The Canon EOS R3 is a perfectly good flagship camera. Better than perfectly good, actually – it's fantastic. And I'm wondering why, aside from keeping up with the Joneses, it needs to be replaced by the EOS R1 (should it ever actually materialize).
I get it, most camera fans are tech nuts. I'm a tech nut. And the Canon EOS R3, as a camera that came out at the end of 2021, no longer has the kind of tech that makes us go nuts.
Actually, that's only half true. As somebody who picked it up expecting the Eye Control AF (which tracks your eyeball in the viewfinder to move focus points wherever you look) to be just as halfass and unfriendly to my glasses as it was in 1992, when the technology debuted on the original EOS R3.
Color me astounded, then, that the Canon EOS R3's Eye Control didn't just work, and wasn't just a gimmick – it was a feature that I genuinely found useful. And to this day, no other camera has it.
And how about the Smart Controller? Admittedly a carryover from the Canon EOS-1D X Mark III, this is a next-generation optical joystick that replaces the clunky old version – and it enables you to whizz your focus point across the screen faster than any other joystick is capable of. Just take a look at it in action below:
Watch video: Canon's Smart Controller optical joystick
Combined with Eye Control AF, not to mention the AI-powered Dual Pixel AF II, this is arguably the most formidable autofocus system in the business. Those features alone make me think that the Canon EOS R3 has more than enough tricks to stay at the top of the EOS tree.
Obviously, though, there's one thing that can't be overlooked and I fear has now become an expectation: 120fps burst shooting.
Ever since the Big N upped the ante with the Nikon Z9 / Z8, rattling off 11MP shots at 120fps, after which Sony followed suit with the Sony A9 III firing 24.6MP shots at 120fps, the EOS R3's 30fps top speed looks a little quaint. Heck, even the entry-level EOS R8 outguns it at 40fps (though obviously the buffer depth can't compare).
Point being, I think what's going on here is what I said at the start: keeping up with the Joneses. Do most people actually need 120fps? I don't think so. But does Canon's flagship need it, in order to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with its rivals? The sad truth is that, while it doesn't, people nonetheless expect it – hence the situation we have with the R1 being delayed because it's literally chasing the Joneses' specs.
Still, I'm plenty happy with the Canon EOS R3. I almost never shoot beyond 20fps anyway. And there are some ridiculous R3 deals on it right now – so if you've been thinking about it, now the perfect time to pull the trigger.
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