I have been using the Canon EOS R for my Nightscape and Astro photography exclusively for a little over a year now and have been meaning to put together a review of the camera, it’s long overdue but better late than never.
This review will focus on the Canon EOS R, it’s feature set and performance for Nightscape photography rather than a full general review. It will be based on my own experience and thoughts from using this camera for hundreds of Nightscape images over the last year including a full Australian “Milkyway Season” in a variety of conditions and locations.
There are are plenty of reviews out there for the EOS R so I will steer clear of specs and tests, if you are looking for more information and specs head over to the EOS R page on the Canon Australia website.
Lets get into it!
I have used Canon cameras for a long time, 12 years, they have served me well, I’ve always been very happy with the image quality and reliability Canon cameras have provided.
Over the last few years a lot of manufacturers have started shifting to and producing some really nice mirrorless cameras. I have used a few different models, the Sony A6500 for a year and a couple of Fujifilm cameras for the past four years, I like the lighter weight of mirrorless cameras and the technology available in them so when Canon announced the full frame EOS R mirrorless camera I was pretty keen to buy one as my main camera and purchased one not to long after they were released here in Australia.
Better than most think.
There has been a lot said about the Canon EOS R, quite a lot of criticism, in my opinion this criticism is just not warranted and comes from those simply comparing spec sheets and those that haven’t used the camera for any period of time, sure it’s not a sports or wildlife camera but it has never pretended to be either.
The Canon EOS R is a lot better camera than it is credited for and most long term owners agree on this, as a Nightscape, Astrophotography or “Milkyway” camera it is simply fantastic, it has excellent image quality, it’s features suit these genres well and the camera is reliable like you would expect from a company like Canon.
Build quality/Looks/Handling.
The Canon EOS R is built really well, I’d say as far as build quality goes it sits somewhere just below 5d build quality. It’s a solid well built camera that will have no problem with a little abuse and being dragged from location to location in rugged/poor conditions. I’ve personally had mine swamped by a rogue wave, I’ve left it out multiple times for hours at night getting covered in dew, It’s been in my bag rolling around the back of my ute, I don’t exactly baby my gear and the EOS R has held up well, I’m surprised that it still operates perfectly and looks new.
The Canon EOS R looks fantastic, it’s modern and the finish is flawless. Canon have put a lot of thought into the design, it looks quite different to previous Canon cameras but there’s no mistaking it’s a Canon.
Handling is really something Canon have dialled, most of their cameras handle brilliantly, the EOS R is no different. It feels comfortable to hold, it’s easy to navigate. It’s a Canon and in many ways it just works, nothing slows you down, everything makes sense. If you have used Canon cameras before you can just pick this camera up and use it, it feels nice and familiar.
Here are a few pics
That nice full frame CMOS sensor and large lens mount has it’s advantages when it comes to Night Photography.
Large fully articulating rear screen, a stand out feature of the EOS R.
The Canon EOS R looks good from any angle, that’s the control ring adapter on the right.
The large 3.69million dot OLED Electronic viewfinder is a dream to use, one of the best.
The Canon EOS R and Night Photography
Getting back to Night Photography and the features that I feel make this camera a fantastic option for Nightscape, Milkyway, Aurora and Astro photography. I will dot point a few that standout for this use and some general features that just make life easy and then go into more detail about each one, here’s what I love about the EOS R.
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- Electronic level
- Full frame sensor
- RF lens mount
- Shutter closes when switched off
- Ability to zoom in on the rear screen to focus
- Focus Peaking/Manual focus assist
- Articulating rear screen
- Touch screen
- Touch shutter
- Low noise/High ISO performance
- Canon simplicity
- Adapter/Ability to use EF, EF-S and RF lenses
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Electronic level
Anyone that has taken images at night knows how difficult it is to get horizons straight without a level. The level on the EOS R is fantastic, easy to operate/display, easy to see and allows you to set the camera up perfectly level every single time.
