Canon EOS R3 – More Details Announced

Camera News

by Nino LeitnerJune 2^nd, 2021

Canon just released some more details on the upcoming EOS R3 earlier today. For the video features, what’s interesting is the announcement of internal RAW recording as well as oversampled 4K. Let’s take a look at some more details.

The development of the Canon EOS R3 was initially announced in April, alongside some super telephoto RF lenses and a new Macro. It’s safe to say that this camera wasn’t designed with filmmakers in mind first and foremost, but high-end photographers who need the ability to shoot up to 30fps stills with autofocus and auto exposure – namely, news and sports photographers.

High-quality, oversampled 4K video & internal RAW video recording

The EOS R3 doesn’t disappoint with its video specs also compared to the R5, because it will be able to shoot “high-quality” 4K with Canon Log3 in oversampled 4K, and also RAW videos internally. And like with the R5 and R6, autofocus tracking will work for people and animals, but also for motorsports (see further down below for details).

Stacked sensor & electronic shutter

Canon confirmed that the previously announced back-illuminated stacked CMOS sensor of the EOS R3 will deliver much faster read-out speeds, which will result in lower rolling shutter effects than in other cameras prior to it. We’ll of course verify this claim as part of our Lab Tests as usual, as soon as we get our hands on a production version of this camera.

In the photography world, mechanical shutters have become the limiting factor regarding the speed of how many stills a camera can take per second. The Canon EOS R3, according to information released by Canon today, should be able to allow for continuous shooting up to 30fps with RAW images and full autofocus and auto exposure modes. In addition, Speedlite shooting will be possible while the electronic shutter in the EOS R3 is turned on.

Eye Control AF & new AF tracking for cars & motorbikes

Unfortunately only for photographers, but the EOS R3 will be able to set the focus point by simply looking at what you want to focus on in the viewfinder. I am curious as to how this will work in practice because I am sure it will take some getting used to! Though I can also see this to be very useful for video in the future.

In addition to the existing autofocus tracking modes for people and animals, Canon revealed that the EOS R3 will feature a specific new AF tracking mode to recognize cars and motorbikes, which is of course useful for photographers and filmmakers working in these fields, because it should work at up to 30fps, in RAW.

Low-light shooting … for stills

According to Canon, at least in stills mode, the EOS R3 will be able to autofocus in low light like EV -7 or even lower, providing up to 8 stops of IS control (of course depending on the lens, in this case the RF24-105mm f4 IS USM), using Optical Image Stabilization. This is remarkable low-light behaviour and it’s a shame us filmmakers can’t really make use of it, but then again, it makes clear that this camera is predominantly targeted at higher-end photographers who need their occasional high-quality videoclip, not vice versa.

Networking capabilities

The EOS R3 will have LAN and 5GHz WiFi built in, which will allow the user to offload photos and videos very quickly in a tethered (or untethered) workflow. It’s nice to see this very useful feature for studio shooting finding its way in more and more of the new mirrorless cameras.

Shape and body, screen, powering

If you are eyeballing a mirrorless camera because your dated DSLR is too bulky for you, then the EOS R3 is probably not the camera for you, as Canon clearly targets former 1D series camera users with the integration of the horizontal and vertical grip, which is really only useful for vertical stills shooting (unless you want to shoot high-end Instagram Stories, its use for motion image capture is non-existent).

Anyhow, the weather-resistance and durability of the EOS R3, which is made of a lightweight magnesium alloy, will be very useful for filmmakers as well. Canon says both will equal what people have come to expect from the EOS 1D X Mark III.

What’s nice (and really should be standard by now!) for filmmakers is the integrated flippy LCD screen, which allows you to shoot at all angles. It’s also a touchscreen to access settings directly, though it’s unclear if it supports touch focus at this point.

In terms of powering, the camera will also use the same batteries as the aforementioned camera, the Canon LP-E19 batteries, to be precise.

Price and availability

There is no official information on the price of the Canon EOS R3 yet, nor did they announce when exactly the camera will be released.

What do you think of the Canon EOS R3? Something you are getting excited about? Let us know in the comments below what you think.