Canon EOS 90D

In a world of mirrorless cameras, why do they still make DSLRs? When you start using the EOS 90D you’ll know why…

- Rod Lawton

The Canon EOS 90D’s 32.5-megapixel sensor has the highest resolution of any APS-C camera you can buy. That fact is likely to dominate any discussion about Canon’s new DSLR, but it could actually prove its downfall. More pixels don’t always mean better image quality – we’ll have more to say about this shortly – but thankfully the EOS 90D has plenty more to shout about.

For a start, this is Canon’s first camera to follow a new and exciting development in digital cameras: the combination of high resolution with high frame rates. Not only does the EOS 90D beat any APS-C Canon before it for megapixels, it can do this at 10 frames per second. Previously, the only Canon APS-C camera capable of this was the EOS 7D Mark II, an out-and-out sports model whose future now looks uncertain, to say the least.

In fact, it looks likely that the EOS 90D represents a merging of two previously separate Canon DSLR lines, the most recent models in which are the EOS 80D and the EOS 7D Mark II. The 90D is most like the 80D in its design and construction – and pricing – but pretty much thrashes the EOS 7D Mark II in all but autofocus specifications. But it’s not just about the frame rate: the EOS 90D also shoots 4K video – and not in the irritating crop mode previously seen on Canon cameras, but using the full sensor width at last. Now, you don’t get an instant crop factor when you switch to 4K video, and your wide lenses stay ‘wide’.

There’s something else worth pointing out, too. The EOS 90D uses Canon’s Dual Pixel CMOS AF system, as used to great effect on its mirrorless cameras, so when you switch the EOS 90D to live view mode it’s at no autofocus disadvantage compared to a mirrorless camera. In fact, you could say that the 90D is the equal of any mirrorless camera, but with the advantage of an optical viewfinder.

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