Canon EOS R6 – Review 2020

The Canon EOS R6 ($2,499, body only) is the more affordable of the company’s pair of pro- and enthusiast-geared full-frame cameras. It’s built to (almost) the same stringent standards as the 45MP EOS R5 ($3,899), but with a more down-to-earth 20MP pixel count. If you don’t need loads of resolution, it’s the better Canon mirrorless camera to get, as its autofocus, capture speed, and IBIS system are just as good as the high-dollar R6.

A Pro-Grade, Full-Frame Build

Canon has managed to pack quite a bit of camera into the R6’s magnesium frame. The body measures 3.8 by 5.4 by 3.5 inches (HWD) and weighs in at 1.5 pounds—it’s a little bit smaller and lighter than the 7D Mark II, but the R6 sensor is twice the size and mounted to a 5-axis stabilizer.

The R6 gets there with a mirrorless design, one that drops the optics and flapping mirror used by SLRs in favor of an EVF with a direct view from the sensor. It doesn’t feel undersized, either—a textured handgrip and angled shutter release make the R6 feels as comfortable in the hands as a 6D or 5D series SLR.

Canon sells the R6 as a body only, so you can choose your own lens, or in a pair of kits. For $2,899 you get the camera and the compact RF 24-105mm F4-7.1 IS STM. The premium kit, $3,599, includes the RF 24-105mm F4 L IS USM. In addition to native RF lenses, it can use EF lenses (built for Canon SLRs) via an adapter.

RF 24-105mm F4-7.1 IS STM, 24mm, f/4, 1/125-second, ISO 100

The camera is protected from dust and splashes, as are many of Canon’s RF lenses, adding appeal to outdoor photographers.

The RF lens system is growing, and has some designs not offered by others, including exotic F1.2 primes, a unique 28-70mm F2 zoom, and a pair of affordable super-telephoto lenses, the RF 600mm F11 and 800mm F11. Still, there’s some room to grow—Canon has only been building it out for a of couple years, while rival Sony has been making FE lenses for its cameras since 2013.

Strong Ergonomics

The R6 is almost, but not quite, the twin of the pricier 45MP R5. The two share a lot of components, but the top plate controls differ, and the R6’s EVF isn’t quite as sharp (though it’s still excellent).

The buttons you expect on a pro camera are all here, including a depth-of-field preview button next to the lens mount (its function is reassignable, as are many others), and three control dials in total—two on top and one on the rear.

The exposure mode is set via a dial, rather than a button on the R5, and this less expensive camera drops the top information LCD. It’s not a standard for mirrorless—the Nikon Z 6 has it, but the Sony a7 III (still our favorite in the category) doesn’t.

The rear includes a dedicated joystick, used to set the autofocus area and navigate menus, a big upgrade over the mostly useless touchbar that occupied the same real estate on the first-generation EOS R. There’s an AF ON button, for photographers who split focus drive away from the shutter button, along with the expected menu, playback, and delete buttons.

Buttons are supplemented by an on-screen settings menu, launched by pressing the Q button or tapping the Q icon on the touch screen. From there you can set autofocus, image quality, continuous drive, metering, white balance, and other items.

Articulating Screen and EVF

The R6 has two displays—a swing-out screen at its rear, and an integrated electronic viewfinder. The LCD is the same as on the R5, with a very sharp 3.2-inch panel (1.6 million dots), adjustable brightness, and touch support.

The EVF is excellent, with a 0.76x magnification rating similar to others at this price. Its 3.7-million-dot resolution matches what you get with the Nikon Z 6 (and betters the EVF in the aging Sony a7 III), and delivers crisp, lifelike images to your eye.

You may think you’re missing out by not going for the R5 and its higher resolution EVF (5.8 million dots), but the gap between the two is not as vast as figures would suggest. Sure, the R5’s finder is a bit crisper—certainly a plus if you’re punching in for manual focus—but even when working with the two cameras side by side, it’s hard to say that one’s better than the other for the basics.

Power and Connectivity

The R6 sports loads of connectivity options, including integrated Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to connect to a smartphone, tablet, or computer for wireless transfer and remote control. It also has USB-C, and works as a webcam along with the Canon EOS Webcam Utility app.

RF 24-105mm F4-7.1 IS STM, 105mm, f/7.1, 1/160-second, ISO 125

For video, you get a micro HDMI output port, along with 3.5mm microphone and headphone jacks. There’s also a 2.5mm port for a wired remote control. Image and video are saved on SD cards—each of the two memory card slots supports the fastest UHS-II transfer rates.

The camera ships with Canon’s newest battery, the LP-E6NH, the same shape and size as the LP-E6. You can use your old batteries with the R6, but you’ll get fewer shots per charge, and won’t be able to top off via USB-C.

