Canon wants you to believe this is “the ONE everyone has been waiting for” but some users believe the new EOS R1 should have been named as EOS R3 II.

It’s not going to compete for high number of pixels, but that everyone knew already: the Canon EOS R1 has a new 24.2MP back-illuminated stacked CMOS sensor and Canon says that “sensor design on this camera is all new”, making it a sensor so fast, in terms of read-out, that it has virtually eliminated electronic shutter rolling shutter distortion issues, also according to Canon.

The new sensor, paired with the new DIGIC Accelerator front-engine processor, makes the R1 capable of capturing up to 40 fps of RAW, JPEG, or HEIF (HDR-PQ) images using Electronic Shutter, Canon claims. The new design also introduces another trick: the DIGIC Accelerator chip  has a useful In-camera upscaling feature that uses deep learning to double the horizontal and vertical size of a JPEG on your card (leaving the original image alone) in about 10 seconds. That means you can upscale a 24MP image to 96MP right in the camera.

For those who love the feel of a mechanical shutter, it is still there, a full one in fact; the camera also features first curtain electronic shutter, both capable of continuous shooting at up to 12 fps. Additionally, all continuous shooting speeds with electronic shutter can be user-customized to meet your continuous shooting needs.

Better than the EOS R3

The EOS R1 has more than a new sensor and while some believe it should be named EOS R3 II, the new camera from Canon also includes autofucs that, Canon claims, “is on a whole new level”, with new subject tracking that allows you to maintain focus on a moving subject even when they are obscured briefly while shooting. Furthermore, for even faster positioning of your active AF Area, the R1 adds Canon’s Eye Control AF —even more advanced than the Eye Control in the EOS R3 camera.

Once you calibrate the viewfinder to your eye, just look where you want to focus, and the AF Area will move there when you press the AF activation button. This new system is even robust enough for many users to work when the photographer is wearing glasses. The R1 features another first for Canon — the CMOS sensor itself now has cross-type Dual Pixel AF on its imaging sensor, to give a more positive focus response to scenes that have a lot of linear detail like window blinds or planks on a boardwalk.

Canon says that the EOS R1 “provides versatile cinema integration”, with a range of high-performance video features, including 6K, RAW recording in-camera at up to 60 frames per second, 4K MP4 recording up to 120 frames per second (with audio), and 2K or Full HD recording to 240 frames per second. The R1 even has a built-in tally lamp, and is capable of recording 4-channel audio, adds Canon, while some in the crowd keep speaking about 8K that should be there (on a 24MP sensor?!) and other features that  are better on a cinema camera but not on a photographer’s tool that also does video.

Three stabilization modes

For video (mainly) the EOS R1 has three stabilization methods (in-body, optical, and independently-activated movie digital IS) for what Canon says is “spectacular stabilization performance, especially when recording video, where it can help suppress blur in the peripheral area. IS (Coordinated Control) can deliver up to 8.5 stops at center and 7.5 stops at the periphery. The in-body image stabilization is even more powerful when paired with a compatible RF or RF-S lens with image stabilization for coordinated IS, where the lens and camera work together to maximize the stabilization effect. These features work with compatible lenses and it should be noted that when using Movie digital IS, the field of view is reduced.

Here are some of the key specifications of the camera:

• Back-illuminated stacked 24.2 megapixel full-frame sensor and new processing system for extremely fast reading
• Increased read-out speed, reducing “rolling shutter” distortions
• Still-image shooting speeds up to 40fps
• “Cross-type AF” imaging sensor for more positive focus on subjects with linear detail
• Strong video capabilities, up to 4K (also 6K RAW video options)

The EOS R1 camera is designed for both professional still photographers and video creators in a wide range of fields including sports, news reporting and high-end video production.

The Canon EOS R1 camera is expected to be available in the Fall of 2024, for an estimated retail price of $6,299.00.