The Canon EOS-3 is a 35mm single-lens reflex, or SLR, camera made for advanced amateurs and professional photographers. It is considered a high-quality camera because it includes a 45-point auto-focus system, 18 custom functions and it allows eye-controlled auto-focus. It works with all the Canon auto-focus lenses and Speedlites and weighs 780 grams -- not including the lithium battery.
Unit and Main Components
The Canon EOS-3 is a 35mm auto-focus and automatic exposure single lens reflex camera with a focal-plane shutter and a built-in motor drive. It takes picture sizes of 24mm by 36mm and is compatible with Canon electro-focus lenses. It contains a Canon EF lens mount and works with external flashes such as evaluative-through the lens auto-flash, advanced-through the lens auto-flash and through the lens auto-flash. The LCD panel shows you shooting, metering, auto-focus and film advance modes, as well as what the shutter speed is set to, what the frame counter is and how much battery power you have available.
Viewfinder
The EOS-3 has an eye-level pentaprism viewfinder that shows 97 percent of the picture coverage both vertically and horizontally. It has a .72x magnification and a -1 diopter adjustment -- 20mm eye relief. It features nine different types of changeable focusing screens and includes a quick-return half mirror, which does not allow vignetting with a EF 1200mm f/5.6 lens or smaller. The EOS-3 also features a depth-of-field preview button.
Auto-focus
This Canon model has a through the lens area secondary image registration auto-focus that includes a complementary metal oxide semiconductor sensor. It features auto-focus with 45 focusing points and allows both automatic and manual selection of these focusing points, as well as allowing for eye-controlled focus. The EOS-3 has five different focus modes, one shot, predictive AF with Al Servo AF, manual focusing, full-time manual focusing and in-focus indicator. The AF working range is an exposure value of 0 to 18 at International Organization for Standardization 100 and it also features an AF assist method, which automatically emits a beam by the attached EOS Speedlite when it is needed.
Exposure Control
The EOS-3 allows for six metering modes, including evaluative, partial, center spot, spotmeter, multi-spot and center-weighted averaging. The range of metering is EV 0 to 20. This model also features nine different exposure modes, such as program AE, aperture-priority AE, shutter speed-priority AE, E-TTL program flash AE, A-TTL program flash AE, TTL program flash AE, bulb and manual. The film speed range is ISO 6-6400, and the camera has an auto AE lock that works in one-shot AF mode with evaluative metering and manual AE lock with the lock button working in all metering modes.
Shutter and Flash
The shutter used by the EOS-3 is of a vertical-travel, focal-plane type. It features a shutter speed of 30 to 1/8000 seconds in 1/3 stops and X-sync (flash synchronization) at 1/200 seconds. The shutter is released electromagnetically and the self timer is electronically controlled and can be set to two or 10 second delays. The built-in flash has hot shoe X-sync direct and below camera black latch flash contacts.
Film loading and Transport
The Canon EOS-3 allows film to automatically load using a sprocket-less system. This system and the roller motor also automatically allow the film to be advanced on during continuous shooting. The camera will then automatically rewind the film once it has been used, which takes around four to five seconds for a 24-exposure roll. Continuous shooting on the EOS-3 set in the continuous advance mode -- using one 2CR5 lithium battery as recommended -- allows for a maximum of 4.3 frames per second.
Tags: also features, Canon EOS-3, lens auto-flash, program flash, Canon EOS-3 35mm