Sometimes Canon introduces a camera or lens with much
fanfare. The EOS R5 was such a product which Canon pre-announced several times
for a year before us users could get our hands on one. And yes, after a few
firmware updates it has actually managed to live up to the hype.
The R8 by contrast, has slipped quietly onto the RF mount
catalogue as has the RF 24-50mm kit lens with which the R8 is often sold.
Almost a case of “nothing to see here” one might have imagined.
I bought an R8 with the RF 24-50mm lens when that kit came
onto the market in Australia with no great expectations. However it is becoming
clear that this is a sleeper hit product which offers impressively high image
quality and performance at a moderate price in a compact user friendly package.
I have run controlled tests comparing the image quality of
the R8 with that of the R5 and found that while the R5 can deliver slightly (and I do mean slightly, detectable only by
pixel peeping at 100% on an ultrasharp
screen) more fine detail there is otherwise no
noticeable difference between images from the R8 and R5.
I will discuss the pros and cons of the R8 in another post
but here are a few photos from a recent outing on a sunny winters day in the
Sydney region. The Raw files are very malleable when processed in Adobe Camera
Raw. They retain color and tonal integrity even when strong local and general
adjustments are made.
