> The EOS-3 came out in 1998 and sat in between the EOS-1N from 1994 and the EOS-1N's eventual replacement, the EOS-1V in 2000.
I owned all three bodies, and you're right, more or less, in terms of increasing feature technical level, but as far as the lineup went, there was no way the 3 was at the 1N's level. It was a clearly a second-rung-from-the-top camera.
Unlike any of the EOS-1 series, the body was plastic not magnesium. The shutter cycle count was I think half, and wasn't top-tier x-sync and blacked out a lot longer. The shutter was also a lot louder and clickier. The viewfinder was a big step down. If I remember correctly the 3 didn't have interchangeable finder screens. (I usually had the split prism in my 1's and it worked fine with metering even though the documentation suggested it didn't. Maybe it just wasn't perfect.) The 3 couldn't take the right-angle finder. I think it also had an IR film advance sensor so you couldn't use it with IR film.
On the other hand, your article didn't mention (that I saw) the EOS-3's eye-controlled focus point selection which for me worked very reliably and I was sad to see it missing from the 1V.
The EOS-3 also had an excellent multiple-spot spot meter system. You could meter the darkest and lightest parts of a scene and see all the metered spots on the exposure meter at once. I forget if it was automatic or something you had to do manually but you could then get an exposure that would expose your darkest areas and brightest areas correctly (assuming the film had the DR for it) whether the overall scene was dark or light.
In summary the 3 was not a flagship body or finder or shutter or accessory ecosystem, but on the other hand had the latest greatest technology and specs including several features that the 1N lacked or didn't quite measure up to. I often shot the 28-70 on one body and 70-200 on the other, for reportage/wedding/street type stuff. But when I left the house to shoot landscape etc. or otherwise was just taking one Canon, it was the 1N and later 1V. Never once did I leave the house with just the 3.
(In my backpack I always had the Yashica T4 with the Zeiss 35/3.5, which was fun but honestly wasn't great. I then switched to Contax G2 with 28/45/90 as my backpack camera and loved that except for the AF noise. I also had a Mamiya 7 + 43/80/150, and a Rollei SL66+80/2.8 in those days, both phenomenal cameras that I'd totally have loved digital versions of. I then got a couple Leica bodies, a .58x and .85x, with 35/1.4 and 75/1.4, but when I got my 1DsMkI, I basically couldn't stand the hassle of film and sold everything but the Canon system.)
