Canon EOS R8 Mark II Official: $1,899, 7.5-Stop IBIS and a Joystick — Same 24MP Sensor, Same LP-E17

Canon’s compact full-frame is no longer a rumor sheet. The EOS R8 Mark II is official at $1,899 body-only and $2,099 with the RF 24-50mm F4.5-6.3 IS STM. You can pre-order at Amazon/B&H Photo Video.

The two holes DPReview spent three years pointing at are now filled: in-body stabilization (Canon’s CIPA line is 7.5 stops in the center / 7 at the edges with a coordinated IS lens) and a rear AF joystick. Same 24.2MP FSI CMOS the R8 and R6 Mark II already used. Same 2.36-million-dot, 0.7x EVF. Same LP-E17. B&H Explora’s launch note is in the same place: a handful of large upgrades, a longer list of small ones, and the old compromises that did not move.

What Canon actually shipped vs. the leak sheet

The September 13 leak update got the money and the IBIS rating right. It missed the shutter. Pre-launch notes said electronic-only, 1/16,000 sec, no mechanical curtain. DPReview’s spec table is the original R8 pattern: 6 fps mechanical / 40 fps electronic, top speed 1/4,000. Pre-capture is a normal menu item now — half a second of JPEG, HEIF or Raw at 40 fps — instead of the old Raw Burst sidecar file. The 20 fps pre-shoot figure from the leak is gone.

Size is not a clone of the R8 either. Official outline is 131 × 90 × 80mm and 546g with battery and card (Canon’s body-only figure is about 499g). The first R8 was 133 × 86 × 70mm and 461g. Taller, thicker, still the lightest Canon full-frame with IBIS. People with large hands will still run out of grip; Canon’s add-on extension plate is $90 in DPReview’s first look — a height extender, not a battery grip. The SD door finally sits on the side of the grip, still a single UHS-II slot.

The design is the argument

Canon briefed DPReview that the shell takes cues from the T80 / EOS 650 era. In the metal it reads closer to a small, black Sony a7 with Canon’s R3/R1-style grip texture. Flat top, low EVF hump, “EOS R8 Mark II” on the hot-shoe cover. The stills/video lever is now a three-position power switch; DPReview’s testers kept overshooting stills into movie mode. Color filters and a Filmtone mode are in the kit, Register People Priority matches the R6 Mark III, and video picks up Slow & Fast plus a one-button defocus rack. Rolling shutter is still well behaved. Headphone, mic, micro-HDMI, USB-C 10 Gbps stay.

What did not get a Mark II: the battery. CIPA is 270 shots on the LCD / 150 in the EVF — worse on the screen than the unstabilized R8, identical in the finder. IBIS is the extra draw. DPReview’s first impression is that a second LP-E17 or a USB-C pack is part of the kit, not optional, if you shoot more than snapshots. The Nikon Z5 II at $1,850 still has two UHS-II slots, a 3.68M EVF and a much healthier CIPA number. Canon’s bet is the RF lens list, the beginner assists, and a body you actually want to carry.

DPReview did not put a weather-sealing rating in this first look. Treat the pre-launch “fully sealed” line as unconfirmed until Canon’s own spec sheet is quoted. The leak’s 3D-from-2D video trick is also absent from the published key specs. Ships late October 2026; the original R8 remains on sale.