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The Canon EOS R3 Mark II rumor fest is back in full force apparently. We are receiving an increasing number of emails about the camera coming in the next few months.
I talked about a new R3 earlier this month and I'm of the belief that if it doesn't come before CP+ at the end of February, it's never coming. I'm still having a hard time figuring out where and how it would fit. I don't develop cameras though; Canon is more than capable of figuring that out.
EOS R3 Mark II in February?
I have been told by an interesting source that the EOS R3 Mark II is slated for a development announcement in the first week of February, 2026. This would be consistent with how Canon launched the EOS R3 and EOS R1.
Why a development announcement? It allows Canon to get their cameras into the hands of professional photographers for big events such as the Olympics. This gives Canon real-world feedback without having to hide a product for feature and/or firmware tweaks. The professionals that do get to use them are NDA'd about specific features and whatnot, but we do see performance thoughts during those periods.
Consider, the 2026 Winter Olympics kick off on February 6, 2026.
EOS R3 Mark II Specifications
I don't know much about what the EOS R3 Mark II will be. Which makes sense if it's getting a development announcement first.
I have been told that it will have a new 50mp (give or take) sensor. No word on whether Canon is going BSI/Stacked or not.
The other claim is that the EOS R1 will remain Canon's flagship sports camera and that the EOS R3 Mark II will be “multimedia focused”. I'll leave it to others to guess what that means.
Does Canon Rumors Believe?
I'm starting to warm up to the prospect of an R3 II happening. If Canon has come up with a unique feature set, it doesn't really matter if it “fits” between the 1-series and 5-series. It could be its own thing.
This might be a me thing, but it never made sense to me to bring back the “3-series” and kill it off after one camera.
February or bust…..
Canon is very conservative, maybe they say 2msec readout (just a number thrown in by me) is close to global shutter and they try to keep other parameters high instead of sacrificing something for global shutter.
Partially stacked might be the only thing to achieve this to bring the data rates from the sensor arrangement to the CPU down during the actual readout.
For me I will maybe wait if this trickles down to e.g. an R7 iii ... if R7 ii will not surprise us with that feature.
A global shutter R3 II would make less sense to me since it could be faster than the R1 which would "threaten" its "sport flagship" status.
Will it? The z9 and z8 are essentially the same except for the body and both still do well and have people that think one is much better than the other.
R6mkiii did move up in resolution though and if R3 is also getting a big bump maybe the R5 series will bump up to 60-80mp next
R3 II & RF 14mm TSE & RF 35mm f/1,2 😎
I'll hold-off on my Hasselblad 2Dx II purchase... would prefer a high resolution (100MP is preferred) Canon with a built-in grip! Yes, I currently have a R5 II and have added a grip.
The R5 can occupy the under 100MP range, while the R3 occupies the 100MP and up range.
I'd be interested in purchasing these:
R3 II, RF 14mm TSE, RF 35mm F/1.2, and maybe the RF 300-600mm
Back in ancient times, such as most of the 20th Century, the quadrennial Winter and Summer Games were held in the same years only about six months apart.
Then the Olympic organization decided to offset the Winter games by a couple of years. This first occurred in 1994 with the Lillehammer, Norway games just two years after the 1992 Winter and 1992 Summer Olympiads.
Canon, upon learning of this development by the IOC, considered the possibility of creating two different types of "flagship" cameras with integrated grip bodies so they could also alternate introducing one at each Olympiad, Winter and Summer, while refreshing each model on a four year cycle.
Being a conservative organization, Canon carefully considered and discussed all options at great length. Canon finally came to a decision regarding the question raised in 1994 when they decided to create the EOS R3 series in concert with the Winter Games in 2022 while continuing to refresh the R1 series every four years timed to coincide with the Summer Olympiad.
🙂😉😀😆🤣
Different beasts, one would not be used for the same use cases than the other