4 Of The Best Canon Digital Cameras For Everyday Use, According To Experts

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Everyday photography has become commonplace, with smartphones allowing us to keep a camera in a pocket at all times. But even the best phone cameras have their limitations. Using a dedicated camera puts better hardware in your hands, including things such as a larger sensor and interchangeable lenses. It also gives you access to better results, with such hardware allowing for better overall image quality, more organic background blur, and color tones that often reproduce a scene more naturally than overly processed smartphone imagery. You will also get better ergonomics and access to professional features with a dedicated camera.

Canon has long been one of the most recognized brand names in photography, and it has a camera lineup with models that are designed for professionals, everyday hobbyists, and beginners. Founded in 1933, Canon designed and manufactured popular cameras throughout the film era of photography. It now puts that nearly 100 years of know-how into some of the most popular digital cameras on the market. Using our own expertise in handling both professional and entry-level Canon cameras, as well as a wide range of expert reviews from across the internet, we've tracked down what we feel are the best Canon digital cameras that can be easily put to use on a daily basis.

The EOS R5 Mark II is Canon's current flagship mirrorless camera. It's loaded with some of the best features Canon has to offer, and that includes a full-frame 45MP sensor. A sensor this size is not only going to deliver better image quality than your smartphone, but it will also give you better depth of field than a lot of mirrorless cameras on the market. Thus, it's easier to achieve blurry, cinematic backgrounds. Some features that might come in handy for everyday use are in-camera upscaling, Canon's Dual Pixel autofocus, and the ability to capture video and photos simultaneously.

This camera, however, is not going to be for everybody. It comes with a hefty price tag, and its wide range of features will likely be best put to use by professionals or those seeking to become pros or serious hobbyists. The Canon EOS R5 Mark II body alone goes for $4,399, though it does drop below $4,000 at Amazon from time to time. But if budget is no object, or if you're looking for a camera to grow into as you improve your photography abilities, the EOS R5 Mark II has plenty of features that help keep it future-proof and make the investment worthwhile.

On the other end of the Canon spectrum is its point-and-shoot cameras. These provide quality lens and sensor combinations without requiring the physical size of a mirrorless or DSLR camera body. The Canon PowerShot V1 was designed for the true everyday camera user. Its portability is one of its biggest selling points, but Canon has managed to pack a lot of capability into it. The PowerShot V1 utilizes a 22.3MP sensor for still photography, and when recording video it captures at 18.7MP in 4K resolution. The built-in zoom lens provides a lot of range, coming in at 16mm on the wide end and 50mm when zoomed all the way in.

The Canon PowerShot V1 is priced at $1,029, and it's frequently discounted at Amazon. But more than $1,000 may still be more than some users want to spend on a camera, particularly those who are light hobbyists or don't really need more than a smartphone. But Canon has priced the PowerShot V1 in a range that makes sense for those who are certain they want more out of their camera experience. With a cooling fan built in for long shooting times and the inclusion of Canon Log 3 and 10-bit color depth, Canon has designed the PowerShot V1 with vloggers and content creators in mind.

One of Canon's smaller, more consumer-minded mirrorless cameras is the EOS R100. It's designed to be compact and lightweight, which makes it an easy camera to grab on your way out the door. Canon doesn't hold back with the R100 in terms of hardware, even though this camera is meant for the masses. The R100 utilizes a 24.1MP APS-C sensor, which is a step down from the full frame sensor of the EOS R5 Mark II, but still provides way more surface area for light to hit than the sensor of a smartphone camera. That means better image quality and better depth of field for organic, blurry backgrounds and professional looking photos.

The Canon EOS R100 is priced at $680, and that price includes a kit zoom lens. If there's a drawback to that package, however, it's the lens's performance. It's an 18-45mm lens, which provides plenty of zoom range, but the aperture ranges from F4.5 to F6.3. These aren't particularly fast apertures, so the camera could struggle in low light situations with this setup. But the EOS R100 still has a huge offering of video and photo features that will outperform a smartphone. The kit lens option is going to be plenty for most users, but the R100 body can be purchased on its own if you already have Canon lenses you want to use with it.

While action cameras like the GoPro Hero offer a lot of portability, the Canon EOS R50 V offers a compact body with the ability to change lenses. The R50 V is capable of shooting still photos, but this is a camera that's designed with recording video as its priority. It has a screw mount on both the bottom and on the side, which allows you to film horizontally or vertically when the R50 V is set up on a tripod. The 24.2MP sensor can shoot in 4K resolution, and the autofocus system is Canon's popular Dual Pixel CMOS AF II.

The Canon EOS R50 V body is priced at $720, and it can be purchased with a kit zoom lens for $950. It has an incredibly minimalist design to it, so the ergonomics may take some getting used to. The design resembles something between a traditional point and shoot and Canon's more modern mirrorless cameras. For those who record a lot of video while out and about, however, the design may be just what you're looking for. The EOS R50 V has a large "record" button on the front of the camera for vlogging, and the flip-out display ensures you can see yourself from just about any angle.

With so many people utilizing phone cameras on a daily basis these days, the camera market can be unclear. This is true even within Canon's lineup of offerings, so we made our selections with a focus on models that differentiate themselves through a combination of the camera features and price points. There is some great value to be found among Canon cameras, and these selections ensure you're getting your money's worth when it comes to capabilities.

But there are a lot of different kinds of photographers out there. Whether you currently use your phone to capture your day or a dedicated camera of some kind, you likely have one use-case that stands out more than others. These Canon cameras were selected because they stand out for a certain kind of photographer, whether that's somebody focused primarily on shooting video or simply likes to document their day. We leaned on expert reviews from across the internet as well as our own experience in handling Canon cameras to ensure our selections are reputable camera models.