Canon R50 V Review: An Affordable Vlogging Camera That Lags Behind Its Rivals

Canon has released 20 cameras since launching nan RF equine successful 2018, but it had 1 gaping spread successful a cardinal market: vlogging. Now, nan institution has patched that pinch nan motorboat of nan $700 R50 V that’s aimed astatine creators connected a fund and designed to return connected Sony’s ZV-E10 II.

The R50 V has nan aforesaid 24-megapixel APS-C sensor arsenic nan R50, but adds vlogging-friendly features for illustration 4K 60p video, C-Log3 for other move range, a livestreaming fastener and a broadside tripod socket for vertical video. It’s cheaper than nan $1,100 ZV-E10 II and moreover costs a spot little than nan older ZV-E10. After immoderate lengthy testing, however, I recovered that it was missing immoderate cardinal features compared to its Sony rivals, peculiarly those that make vlogging easier for beginners.

Design and handling

Like different vlogging cameras, nan R50 V is stripped down some successful position of size and controls. It has a polycarbonate assemblage alternatively than metal, which reduces toughness and weatherproofing but helps support it ray astatine conscionable 323 grams. The grip is besides smaller than nan R50’s, truthful it’s not perfect to usage pinch ample lenses.

One cardinal characteristic missing from nan R50 is an physics viewfinder. That’s besides nan lawsuit pinch nan ZV-E10 II, but nan deficiency of 1 tin make it challenging to sprout successful agleam sunlight. On apical of that, nan rear show is low-res and isn’t peculiarly bright. However, it afloat articulates and flips astir for vloggers.

The R50 V is designed to beryllium controlled via nan touchscreen, truthful it has less manual controls than different Canon mirrorless models. It does person top, rear and backmost dials to group superior functions for illustration iris and shutter speed. However, you request to usage your thumb to power some of those which makes cognition a spot awkward.

The beforehand rocker is designed to power zoom connected supported Canon lenses for illustration nan caller 14-30mm f/4-6.4 IS STM PZ, which was released astatine nan aforesaid clip arsenic this camera. It besides has livestream and colour buttons dedicated to creators, positive there’s a mode dial pinch six different video settings.

The paper strategy is typically Canon pinch color-coded pages for each class (video settings, autofocus and more). However, cardinal settings tin besides beryllium adjusted from nan Quick (Q) paper utilizing nan touchscreen erstwhile vlogging. Functions successful that paper tin of people beryllium reprogrammed to your preferences.

The R50 V has some microphone and headphone inputs on pinch microHDMI and USB-C ports. It uses Canon’s smaller EP-17 artillery that delivers an hr of video shooting aliases 300 shots to a charge, some acold little than nan ZV-E10 II (113 minutes and 600 shots). It has conscionable a azygous SD paper slot, but fortunately it’s nan faster UHS-II type. Finally, there’s a very useful characteristic for contented creators: a tripod socket connected nan broadside to make it easier for solo vloggers to sprout vertical video.

Video

Video and vlogging is nan R50 V’s superior spot compared to R50. It tin sprout some supersampled 4K 30 fps and 4K 60 fps video, pinch C-Log3 and 10-bit quality. However, nan 4K 60 fps mounting requires a fat 1.56x crop, which reduces value arsenic good arsenic bokeh. Sony’s ZV-E10 II, by contrast, only requires a 1.1x harvest for 4K 60 fps video.

The Z50 V besides lacks in-body stabilization. That intends nan R50 V relies strictly connected optical lens shingle simplification aliases physics stabilization. To beryllium fair, that’s to beryllium expected successful this value scope and nan ZV-E10 II is besides missing in-body stabilization. The physics strategy does a bully occupation removing jolts from handheld video and tin moreover soft retired stepping if you effort to move fluidly, but it tin make footage look soft if movements are excessive. The “Enhanced” physics mode, which applies a mini crop, is designed to make handheld shots look “locked off” for illustration you’re utilizing a tripod.

Background blur and merchandise showcase-type buttons are besides noticeably missing compared to nan ZV E10 II. That’s excessively bad, because creators usage those features often to quickly attraction connected objects aliases blur nan inheritance down a taxable — without them, you’re forced to group those things manually.

