I bought my R8 when it first came out. It represents two "firsts" for me. It is my first mirrorless interchangeable lens camera and it's my first full frame camera. It's excellent AF system, excellent image quality and fast burst capabilities have made it my primary go to camera for wildlife and other fast action. As I don't use video much (rarely), the battery life is acceptable, with two batteries getting me through any shooting scenario. I couple it with the excellent RF 200-800 for wildlife, although I also have the RF 100-400 as an alternative lightweight setup. I never use the 40 fps, as it only shoots for 1.5 seconds, so I extend my buffer by using 20 fps and I use C-RAW, so I can get nearly 3 seconds in a burst, which is generally plenty. It has largely replaced my 7D II and EF 100-400 (original) for wildlife shooting. Areas where it could improve: Even 20 fps takes a LOT of shots. But the camera has nothing between 6 fps and 20 fps. The ability to set a burst rate (say dial it down to 8, 10, 12, 15 etc.) would be very welcome. This feature has been added to the R5 Mark II, but I don't think they'll add it to the R8 in a firmware, which is s shame. It's kind of weird too, as it's a feature they added to the 7D II, ten years ago. On that decade old camera, there are only two burst modes, slow and high. But the camera's maximum burst of 10fps, while nothing to write home about today, was blazing fast at the time and is more than adequate for wildlife shooting. But you could "dial in" the speed you wanted for both the slow and high modes - from 1-9 on the slow mode and 2-10 on the fast mode, if I recall correctly. Very flexible. I left the high burst on the 7D II at 10. The slow mode defaulted to 3 fps, but I raised it to a more useful 6 fps. But the ability to customize fps to a huge degree was great and I'm not sure why they removed it. Great review. I LOVE my R8. It's scratched my full frame itch and it is a powerhouse for the price. It's effectively 70-80% of the R6 II's capabilities, but it's about $1,200 cheaper (here in Canada).
Absolutely awesome comment! I’m glad you enjoyed the video and I appreciate you sharing your experience here. Programmable burst speeds would be so awesome. We need a good in-between
R8 video capability is pretty great IMO, esp. compared to 5DmkII which is my previous camera. The AF is really advanced and most of the time it nails the focus well. The only situation where I have trouble getting decent hit rate is when a dog is running towards me, that for some reason fails to get sharp focus most of the time. I also love the slow motion capability (180 fps at 1080p), that paired with a telephoto lens allows to capture some previously impossible footage.
I have this, my first mirrorless and love it. I am a big fan of small camera bodies. I do dislike how bad the battery life is but for me it's no big deal.
I would recommend getting a battery grip. I use one with my RP and never worry about battery even in full day shooting. The same grip fits the R8 (I tested it with two R8's my friends have). Works perfectly.
I upgraded from the canon 77D. Back then, that camera cost close to $800. I picked up this camera new for only $1100. Battery life does get me but other than that it’s everything I needed. Great video, bro.
That’s true but then you’d have to build a whole rig around it, which works in some cases but definitely limits your ability to be a hybrid shooter etc. (plus it adds a lot of extra expenses, which you could just put toward a better camera)
I have a lot of love for the R8 and think it's an amazing camera for the price. I used it for my first paid job just over a year ago and have been using it to build up my content creation business to where I left my 9-5 a couple of months ago. I've been using it for both photo and video, image quality is great, autofocus has been amazing and the AI subject tracker has been brilliant for motorsports when setting it to "car mode". For video it's been a beast, I have 4 batteries (2 canon and 2 3rd party) and usually have it rigged up with a v-mount when shooting video, but even then, most shoots I set up a charger and have never been caught short with battery. Overheating has gotten a little close on a few occasions, only on extended shoots in hot environments (one was an upstairs of a restaurant surrounded by big glass windows and was practically a greenhouse). I've just upgraded to an R5C, thanks to the business the little R8 has brought in and it's still firmly cemented as my B-Camera, there's even things I prefer on it! (quicker switching between photo and video, 180fps slow-mo, Car tracking AF)
Thank you very much for this review. I often use my camera to shoot timelapses and the battery will be an issue. Do you knpw if it's possible yo plug a powerbank via usb ?
I’m looking to upgrade from my older crop sensor 80d what can I expect if I get an adapter to continue using my rf lenses or is it better to invest in new lenses?
