Canon Shows Off Major Autofocus Update Coming Soon to EOS R and RP

Canon has released a sneak peek of an exciting firmware update coming soon to the EOS R system. The update is all about autofocus, and based on the teaser above it’ll provide a major boost in AF tracking performance to users of Canon’s full-frame mirrorless EOS R and EOS RP.

With the plethora of camera and lens announcements from Canon today, the firmware update is easy to overlook, but the three key improvements that this update offers are significant.

“The firmware update aims to add detection of the subject’s eye when the subject is at a distance, improve overall AF frame tracking for moving subjects, as well as improve initial subject recognition and start tracking when subjects are at a distance,” says Canon.

In other words:

Eye and Face detection now activates from much further away, more closely matching Sony and, judging from the video above, outperforming Nikon’s implementation.

AF tracking and subject recognition is also going to be able to start tracking from further away:

And “AF frame display”—the lag between actual autofocus performance and what the EVF or LCD was showing—is also being improved, so the user experience is closer to what-you-see-is-what-you-get:

The update is scheduled to launch in late September, so keep an eye out and check out the video above to see how the update is expected to perform.