Three years after the debut of the EOS R mirrorless system in the fall of 2018, Canon brings one to the market new professional camera which aims to conquer even the diehard photographers who still rely on SLRs.
The new camera is called EOS R3, a name that immediately reveals its positioning halfway between the R5, mirrorless ultra-high performance equivalent of the 5D, and the 1DX Mark III, the supreme flagship of the Canon family, still equipped with a pentaprism. Presented before the summer in preliminary version, the new camera was extensively tested during the Tokyo Olympics and is now finally ready to hit the market.
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Although the EOS R3 has not yet undermined the dominance of the progenitor 1DX (a task that will be up to a next R1), inherits some of the characteristics that still make it preferable to an important category of professionals: sports and nature photographers. First of all there are similarities in size and shape: the R3 is the first of Canon’s new generation mirrorless cameras with a massive body and an integrated grip, very similar to that of the 1DX, although more compact. Then there are the speed and the propensity for action shots.
From the mirrorless EOS R5, which is positioned immediately below, the new camera instead inherits the typical features of mirrorless (quietness, low weight, excellent video capabilities) in addition to photographic ones, with support for 6K 60p resolution in raw or 4K 120p, also in Canon Log format and with dual recording on CF Express and SD card.
The full-frame sensor of the EOS R3 is a back-illuminated and stacked CMOS with a resolution of 24.1MP. The choice of this resolution is explained by the need to find the right balance between the high resolution of the photos and their weight: the R3 is intended for photographers who must produce large quantities of images and often very quickly transfer them to agencies for selection and publication. A higher resolution wouldn’t have added much to the quality and would rather have hampered this crucial step for professionals.
The other features are what can be expected from a new Canon flagship in 2021. Times range from 30 seconds to 1 / 64.0000 of a second; the raws are 14-bit; the burst can reach 30 frames per second, but you can also adjust it to 15 or 3 fps; the shutter delay is only 20 millliseconds, compared to 29 for the 1DX, and ignition occurs in 0.4 seconds; ISO sensitivity ranges from ISO 100 to 102,400.
Speed is the key word too in the case of autofocus and subject tracking, based on the second generation Dual Pixel CMOS system, like that of the R5. The focus occurs, according to Canon, in 0.03 seconds and works down to -7.5 EV, while the real-time tracking is compatible with a larger number of subjects. The camera algorithm for the first time was trained with a real machine learning mechanism to recognize not only the eyes and faces of people and animals, but also vehicles and drivers, precisely by virtue of the intended use of the machine.
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A unique feature of the EOS R3 is Eye Control AF eye control focusing technology. It is a technology that Canon had already developed and patented in the 1990s, but which it almost abandoned. Now the company has recovered and perfected it with the help of engineers from its medical division. It works thanks to an infrared system integrated into the viewfinder capable of reading the direction in which we point the eye for shift attention to the subject to be traced. In essence, the shooter can use eye movement to select a focus point, and then confirm the choice with the half-stroke of the shutter button or with one of the camera’s programmable keys.
The electronic viewfinder finally, it is the needle of the balance. One of the reasons why a large group of professional photographers choose to still use SLRs is the natural image quality that can be seen in an analog viewfinder like that of the 1DX. To be able to emulate and exceed the optical quality of traditional viewfinders, the EVF of the EOS R3 has a resolution of 5.76 million points, it has no blackout, that is black frame between one shot and the next, and most importantly it has a refresh rate of 120Hz. According to Canon, it manages to match the quality and performance of an optical type viewfinder.
The EOS R3 will be? available from the second half? of November: the camera body costs 6289 euros, a price that is positioned exactly halfway between that of the R5 and that of the 1DX Mark III. Canon also announced the availability of two new lenses for the EOS R system: an RF 16mm F2.8 and a new RF 100-400mm F5.6-8 IS USM zoom, which cost 359 and 789 euros respectively.
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