The adaptor (EF to RF) works really well! You can even get a speed booster version that gives you an extra stop of light. I do prefer the RF zoom lenses (quieter and more accurate af) but I’m sure your EF collection will perform just fine with the adaptor
Compared to my Canon T3i SLR, the R8 is a huge step up from that, though I do find it confusing at times with all the different options it offers. I mainly use my cameras for photography, not much into video. That said as my only full frame digital, the R8 so far is just right for me.
I don't mind the battery life that much as the batteries are very small. But, what I don't like is that there's no proper battery monitor so you're not sure how much capacity is left until it goes off the cliff and you miss shots.
In my opinion the R8 is a very strange camera. It's a full frame camera yet it's only 24.2 MP, they attempted to streamline the overall appearance of the camera body but in doing so removed useful features like the knob that even the older R10 (which I own/use) had and a lack of dual SD slots. To this day I still don't understand the overall purpose of this camera.
I hear you! Don’t get hung up on the MPs though. Unless you’re shooting for a billboard or punching in super far you wont notice the difference in photos. A lower MP count improves low light performance and processing speed, especially in video :) I think canon was aiming to make this more of an entry-level mirrorless Vlog/video hybrid.
@@MainsOnSight Well i have r8 and i also do mostly photography and I haven't had any problem with overheating (my shoots last usually 3-4hours minimum). I recommend checking the settings (photo settsin section five).....maybe digital lens optimizer is on high then lower it. Or maybe some other settings in that same section is set to high then lower it.
I've shot a two-day event with this camera (the event started at 10:00 AM and ended at 10:00 PM...both days) and zero overheating issues. And this event took place at the beginning of summer
Is this good for bird photography. I have rp with me which i find difficult to shoot with my rf 100-400 mm lense. It hardly detects bird. Or should i switch to Sony
I wouldn’t bother switching to sony if you already have canon lenses. Both systems are pretty even across the board when it comes to AF. The R8 should be a big step up from the RP on autofocus! Consider the R7 as well. Its burst rates are faster and it’s aps-c so you’ll have a bit more reach on your lens than the r8 will give you (because the r8 is full frame).
So much hyped and i regretted switching from sony system canon. Now i want to returned to sony, but my lenses i sold it so i can afford the canon lenses which is x4 expensive than sony.
When talking about image stabilization you do not state the explicit fact that the R8 has no IBIS. Of course there is no wobble caused by the actual floating sensor at wide angles, because there is no “flotation”! In this regard Panasonic and Olympus are top top tier having the largest amount of stabilization and best IBIS implementation. As a professional, as you proclaim yourself, you should have talked about advantages of having a fixed sensor when using gimbals for expletive real estate shots. Battery grips also exist you know :) Also having a lot of AF points doesn’t cater to moving to the edges of the frame, which you didn’t even do, it caters to picking up eyes at a further distance, it’s about depth. I’m not even a professional, boy what if I was! :D
Any camera that has IBIS also has the option to turn it off, so the R8 has no advantage by the fact that it doesnt have true IBIS capability. That’s absurd. Battery grips exist but I’m not reviewing the R8 plus a battery grip. I reviewed the R8. I never said more autofocus points cater to the edge of the frame. Canon’s AF points cover the whole sensor so this didn’t need to be mentioned. Keep learning. You’ll get there one day
@@JosephMartin You deliberately left out the fact it has no IBIS when you mentioned its stabilization. That’s an inadequacy from a review producing standpoint. Period. What is more baffling is your lack of understanding of the financial aspect that stems from your reply, especially for someone working in real estate photography. The R8 stands for a great budget solution dedicated for gimbal work. The point is that you do not have to pay for IBIS which is a lot of times detrimental for gimbal work. It is a price advantage of this body for that given purpose. Turning off IBIS doesn’t provide proper sensor lock with every camera, I assume you know that… Shall I timecode the part of the video where you say having many autofocus points means having focus ability at the edges of the frame? Come on! And yet you didn’t even manage to illustrate that because of the framing of the shot. Where you did move in the frame was even sufficient for the topology of older DSLR focus metering points. Again, it is not about that. Having more points means greater density on the sensory plane, therefore the ability to latch onto eyes/faces further back along the Z axis proportionally increases. Even if you seemingly lack the engineering background I explained all my remarks with added information. Not wanting to understand it is somewhat autistic.
@@MatrixfanMacUser I was wondering the same thing about the R8 not having IBIS. At one point, I thought he might be referring to lens stabilization, but it wasn’t entirely clear in this video. That’s why I came to the comments to check if others were just as confused. Thanks for clearing this up! It’s good to know that if I ever need stabilization, I can always invest in a gimbal later. I’ve also read that Canon’s IBIS isn’t particularly impressive anyway. Thanks for your input. I went to Henry's camera store yesterday, but did not pull the trigger as I needed to figure this out. I’ve decided to go ahead and buy the R8. Thanks for your comment.
