Big test
“FOR KEY SETTINGS SUCHAS DRIVE MODE, AF ZONE AND ISO, THERE’S A CHOICE OF ADJUSTINGMETHOD, DEPENDINGONYOUR PREFERENCE”
if I felt the need, I’d happily rummage around in the menus. The EOS R3, however, allows you to select the items you want showing in the Q menu – and rearrange the layout. This option is under the main camera Menu 8, not the custom set-up menu, and layout is altered by touching and dragging icons into the desired positions around the edge of the frame. It’s a small thing, but I genuinely found it useful. Dear Canon firmware-updater person, can we have it on the EOS R5 please? For key settings such as drive mode, AF zone and ISO, there’s a choice of adjusting method, depending on your preference. We’ve already mentioned you can access the menu via the M-Fn1 and Q buttons, but you can also use the info button and touch menu – or the dedicated switch on the left side of the body. If those four options aren’t quite enough, you can even dedicate a function button to it. In stills shooting, I counted 14 controls that can be reassigned via the ‘customise buttons’ menu item – and 12 for video, to suit vertical and horizontal shooting. There’s plenty of choice, too: the * button has 69, with no less than 71 for MF-2. The touchscreen folds out for waist/high/low-level shooting, whether in vertical or landscape
formats, and it can face forwards or into the body. It works well, so no problems there. You have to praise Canon for its EVF. It’s a high-resolution, 0.5in OLED with 5.76m dots, and gives almost an optical finder experience, with a finely detailed image and no blackout when shooting at 30fps. Keeping track of moving subjects is straightforward, probably only limited by your own coordination. Befitting a pro camera, the EOS R3 is a bit of a speed machine, capable of shooting at 30fps with the electronic shutter, and 12fps using the mechanical option. I tested speeds with CFexpress and SD cards from Sandisk – the EOS R3 has one of each slot. With the Extreme Pro 1700MB/s CFexpress card and the mechanical shutter shooting full-size Raws in H+ mode at 1/1000sec, I kept my finger on the shutter until the camera stopped shooting. I could see the buffer slowly counting down from its 99-frame starting point, and in the end I got 695 frames in 59.5secs – which is 12fps. These are impressive figures, and I can’t imagine anyone needing to shoot that many Raws in one single burst. If you did, the buffer clears very quickly in about six seconds, so getting more shots is perfectly possible.
SPECS › Price £5879 body only › In the box EOS 3 body, body cap, strap, li-ion LP-E19 battery, LC-E19E charger › Sensor CMOS, 24.1 megapixels › Sensor format 36x24mm › File formats Raw 14-bit: Raw and CRAW. JPEG 8-bit: ten compression options. HEIF 10-bit: ten compression options › Image sizes 3:2 ratio – L 6000x4000 pixels, M 3984x2656, S1 2976x1984, S2 2400x1600. 1.6x crop – L 3744x2496, S2 2400x1600. 4:3 – L 5328x4000, M, S1, S2 16x9 – L 6000x3368, M, S1, S2 1:1 – L 4000x4000, M, S1, S2 › Lens mount Canon EOS RF › ISO range ISO 100 to 102,400, expandable to ISO 50 and 204,800 › Shutter range Mechanical shutter: 30secs to 1/8000sec, plus B, flash sync 1/200sec, 1/250sec with electronic first curtain. Electronic shutter: 30secs to 1/64,000sec, flash sync 1/180sec › Drive modes Single, continuous low, continuous high, continuous high+ up to 12fps with mechanical shutter/first curtain maintained for 1000+ JPEGs or 1000 Raws, or 30fps with electronic shutter maintained for 540 JPEGs or 150 Raws. With CFexpress Type B card › Exposure system PASM, flexible priority, bulb, three custom modes, evaluative metering, partial, spot, centre-weighted › Exposure compensation +/-3EV in 0.3, 0.5 steps, AEB +/-3EV in 0.3, 0.5 steps › Monitor 3.2in touchscreen, approx 4.15m dots › Viewfinder 5.76m dots 0.5in OLED › Focusing system Dual Pixel CMOS AF II with -7.5 to +20EV working range › Focus points 1053 in auto selection. Manual selection of 4779 AF positions in stills, 3969 in movies. Spot AF, one-point AF (two expansion options), flexible zone AF 1, 2, 3, whole area AF › AF tracking Humans, animals (dogs, cats, birds) or vehicles (racing cars or motorbikes). Pinpoint, single point, dynamic area (S, M and L), wide area S, wide area L, auto area AF, 3D tracking, subject tracking AF (video) only › Image stabiliser Five-axis image sensor shift › Video 6000x3164 6K DCI (17:9): 59.94/50/29.97/25/24/23.98fps Raw. 4096x2160 4K DCI (17:9): 59.94/50/29.97/25/24/23.98fps. 3840x2160 4K UHD › Connectivity USB Type C 3.2, HDMI Type D, 3.5mm mic, 3.5mm headphone, N3-type remote terminal, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth › Storage media One CFexpress Type B slot, one SD › Dimensions (wxhxd) 150x142.6x87.2mm › Weight 1015g with card and battery › Contact canon.co.uk
WHICHWAY IS UP? Typical of a deep-bodied camera, the EOS R3 has replicated controls for convenient switching between upright and horizontal shooting
RAWVERSUS CRAW The EOS R3 (and several other Canon cameras) offers two Raw file options: Raw and CRAW. The latter is a lossy, compressed format, meaning file sizes are smaller. This image was 19.6MB compared with the full Raw, which was 34MB. In theory, that results in a quality pay-off with the compressed format, since there’s less information to work with, but you would be hard-pushed to see it. For most shots, CRAW is more than good enough, although in strong lighting or with subjects like a wedding couple (white dress and dark suit) you might prefer full Raw files for critical editing
Issue 98 | Photography News 33
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