Sports shooters compared: the Canon EOS R3 versus the Sony a9 II

What a time to be a photographer, especially one who has their eyes and lenses set on photographing fast action. We live in an age where even compact cameras have insane autofocus and burst speeds, and many midrange full-frame mirrorless cameras out there can capture bursts of images that put the sports DSLRs of yore to shame.

Enter the EOS R3. It’s the first truly action-focused mirrorless camera we’ve yet seen from Canon, and it looks like they’ve thrown an awful lot into it. With an all-new 24MP stacked CMOS sensor and sophisticated autofocus algorithms, it’s only natural to take a look at how it compares to Sony’s a9 Mark II. The spec similarities in resolution, autofocus capability and speed are uncanny.

But these days, competition between manufacturers isn’t just about specs (regardless of how much their marketing departments want you to think so). Instead it’s a combination of technical capability and the experience of using the device that’s most important (as well as professional support for these particular options). So that’s what we’ll take a look at here: how these two high-end sports-shooting mirrorless cameras stack up in the hand, as well as on paper.