EOS Ra: A great Full Frame Astrophotography mirrorless camera...

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Is it a good camera? Yes it is. It's a specialized camera though. And, unlike a cooled, tubular CCD camera designed to plug into a telescope via a computer, you can use this camera all by itself (no computer required on site) to capture amazing evening landscapes with wide lenses... or you can mount it to long lenses and telescopes for superb imaging of the night sky. The fully articulated LCD screen means you can shoot close to the ground or attached to a tracking mount (EQ mount). For wider FOV lenses, this ought to produce great shots. For deep space imaging, I think that the examples available online elsewhere show the capability of this camera and there's a few videos on YouTube worth a look. But I'm reviewing this camera with Wide lens sampling... And I don't need to cover all the unnecessary extras I'll probably never use... like 4K video and face-tracking while shooting the night sky. It's an overpowered 30MP version of the well loved 60Da DSLR, only the Ra is both Full Frame and Mirrorless. This means more light hitting the larger cells on the larger FF sensor... and no mirror-slap vibration. Perfect for Astro work.
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The Canon EOS Ra (Astrophotograpy model) camera was announced and released in late 2019 with no fanfare. I missed it myself until I saw a reference to it on a Canon website. It was so under appreciated that I had to remind DPreview that it needed to be added to the camera database over a year later. They still have '2018' as the launch date at the time of my review. (((Come on guys!?))) It was announced in November 2019 and was shipped from December 2019. https://canon.ca/en/About-Canon/News/Press-Releases/Press-Releases-2019/2019-NOV-05-EOS-RA-ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY-MIRRORLESS
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What makes the EOS Ra different from the EOS R?
Not much. It's a FULLY functioning EOS R with just two notable differences:
(1) A Factory Modified Full-Frame IR Cutoff Filter/Sensor (sensitivity enhanced).
(2) A 30x Magnification in place of the 10x Magnification.
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That's essentially it. And for this privilege, you pay a lot more to buy it. In fact, the modded sensor means less use of the other features. You wouldn't dare shoot a wedding with it unless you're known for sepia or creative shots. Canon does NOT recommend this camera for "regular terrestrial photography" although it certainly can be used for this purpose if you don't mind tweaking the color cast on some of your images. This is Canon's FIRST Full Frame Astrophotography camera. The previous models include the EOS 60Da and the EOS 20Da... both of which were APS-C.
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The EOS Ra is unique in that the Infra Red (IR) filter layer on the sensor of the regular EOS R has been removed, which enables it to capture light in the night sky that is too faint for most ordinary (unmodified) camera sensors to detect. According to Canon, it is 4x more sensitive to the light emitted by the red 656.3 nanometer Hydrogen Alpha channels - commonly produced by Red Nebulae. The result is that this camera enhances the red tones that are often difficult to captures with ordinary cameras. Coupled with a reasonably large pixel size of 5.36 microns, this camera promises to capture plenty of light and produces low noise at higher ISO settings due to the sensor well-size combined with the number of megapixels on the 30MP sensor.
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I occasionally shoot astro and I was interested in a camera like this for use with wide lenses and with telescopes on tracking mounts for longer exposures. There are two schools of thought for those delving into buying a modified camera: Buy an all-inclusive camera with a modded sensor or purchase a 'CCD camera tube' (for telescopes) with internal cooling that can't be used without a telescope and a computer... and isn't suitable for terrestrial photography. An even cheaper consideration would be to buy an EOS RP, toss out the warranty, and get the sensor modified by a company that specializes in this service - (something that is not currently available to me). Your unmodified camera can still capture the night sky... but you'll be stacking images and spending long nights trying to capture the light that the EOS Ra can see in far less exposure times.
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EOS Ra with optional (and unnecessary) BG-E22 Battery Grip attached.

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Do you need the Canon BG-E22 Extended Battery Grip?
Not at all. In fact, considering the price, you ought to avoid it unless you have to spend a long night powered up. The BG-E22 is more expensive than most of the other Canon grips I've owned. Yes, the EOS R is a smaller camera and having a grip extender gives you more surface area to grip. And yes, everyone with an EOS R recommends buying it. But with the EOS Ra, you may want to cut down on the weight and bulk - unless you are using a motorized EQ Mount for tracking the sky - just in case you need more weight to counterbalance the mount. Some have resorted to sticking a large camera flash on their camera just to add more weight. In that case, buy one. The Canon LP-E6N battery is tough and reliable and is supplied with the camera. It never hurts to carry a spare. But save that money and pass on the BG-E22 unless you really feel you need it. I really needed it.
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Using the EOS Ra for terrestrial (non-Astrophotography) applications.
Canon says it's not suitable for non-astro use. They're absolutely right although that doesn't mean it can't be used at all. I took a walk with the EOS RP during late afternoon in light that I expected to be problematic. The colors were slightly warmer and over-saturated with odd yellow and reds that needed tweaking after downloading. The effect of some shots was a little like looking at images printed in color in a 1960s magazine. They were slightly exaggerated in hue and tone in SOME cases. I've taken images with CPL filters that looked the same. Not all shots needed editing. In fact some were more accurate in color and tonal range than my iPhone was capturing at the time. But around 85% needed attention. Indoor shots were better. Though the shot of my cat below generated brown-red cat beds in the distance that ought to have been blue-grey. Reducing the red/yellow hue in the image corrected it just fine.
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The amazing EVF on the EOS Ra produces a very strong Cyan color that was not reflected by the real life scene, nor the subsequent images from the camera. Looking through the Viewfinder (EVF) was a little surreal outside in bright daylight but it was close enough to the actual colors. The LCD screen depicted pretty much exactly what I could see with my eyes. Yet the LCD was a little overboosted with Blue/Cyan. No idea why since the LCD produced more natural tones. Sky shots with pale blue hues were slightly peculiar... slightly over saturated with a very subtle "film look" that demanded attention later after downloading them. Clouds had a slight yellow hue in the white highlights that needed attention in some, but not all, images. I found it very simple to tweak these colors in Lightroom and Photoshop but I'm yet to take pictures of people with this camera. It tracked faces on my television when the lens was pointed in that direction and skin tones from the television were accurately captured. Inanimate objects were fine and the camera operates the same as a normal EOS R in every respect otherwise. I might consider the next incarnation of the R or RP for a future FF camera for normal shooting conditions.
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EOS Ra + EF 24mm f/1.4L II USM lens - Image has been color corrected. Shot in JPEG.

