[Music] Foreign Hi I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here today To give you my definitive video review Of the new Canon EOS R6 Mark II now the EOS R5 and R6 in my mind were the Breakthrough cameras for Canon on the Full-frame mirrorless space prior to That both the EOS R and the OS RP had Serious shortcomings but the R5 and the R6 showed that Canon was ready to Compete on a merit-based level with Competitors from either Sony or Nikon a Few years have passed now but we see That the R6 is the first of these models To get a Mark II version or a second Generation and what I have found is that There are some clear obvious Improvements on paper but overall what My takeaway is from the R6 Mark II is This is a camera that is has gotten a Lot of additional polish in going into That second generation and so some of The shortcomings of the original R6 have Certainly been resolved here along with Some key headline Improvement including A new 24 megapixel sensor a faster burst Rate which is up to 40 frames per second An electronic shutter mode which is Blazing fast obviously Next Generation Focus largely inherited from the High-end EOS R3 and improved video specs As well so is this the mid-level camera To buy at a price tag of around 2500 US
Dollars today's review is about Discovering the answer to that question And we'll dive right into it right after A word from our sponsor Today's episode is brought to you by Phantom wallet the minimalist modern Wallet that is now even better with the New Phantom X that is crafted from Aluminum right here in Canada it is 22 Percent smaller and 35 percent lighter While still making it easy to access Your cards and money when you need them Thanks to their unique Fanning mechanism You could even customize your wallet due To its modular design with accessories Like a money clip cash holder ID display And even chipolo and air tag tracking Integration visit Store.fanumwallet.com to check out their Unique sizes Styles and finishes that Span from aluminum to Wood to carbon Fiber and use code Dustin 15 for 15 off When you're ready to check out So the first thing that stands out about The R6 Mark II is how familiar it feels And really that's a good thing this is a Camera that you can immediately become Familiar with with one major exception Its overall dimensions are very very Similar to that of the R6 with just a Little bit less weight to it but this is A camera that if you have been using any Of Canon's full frame mirrorless bodies Is going to feel very familiar in the
Hand it's got a great grip I will note Unlike a lot of Sony cameras there's Enough room there that even when you're Using a fairly wide lens your knuckles Are not rubbing up against it so I Really love the grip there I also like Both of the optical interfaces here we Have a 3.69 million Dot evf and the Thing that stands out to me about Canon's evf is that at the moment right Before you take a photo it doesn't have That kind of blurry quality that happens To Sony's evfs I use Sony cameras all The time I really like them but that's One thing that kind of puzzles me that Even in the high-end Alpha One the Viewfinder itself gets just kind of Squirrely right at the moment when You're half depressing the shutter Before you take the image cannons don't Do that and so it's a little bit more of An engaging experience through the evf We also have a three inch fully Articulating 1.62 million dot evf touch Screen and the touch screen itself as Always for Canon is very responsive it's A genuine joy to use something that Canon has done really well for quite a Long time beyond that there are Relatively few changes to the overall Button placement and ergonomics of the Previous generation camera there's also A minor change to the joystick that is Now curved out rather than curved in not
Sure it's a positive change however Because it seems like the other was a Little bit easier to distinguish from Buttons around it by feel because of the Unique curved end design on it there Continues to be dual UHS 2 card slots no Change there the ports on the left side Are virtually the same and unfortunately A negative is that we continue to have a Just a micro HDMI port and for a camera That does have quite decent video specs Going to that standard I think is going To be a disappointment for many people That would be looking for a little bit More of a robust port for HDMI there We are utilizing the same battery and Battery grip though I will note that Battery life has been improved through Some Wizardry to where you're now Getting up to 760 shots per charge and You know very often you'll actually get Better than that I found the battery Battery life to be really robust one Negative I did find however is that Rather than many other cameras that seem To getting be getting more and more Standardized that you can charge the Battery inside the camera now we have Gone away from that in the USBC Port it Requires an adapter if you're actually Going to charge battery and camera so That's a step back from what I've seen In some previous model not a change that I personally like there are some
Improvements to the communications there In the USB slot including the ability to Connect it directly to a phone via a MiFi rated cable and so you could have Direct control of the camera from a Phone which obviously removes some of The sometimes glitchiness that comes With a wireless type connection also you Can use it directly as a 1080p webcam Obviously an advantage thing and the Wi-Fi standard is slightly improved Where you're getting a little bit faster Communication now something that is both A positive and a negative is that we now Have a dial that allows you to switch Between a movie setup for the camera and A still set up for the camera so you can Obviously have unique custom buttons Unique menu settings depending on which Of those modes you're in but Unfortunately Canon chose to put that Exactly where they had the on off switch Before and the feel overall feel of the Switch is very similar so those of us That have a lot of muscle memory for Example I've owned the EOS R5 for years Now I'm very familiar with reaching to What feels like a very familiar switch To turn the camera on and off only to Discover that rather than turning it on Or off I'm actually just switching Switching between Stills and video they Have moved the on off switch over to the Right side of the camera here on top
