Canon EOS R3 Body

The Canon EOS R3 is an impressive mirrorless camera but, it is defiantly not in the same class as the 1Dx. It lacks several buttons and levers like the 1D’s vertical grip lock.

If this is your first mirrorless camera and you shoot portraits or still life there is a learning curve.

Out of the box, it is set for 30 frames per second JPEG images, sRGB color space, and focus on the nearest object. You need to change the default settings to shoot RAW, Adobe RGB, single frame, and focus point. Also, the viewfinder simulated the light level resulting in a black image using modeling lights. With a 1,000+ page manual, finding the right settings is a bit time consuming. To get a viewable image you must disable Display Simulation.

The electronic shutter at 30 frames per second sounds like an electrical short circuit. I shot over 300 photos before realizing it was shooting 30 FPS. Set to single frame, it has a typical electronic shutter sound that can be turning off.

I wear glasses and could not get the eye detection focus to work. I typically use focus points. The R3 autofocus is fast and very accurate except for some uniformly colored surfaces.

Using the Canon RF 24-105mm lens, the image quality surpasses my 1Dx MII even though the R3 sensor has about the same number of pixels.

The R3 uses the same battery as the 1Dx. Battery life is less than the 1Dx, but that is to be expected since the battery powers a larger screen and electronic viewfinder.

If you have older model speedlights or strobe transceivers, you will need the Canon AD-E1 adapter. I could not use my PocketWizard Plus III until I bought the adapter. Stobe firing has been flawless using AD-E1.

Outstanding body with lightning af and pin sharp quality.

I purchased the R3 as an upgrade to my 1DX Mark II, which I have historically used to shoot sports. Upon shooting with the R3, the snappy autofocus is immediately apparent. While the 1DX Mark II was no slouch in this category, the R3 finds and locks focus much more quickly resulting in more keepers. The 30fps is a feature you don’t truly appreciate until you fire off a series of bursts. I quickly racked up 3000 frames in 20 minutes of test shooting. This will make capturing things such as a bat making contact on a ball much easier and I anticipate stepping down to 15fps for most use cases.

I have yet to dive into the Eye Autofocus in great length, however my initial findings were positive and the feature seemed to work well and follow whatever my eye was tracking in the view finder. My only critique of the new camera is the exclusion of a second CFExpress card slot, which would’ve been useful for most action shooters as opposed to the included SD Card slot.

Beyond that, Canon definitely hit one out of the park with the R3 and it is intriguing how they will top this technology with future cameras, such as the rumored R1.

The R3, brings new life to the world of photography. Crazy fast and sharp. The color is fantastic.
Great camera….!

This is our second Canon R3, we were so impressed with the first-we purchased a second. The 24 megapixel sensor for photos renders beautifully with virtually zero high ISO colour noise or ugly artifacts at ISO 12,800 and still performs nicely at 25,600.

For videos, the ease of switching back and forth, utter lack of overheating and variable frame rates without crop up to 4k 120p is fantastic in videography.

We use the R3’s for portrait shoots, events, and weddings. There’s more than enough resolution, incredibly high readout speeds make shooting with the electronic shutter feasible for any context including mixed lighting.

Again, I can not emphasize enough the utility of the hybrid functionality, the ability to switch with ease between photo and video shooting is a wedding photographer/videographers dream.