@@JosephMartin This guy was being rude and I fully support you feeding it back. I will just say that for wide video it CAN be considered an advantage not to have IBIS, because for IBIS-equipped cameras Canon doesn't let you turn off IBIS without also turning off the lens stabilisation on stabilised lenses. IBIS causes warpy corners in wide video, and sometimes it is great to not have it. Unlike an R5/R6II the R8 can have lens stab WITHOUT IBIS which is (in my opinion) ideal for handheld wide video.
Do Not buy this Camera for video if you live in a climate over 20 degrees, I've been using it for months and it is useless above 20, it is good camera for artic hhah, and when you filming in Clog Battery dies after 10 min!! 15 min if you are lucky Yes airplane mode is on... Save your money and time and buy sony fx30 with fan if you are on budget for the start
I am wanting to film deer hunting videos and just picked this camera up. I plan to hookup to a permanent exterior battery of a larger size. Did i make a good choice? I returned a sony a6400 for this camera honestly. I think I made the right move but IDK? Suggestions?
I bought my R8 when it first came out. It represents two "firsts" for me. It is my first mirrorless interchangeable lens camera and it's my first full frame camera. It's excellent AF system, excellent image quality and fast burst capabilities have made it my primary go to camera for wildlife and other fast action. As I don't use video much (rarely), the battery life is acceptable, with two batteries getting me through any shooting scenario. I couple it with the excellent RF 200-800 for wildlife, although I also have the RF 100-400 as an alternative lightweight setup. I never use the 40 fps, as it only shoots for 1.5 seconds, so I extend my buffer by using 20 fps and I use C-RAW, so I can get nearly 3 seconds in a burst, which is generally plenty. It has largely replaced my 7D II and EF 100-400 (original) for wildlife shooting.
Areas where it could improve:
Even 20 fps takes a LOT of shots. But the camera has nothing between 6 fps and 20 fps. The ability to set a burst rate (say dial it down to 8, 10, 12, 15 etc.) would be very welcome. This feature has been added to the R5 Mark II, but I don't think they'll add it to the R8 in a firmware, which is s shame. It's kind of weird too, as it's a feature they added to the 7D II, ten years ago. On that decade old camera, there are only two burst modes, slow and high. But the camera's maximum burst of 10fps, while nothing to write home about today, was blazing fast at the time and is more than adequate for wildlife shooting. But you could "dial in" the speed you wanted for both the slow and high modes - from 1-9 on the slow mode and 2-10 on the fast mode, if I recall correctly. Very flexible. I left the high burst on the 7D II at 10. The slow mode defaulted to 3 fps, but I raised it to a more useful 6 fps. But the ability to customize fps to a huge degree was great and I'm not sure why they removed it.
Great review. I LOVE my R8. It's scratched my full frame itch and it is a powerhouse for the price. It's effectively 70-80% of the R6 II's capabilities, but it's about $1,200 cheaper (here in Canada).
Absolutely awesome comment! I’m glad you enjoyed the video and I appreciate you sharing your experience here. Programmable burst speeds would be so awesome. We need a good in-between
R8 video capability is pretty great IMO, esp. compared to 5DmkII which is my previous camera. The AF is really advanced and most of the time it nails the focus well. The only situation where I have trouble getting decent hit rate is when a dog is running towards me, that for some reason fails to get sharp focus most of the time. I also love the slow motion capability (180 fps at 1080p), that paired with a telephoto lens allows to capture some previously impossible footage.
Ive used it for a plethora of paid jobs and it does everything i need plus more.
I have this, my first mirrorless and love it. I am a big fan of small camera bodies. I do dislike how bad the battery life is but for me it's no big deal.
I would recommend getting a battery grip. I use one with my RP and never worry about battery even in full day shooting. The same grip fits the R8 (I tested it with two R8's my friends have). Works perfectly.
There isn’t one for the R8.
@@KimberlyCooleyread my comment again
I upgraded from the canon 77D. Back then, that camera cost close to $800. I picked up this camera new for only $1100. Battery life does get me but other than that it’s everything I needed. Great video, bro.
Glad you’re enjoying it! Great upgrade. Thanks for watching :)
Just buy a battery grip for R8 and put 2 batteries in. It solves battery issue and overheat a little bit. 😉
Facts 💯
Exactly! That’s what I did plus with my flash it’s been a crazy lil work horse and I own a Canon R5C!!!!! Lol
There isn’t one.