Full frame imaging sensor
A full frame imaging sensor has an advantage over an APS-C sensor when it comes to Nightscape photography and low light performance, the bigger pixels are able to capture more light resulting in cleaner more detailed images at the high ISO’s often used. Dynamic range is also often better with full frame sensors.
RF lens mount
Canon’s new RF mount is a physically large mount that has a short back focus (the rear element is closer to the sensor than EF and EF-S mount) this allows for better lens designs. The wide mount allows larger rear lens elements and the shorter distance between rear element and sensor means there is less bending of light allowing Canon to build faster lenses that gather more light with better aberration control and resulting higher image quality. This allows design of more innovative interesting lenses such as Canons RF-28-70 f2 lens that looks fantastic for night photography, I will be reviewing this lens later this year for anyone interested. The RF lens mount also has 12 electrical contacts, this allows more data transfer between lens and camera for new innovative features such as Canon’s control ring that allows the operation of functions such as shutter speed, aperture, iso and exposure compensation directly from the lens.
Shutter closes when the camera is switched off.
When the Canon EOS R is switched off the shutter closes in front of the sensor unlike other mirrorless cameras that leave the sensor exposed. Although some will say this leaves the shutter vulnerable to damage, it keeps dust etc from the sensor when changing lenses. I feel this is a useful feature at night when we are struggling to see properly and may take a little longer to change lenses in the field.
Focusing
I will cover all the useful focus options here. We have three useful focussing tools for Night photography on the EOS R, Focus Peaking, Manual Focus guide and the ability to zoom in on a subject using on the rear LCD screen to focus.
Focus peaking is a manual focus tool that allows you to use digital highlights of various colours and strength to show what areas of the scene are in focus. I have used this to focus on stars but feel it just isn’t reliable or accurate enough for me, although I have heard people swear by it for shooting the stars. I prefer to use this feature for things like night cityscapes as a quick way to get close and then use the focus zoom feature.
Manual focus guide is another manual focus tool. To use this you put the focus point over the area of the scene you want in focus and manually focus until three triangles line up and turn green. This is another feature that is useful for subjects like Night cityscapes, night street photography or other lit subjects. I tested this for shooting the stars and could not achieve good focus unfortunately.
Focus zoom on the rear LCD screen. This is my preferred way to focus on the stars, the EOS R allows you to zoom in to 10x on the rear screen and achieve critical focus on a star. I prefer this way as I can consistently achieve sharp focus on such a level that it is also possible to minimise issues like coma in stars on some lenses.
For some tips on focussing on the stars click here
Rear articulating touch screen
The rear touch screen on the EOS R is as good as touch screens get on a camera, it’s incredible. It is so responsive that you use it, or even a just a selected portion of the screen to shift focus around rather than a joystick and it works flawlessly, but that’s not where it shines for night photography.
The screen is not only large and clear allowing you to achieve critical focus easily using the focus zoom feature but almost every setting of the camera can be accessed from it, including the shutter. This and the ability to rotate the screen into almost any direction you want it to face just makes the camera so easy to use, no more kneeling in the dirt to see the screen, no lying under a tripod to shoot straight up, no more not being able to see the screen at all when the camera is close to the ground, simply rotate the screen to suit and best of all you can also access all the cameras settings and features from it. Honestly this makes photography at night on a tripod or star tracker so much easier than previous cameras I’ve used.
I’ve also found that while running astrophotography workshops I can easily just tilt my screen to give students a better view of what I’m doing and/or the resulting shots, fantastic!
Here is a few images, well a lot to show you what I mean, I can’t stress enough just how good the articulating touch screen is.
The Canon EOS R mounted on the Hanging Pixels GroundPod the camera is only a few inches of the ground but I still have clear view of the screen and access to settings.
Again the Canon EOS R on the Hanging Pixels GroundPod just in a different orientation, you can shoot straight up like this. The GroundPod allows you to get angles you can’t with a tripod, check them out here and support a super creative Nightscape photographer, no I don’t get anything if you click the link or buy.
Works just as well with a tripod.