EOS Ra + EF 24mm f/1.4L II USM lens - Image has not been edited. Shot in JPEG

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Setting Up the Ra for Astro for the First Time...
Below, you can see the EOS Ra set up with an inexpensive USB powered lens heater from Protage and an inexpensive 5Volt 1Amp Power Bank hanging below the tripod in a small camera bag. (Don't use higher 2Amp+ outputs with these things or they'll bake your lens and melt it). This kept my lens from fogging/icing up as dew formed in the night air. Temperature was around 7C. Unlike the EOS M6 camera, the touchscreen on the EOS Ra remained VERY responsive regardless of the low temperature. I never needed to press it more than once to trigger an immediate reaction. This screen is as responsive as an iPhone touch screen and is a pleasure to work with. I used the 2 second built-in timer to reduce any shake when taking images.
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I had a prediction of "mostly clear skies" last night, despite the rain. So I drove to the mountains to get away from the light pollution and waited all of 2 minutes for the moon to set. The sky was exceptionally clear although the bright center of the Milky Way (Galactic Core) was still rising from the horizon. Setting up the camera was simple enough. Others have noted that you need to turn off the Eye Sensor or your hand will trigger the EVF and turn off the LCD each time you pass it near the screen. This occurred about 10 times until I dug through the menu and deactivated this sensor. Now the camera uses the LCD when the device is switched on - and the Eyepiece when the LCD is in the closed/stowed position. Responsiveness and menu ergonomics are simply excellent.
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EOS R + EF 24mm f/1.4L II USM lens - with lens warmer attached to lens. (taken with EOS M6)

The 30x Magnification.
This is a great addition to the camera and one that makes manual focus much easier. There was still plenty of thermal movement and grain in the Live View at 30x magnification but it was easy to tell if images were in focus or not. The richly detailed LCD enabled greater ability to see color, sharpness and detail when reviewing images. It would be nice if Canon added the 10x option as a firmware update as it seems odd for them to eliminate this function from the EOS Ra.
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LCD Display.
People forget that the LCD is a very important aspect of enjoying any camera. The screen on the EOS Ra is a fully articulated one that can be folded down to protect itself or extended in any direction as required. With 2,100,000 dots on the LCD screen, you get a high definition view and you can't really see the individual pixels. It's bright and clean and seems to reject fingerprints fairly well. Whilst you won't use the EVF for astro work, it's very wide and smooth with no flicker... giving the impression you're using an optical viewfinder. Zooming in on one of my shots I could see the stars were out of focus just after I removed a NiSi Natural Night Filter after taking the first few shots (see violet image below). I would likely not have noticed this on my other camera LCDs. Refocusing took 4 seconds of my time. 30x magnification is ideal for Astro.
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Vignetting with this lens (Canon EF 24mm f/1.4L II USM lens) ...
Canon suggest that the EOS Ra camera offers a lot more choice for terrestrial landscape photography using "true" wider lenses on this camera for wide coverage. I had also been assured by Canon that my EF 24mm f/1.4L II USM lens would work fine with the EOS R camera via the optional EOS R Control Ring Mount Adapter. This was not entirely accurate because it vignetted regardless of the Lens Correction applied in-camera. As you can see from the first image below, Vignetting occurred in all my astro shots but none of my terrestrial images (above). I could crop the images but this was "hard vignetting" and not simply correctable Light Falloff. Yes there's a very thin filter on my lens in the first image but on any of my DSLRs this lens only very barely vignettes. It's certainly correctable on my other astro camera, the EOS 6D.
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I contacted Canon today to see what their thoughts were. They replied that the distance between the lens and sensor due to the Mount Adapter was likely the reason for the vignetting. That's obviously part of the problem although I'm not sure it should be happening at all. At the very least, you would think that it would have been addressed during the design of the EOS R. It happens with wide APS-C lenses from other makers too. I believe it is known to happen with two RF lenses, including the highly praised RF 50mm f/1.2L lens... which seems odd. Before taking the camera out last night to take these pictures, I took 22 pictures at home and on the street with this same lens at f/1.4 and only one showed vignetting in one corner. The images above showing my cat and a plant weren't cropped and they were taken at f/1.4 ... I can't quite explain why it was so bold with astro shots. But there's several options at hand... One solution is to internally crop the images using the in-camera 1.6x crop setting in the camera menu. My own solution was to simply crop the images manually after downloading them. I don't expect this issue to occur with longer lenses, especially with smaller apertures and longer focal lengths.
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EOS Ra + EF 24mm f/1.4L II lens + NiSi Natural Night Filter (note excessive vignetting).
A White Balance of 4300 Kelvin was used. Image has NOT been cropped). The violet hue is from the use of the NiSi filter. Shot in JPEG

