Chris and Jordan from DPReviewTV have completed their final review of the Canon EOS R3. I suspect that we're going to see more reviews in the next couple of weeks from sports and wildlife shooters that will give us a real feel for what this camera is capable of.
1. "I'd buy it over a 1DX III, but it's meh because 24mp".
2. "It's the only camera that will shoot full raw at 30fps, but it's meh because 24mp"
3. "It's got a great buffer, I like the AF performance, but it's meh because 24mp"
4. "It's expensive for what it is, because 24mp"
I usually find them reasonably on point in most instances. For me, this time around they come across as though if it ain't 50mp, it ain't sh*t.
FWIW...Jared just released a new video comparing A1 & R3 AF. Watching it now...don't know what he might have to say at the end, just watching the EVF recordings and tbh they are both impressive.
With that said, I watched the video and didn’t feel it was a very well put together conclusion for such an important, professional camera. When you look at all the impressive coverage the A1 received, the R3 appears to be something they had to report on and get out of the way. It’s times like this back in the TCS TV days where Jordan and Chris would ask professionals to assist them in conducting a more detailed review of a product. Give this camera to a professional rodeo photographer and have them shoot some local Alberta weekend rodeos. Maybe go to a Flames game and shoot hockey? I don’t know…don’t go to a zoo and take photos of a statuesque Penguin and your kid - what an absolute joke.
Honestly, they mailed it in here. This was very lazy.
P.S. Video overheating…hmmmmm….ProAV TV did some minimal testing with the R3 for overheating and didn’t get any issues at all. One of the primary factors that influenced me picking this up was because I was consider a cinema camera as an A cam for my video work - but I would still get better use out of a hybrid. I am a little worried now how it will perform in my use cases, the R5 has only been an issue twice in over a year.
I preordered this camera the moment it went live. Saw the Z9 and started to second guess myself. The Z9 has some really good reviews. And lots of footage shot by pros with real budgets… Then I saw some casual footage from the Z9. Shot outside of controlled environments; It’s then I knew I was on track with the Canon. I’m convinced that for most shooters the R3 will produce better imagery more of the time. The other will require more work to get them there.
[quote author=rishi on DPR]
The metering sensor on the 1D X II has experienced a significant increase in resolution. With 360,000 RGB+IR pixels, it's the highest resolution metering sensor we've ever seen. This should lead to accurate metering...
[/quote]
[quote author=rishi on DPR]
[The D5's] all-new AF system is coupled with a new 180K pixel RGB metering system and Advanced Scene Recognition System, helping to achieve optimally balanced exposures and accurate white balance in even the most challenging light.
[/quote]
There are lots of other examples, such as docking Canon’s Servo AF tracking when they had the camera set to Spot AF (the manual recommends against that), complaining that when set to full auto AF the Canon camera just selects the closest subject (which is exactly what the camera is supposed to do), or bashing the ‘poor DR’ of the 1D X II, then claiming the similar DR of the D5 was not a problem since ‘DR isn’t as high a priority for the intended audience’ (because, you know, those cameras were aimed at completely different markets).
Overall, their attitude remains, “Nikon/Sony make stellar cameras capable of producing outstanding images. Canon makes cameras that take good pictures.”
He seems to criticize it for not having one mode to do it all, and having to actually set up the AF system. Which is normal for all cameras of this type.
But his lack of understanding led to him not realizing that actually, in fact, one can set it to use Case 1 and the camera will get great results in one mode for most types of situations. Also he doesn't realize that the settings are not that complicated, if one knows them. In fact, those AF cases are kind of like presets for the AF settings of sensitivity and accel/decel. They actually make life easier, but he seemed to think they make it harder and more complicated.
So the lack of understanding about the AF system led to him both underestimating how easy it can be, how easy it can be to set up, and probably also not getting as good a result as possible.
It's like someone else mentioned: it's as if they mailed in this review. That maybe because they discount the camera due to having "only" 24 MP, and so it may reflect that bias.
Many of the DPR reviewers clearly do not shoot Canon (the brief handling of a new camera being reviewed notwithstanding), do not understand how to effectively configure it, and in many cases haven’t even bothered to RTFM.
Mix overt bias with marginal competence and you have a recipe for unreliability.
The average level becomes a hygiene factor for our decision process.
People are disproportionately interested in differences vs similarities between things.
Ultimately, each review becomes a data point to consider or reject for an individual user.
All cameras have their quirks. Hard to imagine that R3 owners are going to be disappointed in its performance.
This is much more a subjective ‘impression’ of the camera.
The interview with Jeff Cable where he mentioned tha he just left the R3 in a specific AF mode/preset gives me hopes.
It's all relative.