Canon EOS R100 Review | Photography Blog

Ease of Use

The new Canon R100 is predominantly targeted at people who are either completely new to photography or those who have outgrown the photographic capabilities of their smartphone or simpler compact camera.

Joining the the R7, R10 and R50 models, the EOS R100 is the fourth Canon APS-C crop sensor mirrorless camera to use the same RF lens mount as the company’s full frame cameras.

This is the main differentiator between these four APSC R-series models and the existing EOS M-series, which uses a different EF-M lens mount.

Consequently, you can either use Canon’s relatively new range of RF-S lenses which are designed specifically for the R100, R50, R10 and R7 (and all future Canon R-series APS-C cameras), or you can use the more established full-frame RF lenses, with an accompanying change in the focal length due to the 1.6x crop factor involved with mounting full-frame lenses on an APS-C sensor.

In addition, Canon’s huge number of EF and EF-S DSLR lenses can also be used with the R100 by attaching the optional EF-EOS R Mount Adapter, which is very handy if you already have a large collection of legacy lenses.

What you can’t do, sadly, is use the EF-M lenses that were designed for the EOS-M system on the R100/R50/R10/R7, which means that there’s no clear upgrade path for users of Canon’s first APS-C sensor mirrorless system other than to start over again.

It also means that there aren’t very many native lens options for the APS-C R-series cameras – at the time of writing there are only three options, the super-compact RF-S 18-45mm F4.5-6.3 IS STM standard zoom which has a collapsible design, the more versatile RF-S 18-150mm F3.5-6.3 IS STM zoom, and the most recent RF-S 55-210mm F5-7.1 IS STM telephoto zoom.

All three lenses commendably have built-in optical stabilisation and don’t cost the earth, but the maximum apertures are very slow and none of them are particularly wide.

They’re fine if you’re just starting out and don’t already own any compatible Canon lenses, but we’d hope to see some more inspiring RF-S lenses launched as soon as possible in order to compete on a more level playing field with the likes of Sony and especially Fujifilm.

Just like the other APS-C sensor R-series models, the EOS R100 has a 24 megapixel sensor, but it’s significantly different to the one found in both the R50 and R10.

It’s an older model that’s been inherited from the EOS M50 Mark II and “optimised” for the R100, and it’s also been paired with the older Digic 8 processor rather than the latest Digic X variant.

Subsequently, the image quality for both stills and video will be better in the R50/R10/R7 than the R100.

The R100 has an ISO range of 100-12,800 which can be expanded up to 25,600 for both stills and video.

The R100 has a less sophisticated autofocus system than the models further up the range. The Dual Pixel CMOS AF system offers human face and tracking AF with eye-detection, but it’s shame not to see any animal or even bird eye-AF added too, although that’s probably to be expected on an entry-level camera like this one.

Impressively the EOS R100 can focus in light levels as low as -4EV (when used with an F1.2 lens) or with maximum apertures as small as f/22, which enables autofocus even when using ultra telephoto lenses with teleconverters.

Shutter speeds as fast as 1/4000s are supported using either the mechanical or electronic shutter, which is slightly slower than the 1/8,000s speed offered by the R50.

Turning to the R100’s continuous shooting speeds, it has a very slow burst rate of 3.5fps with full-time AF/AE tracking and 6.5fps without, which is 11.5fps slower than the next model up the range (the R50). On a more positive note, it does at least offer a completely silent shooting mode.

The R100’s buffer allows for bursts of up to 97 JPEG or 6 RAW, 17 C-RAW, or 6 RAW + L JPEG files, so you can at least shoot at 3.5fps for a long time before the camera slows down.

The R100 camera has a single, rather out-dated UHS-I SD card slot that’s rather inconveniently housed in the same compartment as the battery, a direct consequence of the camera’s very small, compact design. It should really have a faster, more future-proof UHS-II slot.

Just like the R50, in-body image stabilisation is unfortunately not supported by the Canon R100. Instead you have to rely on a mix of lens stabilisation (if the lens offers it) and/or in-camera digital stabilisation.