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Image Quality
The image quality (sans any vignetting) is excellent. The faint increases in sensitivity to non-nebulous areas of the Milky Way saw greater illumination and backlighting, which in turn revealed far more detail in the dust lanes. You can imagine what the results will be like when you add higher magnification with a tracking mount (EQ Powered Mount) to a camera like this. Ignore the coma in the corners of this lens (which is typical of the lens).
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The noise from the averaged-out pixels on the sensor was remarkably low and grain was smoother than I expected. It was certainly less prone to noise, grain and stuck pixels The images I have posted here haven't been edited beyond a crop, and show what is coming out of the camera.
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SETTINGS:
* I shoot JPEG . All of these images were shot in JPEG (not RAW).
* I selected the 'Fine Detail' setting from the User Defined Settings for use with the EOS Ra camera for all shot.
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Sensitivity
The EOS Ra was as sensitive as advertised. I was able to capture AirGlow in shots (not really shown here due to the '10x image max' request) which I haven't been able to do before. Since this was around 11pm and more than 6 hours after sunset, it is a form of chemiluminescence associated with oxygen molecules which creates a subtle green glow in the air. It was subtle in the images I took because, like an Aurora, the presentation isn't always particularly bold. I haven't posted an example of it here but it was interesting to see that this camera was capable of detecting it and my other unmodified camera could not. However, I've seen glimpses of it with non-modded cameras.
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Images of the Great Nebula in Carina showed a pink-crimson structure with bolder and more dominant colors than usually seen with other cameras. Aiming at the Galactic Core (aka The Bulge) of the Milky Way, I could see more detail in the dust trails than usual. Nebulous areas on either side of the Great Rift were distinctly more visible. The Lagoon Nebula (M8) and Swan Nebula were notably more saturated. The region around Rho Ophiuchi (where the bright orange-yellow star Antares is located) showed amber light reflecting off a nearby dust-lane called the Bernard 44 Dark Nebula strand. I could even see some blue light radiating from the Rho Ophiuchi region itself and that was good to see in such a compressed image from a wide lens. The coma towards the edges of the images is typical of this lens on a Full Frame camera with a wide FOV. I note that the RF 35mm f/1.8 IS STM lens produces even stronger coma, making it unsuitable for astro if you're a stickler for sharp stars. I really look forward to using longer lenses with this camera on an EQ tracking mount.
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LCD Display on the EOS R
The flip-LCD on the camera showed the twinkling stars in any and every direction. Aiming towards the coalsack nebula (visible in the first image below), I could easily see the brighter glowing areas around the Carina Nebula on the LCD screen. They were faint compared to the Galactic Core. Scroll down and you can see the LIVE VIEW on the LCD screen (this isn't a play-back image) showing even color and detail on the screen.
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EOS Ra + EF 24mm f/1.4L II USM lens - I didn't think to focus on the foreground because I assumed the landscape would be silhouetted. Note the Large Magellanic Cloud (Dwarf Galaxy) in frame as well as the bright crimson Carina Nebula (Great Nebula in Carina)..Auto White Balance used. Lower portion of the image was edited to conceal washed out (illuminated) grass from a passing car. This is three vertical images automatically stitched together in Photoshop with no editing or enhancements other than the correction. Airglow and light pollution from distant city lights (from Sydney) are visible. Shot in JPEG

EOS Ra + EF 24mm f/1.4L II USM lens. The Galactic Core of the Milky Way. (Straight from the camera without editing.
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*The image has been cropped to eliminate vignetting and resized for posting). Brightness on the lower half is from light pollution from the city of Sydney. Shot in JPEG.

EOS Ra + EF 24mm f/1.4L II USM lens. No edits. Only cropped to remove vignetted corners.Shot in JPEG. Two possums got into a fight in the dark behind me and scared the heck out of me as I was taking this photograph. Misses a massive meteor as the shutter closed.

A Live View of the Milky Way on the LCD display PRIOR to taking a photograph with the EOS Ra camera. I was rather surprised by this and it made photographing the night sky a pleasure.