With lock in between some would argue That that makes more sense to allow you To have a one-handed turning on One-handed control there as you grab the Camera though it is somewhat of an Awkward it requires you using a kind of Your forefinger to come up here to reach It frankly I preferred the on off switch Where it was I would have preferred them Put the switch between video and stills Over here rather than have something That is completely different in terms of The ergonomics and the muscle memory From all of the other cameras that Canon Has so not crazy about that Also I will note that just as a general Observation on the system that Canon Continues to remain closed to Third-party lenses and that's something That is a serious consideration if You're thinking about buying a camera From Canon as opposed to any other brand I will note for those of you that have Watched over the years and watched my Reviews of the samyang 14 millimeter F 2.8 and then also 85 millimeter F 1.4 Lenses that samyang is no longer Producing because of Canon I think Probably threatening them for using Those protocols they do continue to work On the R6 Mark II at least for this Point and so I was very happy to see That one of the major improvements that We've already highlighted here is an
Improvement to the overall shutter Performance now while we continue to Have 12 frames per second with the Mechanical shutter which frankly is About as good as we're seeing from any Camera at this point we can now go up to 40 frames per second with the electronic Shutter also with the electronic shutter Your shutter speed limit go goes from One eight thousandth of a second to one Sixteen thousandth of a second Now there is a slightly reduced buffer Depth compared to the original R6 Probably because we have a larger sensor And some more information going through The pipeline and so there is a limit if You're shooting at the 40 frames per Second to where you're only going to get About two seconds of a burst however I Did find I could use compressed raw or C-raw and dramatically improve that Buffer depth for example in this Sequence I fired off 89 shots very very Quick 40 frames per second zero problems No slowdown I could have gone for much Further with that there's also a new Feature called raw Burst Mode that when Enabled it begins to take shots even Before you fully depress the shutter Making sure you catch that moment that You might have otherwise missed it Records at 30 frames per second and so Gives you a lot of frames to choose from Even before that crucial moment when you
Press the shutter if you're shooting With just recording in jpegs by the way You're not going to have any kind of Issues with buffer depth you can get a Thousand plus without any issue there And so in many ways there there are some Limitations in that buffer is reduced a Bit it's not going to be as robust Particularly if you want to shoot full Raw images compared to a dedicated Sports camera like the R3 however this Does really Excel as a budget Sports Camera because really if you're going to Shoot in Sea raw which I often do you Really don't have a lot of limitations In terms of buffer depth and obviously You have amazing autofocus which we'll Get to in just a second and you have That really fantastic burst rate to draw From The autofocus system here as noted Continues to evolve and improved and Inherits a lot of the technology that Went into the r3s autofocus so that Gives us auto focus coverage over Basically 100 of the frame in both the Horizontal and vertical axes I found That tracking is sticky and intuitive I Also really really like the visual Engagement that comes with Canon's Focus System here you can really see what Tracking is doing and it gives you some Options right on screen to make some Changes to maybe switch over to a
Different eye for example and so it Gives you some options right there I Found obviously in that basketball Sequence that tracking was effortless Even going through mixed light over Multiple shots very very clean results I Did try to go into a butterfly Conservatory and try to track that Action and I found that to be a really Challenging subject the behavior and the Flight patterns of butterflies is really Kind of erratic and you could tell that The focus system wasn't nearly as Adept At tracking that as it is tracking birds Or human activity at the same time However I suspect that this is probably A fairly common problem it's not a Scenario I've shot in a lot and I'm sure That I could improve my technique as Well but there is certainly still going To be some limit limits to tracking Depending upon your subject matter I did find very few limits however when It came to tracking action in event Settings uh didn't seem to matter what Direction the face was it just did a Flawless job and as I went through image After image of shooting I just found That all of them were perfectly focused So I was very very impressed with Autofocus performance I also found that The low light performance was very good It is sensitive down to about minus 6.5 EV which is obviously very very good and
