Canon R3 vs R5: You'll Be SHOCKED! (Hands-on Review)
My name is Vanessa Joy and today I am going to be comparing the R5 and the brand-new Canon EOS R3. I have been lucky enough to have both of these cameras for quite some time now and have been racking up a ton of shots with the R3, as well as a ton of different comparisons. I've shot at least two weddings with both the R5 and R3, and have also done a lot of side-by-side comparisons between the two.
Today, we are doing a styled shoot in what looks like Italy, but it's actually just north of Austin, Texas in Via Antonia. We have a gorgeous model, Kat, who is going to let us photograph her with both cameras and a bunch of different lenses. So let's get started!
We are starting with the R5 and a 50mm lens. I love all this white because it will really make her eyes pop and her outfit pop. I'm going to have her take a few steps back so we can avoid any hot spots. I'm getting my initial exposure and then we'll make sure we're doing the same exposure on both cameras so that we can really get a good idea of the quality. Right now, I am at 100 ISO, f2, and 250th of a second.
Next, we are switching cameras to the R3. I am setting it to the exact same exposure as the R5, which was f2, 250th of a second, and 100 ISO. I am also enabling the eye control feature, which is one of the big features of this camera. The eye autofocus worked perfectly and I didn't have to press the focus button of any kind. I just looked through the viewfinder, looked at her eyeball, and that's what focused.
The cool thing is that I can still check my composition because once I look at her eyeball and press the shutter button halfway down, it's going to lock and track where I was and I can continue looking around my frame to make sure her hands are in the frame and my composition is correct. That's what we do as photographers, we look at our focus and then look at everything else around us and make sure it looks good.
I am going to use a reflector because I love how she turned her head down toward the banister, but because she did that, I didn't get any light in her eyes. We're going to fix that and I'm going to use a gold reflector, because they don't have silver, but it's also going to be a little bit brighter, get a little bit more specular in her face which will make her eyes pop.
After getting a bunch of different shots, I am going to look at these files closely. I have a ton of different ones to show you because I actually shot real jobs with these cameras. I'll let you know what I think about shooting with the R3 and the R5. My favorite thing about these cameras is that they are my favorite thing!
I have been using these two cameras, the Canon R5 and the R3, side by side for four months now. That's why I have so many pictures of side-by-side examples that I can show you. The question that I keep getting asked is, "What are you going to end up shooting? Should I buy the R3 or should I buy the R5?" I always go back to this, which is the right tool for the job.
The R3 is great in low light and as a wedding photographer, that's a situation that I'm in a lot. Not only is it great in low light when it comes to high ISO performance but it's great in low light when it comes to the EVF. I would love to have those capabilities in the R5 but I don't know if that's a possibility when it comes to a firmware upgrade to have that shutter drag, basically frame rate suppression for the EVF. The R3 also has faster focusing when it comes to low-light situations, especially for those of us that are shooting events. The combination of the way that this camera handles low light and the eye control autofocus is gold, and that right there is the key.
Before I give my final decision, I took a commercial break to edit some of those R5 and R3 photos that I just took side by side. I showed you straight-out-of-camera photos until this point and I think if you're going to compare the two cameras, you need to look at the files and how they are edited.
Looking at the files, I noticed the difference between the auto white balance and I will tell you, I was in auto white balance pretty much the entire time. The biggest thing that I noticed right now is the difference between the auto white balance and one of the things that Canon said that they improved was the white balance in the R3. It's improved auto white balance and looking at these photos you can see it, especially in these two images right here. The greens and the white balance is on the R3 image that is just undeniable right there.
After editing the photos, I can say that the R3 is definitely the winner for me. The white balance and low light performance are just undeniable. It's also great to have a faster focus in low-light situations. Overall, the R3 is a great camera for wedding photography and I highly recommend it.
As a photographer, I often find myself comparing my images taken on different cameras to see the differences in quality. Recently, I decided to take a look at the differences between the R3 and R5, two popular camera models.
I started by selecting a bright and vibrant preset, which I thought would be appropriate for landscapes and other situations like this. I then compared an image of a black hole and was impressed by how the R3 picked up more colors, specifically the orange in the chandelier.
Next, I looked at two reception photos side by side and found that the R3 did a better job of focusing on the subject using eye autofocus. I also noticed that the noise in the R3 was less than in the R5, which makes sense since the R3 performs better in low light.
I also compared the white balance between the two cameras and didn't see much of a difference. Another image I looked at was taken on a foggy day, and I was able to bring in more of the sky using the R5.
Overall, I found that the R3 and R5 are both great cameras with their own strengths and weaknesses. It was exciting to see the differences between the two side by side, and I hope you all enjoyed this comparison as much as I did.
