Last week I reported that the Canon EOS R3 would be announced alongside the Canon RF 14-35mm f/4L IS USM. This turned out to be a great failure for yours truly.
It happens from time to time.
After talking to a couple of sources that didn't chime in on the announcement date, they did seem to think that the Canon EOS R3 was going to be announced before 3rd quarter of this year, but that obviously didn't happen.
The postponed Olympics that start this month are playing no role in the launch of the EOS R3 I am told. The real issue is the same ol' issue, production challenges. There cannot be a repeat of the stock issues that the Canon EOS R5 and Canon EOS R6, which wasn't good for business and added to some already negative coverage of both of those cameras.
The Canon EOS R3 will obviously be present at the Olympics, but until Canon can produce these cameras without hiccups, I think it's safe to say that we won't see an official announcement before then.
The next time that I get an announcement date, I'll do better in vetting the information.
I do wonder if them worrying about demand could imply the R3 will be more available to consumers than a 1-series, but maybe that's just fanciful thinking. If this was around $4500 that would open the market for this camera up significantly over the normal $6500 1-series.
If this bad boy is $4500 it will be a no-brainer for me!
Here in central europe, some big shops expect mid/end of august for the first 400/600 lenses.
Otherwise, we have a big lag of stocked RF lenses for the common target group of a R3.
Until that is not fixed, Canon will not push the R3 in the market, I think.
It was a nightmare trying to hold of one when the R5/R6 came out and its still showing "out of stock" now in the UK
EDIT(02/07/2021) - Just looked in WEX(UK) and they are now both in stock!
As for the EOS R3 I do believe the announcement is really close, one of the reference stores in EU has already listed the camera for preorders, so my guess will be around 20 July announcement and mid-end August shipping.
They are being tested for sure in the wild. Larry Chen just got two of them yesterday from Canon.
Keep up the good work, really appreciate what you do for all us Canon users out there.
ML
This is just true if the IBIS of the R3 is based on the same concept and implementation as the EOS R5.
So hopefully they can fix this issue with a firmware update and no hardware alternation is required.
At the moment, I do have a spare control ring adapter but I'm more likely getting a used EF 16-35mm F4 instead of the new RF 14-35mm, therefore I need to hold on to my adapter.
I actually intended to switch to RF completely, but you know the deal...
Guys, it would be great if you were right, but...
Seeing the R5 street price right now @ just below $4.000 I'd say that expecting a MRSP for the R3 at $4.500 is just a wet dream but far from beeing a no-brainer.