Here is the official Canon USA press release for the Canon EOS R3

Feb 21, 2020
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I honestly think that the actual day-to-day use of the EOS-R3 is going to absolutely blow everyone's expectations out of the water. A camera is far, far more than just specs. This camera may not get much hype off of specs alone in the general community, but I fully anticipate that actually using the camera is going to be an absolute breeze, and that has me very excited.

The price alone makes me feel like Canon must be absolutely exceeding confident in the performance of this camera. There's far more to a camera than specs on a sheet of paper, and I anticipate that Canon built this camera to be a reliable, durable, high-speed powerhouse.
I've watched some reviews now and they all say the eye-controlled AF is a game changer for sports. Photographers will no longer have to aim their AF points manually every single time they want to isolate a subject through a dense crowd of football players. They just look at it and activate tracking. It doesn't get any more intuitive than that.

This is the kind of upgrade that you can't quantify on a spec sheet. It has huge benefits for photojournalism, events, or any situation where you can't control the action.
 
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I've watched some reviews now and they all say the eye-controlled AF is a game changer for sports. Photographers will no longer have to aim their AF points manually every single time they want to isolate a subject through a dense crowd of football players. They just look at it and activate tracking. It doesn't get any more intuitive than that.

This is the kind of upgrade that you can't quantify on a spec sheet. It has huge benefits for photojournalism, events, or any situation where you can't control the action.
It certainly has that potential. Very anxious to see if it delivers.
 
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What rolling shutter? Read Gordon Laing's review.
I disagreed with Gordon's assessment of the rolling shutter actually. Here he is saying, "look, no rolling shutter" while the pole is clearly leaning, but I do understand it isn't terrible. Check out Polin's review, it shows a couple of kicked soccer balls showcasing the distortion. This has got to have some of the intended audience a little uncomfortable to use the eShutter and not very happy to slow down to 12 fps when perfect geometry is needed. For wildlife I think that level of rolling shutter would be fine, but for a baseball, golf or a soccer photographer that's going to be a problem. Additionally, the puzzling idea of including a R5-like mechanical shutter that is slower than the camera these folks are upgrading from, is equally odd. I can see why the Olympic photographer decided to take so many bodies with him a couple of months ago, the line has these odd gaps in capability and dealing with them means going without or grabbing multiple bodies. With the introduction of the R5 and A1 I thought this idea of a separate camera for every job was going away, but obviously, I was wrong.
 
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Additionally, the puzzling idea of including a R5-like mechanical shutter that is slower than the camera these folks are upgrading from, is equally odd. I can see why the Olympic photographer decided to take so many bodies with him a couple of months ago, the line has these odd gaps in capability and dealing with them means going without or grabbing multiple bodies. With the introduction of the R5 and A1 I thought this idea of a separate camera for every job was going away, but obviously, I was wrong.

It's not puzzling. They need something for the R1. Canon has been pretty clear this isn't their top of the line but how much more can they add?

Both the R5 and the A1 to me appear to have more gaps than the R3. There are already videos showing six hours of 4K oversampled recording without overheating with the R3. Recording 6K raw until the card fills up.
 
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It's not puzzling. They need something for the R1. Canon has been pretty clear this isn't their top of the line but how much more can they add?

Both the R5 and the A1 to me appear to have more gaps than the R3. There are already videos showing six hours of 4K oversampled recording without overheating with the R3. Recording 6K raw until the card fills up.
I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on this one. There no valid argument where you "protect" an $8,000 camera by dumbing down the capabilities of a $6,000 one. If you find yourself legitimately doing that, the design process went astray somewhere. I'll accept the need have a lower res differentiate the two, but to hamper the very people the camera was designed specifically for (professional sports photographers) is odd. There are very few things this group puts a premium on, and fps is one of them. I suspect some have already switched to the R5, so this will not be terribly jarring for those, but the others...hmmm. They may not like that their new body needs to be shot at speeds slower than they had 10 years ago in the original 1DX. Either way, don't let my opinion color your view of the camera, I'm sure its good. Canon seldom gets it wrong, but this one has more compromises than I would have liked for the premium price tag.
 
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Please explain why no camera outside of the 1-series has AF point-linked spot metering.
I wonder that as well... at least with the R3. As others have pointed out, it's not as big an issue with a mirrorless camera. You see the exposure in the EVF so I'm not as disappointed as I would've been were this a DSLR
 
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I wonder that as well... at least with the R3. As others have pointed out, it's not as big an issue with a mirrorless camera. You see the exposure in the EVF so I'm not as disappointed as I would've been were this a DSLR
Agreed. Someone on another thread reminded me that the original EOS 3 (film) had the feature. But for digital, it’s been restricted to the 1-series.
 
