While the new Canon EOS R1 and EOS R5 Mark II are packed with groundbreaking AI features, Canon tells me that "it may be too much to call them AI cameras".
The headline specs for both bodies heavily lean towards AI functionality. In particular, the Neural network Image Processing system enables both cameras to perform 400% upscaling and 2-stop ISO noise reduction in-camera – two features that I think are going to change cameras forever.
Then there's the key AI-informed autofocus systems, namely the Action Priority algorithms that enable the camera to recognize and predict the movement of both the human body and the ball itself during sporting contests.
On top of that, the R1 also flirts with AI image culling in the form of its Blur / Out-of-focus image detection system to help you identify and easily delete missed shots.
So I asked a senior Canon executive whether it was fair to call the R1 and R5 Mark II 'AI cameras', given that they are focused far more on AI-driven features than on chasing traditional specs such as megapixel counts and frame rates.
"We consider that AI is used to brush up the end result achieved by the camera itself," replied Manabu Kato, group executive of Canon's Imaging Business Operations. "We are trying to achieve results from the camera itself that are as high a level as possible, and AI is helping to make it a little bit better."
"So as you might know from using the cameras, the autofocus is already working pretty well. But AI is actually helping us do more with the autofocus – making the camera understand the action, for example, is one of the things that AI enabled us to do with the autofocus that is already good.
"So it may be a little too much to call them AI cameras! But the AI is helping make them even more capable."
With artificial intelligence increasingly causing fear among the public, and among creatives, Kato-san was also keen to clarify the nature of the AI that's being used by Canon in these cameras.
"I want to emphasize, we are just using deep learning and not necessarily generative AI," he explained. "We're using AI to enhance what we already have."
And what Canon already has, in the R1 and R5 Mark II, are two of the best Canon cameras ever made.
You might be interested in more of the best professional cameras, and particularly the best cameras for sports photography – along with some of the best lenses for sports photography.
