EOS RP viewfinder soft corners - dealbreaker!
Feb 28, 2019
5
Handled the EOS RP in the store today... Feels nicely made overall. It really is surprisingly small for a full frame camera, and the grip is nice (I have small hands).
But apart from that I had some major issues with the camera.
1. The shutter release button is not the usual two-stage kind - there is no actuation point when you press it, it just goes progressively hard and you have to press quite firmly to take a picture. One can get used to that I guess, but then again... why bother?!?
2. The EVF screen is the same resolution and size as on the M50, but the magnification ratio of the optics makes the viewfinder image look bigger than the M50, when you put the camera to your eye, which is good. The fact that this somewhat exaggerates the modest resolution of the screen is not that good. What is bad and unacceptable to me, is that the image you see is very soft except for the very center. The corners are hideously blurry and the lettering of camera settings (in the bottom of the screen becomes especially) smeared and distorted. You have to look dead center in the viewfinder to see a sharp picture, and the again - it is sharp only in a small circle in the center and critical exposure settings look soft and/or smeared. This is no good!
I will not be buying the RP. I didn't mind the crippled video features, but crippling the viewfinder experience - a major benefit of going mirrorless is just going too far... I could have lived with the limited dynamic range of the sensor (excessive noise and banding in the shadows is evident even in the JPEGs), but I was hoping to be able to use the excellent Rokinon/Samyang 85 1.2 manual focus lens with focus peaking and this EVF will just not cut it (the lens balances nicely with the body, though).
The M50 has no sharpness problems with its viewfinder (even from odd angles and even though it provides a smaller image) and certainly has superior shadow performance and no sensor banding.
I'm sure Canon did this to upsell you to the EOS R. Good luck Canon, and meanwhile, please don't screw the M series too...