So in very limited lighting situations For example this bookshelf and Essentially a dark room I was able to Focus without any slowdown what really Impressed me is actually I went out to Shoot Astro with the camera and without Realizing I was still in auto focus mode And as I depressed the the shutter Thinking I was just going to actually Begin to pull up Um you know an on-screen distance scale I actually saw that it autofocused and In it correctly autofocused on a star Point which is something that I've Almost never seen so I was very very Impressed by that at also there's a new Feature here that I really love and I Dearly hope that that Sony copies this Feature and that is that there is an Auto subject detection I've really found In times past particularly with Sony That if you have the wrong subject Enabled it can really play Havoc with The focus system and it's kind of Learning abilities being able to have That auto detection here means that I Really didn't have to worry about Selecting whether I was shooting a human Subject animal subject bird you know a Playing car Etc it just you know Instinctively Drew on the right subject And I found that it worked well enough That I never felt like I needed to Switch there and so I was really
Impressed by that feature and it's Something that I'm really glad to see Canon Implement I also found that video AF was exceptionally good very good Stickiness and tracking eye subject and A lot of that same tracking technology That I saw in Stills is carrying on to The video side as well overall we have a Great Focus system and if you're using C-raw this is essentially or jpeg this Is is essentially an extremely effective Sports camera on a budget Speaking of video we have some improved Video specs both in the specifications But also in the overall performance of The camera first of all we now have 4K 60 available to us with 6K over sampling And that allows you to get a full sensor Readout without any kind of crop factor When you are shooting in 4k 60 which is Something like a competing camera the A74 it has it you know it has a Definitely a crop factor that makes it You know changes your angle of view if You want to shoot in 4k 60. that's not The case here so I like that there is However an aps-c mode available and so That allows you to use you know EFS or RFS Mount crop sensor lenses or to just To get more reach if you want to change For that framing But on the Practical side there's a few Things that really just help boost the Performance in general and that first of
All is that Canon seems to have done Something to fully resolve the Overheating issues and so that this Doesn't seem to be a problem at this Point also we no longer have any kind of Recording limit and when you're wanting To shoot kind of slow motion action you Can actually shoot up to 180 frames per Second in full HD to really get slow Motion as you can see in this shot of Just water falling into a sink You also continue to have specs like C Log 3 or HDR PQ and I'm reminded of the Fact that it doesn't seem like all that Long ago where I was paying Canon 100 Bucks to just add C log to my 5D Mark IV Now it's just kind of second nature the Features like that and more are included In these cameras we've come a long way You can also output 6K prores raw files To an Atmos ninja recorder and so this Gives you another option there Canon Also has implemented a focus breathing Compensation similar to what Sony has Though at this stage it is limited to Certain lenses and unfortunately I Didn't have any of those lenses on him Kind of surprisingly the 24 to 105 F4 Lis that I used you know for a lot of This review is not one that's on that List at this moment though I suspect That they will broaden that in the Future much like what is available in The Raw burst mode where you can kind of
Pre-record before you fully engage the Shutter you also have a similar option Like that for capturing video that is Going to always just give you a little a Few extra seconds of recording Beforehand just to make sure that you Get that crucial shot so a lot of Positive things on the video front here As well As noted we have an all-new 24 megapixel CMOS sensor now Canon already did have a 24 megapixel sensor in the Eos R3 that However was a stacked uh sensor this is Not a stacked sensor it is an all-new Sensor and what I found is that we have Slightly improved dynamic range slightly Better ISO performance it delivers Really highly detailed images for a 24 Megapixel sensor you know 24 megapixels Is not all that impressive as a Resolution point however it is four Megapixel higher than what the original R6 was but because of this newly Designed sensor and its ability to Capture more detail I think that you Would probably see a little bit more Detail and a little bit better Improvement to resolution than even what That four megapixel suggests as before We have no MRA or L raw smaller file Size options here when it comes to Raw Images we just have the compression Options there at 24 megapixels uh of Sensor that's probably less of an issue
I would suspect we'll dive in we'll take A closer look at the sensor performance And so you can see what I'm talking About for yourself so let's start by Looking at what is a typical Canon Strength for its sensors and that is Great color rendition you can see from The shot that obviously we've got really Beautiful detail on it but as you look At the colors there's just something That's really pleasing there's a nice Level of saturation this is a raw image With basically no editing to it at all But at the same time colors are not like Over saturated or over garish the other Thing that Canon claims about this new Sensor is that it's able to produce Really high resolution images or high Detail images I should say even at its 24 megapixel level and so they claim it Actually produces detail better than say The 30 megapixel sensor on the 5D Mark IV I no longer have a 5D Mark IV to make That direct comparison but I will say This it definitely produces some of the Finest detail that I've seen from a 24 Megapixel sensor and I've reviewed a lot Of them this is at F 1.4 and obviously a Shot of myself and you can see that There's just there really is a lot of Detail there now obviously you're not Going to go in as as many pixels in Terms of the kind of Zoom going to a Pixel level but detail is really strong