The new R100 offers 4K video, but only at 25 frames per second, and it also suffers from the same heavy 64% / 1.55x crop as the EOS M50 II, which really makes it a high-quality 1080/60p camera rather than a 4K one for the majority of users.

Also note that on the R100, autofocusing during 4K recording is only contrast-based, which is slower and less precise than the phase-detection system that operates in the camera’s 1080p mode.

The R100 also provides 120p slow-motion recording but only at 720p resolution. It also supports vertical video capture, but not live streaming. Recording time is limited to 30 minutes on the R100.

It does offer Movie Digital Image Stabilisation (IS), an extra Digital IS mode called Enhanced which helps to keep handheld footage sharp.

Note that it achieves this by applying a crop that’s even more aggressive than the one applied in the normal Digital IS mode, so you’ll ideally need a wide-angle lens to use it.

The design of the EOS R100 is virtually identical to the R50 model, with just a few differences that are still quite important.

Despite being equally sized at 116.3 x 85.5 x 68.8mm, the new R100 is actually slightly lighter than the R50, mainly due to having an even smaller handgrip.

Its largely plastic body weighs in at just 356g with both a battery and memory card fitted versus 375g for the EOS R50, making it the lightest and most compact full-frame camera that Canon currently offer.

The R100 has a larger D-pad than the R50, perhaps because it doesn’t offer a touchscreen LCD, but there’s no dedicated ISO button on top of the R100.

On the flip-side, the R100 does have a remote connector port, which the R50 strangely lacks.

Turning once again to the negatives, the R100 has the older 5-pin hotshoe, not the more sophisticated multi-function shoe that the R50 and all other recent Canon mirrorless cameras have.

The R100 doesn’t offer any level of weather-proofing, so you’ll need to jump up to the R7 if you need this feature. Note that the RF-S zoom lenses are also similarly not weather-proof.

Due to rather its diminutive stature, the Canon R100 does suffers from having a very shallow handgrip that only just accommodates three fingers. If you have large hands, the R10 model would be a much better choice thanks to its significantly deeper grip.

There are no controls found at all on the R100’s extremely minimalist front plate, just a porthole for the AF assist light and a lozenge shaped button for releasing the lens.

On top there is a conventional shooting mode dial on the right-hand side to change the shooting mode, with the usual P, Tv, Av and M options, Movie mode, Creative Filters mode, and three options for less experienced users – a selection of Scene modes, the set-everything Scene Intelligent Auto mode, and the Hybrid Auto mode, which creates a short movie of the day just by shooting still photos.

The Scene Intelligent Auto mode is split into three – Creative Assist, Creative Bracketing and the Advanced A+ mode.

Creative assist automatically offers the ideal settings for different scenes, while creative bracketing takes three shots with every shutter press to provide multiple looks for each image, varying the exposure levels and white balance.

In the Advanced A+ mode the camera takes multiple pictures at once and automatically merges them together to create an evenly exposed, processed file. It adjusts the shadows and highlights, set the exposure and contrast, reduce noise and also analyzes the scene for depth of field.

Note that this mode only works with JPEG files, not RAW, and there is a noticeable delay whilst it processes the final image, which makes it best suited to static rather than moving subjects.

There’s a small On/Off switch over on the far-right, with the R100 leaping into life almost instantly. The camera intelligently remembers separate settings for each of the movie and various stills settings.

There’s a small but responsive shutter release button at the top of the handgrip with a useful ISO button alongside it.

Behind that is the only control dial which is used for principally setting the aperture or shutter speed, and behind that again is a small, red one-touch movie record button.

The R100 doesn’t have either a second control dial or an AF joystick, as on the EOS R10, which reflects the fact that this particular model is targeted at beginners and smartphone users.

Located on the far-right shoulder of the rear of the R100 are two classic Canon controls – the Auto-exposure Lock button (denoted by a star) and the AF area selection button which makes it easier to switch the autofocus point when holding the camera to your eye. The latter doubles up as the Magnification button during playback.

