Canon R8 Teardown
By Phillip Andrew Iglesias
Canon released the Canon EOS R8 in April 2023. The R8 is remarkably similar to the Canon EOS RP and EOS R. However, the power switch is now positioned on the right side of the camera, allowing for easy one-handed operation. Before getting into our teardown, let’s discuss technical specifications.
This camera has a full-frame format 24.2 MP CMOS sensor housed in a compact body. Other features include a Canon RF lens mount, video in 4k up to 60p (6k oversampled) and 1080p up to 180fps, a Dual Pixel autofocus system, a 2.36M dot OLED viewfinder, and a 1.62M dot fully-articulating rear touchscreen. It houses only one UHS-II SD slot, which may come as a downside, especially for a camera with its capabilities.
With that out of the way, let’s take this camera apart!
Like the Canon RP, we first targeted the camera’s baseplate and removed three screws. This was the first point of access that allowed us to reach the inside of the camera.
We removed three screws under the dust cover of the port side of the camera. Many screws holding the camera body together are underneath the rubber grip; we gently peeled it back to find only one.
There are multiple screws around the viewfinder. Right below the eyepiece, there are two. The eyepiece could come off after removing those screws.
Under the eyepiece, we removed two silver screws that hold the entire viewfinder in place, the diopter screw and adjustment knob, and one black screw.
On the right side of the camera, we removed two more screws.
We removed the rubber handgrip on the rear panel and found one screw.
After removing all of the aforementioned screws, we were able to lift the entire rear panel. In the first photo, you’ll see that a ribbon cable connects the panel to the camera body. This must be detached to fully separate the panel from the body.
Next, we needed to unlatch the EVF ribbon cable. It was thin and fragile, so we had to be extremely careful with it in order to remove the viewfinder mechanism.
We found a total of fourteen ribbon cables within the Canon R8 (excluding the LCD rear screen cable) that had to be removed to extract the circuit board. The board and ribbon layout were similar to the RP and R.
With all circuit board ribbons and screws removed, we could take out the circuit board. There is an interlocking switch at the bottom right of the board—one wrong move, and the board would have to be repaired or entirely replaced.
Under the circuit board, there’s a metal faceplate that covers a sensor screw. The faceplate needed to be removed to access the sensor screw.
The Canon R8 uses springs for focus adjustment. To remove the sensor, we needed a T6 torx screwdriver to remove three sensor screws.
Interestingly, the Canon R8 seems to take bits and pieces from the RP and the R—the inside resembles an R, while the exterior is similar to the RP. This makes it a sort of “middle-ground” of the two cameras. According to our lead camera technician, the R feels more expensive and seems to be built with higher-quality materials. Overall, the Canon R8 was an easy camera to disassemble.
