Canon EOS R8 Mirrorless Camera RF24-50mm Lens Kit

TLDR: This camera is an absolute POWERHOUSE and I plan to use it as my main camera for many years and I personally recommend this to absolutely anyone that is looking for a camera in this price range.

I started this hobby in 2020 with the EOS RP and absolutely adored it for taking pictures, however, once I started to get more into Videography I began to notice its downsides. Photos on the camera were basically perfect, but the Rolling Shutter and overall lack of video features really hurt my enjoyment of that camera.

The EOS R8 completely fixes these issues.

Although the RP was great for shooting portraits and slow-moving subjects it definitely started to fall apart as soon as you needed to take any kind of “Action Photos” such as Kids or Animals running around or fast-paced sports due to the extremely slow FPS when Continuous Auto-focus engaged (roughly 3FPS and up to 6 without Continuous AF). On the R8 you can get up to 40FPS In Electronic Shutter with FULL AF capabilities, which is absolutely insane when coming from the RP and even when comparing it to other cameras at much higher price points. The Electronic Shutter does exhibit a bit of rolling shutter, but I wouldn’t worry too much about it unless you primarily take photos of extremely quick-moving subjects such as Tennis players swinging their rackets, Golfers Swinging their clubs, or anything else that would be moving at extreme speeds. But even in these scenarios, you will likely be fine simply due to the sensor having an incredibly quick read-out.

The video quality is also MASSIVELY improved on the R8. The video on the RP was usable at 1080p but the rolling shutter and complete lack of Dual-pixel AF made 4k completely useless and made it feel more like a feature that was “tacked on” rather than properly implemented. The other issues such as the rather low bitrate, complete lack of any LOG profiles, and the 1.76x crop factor in 4K made me actively avoid using the camera for Video in many situations.

On the other hand, the R8 has an incredible amount of recording modes compared to the RP, offering uncropped full-frame 4K60 video, 180fps 1080p Slo-mo, C-LOG3, and HDR PQ, as well as a “Movie Crop” mode that crops into the sensor essentially giving you the FOV of a Canon APS-C Camera. Using this mode you will not lose any video quality since the camera is binning the cropped 4K image from the 6K resolution of said sensor. I personally find myself using this mode a ton as the extra reach I get from my lenses is extremely useful and helps when I’m trying to record the action from a rather far distance.
I should also note that Rolling Shutter in video mode is still present, but it is so minor that I would not personally consider it as a reason to not buy the camera.

The main cons that people seem to have with the R8 are the lack of IBS (In-body Image Stabilization), relatively low Frame Rate when taking photos using the Electronic First-Curtain Shutter (6FPS), and the poor battery life from the Canon LP-E17 Battery which the EOS RP also used.
My personal opinions and experiences with these cons are as follows

Lack of IBS: It definitely would have been nice to have, but since I’ve never owned a camera with IBS I’m not too sure what I’m missing out on. I’ve also heard that Canon’s IBS implementation isn’t as good as some other companies and it allegedly exhibits a sort of “wobble effect” on the edges of the image when using a Wide Angle Lens. The R8 does offer Digital Stabilization for video which simply crops into the image to stabilize the footage. This feature is pretty decent, however, the stabilization causes the image to lock onto a moving subject and subtly moves the image around to keep the subject in the frame. It’s hard to explain but think of those popular TikToks where the person is dancing and the camera keeps them perfectly in frame. This anomaly goes away however once you turn this stabilization off.

Low FPS when in Electronic First-Curtain shutter mode: I almost always shoot in Electronic Shutter due to how fast the readout is and the more or less complete lack of Rolling Shutter. I would only consider this an issue if your primary shooting subjects are extremely fast-moving and you cannot risk any kind of rolling shutter but honestly, if you are in the market for truly professional features and selling points you just won’t find it in this price range. Not yet at least.

Finally, the Battery Capacity: It’s not great, but it’s far from being a deal breaker. I’ve taken upwards of 500 pictures in Electronic Shutter and still wasn’t required to change the battery. You should be able to get around an hour out of recording before the battery dies. You can also buy a dummy battery to increase the record time. Though, the camera CAN overheat if you are recording at 4K60 for an extended period of time (roughly 30 minutes straight).

Like I said in my TLDR, this camera is incredible and the only cons the community has with the camera should most definitely not deter you from buying it.