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Please explain why no camera outside of the 1-series has AF point-linked spot metering.
The last time we had had an $8000 camera was the 1Ds III, and I don't remember them stripping features from the 1D III to differentiate them (including linked spot metering). I could be wrong because I passed on the 1D III, but had that feature on my 1D IIN which too supports the statement I made as the 1Ds II ($7,000+) didn't lead to stripped down features on the 1D IIN.

Canon will absolutely strip down features from the mid and lower lines like linked AF spot metering and the old mythical OVF shutter on the 1D series, but there's no good reason to charge top dollar and strip away features. There just isn't. If you can't make a camera that is worth $8000, it probably doesn't need to be made.
 
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Canon will absolutely strip down features from the mid and lower lines like linked AF spot metering and the old mythical OVF shutter on the 1D series, but there's no good reason to charge top dollar and strip away features. There just isn't.
Please explain the lack of HDR mode in the 1-series cameras.

A valid reason to 'charge top dollar and strip away features' is if the feature is thought to be of little to no value to the target market. As an example, the 1-series cameras cannot generate an in-camera HDR; they have AEB, of course, but the camera cannot combine the images into a single HDR jpg file, that has to be done in post on a computer. The R5 has an HDR mode, my M-series cameras have it, my PowerShot S120 has it, but my 1D X does not (nor do the 1D X II or III).
 
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Please explain the lack of HDR mode in the 1-series cameras.

A valid reason to 'charge top dollar and strip away features' is if the feature is thought to be of little to no value to the target market. As an example, the 1-series cameras cannot generate an in-camera HDR; they have AEB, of course, but the camera cannot combine the images into a single HDR jpg file, that has to be done in post on a computer. The R5 has an HDR mode, my M-series cameras have it, my PowerShot S120 has it, but my 1D X does not (nor do the 1D X II or III).
Please explain this and that... where will it end? If you think it is reasonable to strip features from cameras at this price point, that's fine, but I'll continue to say it isn't. The ultimate barometer for it is sales. Whether something makes sense or not doesn't really matter, but if there are enough people to feed in to it, it works. As far as your example, a feature outside of the intended audience isn't a stripped or protected feature, IMO. That simply is not what they want in the camera. But taking a valued feature out of a camera that the intended audience wants simply to offer it at a higher price point is what I'm talking about. And I will continue to say, at $8,000 you shouldn't have to do that. It should be that price because that is what it took to develop the product with as few compromises as possible.
 
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Please explain this and that... where will it end? If you think it is reasonable to strip features from cameras at this price point, that's fine, but I'll continue to say it isn't. The ultimate barometer for it is sales. Whether something makes sense or not doesn't really matter, but if there are enough people to feed in to it, it works. As far as your example, a feature outside of the intended audience isn't a stripped or protected feature, IMO. That simply is not what they want in the camera. But taking a valued feature out of a camera that the intended audience wants simply to offer it at a higher price point is what I'm talking about. And I will continue to say, at $8,000 you shouldn't have to do that. It should be that price because that is what it took to develop the product with as few compromises as possible.
Just making the point that things aren't as cut-and-dried as you suggest. You can say that for $8000 a camera should be absolute perfection, but that's not how product development and pricing work.

Consider trim levels for cars. Say I want a heated steering wheel...I have to buy the Limited trim level to get it. It's not an option on the Standard or Premium trims, and I don't want the leather interior or back seat USB ports that are also part of the Limited trim. Too bad, if I want toasty warm hands in winter, I have to buy the Limited...and pay more for it.

One of the ways that Canon has decided to differentiate products is to include certain features only on higher level bodies. You can say 'you shouldn't have to do that' and while agree, it's not our call. If you feel strongly about it, buy a Nikon or a Sony mid-level camera that has AF point-linked spot metering, or buy a 1-series body (which means waiting for the R1 if you want a MILC).

I absolutely agree with you that the ultimate barometer is sales. Canon picks the features to include in models at various price points, and the fact that they've led the ILC market for nearly 20 years suggests they are making the right choices. You'd have made different ones, fine. Until you have Fujio Mitarai's job, you pay your money and you make your choice.
 
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Just making the point that things aren't as cut-and-dried as you suggest. You can say that for $8000 a camera should be absolute perfection, but that's not how product development and pricing work.

Consider trim levels for cars. Say I want a heated steering wheel...I have to buy the Limited trim level to get it. It's not an option on the Standard or Premium trims, and I don't want the leather interior or back seat USB ports that are also part of the Limited trim. Too bad, if I want toasty warm hands in winter, I have to buy the Limited...and pay more for it.

One of the ways that Canon has decided to differentiate products is to include certain features only on higher level bodies. You can say 'you shouldn't have to do that' and while agree, it's not our call. If you feel strongly about it, buy a Nikon or a Sony mid-level camera that has AF point-linked spot metering, or buy a 1-series body (which means waiting for the R1 if you want a MILC).

