A quick follow-up to Canon’s new firmware for the EOS R3 V1.2.0. One of the new advertised features is:
Adds the ability to set “Custom high speed continuous” to the Drive mode. It is possible to shoot from 2 to 50 images continuously at a speed of approximately 30 to 195 fps.
A few things to note about this new feature after experimenting post firmware update: By default Hc (High-Speed Custom) is disabled in the new firmware update. You need to go into the menu custom orange functions (menu 3 Restrict Drive modes) and enable it. Then you can set the number of frames per second for Hc (Between 30 and 195 in 10 shot increments) and the number of shots taken (from 2 to 50) using the ‘info’ button. Importantly, this new Hc mode has NO effect on the workaround to shoot 30 FPS continuously in High Speed + mode (See Here). You still need to be in H+ mode for that and not the new High-Speed Custom mode. Hc mode is the new custom mode that is restricted to a max of 50 frames per burst. There is no way to go beyond 50 frames per burst in Hc mode regardless of the FPS you set.
195 FPS with 50 frames happens in just .26 of a second (a great way to get a lot of frames very quickly!). So it’s a nice gimmick.. but pretty useless for the decisive moment capture unless you get very lucky with your shutter release. In fact, my feeling is this new feature is really nothing more Nikon has it, so Canon must too (Nikon can only do it in jpeg – Canon in RAW). Yes, you can get 195 FPS RAW 50 images; but it happens in such a split second that your chance of capturing the decisive moment is basically zero. Off the top of my head, I cannot think of an application where this might be useful? Even dialing down the FPS to 100 with 50 frames is still only .5 of a second shooting; making it very difficult to get the shutter release timing correct to capture the decisive moment.
What I would have personally preferred, would have been a ‘pre-record’ feature such as that found in the RED Epic Camera or even in the Olympus OM-1. The ability to pre-record, so as not to miss the decisive moment would be far more beneficial in my opinion. Perhaps we will see this feature in the next update.
Videographers will no doubt be delighted however at the new 200 FPS option in FHD in the new firmware version 1.2.0.
I will admit I am also intrigued by this new feature: Adds the ability of Cloud RAW processing functionality. RAW processing with the latest image processing technology is possible. This is a paid service that requires the purchase of a Canon Imaging App Service Plan, which will be available starting July 25, 2022. We will have to wait for the new Canon Imaging APP to ascertain how useful this feature is and exactly what it includes. Checking the APP store today (July 23rd, 2022) shows no such application is available.
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