Or a star tracking mount. Imagine sharing five shots of a camera just to show just how useful a couple of features are….. the rear articulating screen really is that good and I hear it all the time from other users, even while writing this review someone mentioned how good the articulating touch screen is on a post on my Instagram account.
Low Noise/High ISO Performance
I have personally found the Canon EOS R to perform really well in low light and at high ISO, I have used ISO 6400 for most of my Milkyway photography over the last year and haven’t hesitated to share images with minimal noise reduction online.
I have also had a number of images printed that were taken at ISO 6400, one for the Gippsland Regional Art Gallery Space exhibition along with quite a few smaller images for the associated artist talk, one really large print for the Canon Experience Store and a few for print sales through the year, all of these have looked great.
In comparison to the Canon 6d I have been using for years, high ISO noise performance is quite a step up, in quick side by side comparisons it seems to me performance is well over a stop better, but the file overall also seems better giving more flexibility in post processing, it’s very easy to get clean high iso images from the EOS R.
Some high ISO examples with and without simple noise reduction in Lightroom.
SOOC 15mm, f2, 15sec iso6400
SOOC 100% crop.
The same file above but with some basic post processing including Lightroom default colour noise reduction.
100% crop of the basic post processed image with all default Lightroom noise reduction turned to 0.
100% crop same as the above but with the default Lightroom colour noise reduction.
Final single image post processed. Setting 15mm, f2, 15sec, iso6400
As you can see in the above examples the Canon EOS R performs quite well at high ISO, in this case ISO 6400. The shadows can be lifted quite a lot without introducing too much noise and the single unstacked post processed image is quite good. I’m sure with better post processing skills it would be quite easy to get more from this file but I wanted to keep this simple to show what type of results almost anyone could achieve with the sliders in Lightroom.
Canon Simplicity
Something I have always liked about Canon cameras is the simplicity of operation, the button layouts are not over crowded and what you need most is generally easily found on the body or with one or two button presses. Menus are easy to navigate and make sense in the way they are presented and most Canon cameras operate very similarly, meaning if you have used one you can generally find your way around a new model or someone else camera. The Canon EOS R is no exception to this, when I got my R I literally went out shooting with it right away and had no problem finding everything I needed to and setting up the camera the way I wanted.
How does this relate to Night photography? Well the last thing you want out in the dark is to be fumbling with buttons, digging deep in menus etc just to operate your camera. When I owned the Sony A6500 I pulled my hair out with the way it operated, never ending menus that didn’t quite make sense, the need to set up custom buttons for simple functions other brands just have a dedicated button for. I owned the A6500 for over a year and I just never quite liked the way it operated even after I knew my way around it well.
Give me Canon simplicity any day, I find I’m more productive and shoot better images when I don’t have to think about the camera and can just concentrate on the image, composition, lighting etc. I believe this is one of the reasons my own personal nightscape photography improved over the last year.
Adapter/Ability to use EF, EF-S and RF lenses
This is more about general use than Night photography but the Canon EOS R comes with Canons latest RF lens mount, this is a new mount for the new Full frame mirrorless system, there aren’t that many lenses out yet for the system although Canon has released some fantastic PRO RF mount L lenses and there seems to be some interesting rumoured lenses, I discussed the advantage of the actual mount previously.
But because it is a new mount Canon has released a couple of adapters that allow the use of all Canon’s previous EF mount lenses and EF-S lenses, this means if you have any EF or EF-S mount lenses you can use them on the EOS R with full functionality. I personally have quite a few fast wide angle lenses in EF mount and have been using them along with lenses sent to me for review over the last year and they all have worked flawlessly as intended.
I was unaware until recently you were also able to use EF-S lenses (Canons APS-C lenses) on the EOS R with the same adapters, I’ve tested this and it works well. This makes this camera an excellent step up for Canon APS-C camera users allowing them to use their current lenses and slowly upgrade over time.
