Canon EOS R50 Review: Canon's Smallest Viewfinder Camera Is the Easiest First Step Up From a Phone
The Canon EOS R50 is the camera Canon built for people who’ve been shooting on a phone and want more. It’s tiny, it’s cheap, it focuses very well and it’s simple to use. Released in early 2023, it became one of the best-selling interchangeable-lens cameras in the world, and for good reason.
Canon has since released the R50 V, a viewfinder-less, vlogging-focused version. The original R50 is still the better pick for most beginners because it keeps the eye-level viewfinder that makes shooting outdoors so much easier.
Inside is a 24.2MP APS-C sensor and Canon’s Digic X processor. The body weighs about 375 grams with battery and card. It costs less than many phones.
Video review: DPReview TV
Pro-level focus at a beginner price
The R50 uses Dual Pixel AF II, the same family of autofocus as Canon’s far more expensive bodies. It detects people, animals and vehicles and follows them around the frame. Kids, dogs and cars stay sharp. For a beginner this matters more than anything else on the spec sheet, because blurry photos are the fastest way to lose interest in a new camera.
There’s also an advanced “A+ Assist” auto mode with guides that explain what’s happening, plus creative presets. You can grow into the manual controls at your own pace.
Better video than you’d expect
4K at 30p is recorded with no crop and oversampled from 6K, so it looks sharp and your wide-angle lens stays wide. Full HD runs at up to 120p for slow motion. The screen flips out to face you, and there’s a vertical video mode so clips show up the right way on phones.
It’s a good little vlogging camera, especially with a wide lens like the RF-S 10-18mm.
Where it saves money
No in-body stabilization. The kit lens has optical stabilization, and video gets digital stabilization, but low-light handheld shots with unstabilized primes need care.
The viewfinder is small and 2.36 million dots. Fine, not luxurious. Battery life is short, a few hundred shots per charge, so a spare is a smart first accessory. There’s one SD slot and only a handful of physical controls.
And the RF-S lens range is thin. Canon makes a few budget APS-C zooms. Sigma now makes RF-mount versions of several of its excellent APS-C lenses, including the 18-50mm f/2.8, which is the upgrade most R50 owners should buy first. Canon’s small full-frame RF primes, like the RF 50mm f/1.8, also work and are cheap.
Who should buy it
First-time camera buyers. Parents. Travelers who want better pictures than a phone without carrying much. Content creators starting out on a budget.
Next to the Sony ZV-E10 II, the Canon has a viewfinder and friendlier menus, while the Sony has the bigger lens choice. Next to the Nikon Z50II, the Nikon has better build and more controls but costs more.
If you want your first real camera to be easy and still capable of great results, the R50 is it.