After Sony has released the A7III Already in 2018 I have wondered if Canon and Nikon could ever catch up with their autofocus and other technologies. With the start of 24 megapixel EOS R3however, it’s Canon that’s cutting edge with its “Eye Control” AF, which allows you to focus on a subject simply by looking at it.
The R3 is also Canon’s first camera with a back-illuminated stacked sensor. As a result, it achieves continuous shooting speeds of up to 30 fps in silent mode with autofocus and automatic exposure activated. It also has top-notch video specs with RAW recording at 6K up to 60 fps.
benefits
- Fast recording speeds
- Reliable auto focus
- Good handling
- Uncompromising video
- Innovative Eye Tracking AF
disadvantage
- high price
- Eye tracking AF limited
- Mediocre resolution
- Fiddly micro-HDMI connector
However, here’s the catch: For $6,000 It’s relatively low resolution while being Canon 45 megapixel EOS R5 costs more than $2,000 less. So who exactly is this camera good for? And is Eye Tracking AF a useful feature or just a toy? With some help from my professional photographer friends, I spent some time with a final production mockup to figure it out.
body and handling
Gallery: Canon EOS R3 mirrorless camera review | 23 photos
Gallery: Canon EOS R3 mirrorless camera review | 23 photos
The first thing you’ll notice about the R3 is the large camera grip body, which makes it look like a mashup of a DSLR and mirrorless camera. Similar to them 1DX Mark III it inspired, it features dual controls for landscape and portrait shooting modes, including a matching shutter button, dials and joysticks.
Despite the large body, the EOS R3 is relatively light at 2.3 pounds including the battery and memory card. In contrast, the 1DX Mark III tips the scales at 3.17 pounds, while the EOS R5 weighs 1.6 pounds.
As you would expect from a big camera, it has a big grip. That gives a sense of security when you hold it, and it’s also great to handle with large telephoto lenses like Canon’s RF 70-200mm f/2.8.
The R3 is also equipped with plenty of dials and buttons, allowing you to operate the camera for the most part without diving into the menus. The control layout is similar to the 1DX Mark III, using the same infrared control button. This lets you set the focus point by simply rolling your thumb over it – faster than a joystick, but easier to accidentally activate until you get used to it.
Steve Dent/Engadget
A dedicated button lets you easily switch between photo and video modes, while you get separate settings and menus for each mode. However, it uses the same old Canon menus, which aren’t quite as intuitive as the latest models from Sony, Nikon and Panasonic. However, you can control it in different ways, using the dials, joystick or touchscreen. This makes it quick to get to a setting once you’ve figured out where it is.
The large 3.2-inch touch display has a pin-sharp resolution of 4.15 million pixels, almost double that of the R5. When scrolling through menus, browsing photos and more, it’s extremely responsive – way more than Sony’s A1 or any other camera I’ve tried for that matter. The display also folds out for low-angle shots or vlogging, although the R3 is a bit heavy for the latter.
The 5.76 million-dot OLED EVF is similarly sharp and offers a smooth 120Hz refresh rate. It doesn’t stack on paper with the 240Hz, 9.4 million-dot EVF found on the A1 but I honestly couldn’t tell much of a difference between them.
It uses the same huge LP-E19 battery as the 1DX Mark III, which delivers up to 620 shots, or around two and a half hours of 4K 30p video recording, on a single charge. However, depending on how you shoot, you can easily exceed these numbers.
For storage, you get a fast CFexpress Type-B and SD UHS-II slot. It’s nice to have the SD option if you prefer to shoot with these cards. However, if you want to backup CFexpress card with SD, performance will be affected. As this is primarily a pro camera, like Sony, Canon should have offered two slots for both, or maybe two CFexpress slots.
Steve Dent/Engadget
It features a new hotshoe interface that supports Speedlite and other flashes, as well as accessories like Tascam’s new XLR 4-channel microphone interface. This finally matches what Sony and Panasonic have been offering for years.