Canon needs mid range lenses between those buzzy stm motor lenses and the L glass.
The battery isn’t an issue if you power it off a V mount though
That’s true but then you’d have to build a whole rig around it, which works in some cases but definitely limits your ability to be a hybrid shooter etc. (plus it adds a lot of extra expenses, which you could just put toward a better camera)
I have a lot of love for the R8 and think it's an amazing camera for the price. I used it for my first paid job just over a year ago and have been using it to build up my content creation business to where I left my 9-5 a couple of months ago. I've been using it for both photo and video, image quality is great, autofocus has been amazing and the AI subject tracker has been brilliant for motorsports when setting it to "car mode". For video it's been a beast, I have 4 batteries (2 canon and 2 3rd party) and usually have it rigged up with a v-mount when shooting video, but even then, most shoots I set up a charger and have never been caught short with battery. Overheating has gotten a little close on a few occasions, only on extended shoots in hot environments (one was an upstairs of a restaurant surrounded by big glass windows and was practically a greenhouse). I've just upgraded to an R5C, thanks to the business the little R8 has brought in and it's still firmly cemented as my B-Camera, there's even things I prefer on it! (quicker switching between photo and video, 180fps slow-mo, Car tracking AF)
That’s awesome! Congrats on your growing business. That takes a lot of hard work!
I just upgraded to the R8 from an 850d, can’t wait for it to turn up. I don’t do video, but we’ll see how it goes with wildlife.
Thank you very much for this review. I often use my camera to shoot timelapses and the battery will be an issue. Do you knpw if it's possible yo plug a powerbank via usb ?
I’m looking to upgrade from my older crop sensor 80d what can I expect if I get an adapter to continue using my rf lenses or is it better to invest in new lenses?
The adaptor (EF to RF) works really well! You can even get a speed booster version that gives you an extra stop of light.
I do prefer the RF zoom lenses (quieter and more accurate af) but I’m sure your EF collection will perform just fine with the adaptor
Compared to my Canon T3i SLR, the R8 is a huge step up from that, though I do find it confusing at times with all the different options it offers. I mainly use my cameras for photography, not much into video. That said as my only full frame digital, the R8 so far is just right for me.
It definitely sounds like a worthy upgrade! Glad it's working out for you.
How good is r8 to food vloging . Or in that budget which is good camera?
I don't mind the battery life that much as the batteries are very small. But, what I don't like is that there's no proper battery monitor so you're not sure how much capacity is left until it goes off the cliff and you miss shots.
In my opinion the R8 is a very strange camera. It's a full frame camera yet it's only 24.2 MP, they attempted to streamline the overall appearance of the camera body but in doing so removed useful features like the knob that even the older R10 (which I own/use) had and a lack of dual SD slots. To this day I still don't understand the overall purpose of this camera.
I hear you!
Don’t get hung up on the MPs though. Unless you’re shooting for a billboard or punching in super far you wont notice the difference in photos. A lower MP count improves low light performance and processing speed, especially in video :)
I think canon was aiming to make this more of an entry-level mirrorless Vlog/video hybrid.
The only problem I have with this camera is the overheating issue
Overheating is the worst. When have you run into it most?
@@JosephMartin I get an overheating warning even just in picture mode... I mostly do photography
@@MainsOnSight Well i have r8 and i also do mostly photography and I haven't had any problem with overheating (my shoots last usually 3-4hours minimum).
I recommend checking the settings (photo settsin section five).....maybe digital lens optimizer is on high then lower it. Or maybe some other settings in that same section is set to high then lower it.
I've shot a two-day event with this camera (the event started at 10:00 AM and ended at 10:00 PM...both days) and zero overheating issues. And this event took place at the beginning of summer
Man much as they charge they need to flx that issue I end up paying 1470 for the camera yesterday
Canon RP grip fits on Canon R8 body from my understandable. That would probably fix battery life.
Is it weatherproofed?
Nope
Is this good for bird photography. I have rp with me which i find difficult to shoot with my rf 100-400 mm lense. It hardly detects bird. Or should i switch to Sony
I wouldn’t bother switching to sony if you already have canon lenses. Both systems are pretty even across the board when it comes to AF. The R8 should be a big step up from the RP on autofocus! Consider the R7 as well. Its burst rates are faster and it’s aps-c so you’ll have a bit more reach on your lens than the r8 will give you (because the r8 is full frame).
