Thomas A Anderson wrote:
archerscreek wrote:
yayatosorus wrote:
According to DP Review , the R3 will indeed feature a 24 megapixel sensor.
I see many continue to hold out hope, reasoning that it’s possible Cable and other R3 shooters submitting images simply don’t want to shoot anything higher than 24 MP. The flaw with that line of reasoning, however, is that Cable is also shooting with two R5 cameras in his gear bag and is submitting images with higher resolutions than the R3 ones. If the R3 had a higher resolution potential, it would have shown up.
It’s time to admit it and get over your disappointment. The R3 is a 24MP camera.
It also stands to reason that when they're working on a new technology, in this case a BSI CMOS, that they wouldn't instantly have the highest pixel density available. They had to come up with the architecture, the manufacturing tooling and processes, and then prove that it could be mass produced. The only way to do that is to do it. And a proof of concept is great, but making money off of the result is even better. So they get it all figured out on a lower MP sensor, start cranking out sensors, work through all the bugs at a low rate initial production, and slowly ramp up. Then, once all those details are worked out they can work on cramming twice as many pixels in (again, not only BSI but also DPAF, which means they're already doing 48MP on a 24MP output sensor) and get a decent yield.
I could not agree more with that last. This is a testbed camera for the new sensor fab technology and process, and for the reintroduction of eye control focus. The EOS-3 was a great camera when it was introduced, but its biggest purpose was to test-run the CMOS-based 45 point AF sensor and the expanded eye control focus. We never saw an EOS-3n or EOS-3v. I suspect we won’t see an R3 Mark II either.