Image Samples
Next up are some image samples with some information about each one. I’ve deliberately chosen various images to show how the Canon EOS R performs in different situations from single images with minimal post processing in Lightroom to images taken with a star tracking mount and post processing in programs such as starry sky stacker, starry landscape stacker and photoshop.
Image 1 – Settings 15mm, f2, 15sec, iso6400 single image
Image 2- Polly Woodside – Settings 15mm, f5.6, 4sec, iso500 – Single image
Images 3 – Aurora Australis – Single image – settings 15mm, f2, 15sec, iso6400
Image 4 – Boab Tree, Kununurra – Single image- Settings 14mm, f2.4, 20sec, iso6400. Huge thanks to Ben Broady for helping me find this amazing tree. Scene lit by a single Lume cube Air.
Image 5 – Single image – settings 15mm, f2, 15sec, iso6400. The tree is lit by a single Lume Cube Air.
Image 6 – Large Magellanic Cloud – Canon EOS R, Canon 70-200 f2.8, Tracked using the Skywatcher Star Adventurer. 12 tracked images – Each image setting 160mm, f2.8, 2mins, iso 1600, stacked in Starry sky stacker.
Image 7 – Tracked Milkyway – 10 x 80 second exposures stacked in Starry Sky stacker – Settings for each frame 24mm, f2, iso1600.
Image 8 – Near Lake Argyle W.A. The caves in these rocks were full of indigenous art. I felt so privileged to be photographing this under the stars. Multiple images taken straight from a tripod stacked in Starry Landscape stacker. Each frame setting 14mm, f2.4, 20sec, iso 6400. The foreground is lit by a Lume Cube.
Image 9 – The awesome location for my basic night sky photography workshops. Multiple images stacked using Starry Landscape stacker settings for each frame 14mm, f2.4, 15sec, iso 6400, the foreground is lit by Lume Cube and Litra lights.
Image 10 – Shot almost directly straight up, this tree made for an interesting subject when the core of the Milkyway was high above me. Multiple images stacked in Starry Landscape stacker Settings for each frame 15mm, f2, 15sec, iso 6400. Lume cube used for some back light to help with separation.
As you can see the Canon EOS R does a great job. The first five image samples above are all single shot images with minimal post processing in Lightroom, really anyone is capable of producing shots like these with a little practice, basic knowledge of settings, a fast wide-angle lens and a light.
Sample images six and seven are examples of how the Canon EOS R performs when mounted on an entry level Star tracker such as the Skywatcher Star Adventurer and the resulting images stacked/post processed in dedicated software. I think it performs well and I’m very happy using this camera on my tracker, I intend to do much more of this type of photography with the EOS R.
The final three images are examples of how capable the EOS R is just taking images straight off a tripod and stacking them in a program like Starry Landscape stacker for noise reduction. I love this method of capture and post processing as it’s quite versatile.
Final words
I’m a big fan of the Canon EOS R for Nightscape and Astro photography, I’ve found the camera to have all the features I need and it just makes my night photography easier. I honestly think it is one of the best cameras on the market right now for Nightscapes and Milkyway photography, of course this is only my thoughts based on my personal experiences and my own needs in a camera, but I think most would agree the EOS R is capable of delivering some fantastic images and has some great features suited to these subjects.
For those considering a new camera I really hope this review is useful and helps you make an informed descision on your purchase.
For the rest of you I hope you found this review interesting and useful. If so PLEASE SUPPORT NIGHTSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHER by SHARING and SUBSCRIBING, your support really goes a long way with helping to organise these reviews.
If you didn’t click them while reading don’t forget to go back and check out a few of the links contained in this review, these aren’t affiliate links, I’m trying to include links to products I use and to photographers that have helped me find locations etc.
As always I’m happy to hear your thoughts about my blogs, reviews and tutorials, feel free to contact me via email or on social, check out the about me link below for details how.
Thanks for reading, cheers Daniel.
For those interested in learning the basics of night sky photography please check out the following,
Basic Night Sky Photography – How to
Focusing on the Stars – Obtaining sharp focus
Lens choice for night sky photography
About Me Daniel Gangur
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