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Afterthoughts... What I LIKED about the Ra:
If you would like to own a Full Frame mirrorless modified camera and would prefer your warranty intact, this is the camera for you. Canon could possibly have stripped out most of the other features (eg eye tracking, video, histograms etc) and sold this camera - at a lower price and a different model name. It produces smooth images of the night sky with surprisingly low noise and offers a sensitive sensor that can show you the Milky Way on the LCD screen in real time. You can attach an intervalometer if you want to use exotic BULB exposures. You can also use a "dumb remote" that costs a lot less and set the time with your watch. Celestron is making Astrograph telescopes for Full Frame cameras now and you can capture some great images using a regular telescope. The argument that there's no backlit buttons on an astro camera is negated by the LCD and surface design of the camera because I found it easier to navigate the buttons in the dark on the Ra in Day 1 compared to my other cameras I've owned for years. Seeing the Milky Way on the LCD with traces of color was useful and VERY welcome (see last image above).
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Battery life was superb. Button placement is good. The EVF is large, bright and smooth. The LCD is highly responsive & nicely detailed for playback ...and the 30x magnification was very much appreciated. The EOS Ra is an impressive camera - Just like the EOS R that spawned it. The Canon menu is easy to navigate and the physical build of the camera is user-friendly and ergonomic. The weather sealing is assuring... especially with moisture and dew in the air at night. Expandable ISO runs from 50 to 102,400. Shutter Speeds run from 30 seconds to 1/8000 sec... useful for daylight and Solar photography (NEVER point at the sun without suitable protection for your sensor). At just 660 grams (without optional grips or lenses) it's lightweight. It also has a rated lifespan of over 200,000 shutter actuations. And that protective curtain comes down to protect the sensor when changing or removing lenses... which is unique and welcome in the camera world. So many positives. I was not frustrated by any aspect of use and enjoyed shooting with it enough to want an unmodded R. I had no use for the touch-bar or Control Ring on my lens adapter mount (as yet).
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Negatives:
* Menu had hidden features that I needed to consult the User manual to find.
* No volume control (beyond ON/OFF) for the camera function 'Beep'. (???)
* Bold Corner Vignetting on my EF 24mm f/1.4L II USM lens.
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None of those negatives should deter you from buying this camera. This model is a mild luxury for those who want to explore the universe a little further.

Some additional JPEG images taken of and with the EOS Ra camera.    Shots taken with the Ra camera used the Canon EF 24mm f/1.4L II USM lens. 
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EOS Ra - With BG-E22 battery grip + EF 24mmL II lens fitted via Control Ring Adapter.

EOS Ra - violet hues from the 4300K WB used / combined with the NiSi Natural Night Filter.

EOS Ra - Barely tweaked JPEG.  No color enhancements or alterations.

EOS Ra - Blue Sky with a tweak to lower the Yellow tones in the white of the clouds.

EOS Ra - Front-corner Logo in gold. It's otherwise indistinguishable from the EOS R.
EOS Ra - Unedited JPEG from camera.  Note the warm color hue.

EOS Ra - with 'Astro-themed' box

EOS Ra - Color Differences.

EOS Ra - Green airglow in the sky - facing North. Auto WB used.

EOS Ra - sample image (cropped to eliminate corner vignetting). Auto WB used.

AstroDan wrote:

Thanks for the nice review.

The camera seems to be fitting in well for your style. I'm not noticing the hydrogen alpha response as strongly as I expected in your wide-field shots, but I can confirm from my own copy that it is good.

Cheers,

Dan

Hey Dan, I'm going to try to expose with a more accurate Custom White Balance setting for both filtered and unfiltered shots the next time I use the Ra. I'm about to take some calibration shots outside with a grey card at midday.
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Do you have any suggestions or observations for others who will no doubt stumble over this thread? You ought to put in a review if you have the time because I wasn't able to find out a great deal about this camera beyond 8 or 9 videos online and a couple of webpages. Some of those were endorsement videos by sellers and reviewers and some of the material was put together by people with fairly limited astro experience. I've been shooting Astro since around 2011 but became more enthusiastic about it in 2013. I used to work in VFX and was tasked with creating the Milky Way for several major motion pictures and there wasn't enough material to work with back in the mid 2000s. I had to reach out to NASA to obtain the assets needed to complete the shots and then recreated the entire backgrounds by hand using digital painting methods. Astro has come a long way since then.
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I haven't bothered to stack any frames because I'm not tracking with this camera yet. The saturation from the Ha nebulas in our Milky Way tend to show moderately subdued colors with my EOS 6D - which is a favorite for many others for astro work. I recently took some images with the EOS M6 using the EF-M 32mm f/1.4 STM lens and was particularly interested in the increase of color sensitivity to the Carina nebula... although I did have to bump up the saturation levels when editing that shot. I really liked using the EOS 6D for this sort of photography although it did require quire a bit of effort and time to manipulate the data into a nicer final image. This was made more complicated with individual stills and no EQ mount to work with. I'll need to try to spend a bit more time nailing the colors with a more suitable WB. Auto WB and Daylight WB didn't quite seem ideal. The use of the NiSi Filter tends to be more practical when shooting a landscape or architecture... otherwise it's hard to work with the images from that particular light pollution filter and purists will hate me for posting a few of those images with heavy violet/magenta hues.
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I just ran a comparison of some prior shots of the Galactic Core I took a few years ago and I really think that the EF 24mm f/1.4L lens is projecting a wider FOV onto the EOS Ra sensor (compared to the FOV projected onto the 6D sensor), revealing more coma in the corners and vignetting hard as a result. I'll have to test this further by digging out the original files and overlapping them to see if the Ra offers a wider perspective with this same lens. Perhaps someone has done this already?
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Have you taken any wide FOV images with your own EOS Ra? I know you did some deep space shots of Orion in one of the threads here. I'm wondering if a more suitable WB might enhance the visibility of the Ha regions further. I can see a hint of it but then again, I would have preferred to use a longer exposure than 20-25 seconds and a smaller aperture would help cut back on coma etc. I'll figure it out - although we're heading into winter and that's not going to be pleasant out there!. I'm definitely getting more color intensity and smoother results than from other cameras and methods.
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I haven't spent any time editing those shots from the Ra of the Milky Way. I just posted them with or without a crop to get rid of the vignetting. I might need to get onto that tomorrow to see what details and color can be teased out of the JPEGs I took. Will definitely get some RAW images when I get closer to taking tracked and stacked shots from this camera. Just waiting for a new base plate. Also keen to use the EF 135mm f/2L lens on the EOS Ra. I also shot some video of the Live LCD with my iPhone and it still amazes me how visible the Milky Way is when I view the footage. My wife is a wildlife photographer and she was more than surprised to see it. Next time I'll bring a second tripod and/or an EQ mount. As I mentioned before, the Galactic Core was rising up from the horizon when I took these shots with the Ra. There was also a mixture of light fog and light from the city to contend with in that direction at the time. I'll try to time my next session (and next location) more carefully.

