10 things you didn't know the EOS R3 could do

The full-frame mirrorless Canon EOS R3 sets a new benchmark in performance. With a continuous shooting speed of up to 30fps and innovative technologies such as advanced subject tracking autofocus with Eye Control AF, it raises the bar for professional sports, action, wildlife and news photography.

If you're coming to the EOS R3 from a pro DSLR such as the Canon EOS-1D X Mark III then you'll feel at home in no time, thanks to the familiar EOS menus and controls. In addition, there are many ways in which the mirrorless camera can be operated just like a DSLR. Both cameras are equipped with a Smart Controller for rapid selection of AF points, for example. The EOS R3's OLED electronic viewfinder can also be set to OVF Simulation mode, which replicates the look of an optical viewfinder to give a more natural view under high-contrast lighting.

There are a host of innovations that lift the EOS R3 to the next level, though, including the ability to use the advanced subject detection and tracking in all AF Area modes, rather than just when the entire AF frame is active. It works with people, animals including dogs, cats and birds, and vehicles including cars and motorbikes. You also have the freedom to customise the size and shape of the AF area with Flexible Zone AF.

But what about those lesser-known features that make the EOS R3 such an adaptable and dependable professional camera? Here, we delve beyond the headline functions to highlight some of the things you might not know the EOS R3 could do, with the help of Canon Europe Senior Product Specialist Mike Burnhill.

Traditionally, to preview the depth of field in an image, you've had to hold down a button to temporarily stop the lens down to the working aperture. But the EOS R3 allows you to see the effect in the viewfinder and on the LCD screen all of the time.

"Obviously we've had exposure simulation for a while in mirrorless cameras," says Mike, "but now with the EOS R3 there's the ability to have depth of field as part of the exposure simulation. It really helps when you're using fast apertures, as you can actually see the difference between, say, f/2 and f/1.2.

"When you're shooting portraits using wider apertures, you might want to see the impact that a change of f-stop has on the bokeh, and it's annoying to have to keep pressing a button to do that. But this function allows you to monitor the effect continuously."

The EOS R3 is the perfect camera for photographers who need total control over their noise levels. Not only can the shutter click be adjusted, but all of the camera control sounds can be turned from silent to full volume.

The EOS R3's Eye Control AF is revolutionary. You half-press the shutter button, look at a subject in the viewfinder, and the camera detects what you want to focus on. When you fully press the button, the camera's advanced subject tracking can take over, which can automatically keep the most important feature of the subject sharp as it moves through the frame. But did you know that Eye Control also works with manual focusing?

As well as being swift to shoot with, the EOS R3 is equipped with a range of useful tools to streamline your workflow.

The Playback menu's Image jump function has been upgraded to include an option that lets you jump to the first frame in a burst of images. "For sports and wildlife, where you'll often be shooting long bursts, this makes it much quicker to get to the good stuff rather than having to scroll through them one by one or jump ten images," Mike explains.

If you want to delete an entire sequence, you can now do so with the press of a button. In the past you'd have to delete each image individually, but the EOS R3 essentially tags bursts of images together, so you can choose to delete the whole lot. "That's quite beneficial when you're shooting at 30fps," says Mike. "If you shot for just three seconds, you'd have 90 images to scroll through and delete. Now you're able to delete all of them in a second."

Pressing the Q button brings up an on-screen menu of shortcuts during playback or when you're shooting stills or video – a feature that the EOS R3 shares with other EOS cameras. But here you can actually choose the functions that go into those three menus, and where they appear on the screen.

Using the Customize Quick Controls option in the Shooting menu, you can minimise the layout with fewer functions, or you can add more, Mike explains. "You can decide what goes on the left and what goes on the right. So you might want to put your most-used functions on the right side when you're shooting stills, because you'll be able to tap those with your thumb quickly. If you're recording video with the screen out, then you might want some functions on the left and some on the right. You can also change the running order on each side of the screen."

Download the Canon Camera Connect app to a smartphone or tablet and pair it with the EOS R3, and you have a convenient way of remotely controlling the camera from your device or browsing files stored on the memory card. The EOS R3 is not the first EOS camera to do this, of course, but it is the first to enable firmware updates straight from your device.

"The app will tell you when there's new firmware available for the camera," Mike says. "You can go to the setup menu and click on Firmware, then your phone will download the update and transfer it to the camera. So you don't need a computer, and you can do it anywhere as long as there is a network signal for your phone.

"Obviously you don't have to update it if you don't want to, but the firmware does help to maintain camera operation at its best, and it can also add a lot of new and exciting features as well."

A major firmware update is now available to download that brings additional features and enhanced performance to the EOS R3. The headline addition is a new Custom high-speed continuous shooting setting that supports up to 195fps continuous bursts for up to 50 frames at full resolution – whether you're shooting JPEG, HEIF or RAW.

"It makes the EOS R3 the fastest camera that's not a video camera," Mike enthuses. "You wouldn't want to shoot everything at this speed, but there are special applications where it gives you the edge – for example, capturing the brief moment that a frog catches a fly with its tongue, or a springboard diver hitting the water."

With the firmware update, the EOS R3 also gets an additional high-speed 240fps Full HD video recording option. "This is ideal if you want to produce ultra-slow-mo footage," Mike explains, "because the faster the frame rate you can record at, the more the action slows down when the footage is played back at normal frame rate. Plus, being able to record at faster frame rates makes it possible to capture video of very fast action, such as the beating wings of a hummingbird in flight, with sharper detail and less motion blur, and see it more clearly when it is slowed down.

"In the past, very high frame rates were possible only at greatly reduced resolutions, but recording at this high frame rate in Full HD will give you slow-mo footage at the same high-def resolution as Blu-Ray, with excellent detail and smooth movement."

The firmware update also enables a time lapse movie function, with the ability to retain your shooting settings even if the camera powers down. "Feedback from time lapse specialists is that power cuts are inevitable when you're shooting a long sequence, and when the battery was changed everything was lost," Mike explains. "But now you can maintain the video file and quickly restart."

The EOS R3's Focus Bracketing function has been supplemented so that it's now possible to create focus stacks automatically in-camera, using the Depth Compositing feature introduced in the EOS R7 and EOS R10. This is invaluable for creating images, particularly macro shots, with greater depth of field than is normally possible in a single image – in the past, you had to combine a set of images post-shoot using software such as Canon's free Digital Photo Professional. It's also now possible to take advantage of the Speedlite EL-1's rapid recharging time to illuminate each frame in the stack, opening up new opportunities for macro images shot with flash.