In an interview with Digital Camera World, a Canon representative has confirmed that they are “considering” a high-end EOS R. “If we do, it will have dual card slots, it will be that sort of level, and under development is in-body image stabilization. So we are looking at this technology, it is in development with us,” said the representative. What the Canon rep is saying here is that they are indeed working on a high-end EOS R with dual card slots and IBIS. While we’ve known this for quite some time now, and it’s obvious that they were going to do this since they initially launched the EOS R without these two highly desirable features, it’s nice to hear directly from Canon that it’s in the works.

More About Canon’s IBIS

“I think in-body IS is really exciting for us, if we do bring it to market and it does come across, I think it could be really good and I think it says something about our [EOS] R series … Remember I was saying about the [RF-mount] lenses and about the [speed of] lens communication, and we’ve just launched the 15-35 and 24-70 and 70-200 f/2.8, all IS. If you’ve got that coupled with in-body IS as well – and also we’ve got digital IS systems as well – I think that could be really, really exciting.”

Canon EOS R “Pro” Release

One thing that we don’t have is a timeline for when the high-end EOS R might be released. Some of the more credible rumors have it coming in late 2020 or early 2021. In my mind, however, that would be a huge mistake. Making Canon users wait over two years after the release of the original EOS R seems unlikely given that every month Canon falls behind, Sony is winning the war for mirrorless customers. It would be prudent, and I expect this is what will happen, for Canon to release a “pro” EOS R in the first quarter of 2020 at the latest. Most of us would be thrilled with an EOS R that simply has two card slots and IBIS, even if nothing else is improved. It really should have been released this fall, but if they’re still working out the kinks, it’s better to get the product right than put out something that’s half baked. This is promising news though and considering the state of the art lenses that are now available for the EOS R, I fully anticipate that once Canon releases this new camera they will catch up with Sony in the mirrorless wars. If they wait until 2021 though, they may have already lost.