Underneath is the Info Button and then the shared Quick/Set button, which opens the Quick Control screen and provides instant access to 10 key camera controls.

The aforementioned d-pad with four navigation buttons surrounds the Quick/Set button with various options arranged around it, including exposure compensation, burst/self-timer settings, delete and the focus mode (AF/MF).

Completing the rear of the EOS R100 are the self-explanatory Playback and Menu buttons located underneath the navigation pad.

Just like the R50 model that it sits beneath in the range, Canon have included a handy built-in flash with a guide number of 6, so you don’t have to carry a separate flashgun.

The 0.39 inch, 2.36 million dot EVF on the EOS R100 isn’t the most cutting-edge technology wise, but it’s still fairly impressive to look through, working up to 60fps for minimal lag when shooting fast-moving subjects and offering an adequate magnification of 0.95x.

A proximity sensor is located alongside the electronic viewfinder, which automatically switches between the EVF and LCD screen.

The EOS R100 has a 3-inch, 1.04 million dot, vari-angle LCD screen, which is fixed in place. Yes, you read that right, the R100’s screen cannot be moved or tilted or rotated in any direction.

And that’s not the only throwback to cameras of yesteryear – the R100 doesn’t have a touchscreen either, unlike the R50 and all other current Canon mirrorless cameras. This is particularly perplexing on a camera that is aimed mainly at people looking to upgrade from a smartphone.

On the left-hand-side of the camera is a single rubber flap housing the 3.5mm microphone jack. On the right-hand-side is a single, larger rubber flap housing the USB-C 2.0 port and a mini-HDMI connection – nearly all the things that any enthusiast photographer or videographer would need from an accessory point of view, with the notable exception of a headphone port for sound monitoring.

On the bottom of the camera is the shared battery and memory card compartment. The EOS R100 supports SD UHS-I cards via a single slot, which instantly demotes it below the EOS R10 which supports faster SD UHS-II cards.

The Canon R100 uses the same LP-E17 unit employed by lots of previous Canon DSLR and mirrorless models like the 850D and 250D and the EOS R50. The R100’s CIPA-rated battery life is 430 shots with the LCD and 340 with the EVF.

With built-in Bluetooth 4.2 Low Energy and 2.4Ghz Wi-Fi support, the EOS R100 can be easily connected to a smartphone and networks allowing high-speed file sharing and FTP/FTPS transfer. Live streaming is not supported on the Canon R100, so you’ll need to step-up to the R50 for that feature.

The R100 can be remotely controlled and even updated using Canon’s Camera Connect and EOS Utility apps and tethered to to an Apple iPhone via its Lightning port or a PC or Mac via Wi-Fi or USB-C 2.0.

The EOS R100 can also be used as a webcam, but you do have to additionally install the EOS Webcam Utility software in order for it to be recognised.

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this review were taken using the 24.1 megapixel Fine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 9Mb.

The Canon EOS R100 produced still images of good quality during the review period.

This camera produces noise-free JPEG images from ISO 100 all the way up to ISO 1600, with noise first appearing at ISO 3200. The faster settings of 6400 and especially ISO 12800 display progressively more noise, but are still suitable for small prints and web images. We wouldn’t advise using the expanded setting of ISO 25600 though.

The RAW files were also excellent, exhibiting more noise than their JPEG counterparts but still producing very usable images from ISO 100-1600.

The built-in pop-up flash worked fairly well indoors, with no red-eye and good overall exposure. The night photograph was very good, with the maximum shutter speed of 30 seconds and the Bulb mode allowing you to capture enough light in all situations.

The various different Picture Styles and the ability to create your own are a real benefit, as are the range of Creative Effects, all of which can be previewed in-camera before you take the shot.

Noise

ISO sensitivity can be set between ISO 100 and ISO 25600 in full-stop increments. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting, with JPEG on the left and the RAW equivalent on the right.

