Is the Canon EOS R3 sensor really 24MP? Continued

Amazon-owned site DPReview state in an “exclusive” that the sensor resolution has been “confirmed” as 24MP. I while I agree it could very likely be 24MP (I thought it would be 30MP personally), the writer of the news article is still not presenting any evidence of the native resolution. It’s not clear from the interview with the photo editor in the news story that files are full-size JPEGs. How does he know that the files he is receiving are not Medium JPEGs from a 47MP camera? I’m not saying the files aren’t full-size JPEGS, but I’ve still not seen anything that confirms 24MP is the native resolution.

Furthermore, I’m still seeing some confusion on the internet about this being some kind of ‘crop mode’. Perhaps they’re thinking it’s an APS-C type crop mode. That’s a possibility. However, I think the Medium JPEG option is much more likely, which is a JPEG that’s resized in-camera, not a crop, and there’s no way of knowing from looking at EXIF data.

What’s surprising is that DPR rarely comment on rumours – it used to be considered bad form to discuss rumours, at least in the traditional press let alone confirm them. Rumours usually harm the PR efforts of the camera manufacturers and even referring to them used to be frowned upon, unless it doesn’t reveal anything meaningful. So I wouldn’t be surprised if the news story is actually aiding Canon’s efforts in obscurring the headline feature, in readiness for the big reveal.

If this is true, though, and 24MP is the native resolution, it marks a major shift in policy for Canon. That suggests the next flagship camera the EOS R1 is likely no longer a sports-oriented camera… or perhaps Canon thinks there’s room for two £5,000+ sports-oriented models with a uni-grip body? What I mean by that is if the EOS R3 is the new 24MP ‘sports’ camera, and the EOS R1 is the 47-50MP equivalent to the Sony A1 and Nikon Z 9 – a camera that appeals to a much wider audience than the traditional sports photographer – when are we going to see it? The EOS R1 can’t be three years away, can it? I don’t think so. Doesn’t make any sense.

Of course if the EOS R3 is the camera to counter the Sony a9 II, and the EOS R1 is to come soon, say early next year, then that could fit with a strategy to counter both Sony (with the A9/A1 models) and Nikon with their Z 9. Canon would need to introduce more telephoto lenses with a native RF mount, such as the 300mm F2.8 and the 200-400mm F4 with the built-in 1.4x extender, to cover the shorter-end, but these would likely be mount conversions as we’ve seen with the RF 400/600mm models.

The original opinion piece “Is the Canon EOS R3 sensor really 24MP?” can be read here.