Previously held by the Canon EOS 100D (aka Rebel SL1), the toy camera is a special position in my photographic arsenal. The toy camera has to be small, light, relatively inexpensive, but simultaneously required to be a full featured camera, with at least decent image quality, suitable for a minimum of 30x45cm print size. And it must be a camera that’s a joy to shoot with.
The toy camera slots below my travel camera. I reach for it when even a lightweight travel system is too much. It’s always used in a no tripod, single lens configuration (I’ll refer to that single lens as the toy lens). It comes with me on short trips and sometimes on daily walks. When I anticipate good opportunities and want something significantly better than a smartphone camera.
For a very long time there weren’t any serious contenders for this position. But the RP took over quickly and effortlessly.
The EOS RP with the smallest and lightest “RF” lens: the EF 40mm f/2.8 STM on the EF-RF adapter
Originally I had been quite reluctant to get one, and honestly, I would completely ignore this camera if we hadn’t needed one for software development purposes. Then, as usual, I brought it with me on a few shoots, and the unexpected happened. I realized that:
The RP is an interface design masterpiece
Saint-Exupéry phrased what I consider one of the most important ideas every designer should internalize:
“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”
Being a perfectionist, I strive to live along this line. This is not just reflected in our apps, but we also constantly in the process of slimming down our daily lives, cutting the unnecessary. The unnecessary, which only bogs you down in the long run.
Being a perfectionist requires effort and courage. It’s much easier to litter a camera with tons of stuff (customizable buttons for example) fearing what some half-educated reviewer or user might say. The designer has to analyze what’s really needed, and be brave to leave the unnecessary out. All the while keeping an eye on important things, because taking too much away could seriously impair usability.
I leave it to the reader as an exercise to analyze contemporary camera designs and decide which ones are littered with an overly huge number of (mostly customizable) controls and which ones are practically useless because the designer went too far with removing stuff. Canon does it mostly right (that’s one of the reasons I still shoot Canon), with occasional bad moves (like the direct print button, Wi-Fi button and the M-Fn bar) that tend to die out quickly.
The RP is one quick control dial closer to perfection for its use case (light travel/all around camera) than the 100D was, and also one M-Fn bar closer than the R.
Higher end Canons have two control dials (the main dials and the quick control dial). Lower end (Rebel) Canons have one dial (the main dial) and a button to switch the dial between two modes. They also either have a joystick or a 4/8-way controller, but never both. Since the joystick and the n-way controller have pretty much equivalent functionality, I agree with this approach. Adding a joystick along an n-way controller just increases ambiguity, and I consider it a bad choice. Yet so many people whine about the absence of a joystick on the EOS R…
The RP inherited the extensive (but not over the top) pro level customization capabilities of the EOS R, so it was pretty easy to configure everything the way I like. No button or dial left unused, and no function I need left unassigned. It’s pretty much perfect. The only difference from the R’s configuration is the AF point selection button. On the R it cycles focusing modes, but on the RP this function isn’t assignable to the button. So I left it on default, meaning that the AF point selection button is the entry point for both focusing mode selection and live view zooming. A little more button presses, but still not a big deal, as they are both infrequently used functions.
Both the control layout and the body shape contribute to great ergonomics and comfort, outclassing the 6D Mark II easily. I’m not a fan of the combined quick control dial/n-way controller solution on the mid-range Canons, and the RP definitely feels to be in a league above the mid-range offerings.
Build quality
Strong plastic over a metal core (sensor chamber). It’s rigid enough where precision counts, and the plastic shell guarantees that your fingers will not freeze onto the camera on cold November dawns. It’s also not the squeaky plastic that you may be familiar with on the 5D Mark II or M50. This was a really pleasant surprise.
I suspect that this construction is more than enough to dissipate the heat generated by still capture. Video might be different. But as I mentioned numerous times, I don’t shoot video, and if I did, I would get a real, proper video camera. And not blame an otherwise great $1300 full frame still camera that it can’t cook my dinner and can’t record cinema-grade 4k footage for hours in the summer heat.
The shutter button was another surprise. I grown to hate clicky shutter buttons (featured on all entry level Canons). So when I pressed the shutter on the RP for the first time, I started smiling. Both the half and full press positions are detected with a Hall effect sensor (or similar), so there’s no clicky noise, just like on my 1/5/7 series cameras, and on the EOS R.
Not all is rosy though. You notice the first sign of cost cutting with the fold-out LCD. The hinge is rather wobbly, noticeably so even in the fully closed position. And lacking any sealing gaskets, the battery/card door is clicking. This is caused by the tiny play (0.2mm or so) in the door’s lock and the spring that pops the door open. I might get used to it.
What bothers me the most is the image quality on the back LCD. For some reason, the edges of characters and icons are not solid, but have a pixelated/jagged appearance. I did notice this on the M50 for the first time, and now on the RP. It only affects the back LCD, the viewfinder is fine. Moreover, the screen looks gorgeous during firmware updates, so it’s not a hardware issue. Whether its just a marketing tactic to make the camera look and feel cheaper, or have a real technological reason behind it (some sort of power saving and/or heat dissipation technique) is unknown at this point. I’m not an expert in LCD drivers, so if anyone have a clue, please let me know.
Battery life
Well, power saving techniques are a question of life and death when you have a large sensor and a tiny battery. The RP performs a tad better than the M50, with a considerably larger sensor and a fractionally larger battery.
Eco mode is highly recommended, though. I did a few 4-hour sessions, with Eco mode on, and the battery indicator after 200-250 frames still reported full (meaning it was more than 50%) in each session. I did recharge the battery after each session. Nevertheless, I consider a second battery a must.
To be continued…
I had a pessimistic point of view when I started working with the camera. But the RP managed to get more attention and love. The transition happened after opening a few files in Photoshop, and seeing what this tiny little thing is capable of. For less than $1500 (including the EF 40mm f/2.8 pancake).
I know that the sensor is from the 6D Mark II (with slightly modified microlenses), the LCD is shared with several models, and the viewfinder is the same as the M50’s, but still, it’s hard to believe that Canon makes any direct profit on this camera. I sincerely hope it does.
In the right hands the RP is significantly more capable than the price, the spec sheet, a few reviews, and the cat & dog (not to mention New Orleans cemetery) pictures on some online outlets would suggest.
As soon as Capture One starts supporting the RP I will be in a position to comment on image quality of the toy camera + toy lens system, which I’m sure most of you are interested in. I did a few comparisons with Adobe Camera Raw converted files, and they look roughly as one would expect. Day and night better than what the 100D (and even the much newer M50 + EF-M 22/2 combo) produced, but far from what you get with an 5DS R + Zeiss/Rodenstock combination.
Fun tip: downsized to 6.5 megapixels (1/4 size), you get gorgeous, lively images…
I would not buy the RP as a serious main camera. And it’s totally unsuitable for sports/action/birding. There are much better options for those. But as a take everywhere and enjoy playing with camera, whose images can print nicely at 40x60cm, it’s absolutely great. Assuming that you pair it with appropriate lenses. But that’s a topic of another discussion.