JPEG	RAW
ISO 100	ISO 100
ISO 200	ISO 200
ISO 400	ISO 400
ISO 800	ISO 800
ISO 1600	ISO 1600
ISO 3200	ISO 3200
ISO 6400	ISO 6400
ISO 12800	ISO 12800
ISO 25600	ISO 25600

File Quality

The Canon EOS R100 has 2 different JPEG file quality settings available, with Fine being the highest quality option, and it also supports Raw. Here are some 100% crops which show the quality of the various options, with the file size shown in brackets.

Fine (9.4Mb)	Normal (4.8Mb)
Raw (29.1Mb)

Flash

The available flash settings on the Canon EOS R100 are Auto, Flash On and Redeye Reduction.

Flash Off

Flash On

Flash On, Redeye Reduction

Flash Off

Flash On

Flash On, Redeye Reduction

Night

The Canon EOS R100’s maximum shutter speed is 30 seconds and there’s a Bulb mode for even longer exposures, which is excellent news if you’re seriously interested in night photography.

Picture Styles

Canon’s Picture Styles are 7 different preset combinations of different sharpness, contrast, saturation and colour tone settings which can be applied to both JPEGs and RAW files. There are also three User Defined styles so that you can create your own looks.

Standard

Portrait

Landscape

Fine Detail

Neutral

Faithful

Monochrome

Creative Filters

The Creative Filters shooting mode contains 10 different options to help spice up your JPEG images.

Grainy B/W

Soft Focus

Fish-eye

Water Painting

Toy Camera

Miniature

HDR Art Standard

HDR Art Vivid

HDR Art Bold

HDR Art Embossed

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Canon EOS R100 camera, which were all taken using the 24.1 megapixel Fine JPEG setting. The thumbnails below link to the full-sized versions, which have not been altered in any way.

Sample RAW Images

The Canon EOS R100 enables users to capture RAW and JPEG format files. We’ve provided some Canon RAW (CR3) samples for you to download (thumbnail images shown below are not 100% representative).

Sample Movies & Video

Product Images

Conclusion

The EOS R100 is currently the cheapest way to buy into Canon’s R-series mirrorless system, but for most users it’s not going to be the best way to do so.

For starters, just like the EOS Mark II M50 with whom it shares the same image sensor, the EOS R100 suffers from the same heavy 1.55x crop and only having contrast-based AF when shooting 4K video, which really makes it a high-quality 1080p camera rather than a 4K one for the majority of users.

And unlike the M50 II, which has an intuitive touchscreen interface with video-friendly controls and a versatile vari-angle screen, the new R100 has neither of those features, again greatly limiting its appeal for video.

Using a camera with a non-touch, non-moving screen in 2023 is a strange experience indeed, instantly taking us back to much, much older Canon DSLRs, for whom video was very much an after-thought.

This is all particularly perplexing on a camera that is aimed mainly at people looking to upgrade from a smartphone, making the R50 step-up model a much better fit simply because it offers a screen that you can touch and move.

On a more positive note, the EOS R100 is now the holder of the “smallest, lightest and cheapest model” title in the extensive range of R-series cameras, weighing in at 19g less than the R50 whilst being the same size and offering much the same control layout.

Paired with the EF-S 18-45mm lens, it does make for a very discrete package that easily fits inside a small shoulder bag or even a capacious pocket, all for just £669 / $599, which undercuts its main rivals Fujifilm, Nikon and Sony.

As with the R50, though, the main downside of Canon’s drive to make the R100 smaller and simpler, at least for more experienced users, is a marked reduction in the number of external controls. And with no touchscreen to take the load, it’s an even more frustrating experience to use the R100 than the R50, exacerbated further by having an even smaller handgrip.

In fact, it loses out to the R50 in almost every way, most notably image quality, video specification, much slower burst shooting speeds and less sophisticated auto-focus performance, not to mention that rather perplexing fixed non-touch LCD screen. So unless money really is tight, we’d recommend spending the extra on the much more capable EOS R50 instead.

Main Rivals

Listed below are some of the rivals of the Canon EOS R100.

Review Roundup

Reviews of the Canon EOS R100 from around the web.

Specifications

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