Here some Ra pics from february...

All single shoots!

RF50

RF85

SA28

And a special processed fisheye pic to show zodiacal light and Gegenschein!

I love my eos Ra!

Very interesting review and breathtaking nightscapes, thank you.

Interesting that the vignetting doesn't appear to be symmetrical--a bigger region is blacked out in lower left than top right. This suggests that the cause isn't anything in the mirrorless mirror box (because that should cause a symmetrical vignette), but something in the front of the lens.

So...I hate to bring up such a silly amateurish point to an expert like you, Marco...but are you sure the lens hood was screwed all the way in?

quiquae wrote:

Very interesting review and breathtaking nightscapes, thank you.

I probably should have held off on posting the review until I'd spent more time investigating that vignette.  (See below)...  But I really do like the camera.  It meets expectations and some of the other members here certainly seem to know what to do with it.

Interesting that the vignetting doesn't appear to be symmetrical--a bigger region is blacked out in lower left than top right. This suggests that the cause isn't anything in the mirrorless mirror box (because that should cause a symmetrical vignette), but something in the front of the lens.

On my EOS 6D, this lens produced a very subtle lopsided soft-vignette.  It was subtle but one corner was just a little darker than the light-falloff in the other corners when shooting with the aperture wide open.

So...I hate to bring up such a silly amateurish point to an expert like you, Marco...but are you sure the lens hood was screwed all the way in?

I think there's a few astro-shooters in here with a lot more experience than me.  The lens hood was indeed in place securely!  But I think you're right... One of the reasons I kept the hood on is because this is a wide lens and I once did a long exposure of the night sky about 6 years ago and ended up with a weird orange illumination from a distant sodium-type street light in my shots when I reviewed them.  I immediately applied the hood and that solved the issue... I am now thinking that I'll need to investigate this vignetting further because it's just this one lens producing the opaque black corner vignettes.  Another reason I left the hood on was to allow the use of a USB powered lens warmer and I didn't want to bake the bare lens.  It's easier to replace the lens hood than this expensive piece of glass.
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I just got home from a second test with the same 24mm lens (and the EF 50mmL) in the mountains tonight and noticed the following:  When my flashlight illuminated some foreground elements on the ground during a long exposure, the green light (reflected off the grass) cast a green hue on the top-right corner vignette in two different shots.  I also forgot to lock down my tripod head after shifting the camera and as the exposure took place, the camera rotated, creating light trails... and some of those stars producing light trails were ghosting into the vignette... which implies that the view of the sensor is being occluded by something physical.  I suspect it's the lens hood.  I never shoot without it so perhaps I've introduced a wild element here by leaving it on for my Ra shots.  I'm thinking that the EOS Ra offers a wider FOV for this adapted lens than the same wide EF lens would normally offer a DSLR with an EF mount.  I've only just noticed this in some of the shots so I'll need to (sigh) take more shots to determine if I need to shoot without the Canon lens hood in place on this lens.  Canon didn't seem concerned at all.  I'm surprised they didn't suggest the lens hood to be the problem.  I'll find out tomorrow night.
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I just tested the EF 50mm f/1.2L USM lens on the Ra and there was only the usual light-falloff in the corners that was of no consequence - considering the properties of this lens.  There was no hard vignetting like I'm getting from the 24mmL lens.  I'm definitely getting more color and detail from this camera than the non-modded DSLRs.  I'm just about to go to bed but will post some samples when I get up again and download the images.
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White Balance
I set my White Balance correctly for this Modified model camera today using the midday sun and a white-card.  I stored it in the Ra camera as the Custom WB setting to be used for Astro... But when I went out to the mountains a few hours ago, I literally forgot to apply the Custom White Balance and left the camera on Auto WB by mistake.  The shots were fine.  Better than the first night.  But I need to use the Custom WB to see what the camera can do.  I now need to do this AGAIN with the Custom WB applied.  It's almost 6am here... I have to get some sleep. Back later...

First up: The cause of the vignetting with the EF 24mm f/1.4L II USM lens:
I made two local attempts to test this lens again but I live in the suburbs and there's so much light coming off the clouds after the moon set that I simply can't expose for similar exposure times to conduct a test with and without the lens hood in place.  Until the weather clears and I can get to a dark-sky location again, I can't even test the camera with similar conditions/settings.  A 15 second exposure at f/1.6 and f/2 with ISO 1000 was unable to even coax out any hint of a vignette.  I will have to wait for another clear night with no moon.
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Last night I drove up to the mountains and took more shots with the Canon EOS Ra camera. These are really just early tests for me.  I'm really just limited by the lenses I'm using and those offer me either 10 second (max) exposures at 50mm and 20 second (max) exposures with the 24mm lens.  Any longer and I'll be getting obvious star trails without an EQ mount. The Auto WB also meant inconsistencies with sky shots based on other factors.  Again - these are simply test shots with minimal effort.I'm not going to edit anything properly until I get to refine the procedure in a future shoot. I'm sure all you RAW shooters will still have a keen edge on this, regardless.
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EOS M6 - Someone has recently graded the road onto the mountain ridge I was heading to.  Whoever that was: Thank you!.  I couldn't risk my non-offroad car on the old road.

