priced Fujifilm X-S10, which does offer IBIS and a much, much larger selection of lenses, but can’t match the R7’s sheer speed and auto-focus performance.

If you’re finally upgrading from one of Canon’s DSLRs like the EOS 850D/Rebel T8i or 77D or an EOS-M mirrorless model, you’ll be happily blown away by all of the the advances that Canon have made in the intervening years.

Overall, the new EOS R10 successfully continues the compact design ethos and bang for buck mass-market strategy of the EOS Rebel range, and offers enough features, performance and quality to be just as successful…

The Photograohers
The Photograohershttps://www.photoeskape.com
Welcome to The Photographers, your go-to source for all things photography. We are a team of passionate photographers and enthusiasts who are dedicated to providing you with the latest news, reviews, and educational resources to help you improve and excel in your photography skills.
RELATED ARTICLES

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Most Popular

Subscribe to our newsletter

To be updated with all the latest news, offers and special announcements.

Recent Comments