Rolling shutter distortion is reasonably noticeable connected this camera pinch a scan complaint astir 30ms, compared to conscionable 16ms for nan ZV-E10 II. This intends abrupt pans aliases jolts tin consequence successful “jello effect” video. Meanwhile, video autofocus is accelerated and reliable, moreover if your taxable moves around. The AI-powered look and oculus discovery locks connected firmly, and tin besides reliably way animals and vehicles.

Canon took a page from Panasonic and Fujifilm pinch nan summation of a colour fastener connected nan R50 V. It lets you quickly prime shooting modes for illustration modular BT.709, C-Log, HLG and PQ. Another mounting offers filmic looks pinch modes for illustration Portrait, Fine Detail, Faithful and Monochrome. And nan past “color filter” mode allows for tinted video pinch shades for illustration teal and peach, though nan results looked a spot cheesy to me.

With a built-in cooling fan, nan R50 V is much resistant to overheating than astir mini cameras. When signaling modular 4K astatine 30 fps, I was capable to sprout for 60 consecutive minutes pinch nary motion of overheating. The rumor doesn’t, er, harvest up astatine 4K 60p either since that mode uses a reduced information of nan sensor.

Overall, video value is simply a beardown point, pinch crisp item erstwhile utilizing nan 4K 30 fps oversampled mode. Colors are rich | and accurate, and tegument tones pleasing pinch a hint of warmness that Canon is known for. The 10-bit C-Log3 footage retains other item successful protector and item areas, providing outstanding move scope for specified an inexpensive camera. However, 4K 60p video is considerably softer, and nan 1080p 120 fps ultra slo-mo mounting lacks sharpness moreover by HD standards. Low-light capacity is mean for an APS-C camera, pinch sound intelligibly visible starting astatine ISO 3,200 aliases 6,400. Beyond that, it becomes intrusive and harder to get free of utilizing sound simplification tools.

Photography

Though photography isn’t this camera’s raison d’etre, nan R50 V performs decently successful that regard. It tin sprout reasonably quickly for a mini camera, pinch burst speeds of 15 fps pinch nan physics shutter aliases 12 fps pinch mechanical shutter. However, it can’t prolong those speeds for very agelong owed to nan mini buffer that holds conscionable 36 RAW images.

Autofocus is again a beardown point, search subjects pinch easiness and keeping photos sharp. As pinch video, AI-powered look and oculus discovery is speedy and reliable for people, animals and vehicles. Rolling shutter is an rumor pinch photos arsenic it is pinch video, but since nan R50 V has a mechanical first-curtain shutter, you only request nan physics mode for photos erstwhile soundlessness is required. The deficiency of in-body stabilization intends you’ll request to person a dependable manus to return crisp shots astatine debased shutter speeds, aliases you’ll want to shop for lenses pinch optical stabilization if that’s an issue.

Photo value is identical to nan R50 since it shares nan aforesaid sensor. For normal shooting, I saw color-accurate photos pinch tegument tones leaning connected nan lukewarm side, arsenic is emblematic pinch Canon’s colour science. JPEGs onslaught a bully equilibrium betwixt sharpening and sound reduction, while RAW files let a decent magnitude of room to tweak images. As pinch video, low-light capacity isn’t amazing, truthful I wouldn’t spell past ISO 6,400 unless it’s excessively acheronian to movie otherwise.

Wrap-up

Canon’s R50 V is simply a beautiful bully first effort for a vlogging camera, hitting nan people successful cardinal areas for illustration video value and usability. However, its rival, Sony’s ZV-E10 II, thumps it successful astir each area, offering moreover amended video quality, higher photograph resolution, faster autofocus, smoother physics stabilization and neat features missing connected nan R50 V — for illustration nan merchandise showcase.

That said, Canon is targeting a much budget-minded purchaser arsenic nan R50 V costs conscionable $700 (body only) compared to $1,100 for nan ZV-E10 II. Vloggers constrained to that fund will still get a awesome camera that easy thumps a smartphone erstwhile it comes to nan last product. If you do person an other $400 to spend, though, I’d urge nan ZV-E10 II instead.