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The camera was VERY easy to use in the dark and although it meant nearly 4 hours of driving at night to get there and home again, I had to time my arrival with the setting of the moon.  Someone had graded the dirt road leading into the National Park and that meant a bunch of carvans and cars parked where I usually set up.  I ended up lugging my gear to a mountain ridge in the dark and regretted leaving my hat with the LEDs in the brim at home.
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The shots I took are simply JPEGs.  I'd normally edit these JPEGs to increase contrast and bump up colors but this time I increased the Saturation in the "Fine Detail" User Defined Setting and then promptly forgot that I had calibrated my camera's Custom White Balance by shooting a white card in sunlight at midday.  That's pretty embarrassing and it meant that I had different colors to contend with than expected. 
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EOS Ra + Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L USM lens - quick test to see how the AF on the R worked with such a tricky and thin DOF with this lens... (which is notoriously fickle to work with).  My target was the second pencil from the left and the image was taken at MFD.  The lens works just fine with the Ra.

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Second Night Shooting with the EOS Ra.
This was much easier because I was now familiar with my settings and what to expect from the camera.  Again, the 30x magnification on the LCD made it so easy to manually focus the lenses I was using.  I often refocus a lens just to be sure I would nail a shot but virtually every shot was sharp, with only very slight movement on the stars.  The lenses I was using both produce chromatic aberration and coma ...plus light-falloff (on the 50mm)... and hard vignetting on the 24mm lens, just like the previous evening.  With a tracking mount I can use smaller apertures to cut out most of those issues.  These are lens limitations and have nothing to do with the camera.
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EOS Ra - my view South at night.  The Magellanic clouds can be glimpsed here (the LMC is slightly cropped on the right).  The light from the left is from the city of Sydney.  The lights on the right are from the city of Blackheath.

EOS Ra - Looking North from my position.   This is a dual exposure/composite.  The "swirl" was caused by not screwing down the  pivoting head on my tripod during a 10 second exposure.  The camera slowly turned on the tripod for the duration of the first exposure. I didn't want to throw the shot out so I used it here since my foreground wasn't all that interesting.  Milky Way colors were not enhanced.

EOS Ra LCD during playback - you can see the colors in the JPEG as presented by the camera after taking the shot.  This is literally what the camera is producing and displaying.

EOS Ra - My view North East from where I was set up.  I just took this one randomly while waiting for some clouds to move.

EOS Ra + Canon EF 50m f/1.2L USM lens - three merged JPEGs with light-falloff removed.  Plenty of coma swirling around here from the lens used.  Colors haven't been tweaked.  It's essentially the JPEGs that came out of the camera.  These are simply test shots so I haven't bothered to edit them at this stage.

EOS Ra + Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L USM lens - JPEG from the camera - taken with the 50mm lens.  These are the colors captured by the camera.  I simply made a light adjustment to the "Levels" in Photoshop to increase the contrast and lift the colors slightly.  I used to spend hours trying to bring out these colors and contrast from shots with other cameras.  WB is still set to Auto here.

This is the LCD of the Ra again, this time showing the LIVE view of the the Milky Way.
EOS Ra + Canon EF 24mm f/1.4L II USM lens. - JPEG from the camera using the Auto WB setting. Vignetting was reduced in Lightroom and cropped out by Photoshop..  A very slight increase in saturation was added - just to see what the camera had pick up.  This odd magenta/teal hue is presumably from my Auto WB choice.  I'm certainly picking up colors that I don't get from non-modded cameras.

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Thoughts...
My thoughts after spending more time with the camera is that it's really quite a versatile alternative to the other conventional choices. Obviously I messed up again by forgetting to use the Custom WB and only discovered this oversight when I was reviewing the images at home with friends.  As a camera for use at home, it's actually more fun to use that a DSLR and only slightly more arduous than using a Canon EOS M-type mirrorless camera. I took some pictures of my pets when I got home and that narrow FOV from the 50mm lens I was using nailed the shots in an instant.  Battery Life is great. I like the button placement. Not sure I needed the Control Ring variant of the lens adapter as the "normal" version would have worked fine at a lesser price.  I found the -6EV was effective at nailing focus in virtual darkness when required.  I may need to bump down the color (saturation) setting on the Ra camera slightly - after lifting it a notch for these shots.
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'll be sure to pop back to this thread after confirming whether or not the Lens Hood is contributing to the vignetting by the 24mmL lens.  I'm quite sorry I am unable to put that mystery to rest sooner.

Thanks!

One naive question: why are you not saving raws? Would prevent you from most of your problems and uncertainies. Moreover, you can do your vignetting tests easily at home in front of a indor wall....

