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Last year I upgraded from my trusty Canon 200D to a brand new mirrorless Canon EOS R8. I had wanted to upgrade my 200D for a good couple of years at this point however nothing seemed like it was a good value upgrade. Along came the Canon R8 Which i purchased and used for both Client work and personal projects. This camera is phenomenal in a vacuum and for canon DSLR users looking to upgrade its the one i recommend hands down. But if you haven't a system, or you're not particularly deep in the Canon ecosystem, There are a few considerations.
Client Work: Robust and Feature-Rich!
I'm not the highest earning photographer nor the most esteemed. I'm a 22 year old Melbourne-refugee who still thinks teal and orange LUTs are cool and still watches Peter McKinnon. Nevertheless i have shot events both private and public.
Portraits
As you can expect from someone who's lens collection is dominated by fast primes, i've taken a few portraits here and there with the EOS R8. I've attached these below for you to see, these are by far some of my favourite portraits ive ever taken.
These photos were taken with the Meike 85mm F1.8 lens, which is my favourite lens for Portraits. This was adapted using the official RF-EF adapter which i recommend over most third party adapters.
Event Photography
Event photography is very high stakes, you want a camera you can rely on and one you know. coming from the 200D it was surprising how much of the compact R8 felt familiar to me, the pictures from this event were still primarily shot on the 200D at this stage however I did use the R8 particularly as the night got darker and the APSC 200D started to struggle.
These images were for an event shoot I did and these 2 samples were taken with the 50mm F1.8. There may be more artifacting than expected as the RF-EF adapter I was using was a cheap knockoff which I have since returned.
Personal Projects: The best Value from Canon.
The R8 has the best value out of any canon mirrorless camera they sell. And whilst its hard to call something that costs $2000 Australian dollars value, for what gap I believe this camera is intended to fill; it does a phenomenal job.
Firstly I don't think this camera is trying to be a "first" camera for a teenage photog prodigy or a young adult arts school student. For the more financially constrained i would recommend either the R50 for photo and the R50V for video.
What this is for in my opinion; is a really nice upgrade path for last generations value photographer. If you're coming from either an older high end DSLR or one of the last generation canon DSLRs you probably have a bit of a higher budget to spend this time round, and you probably already have at least a couple lenses, as I previously touched on I upgraded from a canon 200D mark i, This camera was great, I took my currently most awarded photograph on this camera, but when the EOS R and RP came around I was looking at upgrading, specifically to that EOS RP. however the RP just wasn't a huge leap for me, it could only do 4k 24, the $200 adapter from canon was too expensive at the time and third parties hadn't come out with their own ones yet plus my 200D was still going strong. however when the R8 launched and replaced the RP I knew it was time to upgrade. I've attached a comparison between all the cameras I have compared below
What Holds the Canon EOS R8 back?
The canon EOS R8 is a great all round camera especially as a first upgrade from an older canon DSLR body, and holds its own against competitors however there are a few considerations to be, well considered.
The RF Mount
In September 2018 Canon announced the RF mount to replace their dead in the water M mount. The RF mount supported the control ring and apparently put the lenses closer to the sensor. Canon however have opted to close the lens mount meaning for many years you could only buy RF lenses directly from Canon. I Largely shoot EF lenses but the aging EF mount does cause thoughts to bounce around in my head, especially as Lens manufacturers have largely stopped producing new lenses for the EF mount (Sigma's newest lens on the EF mount being from 2018) Canon have since opened the RF mount for third parties to make crop lenses... yup. Sigma have 8 amazing lenses for crop sensor RF cameras however unless you have a R5 or so with many more MPs (to account for crop) the image gets cropped down to about 9MP. This is the biggest limitation to the EOS R8. I recommend just buying the official Canon RF to EF adapter (maybe the control ring one if you can afford it to give any lens 80% of what RF glass offers) and using EF Lenses as they can be had for better prices and allow you to use older third party lenses
The LP-E17 Battery, Single Card Slot (& Other QOL absences)
The R8 uses the smaller LP-E17 batteries, whilst for me this was not a problem as I have a few of these batteries already, the batteries only last 220-370 shots depending on usage. Compare this to my Full Spectrum converted EOS 7D. which is rated for 800 photos. Its clear that you will need at least 1 extra battery. Personally I have a USB charger and 2 spares so that as one dies I can plug it in while I shoot. The R8 can also be charged during usage off of the holy USB C port, so this may not impact you if you're used to lacklustre battery life or don't mind the compromise of extra batteries
(side-note: K&F Concept LP-E17 batteries are $46 for 2 + USB charger or $52 for 3 + USB Charger both charge with either micro USB or USB C, not sponsored but highly recommended, a similar kit of LP-E6 batteries from K&F is $130 FYI)
The Canon R8 also only has a single SD card slot. No CF Express, No backup SD slot. I have also never owned a camera with this and due to being burnt by numerous reputable NAND flash and SSD companies with their terrible and prone to failure SD cards (Samsung, Patriot, Verbatim). I only buy Sandisk Extreme Pro for my EOS R8 (though I do have a cheapy Transcend CF card for my 7D but I keep a loaded gun with it too just incase) I recommend doing this anyway even with a Dual card camera, as there is no point in having redundancy when that redundancy is made redundant by using 2 high failure SD cards.
The Canon R8 also lacks IBIS which sucks if you're coming from a camera with it. But I think its fair at this pricepoint to not have.
In Conclusion
The Canon EOS R8 is an amazing camera that I recommend to all canon DSLR users looking to upgrade to Mirrorless. The benefits Mirrorless offers and the fair price of this camera for what it offers makes it a no brainer for those who wish to stick with Canon for one reason or another. I urge new shoppers to look online for other reviews of other cameras (Namely those colourful ones by Lumix and Nikon, as well as consider Sony) and make an informed decision as I am largely a Canon shooter (though have shot on Nikon, Lumix, Sony and Fuji, just various ages and camera types) I've attached some more R8 photos below and my Instagram should always be on the footer of this blog.
//Mushroom Tree - Mary Cairncross
Shot on EOS R8 - EF 100-300 F/4.5-5.6 USM
//Curled Fern - Mary Cairncross
Shot on EOS R8 - EF 100-300 F/4.5-5.6 USM
Jacket
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