Here's another one from the 35 Millimeter F 1.4 L Mark II lens via Adapter EF mount lens and you can see It's a sharp lens you can see a little Great great detail there on Nala's face And then as I talked about just kind of The general color and impression of the Lens it produces a really nice result Here's an event setting this is using The 24 to 105 f4l is and so you can see That the detail is really really Fantastic the colors are really pleasing It just worked really really well in an Event setting in terms of the focus it Was just Flawless for its focus and just Really delivered nice looking results And this is all shot at ISO 3200 which You can see you would never know that it Is completely clean there's really Nothing to point to even as far as noise To say oh that's that's a high ISO shot So according to photons to photos we Have got roughly 11 and a half stops Just right over that of dynamic range Which puts this definitely in the top Five of all-time Canon sensors Canon's Best sensor by their chart test are Right under 12 stops of dynamic range And by the way this is not just kind of The marketing hype that you know some People put out camera manufacturers but This is you know their actual test under Real kind of more real world conditions And so that's a really really strong
Performance it actually Compares fairly Favorably with a lot of sensors from Other companies as well so here's a look At a correctly exposed image we'll take A look first at underexposing to see how It holds up in terms of Shadow recovery As a part of dynamic range so here we Have the correct exposure here this is a Three-stop of underexposure here on the Right that has been recovered I'll show You the before image in just a moment But taking a quick look at the shadow Area we can see that we've recovered Without any kind of ugly noise there's No discoloration anywhere the image Looks really really clean up here in the Color swatches at three stops literally No problem you would never know that This is a recovered image there on the Right here's four stops and you can see That we're still recovering very very Cleanly if we take a look in here close At the timer face no noise to see there Looking in the shadow area I don't see Any noise I don't see any discoloration Or banding I don't see anything ugly in There on the mirror in a darker covered Area and over here it's gotten just ever So slightly rougher but still extremely Clean now it's between four and five Stops where I finally see any kind of Real evidence of underexposure issues And so here you can see I mean that is It's you know completely lost and so
We're covering but you can see just a Little bit of color banding Discoloration places that are there Blotches in the uh in the grip there of The SLR if we look down in this area we Can see not only is it looking a little Bit rougher but also there's some Evidence to me that looks like some Smoothing that's being done by the Sensor to help to correct for it I'm not A big fan of that but you can see that It's somewhere between four and five Stops that things start to fall apart And here you can just see that we got Some kind of magenta color discoloration Here so it's just not a Flawless Recovery there so in terms of highlight Recovery here this is at two stops of Overexposure you can see that that is a Very obviously Overexposed image we can See looking up here in the swatches that We're recovering colors quite nicely Over on this side things that have been Lost some of these Shades of Gray and Then also some of these colors that have Been brought back the front of the timer Face looks you know it's not like banded Or blotchy it looks good and then we can See in areas that would have been kind Of blown out spots where texture has Been lost texture has been regained just Fine that's a good good result there now We can see if we move on to three stops Of overexposure it's just a little bit
Beyond what the sensor is able to do It's not a complete loss but we can see That we haven't gained back all of the Proper color from the front of this There's a little bit of some blown out Areas here where texture hasn't come Back there still looks good but you know There's a few places here like for Example right there you can just it just Doesn't quite look right probably in a Critical situation you could get away With this in some situation but you can See that there are some colors that have Been lost and have not really come back There and um you know so example we had Color here before we've lost that now if You move on to the four stops of Um overexposure you can see it is a Complete lost cause even after trying to Pull things back lots of colors gone Lots of texture is gone there's hot Spots everywhere and it just has a Completely unnatural look to it so you Can almost get three stops not not quite I would say you get probably two and a Half stops cleanly of a highlight Recovery so that adds up to a pretty Good result that is better than many Many Canon cameras and also cameras from Other brands not quite at Canon's very Best level but for some real world Observations I mean here's an image Obviously where a lot of the sky had Been blown out here I was able to
