For a long time Canon seemed to release their products when they wanted to with no regard for what any of their competitors were doing.
The flies in the ointment for that theory with regard to Canon's mirrorless strategy, though, are the existence of the EOS R and EOS RP.
We have yet to see if the EOS R3 will also be a "one and done" model or not. My personal opinion today leans slightly towards probably not, but yesterday it might have leaned slightly towards probably is a one off, and it may lean back that way again tomorrow. It's still a Schrödinger's cat at this point.
Canon have been the main player and influencer in the DSLR world for as long as the genre has existed. Canon has a vast resource of R&D compared to it's immediate competition (pre Sony). It's also got similar portfolios in other genres that allow it to pool development and integrate technologies across it's product base. They were the first to push optical lens image stabilisation, CMOS sensor architecture (which was counter market at the time, but become the norm).
Sony are Canon's biggest threat in the market place due to it's corporate size and the number of patents it currenlty owns and operates across it's diverse market portfolio, similar to Canon's. Nikon, Olympus, Hasselblad etc...these are weak and niche companies compared to the developement might of Canon and Sony.
Every camera from Canon has been a mule to develop a specific technology or push a specific boundary. In latter years (since the 5DIII & 1Dx, cameras are developed in tandem and their R&D is spead across multiple camera bodies because they are too vast a spend in developement to occurr with just one camera.
The develeopment is usually an exercise to build cheaper, lighter or better in a pre-designated area. Sometimes this area is the AF, sensor design, user interface. Or in the case of the Eos R, a ground up re-envisioning of what a Canon camera will look like and how it will perform. Everything (except the sensor was new). Some features were warmly recieved, others like the weird nav bar was dropped unceremoniously. For me, coming from Manual focus SLR's, AF SLR's, DSLR's, the Eos R was too different and too immature for me to transition to. The AI focus offered some great benefits but was vastly different (and slower to operate) than I was used to. Even now with the R6ii I sometimes wrestle with the AI driven AF to get it to focus and stick on what I want it to. The EVF was vastly different in look and feel to the old school optical viewfinders that I was used too. To me the Eos R was a beta, a bit like the Eos D30. But I was very aware that Canon was investing a small fortune in targetted respurce to develop this new direction and it was the future. The EOS R led to the R5, R6 and RP which were the first run of Canon Mirrorless R series cameras beyond the obviously beta Eos R. Effectively they were Canon's R&D round 2, with a lot of lessons learned. We assume that Canon's intention is to make cameras to sell to us as consumers, but that's not quite right. Canon's makes cameras so they can develop technologies that they can use across it's diverse product portfolio. Each round of camera design and development allows their co-ordinated engineers to push against boundaries and knock on specific doors.
Canon is an impressive company, their focus on market and developement strategy is simply amazing. With this comes a self centered focus that's more interested in their own internal development than what it's competitors are doing. However...Canon these days will have an eye on what Sony are doing and developing.
The R3 is another example of Canon's long game development. It was curiously co-developed with the R6ii with both sharing the jump in AI AF technology. It's this fact has led many to belive that the R3 is in fact a 1 series version of R6 and that the next gen of pro cameras being devleoped is the R1 and R5mkII combo. Some have predicted that the R1 will share the R5ii's MP count and effectively be a top tier 1 series version of the R5. If this is true, then there will at some point be a R3 mkII and a R6 mkIII combo. Canon will refresh these lines because they will want something out of their R&D....not just to provide the market with a newer range of cameras.
Canon's camera division makes most of their money from the lenses not the cameras. The cameras are a R&D loss leader to sell lenses. The R mount is a closed loop ecology. Canon have only a limited time to create a portfolio of lenses becfore it's patents run out and are forced (either legally or by market demand) to allow 3rd party cheaper (but inferior) lens onto their closed platform. If you look over their currnet RF lens catalogue, your will see a lot of top end L lenses, many are the best of breed. Then you will see a lot of excellent bottom tier cheaper lenses, which are the cheapest Canon have ever built. There is hardly anything in the middle ground. Only the new RF 200-800 silver ring lens bridges this gap. Maybe we will see more in this range going forwards?
