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I am going to tell you what you need to know upfront - Canon has produced an all-around excellent photography tool at a competitive price. Yes, there are a few drawbacks including the psychological one of downgrading in megapixels for any current Canon full-frame photographers and a few minor concerns that I will address later in this post but overall I am happy to recommend this camera to photographers. The first full-frame mirrorless from Canon that I can recommend.

Let’s start with a little history - Canon released their first full-frame mirrorless, the EOS R, fall of 2018. I was at the launch event in Hawaii and it was full of rainbows - because... Hawaii. Overall though I was less impressed with the camera - a weird control scheme, autofocus that appeared to be sluggish with so-so frame rate, video specs that were behind the competitors, and expensive and limited options for native lenses - though with the affordable adapter you had the option to use all your EF lenses. And of course, that one card slot that so many YouTubers (including myself) had trouble accepting at this price point. In fairness, this was their first full-frame mirrorless. But in fairness to the harshness with which I judged it - it was behind in the times.

Fast forward 18 months and we start to see teasers of new cameras from Canon- one capable of 8k video and for a few months that was all the news. Video video video. Now that we have our hands on the two cameras - The R5 shoots 45MP photos, 8 k video, and costs $3900 the R6 shoots 20MP, 4k at 60p, and costs $2400. If you have been paying attention post-launch you know those early video-focused teasers haven't gone entirely well for Canon with lots of disappointment over real-world performance. primarily with overheating issues while shooting video and even occasionally reports have surfaced that impact photographer. I am reviewing the R6 in this post and primarily approaching this review as a photographer though I did shoot almost 50 clips and recorded one 25 minute clip in direct sunlight just to see if I would run into any issues - despite the thermometer sitting nearby registering 91°F (33°C) in the sun the camera never showed any temperature warnings. With the R6 it seems incredibly rare that photographers will run into any overheating issue when using this camera primarily for photography. Based on reviewers I trust it is a real possibility that you might run into issues when primarily using this camera for video and thus I don’t recommend this camera for heavy video work. As a hybrid camera, you might also run into issues though I expect it would be rare. This all might change with future firmware updates, it’s already gotten a little better at thermal management since launch. But, I don’t want to entirely dismiss video - at this price point nothing else produces this quality of video this easily and now that we have a stabilized sensor - handheld video is very smooth. Just beware the 4k at 60p clips are large and will eat up space - 30-45 seconds of video produces roughly 1-gigabyte files! And I want to stress how easy and enjoyable video is to shoot with this camera - the AF, especially the eye and face tracking is excellent and will easily keep talking heads in focus.

Ergonomics and Usability - Good ol Canon

Canon included their fully articulated, full touchscreen that they do so well. AND they included a focus point joystick! Canon did a good thing using a tried and true control scheme in this camera and I found it a joy to use. Canon has always been a leader in creating cameras that are approachable and easy to use and the touchscreen allows easy access to any section of the menu and makes it super simple albeit a bit slow to change camera settings. Three separate and dedicated dials provide a faster way to change settings and the lens control ring provides an additional point of control! This camera is approachable for beginners and still provides an excellent manual control experience. The menu system makes sense and while the number of features in these new mirrorless cameras has grown it still provides an organized and logical layout. The touchscreen works in the menu making it easy to navigate quickly to the desired settings.

In hand, Canon struck a good balance between creating a smaller mirrorless version of their very ergonomically nice 5D and 6D series and still providing a good grip to helpfully balance with larger lenses.

Customization - My Sony a7Riii sitting next to me has 3 buttons that you can assign a huge range of features and functions to and you can reassign many of the other buttons. Canon has fewer buttons - but does allow you to reassign most of those and nicely allows different functions for photo and video mode. The few small issues I had with usability were all solved once I spent a couple of minutes working through the various options in the menu. In addition, the viewfinder is crisp, bright, and responsive, photographers moving from optical viewfinders should be happy And we do have dual SD card slots! Note - you can’t write video files to both cards at the same time again making this camera less desirable for serious video work.

Auto Focus “Blown Away”

I spent several days testing the AF of the EOS R6 - What I really wanted to see was how it performs for action. Can I now recommend this camera for action and wildlife (birds in flight and our workshops that involve faster animals (Tanzania and Antarctica especially). I am happy to say that the R6 is one of the best in class at capturing action. Default settings out of the box just switched AF to the servo and using the center area for the focus it quickly locked on to the subjects and impressively kept up with subjects moving directly and rapidly toward the camera. The AF area indicator provided reliable feedback on what is in focus and the AF point display on playback was further helpful confirmation. The Eye AF was on target, even if occasionally it reports otherwise, and worked on humans, dogs, and some birds. In some cases, it seems to be guessing at the location of the eye rather than actually detecting it - but those guesses were all close enough that the result was the same - focus where I wanted it.