Bes wishes

Franz

PS: For same optics I have always less vignetting with the R/Ra than with my old 5D3 because of the more open lightpath. Especially the lower framecorner - where a dslr has its mirrorbox is mproved.

Franz Kerschbaum wrote:

Thanks!

One naive question: why are you not saving raws?

Hi Franz.  I'm not a fan of RAW images for non-critical work and I like to get what I can out of that processor Canon seemed so keep to bill me for.  The processors on the modern Canon cameras offer me a lot of versatility these days with plenty of DR and NR to play with.  I will certainly consider RAW when I'm using a more sophisticated mount for longer exposures and smaller apertures.  Even when shooting RAW, you still get the best results by accurately calibrating the Custom White Balance with the usual daylight/greycard method at midday (in direct sunlight) to ensure the right WB for Milky Way photography - if color accuracy is essential.  This is especially important with modified cameras.  But I know what I can expect from RAW so unless I really need it I don't often bother with them.  The RAW files from Ra cameras were annoying the heck out of some of the experienced astronomer reviewers who voiced their annoyance on YouTube .  I'm sure I'll get around to RAW later when using an EQ Mount, especially if stacking is involved.  These are non-critical tests for me.  Canon also designed the Ra to be used as a JPEG-friendly camera for those who wanted to treat it like one.

Would prevent you from most of your problems and uncertainies. Moreover, you can do your vignetting tests easily at home in front of a indor wall....

I did that.  The same vignette appears with or without a lens hood.  I also turned off all the Lens Corrections and then turned them back on again.  And with or without a filter on the lens, the results were the same.  I ran the same exposure times and settings with a shot of my white ceiling at night with no lights on.  The result was the very same vignetting with this lens.
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Obviously a wider aperture will increase the light-falloff in the corners of a fast lens with a wide FOV.  I am unable to reproduce the effect unless using wider apertures and higher ISO.  I'm just surprised that Canon says all our regular EF lenses will work the same on the R as on our DSLRs.
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Here's one from the other night (unedited and reduced to 1500 pixels).  The vignette is quite circular and closely follows the shape of the coma of this lens..

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I can only conclude that the wider apertures coupled with a potential projection difference on the EOS R sensor result in the sensor on the Ra seeing the edges of either the hood or the lens barrel itself.  I'd sure love to hear from another user with this same lens and an EOS R.  It's such a shame because this lens has been a solid performer for me over the recent years on both APS-C and FF DSLRs.
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Now the 50mm lens also vignettes.  I expected that it might but it's not quite as bold. It's still annoying and even with the lens registered with the camera and all three Lens Corrections made active with the EOS Ra menu, the lenses appear to be unaffected.  There appears to be an oversight in the design of the camera and or mount when dealing with certain wide aperture EF lenses because I've used these lenses on half a dozen cameras without the same degree of issue.
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I've applied:
* Lens aberration correction
* Digital Lens Optimizer
I've even applied Distortion Correction (which is likely to crop the image) with no success.  it's as if these features have no function with either of these lenses.  Now I'm reading about some RF lenses vignetting and in some instances non-Canon EF lenses have been shown to vignette hideously on the EOS R.  The only other method available appears to be to apply the "digital scissors" via the EOS R's 1.6x Internal Crop.

Bes wishes

Franz

PS: For same optics I have always less vignetting with the R/Ra than with my old 5D3 because of the more open lightpath. Especially the lower framecorner - where a dslr has its mirrorbox is mproved.

Are you using the same lens?!
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I was just about to sign off when I noticed that my Firmware is 1.5.0 on the EOS Ra I am using.  There's now a Firmware update (1.6.0) available.  I've just downloaded it and will update the firmware when my batteries are charged and I've removed the lens and mount adapter.  I don't imagine it will have any effect on the vignetting but I guess I'll find out.  I've sometimes been surprised at what a Firmware update can do.  Will report in when if the Firmware update produces any changes.

Hi Marco,

Amazing photos!

Thank you for sharing the detailed explanation in these photos.  I know it is time consuming but a great benefit for those who are interested in this type of photography.

Randy

Hi Marco,

Amazing photos!

Hi Randy! Still Early Days with the Ra but I'm spending tomorrow shooting daylight indoor shots with the camera. That touch-bar is a bit pesky....
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Tonight I fooled around with highlights, levels, color saturation and contrast on one of the JPEGs from the 50mm lens for around 20 minutes in Photoshop, and I was able to squeeze out some pretty looking results that might have more experienced members cringing. For a single exposure in JPEG from this camera it's not bad at all for a 10 second exposure. The only thing I added was a very small adjustment to the blue star (Rho Ophiuchi) and bright yellow/orange star 'Antares' (which was distorted slightly from both the aperture on this lens and star trailing). They didn't look right so I restructured them. Everything else was essentially captured in the shot and was teased out between eating a cheeseburger and watching the news tonight. I'm sure Mr Roger Clark has an embolism whenever he sees my White Balance choices - so I might avoid the Astro forum until I can nail the WB more effectively. At the very least, the EOS Ra has killed any desire in me to continue using Tungsten WB for Astro (which is good).
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EOS Ra + EF 50mm f/1.2L USM lens - 10 second exposure
Captured in JPEG with Auto WB.- Enhanced in PS.

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Thank you for sharing the detailed explanation in these photos. I know it is time consuming but a great benefit for those who are interested in this type of photography.

