Canon EOS R Review: Viewfinder & Screen
At the rear of the EOS R you get a 0.5-inch OLED EVF boasting an impressive 3.69-million-dot resolution with a 0.76x magnification. It has a responsive eye sensor that switches the feed between screen and EVF in an instant, with white on black exposure information, battery life and shooting mode clearly displayed below the preview image. There are two performance modes – power saving and smooth, but for the fastest refresh rate and finest viewing experience you’ll want to keep it set to the latter. The viewfinder display format can also be changed from its default Display 1 setting to Display 2 if you’d prefer a larger back border around the edge, which may be useful for wearers of glasses who struggle to see into the far corners of the frame.
There’s a soft rubber eye cup to cushion the viewfinder against your eye
With regard to performance, it’s the best electronic viewfinder we’ve ever used on a Canon camera. It’s exceptionally sharp and offers a faithful representation of how an image will appear, with the benefit of accurately showing exposure adjustments as they’re made and any changes in depth of field at both large and small apertures. Hit the info button and you can call up more shooting information on either side of the frame or view the electronic level at the same time as the histogram. Unfortunately, though, it’s not possible to view these two shooting aids independently via the EVF. You can view the histogram independently on the screen, but as soon as the camera is raised to your eye the electronic level also appears.
The touchscreen on the Canon EOS R is excellent and has many different uses when you’re shooting and reviewing images
Canon is well known for its excellent touchscreen displays and the EOS R upholds this reputation. The 3.15in, 2.1-million-dot screen is the fully-articulated type, allowing it to be pulled out a tilted to almost any angle. It’s more manoeuvrable than the tilt-only units on Nikon’s Z-series cameras, making portrait format shooting a breeze, especially from low or high angles. It displays accurate colour that’s consistent with the EVF and is incredibly responsive to light touches, making navigation of the main menu nice and quick if you don’t use the four-way controller. If you’re more inclined to use the EVF, it can also be flipped in on itself to keep it well protected.