I thought the r8 doesn’t have ibis yet you spoke of having it on?
It's digital stabilization, rather than IBIS. Only applicable to video.
Yep! Jeff said it :)
So much hyped and i regretted switching from sony system canon. Now i want to returned to sony, but my lenses i sold it so i can afford the canon lenses which is x4 expensive than sony.
I understand your pain! I feel like the lenses are often where the real cost is.
Or you can bring a PD (power delivery) small 10000 mAh usb-c battery and power the R8 without problems for hours
When talking about image stabilization you do not state the explicit fact that the R8 has no IBIS. Of course there is no wobble caused by the actual floating sensor at wide angles, because there is no “flotation”! In this regard Panasonic and Olympus are top top tier having the largest amount of stabilization and best IBIS implementation. As a professional, as you proclaim yourself, you should have talked about advantages of having a fixed sensor when using gimbals for expletive real estate shots. Battery grips also exist you know :) Also having a lot of AF points doesn’t cater to moving to the edges of the frame, which you didn’t even do, it caters to picking up eyes at a further distance, it’s about depth. I’m not even a professional, boy what if I was! :D
Any camera that has IBIS also has the option to turn it off, so the R8 has no advantage by the fact that it doesnt have true IBIS capability. That’s absurd.
Battery grips exist but I’m not reviewing the R8 plus a battery grip. I reviewed the R8.
I never said more autofocus points cater to the edge of the frame. Canon’s AF points cover the whole sensor so this didn’t need to be mentioned.
Keep learning. You’ll get there one day
@@JosephMartin You deliberately left out the fact it has no IBIS when you mentioned its stabilization. That’s an inadequacy from a review producing standpoint. Period.
What is more baffling is your lack of understanding of the financial aspect that stems from your reply, especially for someone working in real estate photography. The R8 stands for a great budget solution dedicated for gimbal work. The point is that you do not have to pay for IBIS which is a lot of times detrimental for gimbal work. It is a price advantage of this body for that given purpose.
Turning off IBIS doesn’t provide proper sensor lock with every camera, I assume you know that…
Shall I timecode the part of the video where you say having many autofocus points means having focus ability at the edges of the frame? Come on! And yet you didn’t even manage to illustrate that because of the framing of the shot. Where you did move in the frame was even sufficient for the topology of older DSLR focus metering points.
Again, it is not about that. Having more points means greater density on the sensory plane, therefore the ability to latch onto eyes/faces further back along the Z axis proportionally increases.
Even if you seemingly lack the engineering background I explained all my remarks with added information. Not wanting to understand it is somewhat autistic.
@@MatrixfanMacUser I was wondering the same thing about the R8 not having IBIS. At one point, I thought he might be referring to lens stabilization, but it wasn’t entirely clear in this video. That’s why I came to the comments to check if others were just as confused. Thanks for clearing this up! It’s good to know that if I ever need stabilization, I can always invest in a gimbal later. I’ve also read that Canon’s IBIS isn’t particularly impressive anyway. Thanks for your input. I went to Henry's camera store yesterday, but did not pull the trigger as I needed to figure this out. I’ve decided to go ahead and buy the R8. Thanks for your comment.
@@JosephMartin This guy was being rude and I fully support you feeding it back. I will just say that for wide video it CAN be considered an advantage not to have IBIS, because for IBIS-equipped cameras Canon doesn't let you turn off IBIS without also turning off the lens stabilisation on stabilised lenses. IBIS causes warpy corners in wide video, and sometimes it is great to not have it. Unlike an R5/R6II the R8 can have lens stab WITHOUT IBIS which is (in my opinion) ideal for handheld wide video.
Had it, constantly overheated just shooting pics, not to mention video! Totally failed in important situations sadly. Took it back
Do Not buy this Camera for video if you live in a climate over 20 degrees, I've been using it for months and it is useless above 20, it is good camera for artic hhah, and when you filming in Clog Battery dies after 10 min!! 15 min if you are lucky
Yes airplane mode is on... Save your money and time and buy sony fx30 with fan if you are on budget for the start
Use battery dummy pack and large mah camcorder batterys... booommm... problem solved 😂
I buy this s*** and I regret it every day, battery lasts 10 min in clog not 30 min like he said :D And it overheats fast, these guys are not honest
I am wanting to film deer hunting videos and just picked this camera up. I plan to hookup to a permanent exterior battery of a larger size. Did i make a good choice? I returned a sony a6400 for this camera honestly. I think I made the right move but IDK? Suggestions?
Vi