WOW, this is an excellent camera from Canon. I have not bought a new camera in several years and am completely amazed at the tech that is packed into the R8.
Picture quality and autofocus is OUTSTANDING. OK so the price is not everyones idea of a budget/cheap camera but this isn’t designed to be cheap I don’t think.
I watched almost all the reviews online for this camera in this price range and always kept coming back th this. Part of my reasons for this is because I do have some older EF lenses from Canon that work with an adapter. They work completely properly by the way, so that was a great saving. Image quality is simply outstanding.
Check out the reviews from Jared Polin on the tubes of you to see what I’m talking about.
I use mine mostly in my home studio and it’s currently behind a teleprompter. I’m looking forward to getting it out into the outdoors for some actual photography in the near future. I know the results will be excellent.
Mostly so far, I have been using it for mainly video which again has been simply outstanding.
For the studio i use the OEM power adapter so the battery and its life are not destroyed over a shorter time. I hear it does well though considering.
So, in summary…
It’s Full Frame, as top of the line FAST intelligent auto focus, touch screen and 4K with HDR capability. Is it professional? Probably not? Can you get professional results with this camera? ABSOLUTELY

If you are wanting to jump into the full frame camera world, then this is a great option.

The Canon RF system is growing in leaps and bounds and this body is a great price to get started. It has all the internals of the Canon R6II so you get the fast AF, accurate tracking, and amazing picture quality.

The battery is much smaller in this model but you can buy replacements at a good price. It only has one card reader but that is more than sufficient for beginners.

The camera is lighter and smaller than the R6II so I find it easy to carry for travel and walking. With the 50mm lens I find it to be a great street photography camera.

Video is amazing as well with 4K60 in C-LOG3 that is beautiful.

Overall this is a bargain for entry into the RF system and provides amazing images, fast autofocus, and lightweight. You can not go wrong with this camera.

ok so i bought this unit nov of 2023, its been around a year owning this and i’ve done extensive testing using many lenses, some i own and some i rent. here’s the jist of it all:

this camera shoots ridiculously fast in ES, i personally never shoot EFCS since its slow and makes a sound.
this brings me to first ‘issue’ or lack thereof: the electronic shutter does have rolling shutter but its very miniscule (readout speed is 14ms), notice subaru photo backgrounds might get slanted but not to a concerning level at all, completely usable. continuing on rolling shutter, u do see artifacts at times, however it not ur doing more so the les’s stabilization will jitter and thats what causes it, these photos are at times still usable however can be ruined in like 25% of the time.
the readout speed has some other issues, this is obviously not stacked and as a result shooting at 40fps with moving subjects 5-10% of shots will be slightly out of focus, given this is also lens related more often than not. rolling shutter at times can also cause soft photos while still usable it could be better but there should be somewhere this thing lacks i guess.

this camera can charge with UBC C however you will need a source with power delivery, it will only pull 5w while charging and with ‘mechanical shutter’ shooting it can pull up to 9w but never more. i’ve hear people saying it needs 40w PD but that’s just not true. btw it won’t charge while using it and u still need a battery in there even if its empty.

now the best part of this camera AutoFocus: what can i say, find me something better and will admit being wrong in shame but hasn’t happened yet.
it matters what kind of subject u tell the camera to detect, on its own and on auto it will do a fine job and will not get distracted(signature canon), however when u tell it to detect animals/cars…. sit back and be amazed. Once in a dark alley i had my camera in car detect and it would behave weirdly, it kept focusing on some random dark corner of the image and i was pissed. i missed the shot got back home editing and guess what, there was a parked car there which i couldn’t see since it was pretty much completely black.

image quality is pro level, and iso performance will blow anything else out of the water, this is a sweat spot of pixel size(being 24mp) and full frame, u pull data out of places that had no data, truly baffling. level of detail is also godly, individual eyelashes are sharp and noticeable.

body is the same as the rp, proven design quality build that you expect. not weather sealed but weather resistant, i used this camera in light rain no issues. i also got splashed once next to the pool with a weather sealed lens and all still working great(4 months later) but i do own a rain cover for it which i do still recommend.

fun fact, instead of buying a grips for the r8 which are fairly expensive, try buying rp grips/ l bracket they fit just fine. bottom of this device is identical to the rp. camera body is also very small not pocketable by any extent but fairly compact. anything else you can just watch a review.

also i heard it overheated, maybe in video but in my photography first experience it overheated once when it was left in the sun for 1 hour on a very hot day, never seen that error again, i was worried it would happen during the summer but it didn’t. i have heard that there is some sample variation on this topic though.

i don’t think you can go wrong with this, even if ur a pro this would be a fantastic b cam or rather large EDC.

Essa câmera é o melhor custo x benefício de 2024. A R8 tem o mesmo sensor da R3 e R6 Mark ii, ou seja, qualidade absurda!!! Pra galera do vídeo faz 4k 60fps, 1080 em 120fps e 180fps. O sistema de foco é um dos melhores do mercado.