The fiddly micro-HDMI port isn’t ideal for video shooters, and it’s an odd decision considering Canon had space with the R3’s large body. It also comes with USB-C for data transfers and in-camera charging, although you’ll need another optional accessory if you want to power the camera externally while shooting.
Now let’s talk about Canon’s new eye control feature. It’s only really useful if you calibrate it, but luckily that’s easy – you just stare at five points. You may need to calibrate it multiple times depending on whether you wear glasses and contacts, or even for different environments. Luckily, you can save up to six different settings.
Once calibrated, I could select an object to focus on simply by looking at it. Even if the eye control circle wasn’t quite on a subject, the autofocus would normally select it when it was close. From there, face, eye, or subject tracking would step in as needed to track the subject.
It even worked in tricky environments with lots of subject or movement, although it turns off as soon as you press the focus button and start recording. It worked well for me, but not at all for my photographer friend with light blue eyes and astigmatism. So if you’re interested in the feature, it’s worth trying before you buy, as functionality seems to depend on your eye color and other factors.
power
Steve Dent/Engadget
First and foremost, the EOS R3 is a speed demon. It starts with the shutter, which goes up to 1/64,000th of a second in electronic mode, faster than any other consumer camera. It also supports some of the fastest bursts we’ve seen, up to 30 fps in silent mode or 12 fps with the mechanical shutter. Unlike some recent Sony models, you get this full speed with uncompressed rather than just lossy RAW files.
You can also take a lot of shots in these modes. At 30fps with the electronic shutter, Canon says you can shoot 150 shots onto an SD UHS-II or CFexpress card before the buffer fills up. However, with a fast CFexpress card I was able to capture much more, with only a slight reduction in capture speed past the 150 frame mark. It processes 1,000 uncompressed RAW photos or more using the mechanical shutter before stopping.
The dual pixel autofocus can keep up with these speeds too, so I’ve had very few photos that weren’t sharp. Face and eye recognition is fast and smooth for humans, but a little less reliable for animals or birds. The EOS R has an auto-tracking feature designed primarily for racing cars, and unfortunately I didn’t have access to a Bugatti Chiron during testing.
Photographing sports is this camera’s forte, and at an indoor soccer game with decent lighting, Samuel, the pro photographer I worked with, had few blurry shots. It didn’t do quite as well as the A1 on birds, but it still outperformed most cameras I’ve tried. Overall, the EOS R3 has a very capable AF system that puts Canon on par with Sony.
The IBIS system can achieve 8 stops of camera shake reduction with supported lenses, more than any competitor camera. This allowed me to get sharp handheld shots at low shutter speeds when shooting in low light. And thanks to the sensor’s fast readout speed, rolling shutter is well controlled and only noticeable with fast-moving subjects or quick pans.
picture quality
Gallery: Example images of the Canon EOS R3 camera | 43 photos
Gallery: Example images of the Canon EOS R3 camera | 43 photos
The EOS R3 is quite possibly Canon’s best mirrorless camera yet in terms of image quality, particularly in terms of dynamic range. The new 24-megapixel sensor offers at least a notch more dynamic range than the EOS R5, giving you more room for customization with RAW images. JPEGs also look great straight out of the camera, with sharpness and noise reduction well balanced.
Canon’s color science is still the best on the market, delivering superb color accuracy and natural skin tones. As usual with Canon, it has a slight tendency towards warm tones.
The R3 shines even in low light. Noise is almost non-existent up to ISO 3200, the dynamic range is hardly noticeable. It remains well controllable up to ISO 12,800, and images are usable at ISO 25,600 and beyond if you expose them perfectly.
The biggest downside is the low 24-megapixel resolution. With the 45MP EOS R5 or 50MP Sony A1, you can shoot birds or wildlife from a greater distance and still have room to crop. The R3 is far more limited if you want to retain detail.
