It's Confirmed: The Canon EOS R3 Will Be 24 Megapixels

It's Confirmed: The Canon EOS R3 Will Be 24 Megapixels

The Canon EOS R3 is getting closer to a full announcement and release and is currently in use by photographers at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. After a lot of rumors and speculation, we now have firm confirmation that the camera will indeed feature a 24-megapixel sensor. 

Rumors have abounded that the Canon EOS R3's resolution will be 24 megapixels, particularly when a Canon Rumors forum member found EXIF data indicating that number. There was still some speculation that this could have been from a crop mode in the camera, but we now have clear confirmation that that is not the case. In speaking with a photo editor at the Olympics, DP Review was able to confirm that the EOS R3 will indeed feature a 6,000 by 4,000 pixel sensor, making it 24 megapixels exactly. The sensor resolution was one of the most crucial missing specifications about the camera so far, as Canon has already confirmed features like a 30 fps continuous burst rate, eye-controlled autofocus, a back-illuminated sensor design for reduced rolling shutter, heavy weather-sealing, top-notch stabilization, internal raw video, and more, and with the sensor resolution confirmed, we are getting a strong picture of what to expect from the camera. It looks like the EOS R3 will be quite the exciting camera! 

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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19 Comments

The 2 year old 20mp sensor in the R6 auto focus to -6.5 EV and the R3 with BSI is to -7.0 and you would think it should be -7.5 to -8.0, so there is something that we aren't being told. Maybe a quad pixel auto focus or something else being hard set in the firmware of the cameras. I'm leaning towards thinking quad pixel auto focus, as the -7 has been leaked. You really have to make the numbers work out. Could be just not wanting to push their first BSI sensor and this is the sports camera.

Do you know how dark -7 EV is

There is a limit here. And even if there weren't, there's a limit to the practicality of it.

It's REALLY dark, you're right! However, Canon measures that at f/1.2 and at center point (Sony & Nikon usually measure at f/2), so keep in mind that Canon has f/4 lenses, f/7.1 lenses and even f/11 lenses, in addition to using teleconverters and maybe extension tubes. The Sony A7S III can go down to -6EV @ f/2.0, which is -7.5 EV @ f/1.2

Yes this is also a good point - Canon measures at f/1.2 whereas no one else does. So you can't just take those ratings and directly compare them without adjusting for that.

That's better than the 24 MP stacked BSI sensor on Sony A9 II, which does -3EV @ f/2.0 (which is -4.5 EV @ f/1.2 if you want to compare with the Canon)

They also mentioned something special coming in some of their notes. I suspect it may be 24 megapixels for things like sports. But I've seen at least one camera where for still photography on a tripod it does some tricks with moving the sensor to create an image of a higher resolution. I wonder if the R3 can do that?

The Sony a1, a7rIV, Panasonic S1H, Fuji GFX100s, Hasselblad H6D multishot,... all have had this capability for some time. So far only Canon and Nikon are missing it by it's rumored to be available in the Z9.

This is of very limited value in fact because you need completely still camera and subject.

If that's it, then it would be a disappointing announcement as that feature is bobbins. It requires a totally still subject and nothing is that still in life.

Gearheads the world over crying into their cornflakes.

Sad isn't it? People are so obsessed with numbers they aren't thinking about what they could do with this. If anybody buys an R3 and isn't happy with only having 24mp they can send it to me, I'd be delighted.

Haha yep. A lot of this spec sheet flaunting is more so the person doing it can justify their own purchases. For the best example see people who spend their lives commenting on articles about smaller format gear, trying to instruct the world why they should buy a full frame camera, if it wasn’t so sad and pathetic I’d take it as insulting my intelligence.

Everyone knows that person who wanted 80mp so they could crop down too 2mp and post on instagram.

As with most brands of cameras, people, including the social media get so wrapped up with pitting numbers against each other, oh if it hasn’t 30MP it’s only got 24MP, therefore it’s useless and good for nothing, absolutely pathetic! As so many proper photographers would say, sensor size is far far more important than a few million pixels,. There are more important things to digital cameras than how many millions of pixels it has. And if people are too short sighted to see that, maybe they don’t deserve to own one!

Sensor size might be more important than that, but it’s still pretty unimportant in the grand scheme of things.

Its not that it only has 24MP that people are whining or disappointed about its more that one has to buy the R1 (and wait for it ) to have larger MP to do the job they were hoping the R3 would do!

Filling the frame with a subject one third the size of the 24MP sensor is an 8MP subject, filling the frame one third the size of the 48MP sensor is 16MP that's double RIGHT. Now where it comes into real world resolution is when a cropped image from a larger sensor like the 100 MP sensor from the H6D blows the living shit out of a R3 image when printed....Michael that the facts it not that "people are too short sighted to see that, maybe they don’t deserve to own one!" its that when you use the image other that instagram post and your trying to get paid making a living SIZE is the only thing that MATTERS

Sorry but this is waffle. That last sentence is possibly the biggest load of nonsense ive ever read on here.

Your post makes no sense whatsoever.

I just bought a Nikon D3S with a 12 MP sensor. I love it. Larger pixels means more light gathering capability

"Larger pixels means more light gathering capability"

Only in the same generation. My 12MP D700's IQ crumbles in comparison to the 24-26MP APS-C of the last 5-6 years. Still much better than the best m4/3, at least...