Are many R3's are getting out the door?

You may want to also put in at order with Canon themselves. I assume if they had a few on their website, they worked through their backorders:

I'm not sure whats up with that, but they certainly haven't worked through their backorders.
 
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Jul 21, 2010
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I'm not sure whats up with that, but they certainly haven't worked through their backorders.
If Canon USA is listing them as in stock, but I’d say they certainly have worked through their own backorders. Do you have a preorder placed with Canon USA that they did not fill?

They determine a fractional allocation to retailers based on prior sales, and keep a fraction to sell themselves. They are not going to ensure that other retailers’ backorders are filled before selling them direct, they stick to their fractional allocation. Keep in mind that since it’s the same price everywhere, Canon makes more profit from direct sales.

On launch day as well, Canon USA had a few in stock units for sale. I presume that since B&H sent out shipping notices on Wednesday and Canon didn’t ship until Friday, those who placed multiple orders canceled their Canon direct order, leaving Canon USA with a few extra.
 
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If Canon USA is listing them as in stock, but I’d say they certainly have worked through their own backorders. Do you have a preorder placed with Canon USA that they did not fill?

They determine a fractional allocation to retailers based on prior sales, and keep a fraction to sell themselves. They are not going to ensure that other retailers’ backorders are filled before selling them direct, they stick to their fractional allocation. Keep in mind that since it’s the same price everywhere, Canon makes more profit from direct sales.

On launch day as well, Canon USA had a few in stock units for sale. I presume that since B&H sent out shipping notices on Wednesday and Canon didn’t ship until Friday, those who placed multiple orders canceled their Canon direct order, leaving Canon USA with a few extra.

I placed an order with them on Dec 2nd. Hasn't shipped yet. Per the link above they were briefly showing "in stock" again on Jan 5th. Maybe cancellations took them back under their allotment or it was some other glitch, but they clearly hadn't caught up by Jan 5th, having not set out a Dec 2nd order. :)
 
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Jul 21, 2010
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When a new camera like this comes out E.G. The soon to be announced R5C, is it better to order from Canon directly? or somewhere like BH Photo? I plan on jumping on the R5C as soon as it is released... but not sure the best place to pull the trigger. I usually prefer BH Photo. But will take whichever route is best..
For both the 1D X and the R3, I ordered from B&H and received mine from the first batch. Both times, I placed my order within an hour of the ‘go-live’ for preorders. For the R3, that was 6a on launch day.
 
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Mar 25, 2011
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I will say the Canon USA website isn’t great. When I was looking for the RF 100-500 and 28-70/2, many times the website would show In Stock, but after adding to my cart, in there it showed as Backordered.
Yes, the store is glitchy, it shows stock on items when they are not in stock. I've ordered items only to have my order changed to backorder and that's never filled. Canon told me they do not backorder items so those will never be filled. They cancelled them eventually.
 
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