As it stands, the R6’s battery life still leaves something to be desired. It’s good for about 380 shots with the EVF, and can go longer (510 exposures) with the LCD, which doesn’t use as much energy. Of course, how you use the camera matters—you’ll get thousands of exposures if you always fire at 10fps, and fewer if you spend a lot of time reviewing or transferring images.

It’s still less than what SLR owners enjoy. To date, only Sony has delivered a really fantastic mirrorless battery—the a7 III is rated for more than 600 shots through its viewfinder. 

Top-Flight Focus

Canon has been developing its sensor-based autofocus system, Dual Pixel AF, for years, using it as the live view system for many of its SLR cameras. This lead time, along with learning from some of the missteps made with the first-gen EOS R, have born fruit here. Simply put, the R6’s autofocus performance is fantastic, among the best in any camera.

RF 24-105mm F4-7.1 IS STM, 50mm, f/5, 1/500-second, ISO 100

Autofocus is available nearly to the edge of the sensor, and can operate in a number of ways. You’ll be able to let the R6 take charge—it offers face and eye detection, and recognizes objects as well—or you can choose a focus area manually.

I most often used the tracking focus function, combined with AI Servo focus, with a manually selected starting point. The R6 delivers visual feedback to let you know what it’s focusing on—small boxes dance around the frame as it first locks on, and expand to draw a virtual box around the detected subject.

RF 85mm F1.2 L USM DS, f/1.2, 1/640-second, ISO 100

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The camera is quick, too. Its mechanical shutter can rattle off shots at 12fps, and there’s an electronic shutter for silent capture at up to 20fps. You’ll want to stick to the mechanical one for most fast-moving subjects, as the electronic shutter’s readout isn’t quite up to freezing motion—it’s totally fine for many shots, though, and absolutely silent, a boon for wedding photogs.

The buffer is ample, too. If you’re using a fast memory card, like the 300MBps Sony Tough Card I used for testing, you’ll be able to snap hundreds of shots in succession, with no sign of the camera slowing down. The R6 may not be built to the incredible standards of the 1D X Mark III, but it can go toe to toe with the $6,500 pro rig for capturing action.

Stabilized Full-Frame Sensor

The R6 has more than a little bit in common with the high-end 1D X III. The two models use the same 20MP full-frame sensor, and while the R6 is the smaller of the pair, it’s the one that mounts it to a 5-axis stabilizer.

RF 24-105mm F4-7.1 IS STM, 105mm, f/7.1, 1/200-second, ISO 100

The concept itself isn’t new—Minolta (later Sony) and Pentax SLRs have included sensor-based stabilization for ages. And Canon’s competitors in the mirrorless space—Fujfilm, Nikon, Olympus, Panasonic, and Sony—all sell cameras with in-body image stabilization (IBIS).

There are obvious benefits: You can snap handheld images while keeping the shutter open longer, adding blur to moving subjects, but using the stabilizer to keep still objects sharp—and it removes jittery shake from video. The IBIS system also works in conjunction with lenses that include built-in stabilization.

RF 85mm F1.2 L USM DS, f/1.2, 1/1,000-second, ISO 100

As for image quality, the 20MP design doesn’t have as many pixels as a number of its competitors—the Sony a7 III, Nikon Z 6, and Panasonic S1 all use 24MP chips. Pixel count is something to fret over if you’re frequently making large prints or tend to crop your photos, but not for delivery to phone and tablet screens.

If you want or need even more resolution, there are options: the Canon R5, Nikon Z 7, and Panasonic S1R use 45MP sensors, and the Sony a7R IV has a 60MP imager.

RF 24-105mm F4-7.1 IS STM, 50mm, f/5, 1/400-second, ISO 100

The R6 may not deliver quite as much resolution, apparent when you zoom in and examine images closely, but is otherwise an outstanding performer. It has a wide sensitivity range, starting at ISO 100 and going all the way up to 102400 in its standard range, with ISO 204800 available as an extended option.

Images can be saved in a number of formats. Canon includes two types of Raw files, a larger, uncompressed file, as well as the smaller CR3 format (which is what I used for testing, as Canon’s lossless compression doesn’t harm image quality in any discernible manner). Raw files need to be processed using software—Canon includes its own processor with the R6, but most photographers will use Adobe Lightroom or Capture One to tone and edit images.

RF 85mm F1.2 L USM DS, f/1.2, 1/125-second, ISO 125

If you don’t want to edit, you can use the standard JPG format, one that’s been around for decades. The 8-bit, compressed photos look fine, as long as you don’t try to make heavy edits to color or exposure. Raw files, conversely, offer ample room to fine-tune color, open shadows, and recover highlights.

