Canon Officially Announces the EOS R3—An Autofocus 6K RAW Powerhouse
Canon has officially released the full breakdown and specs on the long-awaited EOS R3, a camera said to bridge the gap between the beloved R5 and the flagship 1DX.
Canon's new camera is finally fully announced, with most of the speculation in recent months confirmed.
In the grand scheme of things, Canon is quickly becoming known as the king of autofocus. Among other things, the company has led the charge (in mild competition with Sony) toward the future of the full-frame mirrorless cameras with super crisp and fast autofocus.
Now, leading the charge for AF superiority for Canon will be the long-awaited EOS R3—touted as the most technologically advanced full-frame mirrorless camera by Canon. The R3 has a 24.1-megapixel back-illuminated sensor and 1,053 autofocus points.
This thing has extremely powerful autofocus features that aren't available with any other camera (that I'm aware of, at least), using deep learning technology to fine-tune the eye and body detection all the way down to EV -7.5 for fast-moving subjects.
This camera has "eye input" AF features, which literally means the user can look directly at the viewfinder to select the initial AF tracking area. Yes, the camera knows where you look and will start tracking that subject, a feature that I can't wait to test in the field.
For more standard operation, there are also extremely accurate Face Detect and body tracking functions as well. So, based on what I'm reading, this is probably going to be the best AF camera on the market to date. I'll be looking forward to putting it through its paces in that regard.
Also still included is the super-fun touch-based joystick type toggle on the rear of the camera, for quick menu navigation and AF point selection.
Credit: Canon
The R3 should also be a low-light beast. The sensor is a first of its kind for Canon, a stacked back-illuminated CMOS sensor that, when in conjunction with its DIGIC X processor, allows black-out free shooting at up to 30 fps for stills in electronic shutter mode. This combination also increases light sensitivity, with an ISO range of 100-102,400 (which is expandable to up to 204,800 for still images).From a video perspective, the R3 is capable of shooting 6K RAW at up to 60p and up to 120 fps in 4K 10 bit, all with Canon Log 3, and can shoot oversampled 4K RAW internally.
The camera includes built-in IBIS that can give you up to 8 stops' worth of shake correction in still images (which is obviously quite a bit of stabilization for video purposes, as well).
Other Features Include:
- Next-Gen Multi-Function Shoe that is compatible with a variety of accessories
- Single Piece Magnesium Alloy Design
- Weather and Dust Resistance (similar to EOS 1D models)
- Mobile File Transmission with application
- LAN, 5GHz Wi-Fi, USB, and Bluetooth technology built-in
Dual-card slots with one CF express and one UHS-II SD
The Canon EOS R3 is initially available for a suggested retail price of $5,999.