Canon EOS R50: the best first camera in 2026? R50 vs R100 vs R50 V

Most people buying their first real camera are really asking one question: what will this do that my phone can't? The EOS R50 answers it well. You get a 24-megapixel APS-C sensor, proper interchangeable lenses and an eye-level viewfinder in a body that weighs 375 grams with the battery. Canon aimed it at beginners and the controls show it, but the autofocus behind them is far more capable than the price suggests.

That autofocus is the part that matters most. The R50 recognizes people, animals and vehicles and follows whatever you pick around the frame, so a kid's birthday, a dog in the park or a bird on the feeder is much more likely to come back sharp. Video gets the same care: 4K is read from the full width of the sensor and oversampled from 6K, so it isn't cropped the way it is on the R100. And because the touchscreen flips all the way out, shooting from waist height or filming yourself is easy.

The two other cameras show where the R50 sits. The R100 is simpler and still makes good photos, but it has an older processor, a fixed screen you can't touch, and heavily cropped 4K. The R50 V is a vlogging camera: it drops the viewfinder and flash and adds a headphone jack, Canon Log 3 and a tally light. For someone who mostly shoots stills and wants room to grow into video, the R50 is the balanced pick. The trade-offs are no in-body stabilization, some rolling-shutter wobble in 4K, and only a few dedicated RF-S lenses.

Canon announced the R50 on February 7, 2023, alongside the full-frame EOS R8. It went after a category where DPReview said it hadn't seen a new camera "for some time": the entry-level interchangeable-lens camera under $800. Canon's launch copy leaned on creators, with uncropped 4K, subject-detecting autofocus and a Content Creator Kit to follow, but it also named travel, family portraits, sport and wildlife. That two-sided pitch is the R50's whole story.

Three months later Canon went below it. The R100, announced May 24, 2023 at $479.99, reused the sensor and DIGIC 8 processor from 2020's EOS M50 Mark II; DPReview wrote that Canon's engineers set out "to seek other ways to reduce costs." Losing the touchscreen, the vari-angle hinge, USB charging and uncropped 4K opened a clear gap between the two bodies, and DPReview's R50 review ended up recommending the extra spend over the R100.

In March 2025 Canon split the R50 again, this time toward video. The R50 V keeps the R50's sensor and DIGIC X in what DPReview calls an almost entirely redesigned body. There's no viewfinder or flash; instead it adds a front tally lamp, a vertical tripod thread, a headphone jack and Canon Log 3, and it launched at $649.99. That leaves three Canon entry bodies for three kinds of beginner, with the R50 still in the middle.

Full-resolution sample images live on DPReview. Every image in both galleries is tagged Canon EOS R50.

• DPReview — Canon EOS R50 sample gallery — RF-S 18-45, RF-S 55-210, RF 85mm F2 Macro and RF 35mm F1.8 Macro
• DPReview — Canon EOS R50 production sample gallery — RF-S 18-45 and RF 24-240