Randy

Thanks, I just ran the new 1.6.0 Firmware on the EOS Ra camera but I think that DXOMark have nailed the problem already - with their testing of the EF 24mm f/1.4L II USM lens some time ago. I was using this lens on an EOS 6D (FF) DSLR for my own Astro and occasionally on APS-C cameras. However, on the 5D IV the Vignetting is very strong when wide open. Brutally so. On the 6D it's actually less. On an APS-C it's hardly there at all. I think it's safe to say that the EOS R cameras are going to present the vignetting at maximum with the aperture wide (eg f/1.4 to f/2.8). I'll need to run some new tests but the score from DXOMark shows just how hideous the vignetting is on their charts. This would have to be the worst performance for vignetting I've seen on a moderately recent Canon lens in the L-series. I guess that's the answer and I guess Canon will eventually release an RF 24mm f/1.4 someday that won't vignette so harshly. Not that I enjoy buying new lenses when the old should work perfectly well. I'll be in touch with Canon later today to see what they have to say. Check out how rough the DXO folks were on the vignetting of this lens!...
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The horrific vignetting from this lens varies from camera to camera.  The EOS R and the EOS 5D IV are likely to be suffering the most when using this lens.  Even the 6D is slightly less worse off.  APS-C isn't really affected at all.

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Marco, thank you for a terrific and very useful review. Since the IR filter is removed, how well do you think this camera is (plus the right filter) for infrared photography? (IR-modded cameras also have the IR filter removed and either used with filters placed by users (via full spectrum conversion where many different filters can be used) or modded with a single filter that passes light above an arbitrary theshhold or a full spectrum conversion. How appropriate is the Ra for IR photography (false color) with external filters?

Great review Nero, I see that you also have an RP, any chance RP with a bigger pixel size could be more better in low light than R?

zero214 wrote:

Great review Nero, I see that you also have an RP, any chance RP with a bigger pixel size could be more better in low light than R?

You know, I bought the RP for my wife. The 50mm lens I was using is one that I bought for her a few years ago and I had to borrow it for the evening. We usually borrow and share the lenses but rarely the bodies. I'm annoyed because her DSLR is sitting on a shelf covered in cat hair and dust right now and yet borrowing her camera gear requires a lot of assurances from me. I may have to try the RP although it's not sensor-modified like the EOS Ra is. So whilst the R will capture 400% more of the Ha frequency light at 656nm level, the RP won't be able to do that... hence the suggestion from others to buy an RP for astro and get it modded for this purpose (which is cheaper than an EOS Ra). I've not noticed any issues with the RP but the sensor it uses produces a bit more noise grain than the R, so I'm waiting for the next RP alternative to come around before buying one for myself. Canon says that the larger number of megapixels on the R means the signal noise is "averaged out" and visibly reduced.
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5.36 microns = EOS R
5.75 microns = EOS RP
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Yes, there's slightly more (0.39 microns) size to the sensor cells - but at that level it's going to be a subtle difference. The answer to "more light" is definitely going to be resolved with using a tracking mount to increase exposure times and lower the ISO being used. This ought to reveal more detail and color in some instances and I will be able to use narrower apertures to reduce CA and eliminate Coma and Vignette. I seem to remember reading a few years ago that you should never be afraid to increase your ISO beyond what it comfortable for you because higher ISO can often capture detail that might otherwise be lost with shorter exposures (or something to that effect). This is why I experimented with ISO 4000 the other night and it was reasonably smooth.
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A very TIGHTLY CROPPED image looking back at my car parked in the dark in the National Park (parked between two other vehicles). The Very bright green glow from inside the camper van was not visible at all to my eyes. It was pitch black darkness. The light on the exterior of these vehicles is coming from the sky. I'm guessing the green light is from a sensor inside the camper. .Another theory is that this is a curtain between the front seats that was illuminated from behind by a green LED from perhaps a microwave or a bedside clock.

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INFRA RED
The EOS R has had the IR filter layer removed from the sensor so the question earlier about whether or not this camera can be used for IR Photography via an IR threaded filter might be answered by an image I took the other night. This has been tremendously cropped and was taken in the direction of my car at night in the National Park.
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I attempted to fire an IR Remote at the camera with no sign of light visible (which is actually a little odd). I just aimed the camera (in a dark room) at an IR security sensor and it did not show any light. I also used it with a large plasma sphere that I know produces some UV and IR light but saw nothing unusual. In fact, the color accuracy was better than any other camera I've used for this same object.
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I have an IR filter but it's 58mm and that means I need to location my 100mm lens with the MA-67 mount on it that accepts a 58mm filter. It's about 320km away at another address right now. But I will get around to testing it. Presumably it will work with the right filter. Canon do not recommend using their cameras for IR photography due to the IR filter on the sensor. I first inquired about this in 2004 and the last camera that allowed some practical IR photography was the PowerShot G1X. There was still a mild "hot spot" in the middle of most shots but it was correctable in most cases during PP.
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I also ran a test with two very large museum-display plasma balls that I knew emitted IR light. They produced too much visible light to make this test viable - but I did detect some subtle additional glow in the plasma that was not visible to the human eye. There was an additional glow that the camera detected. Both plasma spheres displayed additional captured light with the EOS Ra.

Keep digital cameras away from the EMF surrounding neon and plasma lighting.  It will also interfere with the touch-screen and the AF of the camera.  Especially signage with large neon transformers..
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Regards,
Marco Nero.