4 reasons why a proper camera can help you to take better photos

Whether it's the thrill of getting together with friends and family, a significant birthday or your child's first steps, some occasions deserve more than a snapshot on a smartphone.

What you don't want to do, though, is spend all your time worrying about how to capture a great quality image or video. A camera such as the Canon EOS R100 can do all the hard work for you, with automated functions, creative filters and a helpful Creative Assist mode, so you can concentrate on the occasion you want to capture and be confident of getting fantastic results.

It's an ideal solution for those who want the user-friendliness that a smartphone offers, but the superior image quality and creative flexibility that a dedicated camera affords. Here are the top reasons you should upgrade to a proper camera for capturing those moments worth remembering.

• Impressive image quality
• Helpful tech and auto modes
• Pin-sharp focus and slow-mo video
• Smartphone and cloud connectivity

Ultimately, it's image quality that matters. The 24.1MP APS-C sensor in the Canon EOS R100 is much larger than the sensor in a smartphone camera, producing crisper images with less noise, while also giving you plenty of detail so you can crop in or make large prints of your photos.

The extra light gathered by the larger sensor gives you better quality images when shooting in low light. It also gives you increased control over depth of field (how much of a scene is in sharp focus) and enables you to photograph actual bokeh (background blur).

Phone cameras can digitally recreate the effect of shallow depth of field, but the computation often struggles with complex scenes, blurring strands of hair or the edges of spectacles along with the background. From awkward cutouts to smudged-over detail, smartphone sensors just can't compete with the larger sensor at the heart of the EOS R100.

As an interchangeable lens camera, the EOS R100 is compatible with Canon's extensive range of RF and RF-S lenses, including entry-level options for portraits. The optical zoom, which uses the lens to physically magnify the image rather than enlarging it electronically, will also give you much better-quality images when you want to get closer at occasions such as weddings, graduations or sports matches.

Even though a dedicated camera offers you more control, sometimes it's nice to let the tech take over and, if you want to be fully in the moment, automated modes enable you to leave the EOS R100 to do the hard work for you.

Special Scene modes include Portrait, Landscape and Night Scene, and there's also a Silent mode for photographing sleeping babies or school plays. You can also use creative filters to give your photos different looks, including Black and White, Fisheye and Miniature effects.

To help you take better photographs, the EOS R100 also features gridlines and electronic levels for perfect composition, plus there's a Creative Assist mode with a suite of effects, filters and colour adjustment tools so you can edit your photos to suit your style, and get great results without having to master complicated camera settings.

If you do want to learn more about taking photographs, the EOS R100 is the first EOS R System camera to have the white menu with Mode guide and feature guide, which displays useful information about the mode or function being selected.

Canon's DIGIC 8 processor powers many of the impressive functions of the EOS R100. Dual Pixel CMOS AF technology provides pin-sharp focus, and Eye Detect AF and Face Detect + Tracking modes can intelligently detect a face, or the closest eye to the camera, and lock focus in less than a second. The EOS R100 can do all this in light levels down to -4 EV – essentially a moonlit night.

As well as the ability to shoot 4K video, the EOS R100 can capture Full HD footage at 60fps (HD at 120fps). Being able to record at these higher frame rates means you can slow down your footage to create slow-motion movies that highlight those special moments.

When you first get your camera, make sure you download the Canon Photo Companion app, which will guide you through your camera setup, its features and functionalities.

The beauty of the Canon EOS R100 is that it can work symbiotically with your smartphone, allowing you to harness what's best about both devices. You can shoot more professional-looking images and video with the EOS R100, and then use the free Canon Camera Connect app to download them to your smartphone to share with friends and family, or on social media.

Canon Camera Connect also enables you to control the EOS R100 remotely via your smartphone, which is useful when you want to get people together for a group shot.

The EOS R100 is also compatible with Canon's image.canon web storage platform – the camera's built-in Wi-Fi connection means you can upload your images to the cloud for safe storage and sharing on social media.

At just 356g, the Canon EOS R100 is one of the lightest interchangeable lens cameras around – easy to grab and go, and small enough to take everywhere. Simple and intuitive to use, it's a powerful step up from a smartphone, enabling you to record picture-perfect life moments in outstanding quality. So, when you want to capture special memories, take a photo rather than a snapshot.


Written by Jeff Meyer & Sarah Bakkland