Canon R10 vs R50

[Jennifer Alderson]

Hi all,

I'm trying to help a few people who are moving up from a phone to their first proper interchangeable-lens camera, and the Canon EOS R10 and R50 keep coming up.

On paper they're close (both 24MP APS-C), but the R10 has the better grip, a proper viewfinder and faster burst, while the R50 is smaller and cheaper.

For those of you who've used either:
- Did the extra handling and EVF on the R10 make a real difference day to day?
- Is the R50 good enough for beginners shooting family, travel and a bit of wildlife?
- Anything you wish you'd known before buying (lenses, battery life, low light)?

Thanks, I'd love to hear real-world experience.

 

[Phil V]

As I’m hitting an age where camera weight is starting to take a toll. I had a proper look at all the R series APSC cameras.

And for my needs, it quickly became apparent that anything other than the R7 would feel like too many compromises, but the R7 isn’t appreciably lighter than the R6, so I concluded there was no point (for me).

In the same way the R8 felt like a crippled R6, rather than its own thing, the R10 and R50 look like crippled R7’s.

In DSLR days the 300 and 350d were remarkable cameras for the money, but by the time we’d got a 40d at less than a grand, all the xxd and xxxd cameras just looked like they’d been designed for an upgrade path rather than being built to take photos.

I now genuinely believe Canon and Nikon only build cheaper cameras as gateway models rather than from the floor up as cameras.

But it’s difficult for them, because modern electronics are cheap, so unlike in SLR days when a faster motor, bigger viewfinder and better AF were expensive design choices, nowadays the improvement costs aren’t there.

If an R7 costs £1k and doesn’t even have a top screen, what can you really do without to make the camera cheaper? The smaller battery lessens usefulness. Removing ibis means you can also go down to one processor, then the 2nd card slot? The small battery can also help if the drive speed is slowed.
That would get you a camera built down to a price. But Canon have chosen to cripple software to differentiate 2 cameras in that space.

A long post to say that whilst I’m a Canon fanboy, I disapprove of their entry level strategy.