Recover that very cleanly and it will Just you know dial in uh also a little Bit of kind of deepening of the black Levels and so as a byproduct you know We've got a much better looking image After recovery other than oh there were Some that's some snowflakes that were in The air I was wondering where these Spots are coming from you can see a Little bit more over here yeah it was Was snowing as I took this shot but you Can see that it has recovered quite Nicely there one final image this one is Not quite technically perfect you can See a little bit of junk here and that Is partly yes some snow in the air but Also the bigger thing is that I was Shooting through a window and it was not Completely clean let's just say but what I want to point out here is that we've Got lots of information everywhere that Could recover in the shadows there and Then here in the highlights to where I Could pull out some drama and what was a Blown out sky to begin with and and just In general as you look throughout the Image lots of detail a good dynamic Range a good recovery that allows me to Produce a dynamic image out of just one Frame there so where things get even Better is when we talk about our the High ISO performance again looking at a Base exposure here we'll jump right to Sixteen hundred so base exposure ISO
1600 we can see looking here that you Know it looks in terms of the milkiness There and the the Shadows it looks very Very good very clean no apparent noise Here at 3200 looking in the color Swatches they also look nice and clean Overall it is a really great looking Result between 1600 and 3200 we see that Things continue to hold up real really Well textures and contrast looks good Shadow area looks clean as we look along Here on the the table top we can see That there's really no visible noise if It if what is there is just so fine that It's never going to be an issue from 3200 to 6400 this is typically where you Start to see the image start to erode But here other than a little bit of very Fine noise it's still looking really Really clean no color blotching or Banding looking up here in our swatches They look nice and clean Shadows are Still nice and Inky jumping on up to 12 800 you can see looking at it globally That the image looks you know basically The same there's no color shift and so You can see the noise is intensifying Some but it's still just a very fine Grain there it's nothing ugly about it We're not yet seeing any kind of hot Pixels really that are messing up the Shadows and so we still have a decent Looking contrast looking at the image Overall
If we take a step further up to twenty Five thousand six hundred once again Looking at it globally that's certainly An image you would use and not be too Concerned about if we jump in and look At a pixel level you can see that the Noise is getting a little bit rougher You can see there on the mirror of the SLR if we look down here it's getting to A place where you know you would start To debate whether or not you could use That there is starting to be some you Know hotter pixels up here that makes it Not quite as as black in terms of the Shadows but again at a global level if You weren't needing to crop deeply into An image you could obviously still get Away with that I would argue that in Some situations you might even still get Away with fifty one thousand two hundred Particularly if it's a situation where You don't need amazing contrast now you Can see we are starting to get some Patterning that's going on out there It's I would certainly not prefer to use 51 200 but at the same time I can't say That the image is completely Fallen Apart there might be applications Editorial stuff style where you could Still get you know a decent shot out of That now typically at the very end of The range in this case the native range Runs to 102 400 Which is higher than Usual and you can see that at this point
There are so many kind of hot pixels in The shadow area that Shadows are toast But what I will commend this for I Wouldn't use this image here on the Right but I will say this I also don't See a major color shift which I very Often do at the end of iso range as to Where the image just looks like complete Garbage that's not the case here again I Wouldn't prefer to use it and but at the Same time you know the colors are still Relatively natural it hasn't gone a big Shift towards green or magenta the Shadows are really where things are are Garbage but you can also see that the Noise pattern is not terrible terrible And again that color shift to stay true So that's that's really something very Admirable about this sensor I took this Shot just kind of testing low light Performance for autofocus and what you Can see here is this is twenty five Thousand six hundred that's a really Really clean real world result right There I mean again I would say that is a Completely usable image right there we Don't have a lot of really dark shadows Where some of the noise shows up more And so as a byproduct I'm pretty Impressed by that end result likewise Here also shooting into my cabinet which Has a lot of Shadows obviously I'm Shooting into a lens cabinet it's dark And it's you know black lenses and a
Black interior so not a great situation And here we got all of that dark area You can see some of that you know kind Of swirl pattern that's in that in terms Of the actual subjects though I mean There's still a lot of detail there Um the noise is very acceptable on those And so again I I'm pretty impressed with The high ISO performance this is one of The best that I have seen so as you can See the Canon EOS R6 Mark II is a very Well-rounded camera that does pretty Much everything well what I prefer to Higher resolution Point absolutely I Would love to see something around 30 Megapixels I think it would have been an Absolute home run at that point but at The same time there are some very clear Advantages here relative to the Competition for the R6 Mark II I would Say that it does a much better job of Impersonating a sports camera than what Its competing cameras will do and while There is some give and take maybe in Some areas if you're looking for Something that can capture fast action Something that'll work really well for Sports or for wildlife birds in Flight Things like that I think that this is a Very intriguing option it's a lot of Camera for this particular price tier And so I think for a certain audience it Is going to be a very attractive option I'm Dustin Abbott and if you look in the
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