Canon’s 24MP EOS R3 will set you back R100k, launches later this year

You’re not using a good camera unless it costs about as much as a second-hand car, apparently, and Canon’s new EOS R3 certainly fulfils that particular role. If you want one of these 24MP shooters when they drop in November this year, you can expect to pay at least R100,000 for the body-only configuration.

Make it quick with the EOS R3

But why would you splurge a solid R100k on a ‘mere’ 24MP camera when you can spend less (or far more) on cameras with a much higher megapixel count? Well, the EOS R3 is all about speed, according to Canon, while managing to outmatch the visual performance of the 30.1MP EOS 5D Mark IV. We’re not exactly sure how that works but since it’s easily checked, they’re probably not making it up.

But, like we said, the speed is the thing. Canon’s newest shooter is designed with sports and other high-speed photography in mind, capable of shooting stills of up to 30fps in electric shutter mode, with AE and AF tracking enabled and while shooting in RAW.  The R3 is shooting at 1/640,000th of a second at that point, which is pretty speedy.

No sport like motorsport

The BSI/stacked sensor and DIGIC X image processor “…almost entirely eliminates rolling shutter distortion” while shooting, no matter how mental you’re going with your images, and there are a range of speedy new features as well. Autofocus should lock on in 0.03 seconds, and there’s now eye, face, head and body detection autofocus modes to mess with. There’s also Flicker detection, a mode that can “…detect and correct flickering light sources and prevent banding or colour and exposure issues.”

The EOS R3 also has a very specific new function — vehicle tracking, in case you’re planning on taking photos of motorsports. Any motorsports, right down to “motorbikes, open cockpit Formula cars as well as GT and rally cars”, keeping you locked on driver faces or helmets as they roar by.

For some harder numbers, there’s a 24.1MP full-frame, stacked, back-illuminated CMOS sensor to play with, capable of shooting stills up to 30fps and an ISO range of 100 to 102,400 (and that can expand to ISO 50-204,800). It handles 6K (6,000 x 3,164) video in 12-bit RAW at up to 60fps, 4K at up to 120fps, there’s a 5,760,000-dot OLED viewfinder to play with (that refreshes at 120fps) and a 3.2in vari-angle LCD touchscreen if you’re tired of the viewfinder, or you want to do menu things. The R3 includes dual card slots, and you’ll have to fill them with either SD UHS II or CFexpress cards (use a CFexpress B card for the best performance). The unit is compatible with Canon’s RF-mount lenses, so you’d best get a few of those if you don’t own some already. The Canon EOS R3 lands in November this year.