Canon’s new mirrorless camera looks ripped right out of 2013

The Canon EOS M mirrorless system may be dead, but one of its cameras is being reintroduced in a new model for the ongoing EOS R series. The EOS R100 is the latest in Canon’s APS-C mirrorless offerings. It has a 24.1-megapixel sensor, eye-tracking Dual Pixel autofocus, and a very compact size for a $479.99 body-only launch in July. It will also be sold in a kit with the RF-S 18–45mm f/4.5-6.3 IS STM lens for $599.99, or as a two-zoom kit with the same slow lens and RF-S 55–210mm f/5 for $829.99. -7.1 is STM telephoto. Launching with the R100 is the $299.99 Canon RF 28mm f/2.8 STM pancake lens that’s compatible with crop or full-frame cameras and is only slightly larger than the body cap.

On paper, the R100 is almost a dead ringer for, well, dead Canon EOS M50 Mark II. It has the same sensor, Digic 8 processor, 2.36 million dot OLED EVF, and cropped 4K video as the swan song of the EOS M system. But that camera is also missing some important things – things you’d normally expect Everyone Modern cameras, frankly – like an articulating screen, in-body image stabilization, webcam streaming, or any touch controls. That’s right, touch the R100’s three-inch rear LCD as much as you like, but it’s not doing anything.

It’s definitely scraping the bottom of the barrel for budget-system cameras and looks a bit frivolous compared to the more capable EOS R50 that sits above $679.99. But to be fair, the 2.5-year-old M50 Mark II on which the R100 is based had a starting price of around $800 (which probably speaks to why this system is dead), and for about that much money, you could get New model in a kit with two lenses. I’m not saying they’re good lenses or that it’s worth the money, but there’s something downright attractive about Canon trying to recapture the glory days of its Canon Rebel DSLRs – a time when an entry The Level’s DSLR was a no-brainer investment for anyone looking to get into photography or take some great photos of family or major life events.

But while this camera gives me a touch of nostalgia for the days of selling the current rebel of the moment to expectant parents and college tomboys, the world of cameras is a very different place now. Sure, this sub-$500 camera has an autofocus system that far outshines anything on the market since those days, but sacrificing an articulating screen and many of the other features that have become table stakes probably won’t take its toll in content creation. A deal-breaker for the hands-on. Today.

Perhaps the EOS R100 can flourish precisely on its aggressive price alone, hoping to hook beginners into a growing RF lens ecosystem that keeps them upgrading within the Canon family. But users may not like it when they look price-wise, because in addition to changes in entry-level user behavior over the years, midrange to top-level cameras and lenses have only trended more niche and expensive.