I absolutely agree with you that the ultimate barometer is sales. Canon picks the features to include in models at various price points, and the fact that they've led the ILC market for nearly 20 years suggests they are making the right choices. You'd have made different ones, fine. Until you have Fujio Mitarai's job, you pay your money and you make your choice.
On top of all of this, we are making assumptions that Canon has cracked linking exposure to an AF point using DPAF 2. It may be that they haven't. This may end up being a feature they add to DPAF 3 that is not yet ready. They also may think with exposure simulation, it's not really a priority.
 
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I disagreed with Gordon's assessment of the rolling shutter actually. Here he is saying, "look, no rolling shutter" while the pole is clearly leaning, but I do understand it isn't terrible. Check out Polin's review, it shows a couple of kicked soccer balls showcasing the distortion. This has got to have some of the intended audience a little uncomfortable to use the eShutter and not very happy to slow down to 12 fps when perfect geometry is needed. For wildlife I think that level of rolling shutter would be fine, but for a baseball, golf or a soccer photographer that's going to be a problem. Additionally, the puzzling idea of including a R5-like mechanical shutter that is slower than the camera these folks are upgrading from, is equally odd. I can see why the Olympic photographer decided to take so many bodies with him a couple of months ago, the line has these odd gaps in capability and dealing with them means going without or grabbing multiple bodies. With the introduction of the R5 and A1 I thought this idea of a separate camera for every job was going away, but obviously, I was wrong.
I looked at Jared's review and seems to me there are many shots where the ball is moving just as fast and it is round, so the in the case you refer to where the ball was just kicked, it could simply be resonant deformation of the ball. More testing will be needed, but even the extreme case is a non-issue for virtually all image uses as Jared himself points out.
 
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On top of all of this, we are making assumptions that Canon has cracked linking exposure to an AF point using DPAF 2. It may be that they haven't. This may end up being a feature they add to DPAF 3 that is not yet ready. They also may think with exposure simulation, it's not really a priority.
I think it's a reasonable assumption, but you're right. With a DSLR, they had to match input from two different sensors (neither of which was the image sensor) to like exposure to AF point. With a MILC, all the data are coming from the same sensor. That seems like an easier problem to solve, but perhaps not.
 
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Consider trim levels for cars. Say I want a heated steering wheel...I have to buy the Limited trim level to get it. It's not an option on the Standard or Premium trims, and I don't want the leather interior or back seat USB ports that are also part of the Limited trim. Too bad, if I want toasty warm hands in winter, I have to buy the Limited...and pay more for it.

Now let's flip that around and apply the camera market paradigm...

There are six different cars in the range, each only available in one trim level. If you want the heated steering wheel you can't buy that in a pack, you have to buy the biggest SUV in the range. Oddly though, it doesn't have the biggest engine because "market research" says that its users would be overwhelmed by too much torque. And it's not the flagship in the range, that's apparently the model from two years ago that you can still buy covered in dust from a dockside storage park.

The big 5.0 litre V8 engine is only available in the midsized hatchback, but its acceleration is capped so as not to upset the drivers of the big SUV. For people who can't afford that there's a similar hatchback that uses the engine from the old flagship SUV. But it lacks wing mirrors, just because.

Meanwhile at the bottom of the range there are some city cars, one of which uses a turbocharged engine that actually produces more power than any other car in the range. However that car is made of plastic and only lasts 20,000 miles.
 
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Now let's flip that around and apply the camera market paradigm...

There are six different cars in the range, each only available in one trim level. If you want the heated steering wheel you can't buy that in a pack, you have to buy the biggest SUV in the range. Oddly though, it doesn't have the biggest engine because "market research" says that its users would be overwhelmed by too much torque. And it's not the flagship in the range, that's apparently the model from two years ago that you can still buy covered in dust from a dockside storage park.

The big 5.0 litre V8 engine is only available in the midsized hatchback, but its acceleration is capped so as not to upset the drivers of the big SUV. For people who can't afford that there's a similar hatchback that uses the engine from the old flagship SUV. But it lacks wing mirrors, just because.

Meanwhile at the bottom of the range there are some city cars, one of which uses a turbocharged engine that actually produces more power than any other car in the range. However that car is made of plastic and only lasts 20,000 miles.
Sure, that works. Let me repeat: you pay your money and you make your choice.

Or walk.

Or paint, as the analogy may be.
 
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now i can dream about the R1: 8k video with in body stills, double cf express, 50 mega files, why not both will be unlikely to fill my palm anyway
I actually find it hard to believe Canon will do a camera spec'ed like that. Priced $2000 up the road and offering the same thing the competition offers, might make that a tough sale. However, that old wacky R1 rumor doesn't look so crazy anymore, especially if they can deal with the heat of twin Digic X's and find someway to write to the cards.

Also note, they made it a point that they would like to be the first solid state camera on the market, potentially with a global sensor. If they do pull the global sensor out the hat, I doubt it will be a high megapixel one. But at this point, who knows what their logic will be, most of what I've seen in the last year has been brow raising, whether that's for good or bad.
 
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