Does the new Canon EOS R have a new sensor or does it use the same sensor as the EOS 5D IV?
In his “Hits and Misses” review of September 13, Kevin Raber says that a “giant miss” is having the EOS R use the same sensor, now four years old, as the EOS 5D IV. He asks “… why would you put an old sensor in a new state-of-the–art camera?”
On the other hand, the Canon website says that the R sensor is “dual pixel CMOS AF with 5,655 manually selectable AF points” whereas the 5D IV sensor has only 61 AF points. However, the Canon website does not appear to claim that the R sensor is “new”.
Recently, the Imaging Resource website posted the results of a Q&A session with Canon engineers and noted that, uniquely, “every pixel on the sensor can simultaneously be used for phase-detect focus determination and to create the image.” This makes me think that the sensor is “new” or, at least, not identical to the 5D IV sensor.
So, is the EOS R sensor “new” or not?