During internal voting and related discussions camera of the yearThe Canon EOS R1 Quickly established himself as a non-contender. This highly anticipated flagship camera has been a long time coming, but once it finally arrives, it seemed undercookedAnd worse, boring.
Before you get into the weeds here, which won’t be a fun time for the R1, it’s worth getting something out of the way: the Canon EOS R1 is a great camera. it matches its competition Well in some key areas, and delivers the speed and performance that demanding sports and journalism professionals require. This is a well-designed, performant camera Almost perfect for your target audienceThis is a very capable camera for a select group of photographers.
But herein lies the problem: the target audience is extremely narrow at a time when the competition is expanding the reach of its top models. NIKON Z9 And sony a1 ii Basically as fast as the R1, while also being significantly more versatile due to the higher-resolution image sensor. Times have changed, and photographers increasingly want a camera that’s suitable for everything. Some people still want a highly specialized (read “limited”) camera, and those people probably really like the R1. However, for everyone else, the R1 is not the aspirational camera in Canon’s lineup that its flagship cameras once were.
It’s not that Canon is unable to make a mirrorless camera that can do it all EOS R5 IIAnnounced with the R1, that’s exactly what it does – it’s not in a flagship camera wrapper. Despite this, R5 II overtakes R1 This summer, and during internal polling petapixelWhich continued well beyond the announcement window.
It’s way beyond us here petapixelWe may end up getting stuck in a bubble because we’re constantly talking about new cameras. But broadly speaking, there’s a significant difference between the level of excitement among photographers who already have an EOS R1 and those who don’t. If you need it, you already have it. If you don’t? You probably don’t even want this.
While it may seem obvious that people who buy something are more interested in that product than those who won’t, it doesn’t quite work that way in the camera industry, at least in the expensive top-ends. Not with an off-the-line camera body. Like the most expensive cars in a company’s lineup that most people will never buy, flagship cameras have a certain aspirational excitement. They are a thing to be looked upon with envy.
For example, even if you are not going to buy a Sony a1 II or a Nikon Z9 (or Z8) For many good reasons, people are still excited by those cameras. They are interested in them because they are a dream camera, something that most people would love to have in their hands. They represent a technological achievement and promise to improve your photography or at least make it easier to get the shots you want.
Caring for or wanting to own an R1 is relatively challenging. If you don’t actively need it, it’s completely forgettable. The line between “need” and “want” is rarely so solid when it comes to cameras. Flagship cameras historically inspire a sense of desire among amateur and enthusiast photographers, but the R1 doesn’t. This is a camera you get because you’ve invested in the Canon ecosystem, and you need what the R1 has to offer.
Although we’re not publishing our full voting details for camera of the year, I put the EOS R1 in last place on my ballot. I was not alone either. Of the nine ballots cast, it finished last on six and in the top three on only one ballot. I don’t know who voted how, but I’m not surprised by the results of R1.
It’s not just a matter of megapixels, as the Sony a9 III also sports an expensive 24-megapixel camera that’s clearly designed for a niche audience. That camera won first place. The A9 III is exciting in a way the R1 is not. The A9 III is groundbreaking, and the R1, perhaps a victim of the long time it took to realize it, doesn’t do anything unexpected.
The EOS R5 II, which finished second in the final tally, received three first-place votes and only two voters made it out of the top three for 2024. In some important ways, the R1 is a better camera than the R5 II, but not in ways that will excite or inspire photographers. The R1 is the perfect device for a limited and shrinking audience. But this is not a camera that hobbyists look at with the hope that one day they will have the money to buy it and the talent to take full advantage of it.
The Canon EOS R1 is simultaneously extremely powerful and extremely sluggish. Canon is doing a lot of exciting things with great cameras like the R5 II and great new lenses RF 24-105mm f/2.8 LZ And RF 100-300mm f/2.8 LBut the company’s flagship camera is not among them. After casting my vote, I commented on our company chat that the R1 is a great camera, but I may forget it exists and it couldn’t be worse than that. A flagship camera flying under the radar is completely unprecedented. Canon deserves credit for this Did Release a camera in 2024 that many photographers desire; This is not its flagship model.
Image Credit: Image courtesy of Canon USA
