Canon has officially pulled the covers off its latest full-frame mirrorless camera and the Ra is something special. Essentially, the Ra is a modified version of Canon’s first-ever full-frame mirrorless (the EOS R) that has been fine-tuned to take your astro photography to the next level.
In fact, the Canon tells us the Ra has ‘ four times greater transmittance of hydrogen-alpha (Hα) light of 656.3 nm compared to the original EOS R’ enabling photographers to see the night sky more clearly. What’s more, the Ra has an infrared cutoff filter, which helps capture images of the deep-red wavelengths emitted by nebulae in vivid colour that regular cameras may struggle to cope with.
Backing up these astrophotography features is that beefy full-frame 30.3MP CMOS sensor and an autofocus system that enables a 30x maximum magnification, which Canon says enables users to make extremely precise manual focus adjustments. What’s more, the Ra is compact and portable, tipping the scales at just 580g (body only).
Along with capturing stills of far off galaxies, the Canon Ra can also shoot high quality footage too. In fact, the Ra can capture 4K video and 4K time-lapse, which would be perfect for recording low light scenes such as the magic of the aurora.
The Canon Ra can focus down to -6EV, enabling photographers to lock on to subjects in virtual darkness and the vari-angle LCD will prove useful when pairing the Canon Ra with bigger telescopes to see even further into the night sky. What’s more, Canon explains that should a connected telescope eyepiece not cover the full image area of the sensor, the EOS Ra also allows the image area to be cropped to an APS-C area of approx that serves up an 11.6 MP (4176x2784pixels) image.
On sale from early December, the Canon Ra will be priced at £2599/€3019/$2,499 (body only).