I need to get something off my chest about the Canon EOS R1 that’s been at the front of my mind over the last two weeks during my Birds of Colombia workshop. Before I do, I want to clarify that the EOS R1 is the best camera (mirrorless, DSLR or otherwise) that I have ever had the privilege to use. It is an incredible camera across the board, from its industry-leading autofocus to its phenomenally clean high-ISO images. It is a masterpiece and a tool that any photographer worldwide should be happy to use. But! It has an Achilles heel that Canon could fix in a single firmware update. Allow me to explain.
The Canon EOS R1 is Canon’s flagship. The pinnacle. The no-compromise, built-for-professionals, wildlife-and-sports-dominating machine. And yet (inexplicably) the user cannot bind pre-capture to a custom button. Let that sink in for a moment. One of the most powerful features for wildlife and sports photographers, the ability to buffer frames before you fully depress the shutter, cannot be assigned in a way that makes it instantly accessible in the field. For a camera aimed squarely at action professionals, that’s not just an oversight. It’s baffling and makes me seriously question Canon’s ability to listen to the needs of its working pro photographers.
Now here’s the part that irks me and really twists the knife. This ‘binding’ functionality can now be found on the Canon EOS R6 Mark III. A significantly lower-tier body. Not the flagship. Not the no-holds-barred professional tool. Somehow, the R6 Mark III gets the flexibility, while the R1, the supposed apex predator, does not. I genuinely struggle to understand the product logic and thought process here.
For wildlife photographers working in unpredictable environments such as snow leopards cresting a ridge, hummingbirds buzzing past feeders, Pallas’s cats darting between rocks, pre-capture isn’t a gimmick. It’s the difference between getting the shot and going home empty. And the same applies to sports photographers looking to capture the decisive moment. Pre-capture needs to be instantly deployable. It needs to be muscle memory. I don’t want to dig through menus or compromise another critical control to access it. I want it bound to a custom button so I can toggle it seamlessly as conditions change. And yes, I know I can assign it to a custom shooting mode (which is my current workaround), but that isn’t a perfect solution suitable for a flagship product.
In high-end fieldwork, ergonomics and customisation aren’t luxuries; they are essential workflow elements. When you’re wearing gloves in sub-zero conditions or reacting to split-second behaviour, you don’t have time for pause or friction. The whole point of a flagship body is to remove friction. To anticipate professional needs. To give us more control, not less.
What makes this especially frustrating is that the hardware is clearly capable. This is not a limitation of processing power or buffer depth. It’s firmware. It’s menu logic and its exclusion is a design decision. And when a mid-tier body receives that flexibility while the flagship does not, it raises uncomfortable questions about segmentation strategy versus user experience. It raises eyebrows that Canon might be deliberately holding this capability back to sell us a MK2 camera in the near future.
Canon builds incredible cameras. I’ve trusted them for decades in some of the harshest environments on Earth. The R1 is, without any doubt, a phenomenal tool. But choices like this undermine confidence. Professionals, like myself, invest heavily, not just financially, but in muscle memory, system familiarity, and long-term ecosystem loyalty. When basic functional customisation is arbitrarily limited, it feels like we’re being managed instead of supported.
This isn’t about spec sheets or marketing hype. It’s about real-world use. It’s about being on a windswept ridge with a once-in-a-lifetime moment unfolding and knowing your camera is working with you and not against you. In the final home stretch of two weeks of intense bird photography here in Colombia, this issue has come to the front of my mind consistently during the days in the field.
Canon, if you’re listening: This is a firmware fix. Give R1 users the ability to bind pre-capture to a custom button. The capability clearly exists within the system. Professionals shouldn’t have fewer ergonomic options than mid-tier bodies. Flagship should mean freedom.
Author: Joshua Holko www.jholko.com
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