Catching dragonflies in flight with adapted lenses - EOS R6 with EF 100-400 Mark II using RF Adapter

Autofocus with Adapted Lenses - I used the camera with several EF lenses and especially tested the EF 100-400 mark II and it performed very well. I found performance to continue to be excellent. Fast enough and precise enough to lock onto dragonflies in flight! And it did really well on my favorite action test subject - Archer! I also spent some time comparing autofocus speed against the 5D Mark IV using the 100-400 and I found it easier to get more in focus shots with the R6. Now combine this very good autofocus performance with the fact that the R6 offers 12 fps - very respectable for action or switch to fully electronic shutter which also has the benefit of being completely silent and you get 20 fps! Here is where things get interesting - With the action shots I captured, I don’t see issues using the electronic shutter for capturing action. This is a big deal. Previously I only found the Sony a9 camera series to have fast enough read-out to avoid issues that make electronic shutter something to avoid when shooting action.

Here is Archer running flat out and even out to the end of the paw is sharp with no distortion.

20 frames per second with excellent autofocus and no rolling shutter - this is absolutely the best sports and action camera in its class. Combine that with excellent performance with existing Canon lenses and It’s two thumbs up!

Image Quality “Psychologically Disappointing”

Image quality is very good - Dynamic range and shadow noise are certainly improved over previous models though not quite up to par with competitors on the market, including some that have been out for over a year or more. But the gap is much closer than what it once was.

The bigger issue is Canon's decision to go with 20 megapixels. I am calling this psychologically disappointing. This is less than all other full-frame cameras on the market and for EOS R and Canon 6D or 5d Mark IV owners, it represents a downgrade of megapixels. Who wants to “upgrade” and spend money on fewer megapixels. The good news - the difference between 24Mp and 20MP in the real world is incredibly slight. That’s why I am calling it a psychological disappointment. But for those with existing Canon cameras that might offer 30MP or more - this represents a real barrier for you- it really comes down to how important are the other improvements in this camera? Are you willing to sacrifice some megapixels to “upgrade” to the Canon EOS R6? Or you could choose to spend more for the Canon EOS R5 which offers 45mp, but that is a camera that costs significantly more. Or you could choose to wait for the next version.

I am disappointed that Canon did not include a higher resolution multi-shot mode in either the R6 or R5. It would be nice for still life and landscape photographers to have the option. There is always the possibility that that feature could be added in a future firmware update but I would not buy either of these cameras counting on it.

I mentioned the stabilized sensor for a smoother handheld video. Of course, it is useful for still photos too and it seems to be a bit better than the sensor stabilization that I have in my Sony a7r III. I'm getting sharp handheld shots as long as half a second and that's pretty impressive. The photo above is handheld 24mm at 0.6 seconds.

Ecosystem “sticker shock”

Canon has done a good job of getting RF lenses on the market in the last two years and with few exceptions, these RF lenses are excellent - optically fantastic but expensive. When buying a more budget-minded camera keep in mind that many of the lenses are going to easily cost as much or more than the camera, unaware buyers might experience some sticker shock. There are some exceptions to this and 3rd party RF lenses are starting to appear and of course, with Canon’s adapter you have a HUGE selection of lenses available, and based on my experience autofocus performance can be excellent. This includes newer 3rd party lenses from Sigma too though your experience with older 3rd party lenses is likely to be hit or miss. See the complete list of RF Lenses at B&H Photo

Final Tech Bits - “Battery Flip Flop”

I am happy Canon is continuing to use the same battery form factor that they have been using for over a decade! If you have some version of the LP-E6 Battery it will work in this camera BUT only the new battery, the LP-E6NH supports in-camera USB charging. That newer battery is a higher capacity too. Battery life is decent but you will need at least one spare battery to safely make it through a day of photography or you can plug into a USB power supply that supports power delivery(PD) for charging in the camera but make sure you are not trying to charge an older battery because nothing will happen. I recommend buying at least one spare of the LP E6NH and if you want to keep older LP-E6 batteries around as emergency spares just make sure you clearly mark them to know when you can and can’t USB charge.

Canon’s Wifi app is good - friendly user interface with easy control for selfie photos and video. I really like that bulb mode is easily supported for longer exposures. Though I do find the app to be fairly laggy on my Pixel 4XL. The app allows you to add location data to your photos too.

I never tested the location data because I have this older Canon GPS which I threw on just for fun and it works perfectly. Thank you, Canon for such lovely backward compatibility.

Conclusion

As I said in the beginning Canon has done a great job with the R6 and while psychologically the 20mp does sting a little this is an excellent all-around camera and a solid value. Providing the ease of use that Canon has always excelled at with a camera that performs very well compared to others around this price point. I am happy to recommend this camera to everyone except for serious videographers.

As always if you have any questions leave a comment or reach out to me on Instagram - I want to help you find the best camera for you.

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