Canon EOS R100 Review: The $479 Mirrorless Camera and What Canon Left Out to Hit That Price

The Canon EOS R100 is the cheapest way into Canon’s RF system. It launched in May 2023 at $479 for the body and $599 with the RF-S 18-45mm kit zoom. It’s small, it weighs about 356 grams with battery and card, and it has a viewfinder, which is more than many phone-replacement cameras offer.

It’s also a camera defined by what it doesn’t have. Knowing those gaps is the key to deciding whether it’s for you.

The sensor is a 24.1MP APS-C chip with Dual Pixel autofocus. Reviewers believe it’s the same sensor Canon used in the older EOS M50. Image quality is very good for the price, and much better than a phone in low light.

Video review: Gordon Laing

What you get

Real interchangeable lenses on the RF mount, with an upgrade path all the way to Canon’s pro bodies. A 2.36-million-dot electronic viewfinder. Dual Pixel AF with face and eye detection. A pop-up flash. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for sending pictures to your phone.

Battery life is decent, about 430 shots on the rear screen by CIPA in power-saving mode.

For family photos, travel and learning the basics of aperture and shutter speed, it does the job.

What Canon cut

This is a long list, so here it is plainly.

The rear screen is fixed and isn’t a touchscreen. You can’t flip it to film yourself, and you can’t tap to focus.

Bursts are slow: 6.5 fps with focus locked, 3.5 fps with continuous autofocus. Fine for posed shots, poor for sports.

4K video is limited to 24p or 25p with a heavy 1.55x crop, and it uses slower contrast-detect autofocus. Full HD at up to 60p is the better mode, with Dual Pixel AF and no crop.

No in-body stabilization, no joystick, no log profiles and no 10-bit video. The kit lens has optical stabilization, which helps.

Who should buy it

First-time camera buyers on a strict budget who mostly shoot stills. Parents who want better photos than a phone. Students learning photography who want a viewfinder and real lenses.

Anyone filming themselves should skip it and look at the Canon R50, which adds a flip-out touchscreen, uncropped 4K and much faster autofocus tracking. The R50 costs more, and for most people it’s worth every cent.

If your budget really stops at $500, the R100 is still a far better learning tool than a phone, and the RF lenses you buy will carry over to whatever Canon you move to next.