Big test
PERFORMANCE: EXPOSURE LATITUDE
Files dealt well with overexposure up to +2.5EV, but beyond that, bright highlights looked grey. The +3EV shows that, and the sky has a cast. No issues with +2EV shots, though, and the corrected file is spot on. Serious underexposure was not an issue with the EOS R3’s Raws – and even the -3EV shot looked perfectly fine, despite the presence of visible noise.
The Canon EOS R3 was used to shoot exposure brackets in a range of lighting conditions in 0.3EV and 1EV steps, to give an idea how the camera’s 14-bit Raws fared with exposure abuse. This scene here of The Monument was taken on a clear day in the late afternoon, so most of the structure was in shadow. Correct exposure was 1/80sec at f/8 and ISO 100.
-3EV
-2EV
+3EV
-1EV
0
+1EV
+2EV
Selecting the electronic shutter with its claimed 30fps, I achieved 113 full Raws in 3.9secs. That works out at just under 29fps, and with CRAW, the camera gave 192 shots in 6.37secs, which is 30fps. With the SD card and its 170MB/s write speed, I got 107 full Raws in 3.8secs and 175 CRAWs in 5.8secs before the camera stopped for a breath. This ends up at 28-30fps – but with this card, the buffer clearing time took much longer at over 30secs. I tested the EOS R3 with a range of Canon lenses, from the 14-35mm f/4 ultra-wide, to the 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1 telezoom. I shot mostly in aperture priority and manual exposure modes, with AWB in Raw and CRAW, although I did do some JPEG comparisons, experimenting with the save options. For autofocus, I tried face and tracking, single-point and various zone options – with subject/eye detection, too. I had a go at a variety of subjects like wildlife, street, scenic and transport. Exposure and white-balance performance rate highly, and AF is accurate, tenacious and responsive. As an example, I was photographing birds at Welney Wetland Centre from a hide, with the 100-500mm lens. I harnessed the AF-ON button for its default function, with AF set to face and tracking with servo, and the * button set to animal/eye detection. I was focusing on one bird quite some distance away, but heard the sound of flapping wings close by to the right.
“EXPOSURE AND WHITE-BALANCE PERFORMANCE RATE HIGHLY, AND AF IS ACCURATE, TENACIOUS AND RESPONSIVE... I WAS REALLY PLEASEDWITH THE RESULTS” I quickly swivelled round, retrained the lens to the source of the sound – a bird about to take off – hit the * button and snapped away, more in expectation than hope. I was really pleased with the results. Not for their pictorial quality, but with the camera’s AF ability to get the subject sharp in a fleeting moment. The EOS R3 is the first mirrorless with eye control AF. Once calibrated, it means the focus point will follow where you are looking in the EVF. When hitting the AF-ON button, the camera will focus on that point and track that subject until you release. Then, if you look elsewhere in the frame, the focus indicator will follow and you hit AF-ON again to focus. To set up eye control, go to the spanner tab – oddly, not the AF tab – and Menu 4. Calibrating it to your eye, Canon suggests, should
AT FULL TILT Two pairs of M-Fn2 and depth-of-field buttons are provided for upright and horizontal capture
ADAPT AND THRIVE The EOS R3 does not lack for customisation potential
SKIMMINGTHE SURFACE The EOS R3 did a great job focusing on this greylag goose in flight, with eye detection and servo AF employed. Over 60 images were in the sequence, shot at 30fps, and most came out with the eyes sharp, from someone who’s a novice shooting birds in flight. Exposure was 1/2500sec at f/8 and ISO 800, with the 500mm end of the RF 100-500mm lens
Issue 98 | Photography News 35
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