The R6 adds an HEIF capture mode, doubling the amount of information stored in an image versus JPG, with similar file sizes. Unfortunately, it’s not yet broadly supported by software—Adobe and Capture One don’t support it, and until they do, it makes HEIF a little less useful. Canon isn’t the only company using it, and if the format gains more traction, we’d expect wider software support going forward.

RF 24-105mm F4-7.1 IS STM, 105mm, f/7.1, 1/160-second, ISO 320

At lower sensitivity, the R6 delivers clean JPGs, free of grain and noise. Fine detail is strong, with no evidence of smudging or blurring of clean edges, through ISO 12800. There’s certainly a drop in resolution at higher settings, but output is pleasing and usable all the way through ISO 102400. Image quality at ISO 204800 demonstrates why Canon makes it an extended setting—there’s a heavy veil of grain, and colors suffer.

The same is true of Raw output at ISO 204800. Though we do see more grain, it doesn’t translate to more detail—just a rougher appearance. Ratcheting back to ISO 102400—still useful in extremely dim light—nets much better detail, albeit with some visible grain. If you want the cleanest Raw output, set your upper ISO limit to 12800.

A Hot Video Camera, Literally

The Canon R6 is just now going on sale, but its video functions are already a hotly contested topic on discussion forums and other corners of the internet. Overheating has proven to be a real issue with extended recording with the R5, even after a firmware update.

RF 85mm F1.2 L USM DS, f/1.2, 1/800-second, ISO 100

You can ignore initial reports on the R6, though, as it’s a different experience with the updated firmware—I tested version 1.1.1. With it loaded, I was able to continuously record 24fps 4K footage for well over an hour without overheating. The R6 chewed through two batteries in the process, and does limit individual clips to just under 30 minutes

Heat management is still a concern if you’re pushing 4K at 60fps, though. In that mode the R6 netted only 39 minutes of record time before overheating. The updated firmware checks the camera temperature more frequently, so you can go back to recording sooner if you’re able to cool the camera down—after 30 minutes rest, I was able to eke another 28 minutes of 4K60 record time before overheating again.

RF 24-105mm F4-7.1 IS STM, 24mm, f/4, 1/400-second, ISO 100

The R6 isn’t useless for video if it hits the overheating threshold; it can still record at 1080p. But that’s not up to snuff for professional productions in 2020. Using an external recorder will sidestep recording limits—we recommend the Atomos Ninja V. Take care not to snag or yank on the cable—micro HDMI ports are notorious for breaking.

At 4K, the footage itself is excellent, with crisp detail, realistic color, and smooth handheld output, thanks to the stabilized sensor. There are features available for seasoned videographers, including flat profiles with 4:2:2 10-bit compression for more flexibility when grading color, and the option to use an external microphone.

RF 24-105mm F4-7.1 IS STM, 24mm, f/4, 1/100-second, ISO 100

If you’re shopping for a camera that’s primarily for video, though, I’d recommend others more highly than the R6—the Panasonic S1 is the obvious alternative at a similar price, and the while the Sigma fp isn’t an ideal hybrid stills-video shooter, it’s one to think about if you’re shopping for an affordable, full-frame video camera.

The R6 does a better job as a hybrid, though. Its still performance is outstanding all around, and the 4K video looks great. It’s a fine choice for wedding and portrait specialists looking to add some video to client packages, or enthusiasts using the R6 for travel and other personal work. 

Canon’s Best Mirrorless Camera

Canon photographers who have been waiting for a full-frame mirrorless camera to replace a 5D or 6D series SLR will be well served by the EOS R6. It avoids some of the ergonomic missteps made with the first-gen EOS R, and delivers a much more responsive autofocus system—one that’s just as good as you get from Sony.

RF 24-105mm F4-7.1 IS STM, 82mm, f/7.1, 1/125-second, ISO 125

Photographers used to Canon’s way of doing things will find the R6 welcoming. The dials and buttons are similar to older SLR models, and while the optical finder has been swapped for an EVF, the handling is similar enough to minimize any sort of learning curve.

Heat management for video recording is the only real sticking point, and it’s only a real concern when pushing 60fps at 4K—something many other cameras, including the Sony a7 III and Nikon Z 6—don’t support at all.

Photographers who prefer more pixels have a number of options available. Our favorite is the Sony a7R IV, and the Canon EOS R5 isn’t that far behind—but, like the R6, it runs a bit hot, limiting appeal for video-first creators.

The EOS R6 is a better buy for most. It delivers the same level of autofocus acumen and speed, is built to high standards, and works with all of the same RF lenses. Sure, there are fewer pixels, but it’s also priced a full $1,400 less.

The Sony a7 III isn’t the latest camera, and doesn’t match the R6 feature for feature, but it remains a stronger value, and our Editors’ Choice. For $2,000, it nets excellent autofocus, a class-leading 24MP image sensor, and benefits from a larger library of native lenses as well as nearly double the battery life.

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