The Canon EOS R1 is our top-of-the-line full-frame professional camera that is a powerhouse for professionals working in fast-action situations, carrying on the legacy of the Canon EOS-1D X Mark III digital SLR camera. The 1-series has a long tradition of providing excellent AF performance, speed, durability, and reliability, all areas the EOS R1 excels in, but there is so much more including new faster processing, state-of-the-art video features, and networking options that really make this 1-series camera the one everyone has been waiting for. 

Sensor design

The sensor design on this camera is all new, and all Canon. this new 24.2MP back-illuminated stacked CMOS sensor is the heart of the EOS R1. Balancing the needs of speed and quality, this sensor provides enough pixels for a two-page magazine spread (without enlargement of the file), while also providing incredibly fast sensor read-out speeds, and enhancing low-light performance. The sensor read-out is so fast that it has virtually eliminated Electronic shutter rolling shutter distortion issues. Thanks to this new sensor, and the addition of the new DIGIC Accelerator front-engine processor, the R1 is capable of capturing up to 40 fps of RAW, JPEG, or HEIF (HDR-PQ) images using Electronic Shutter. The DIGIC Accelerator chip also has a useful In-camera Upscaling feature that uses deep learning to double the horizontal and vertical size of a JPEG on your card (leaving the original image alone) in about 10 seconds. That means you can upscale a 24MP image to 96MP right in the camera. The EOS R1 maintains a full Mechanical shutter, and First Curtain Electronic shutter, both capable of continuous shooting at up to 12 fps.

DIGIC Accelerator

The DIGIC Accelerator processor is a completely new front-engine processor, developed by Canon to supplement the power of the proven DIGIC X processor. The DIGIC Accelerator handles the processing that makes so many of the new features of this camera possible, allowing the DIGIC X chip to focus solely on image processing, again contributing to incredible speed. The DIGIC Accelerator processes enormous volumes of data directly from the image sensor for actions like AF detection to exposure metering calculations that enable eye-control focus, subject identification and tracking, and even deep learning with features like In-camera Upscaling and Neural Network Noise Reduction.

Time to focus

Autofocus is on a whole new level with the EOS R1. New subject tracking allows you to maintain focus on a moving subject even when they are obscured briefly while shooting. And, for even faster positioning of your active AF Area, the R1 adds Canon’s Eye Control AF — even more advanced than the Eye Control in the EOS R3 camera. Once you calibrate the viewfinder to your eye, just look where you want to focus, and the AF Area will move there when you press the AF activation button. This new system is even robust enough for many users to work when the photographer is wearing glasses. The R1 features another first for Canon — the CMOS sensor itself now has cross-type Dual Pixel AF on its imaging sensor, to give a more positive focus response to scenes that have a lot of linear detail like window blinds or planks on a boardwalk.  

Action priority

Thanks again to the increased camera processing power of the DIGIC Accelerator chip, we have developed a new AF mode called Action priority. This new focusing technology recognizes specific subject movements in selected sports, and automatically moves AF points to a player performing that motion — taking a shot, passing a ball, and so on. This feature works with three sports at the moment, soccer, volleyball, and basketball.