Canon R6-II Hands-on: Faster, More Accurate, Less Heating Problems

Two years after the launch, Original EOS R6Canon announced its successor, the $2,500 EOS R6 Mark II. It features a 24.2MP high resolution sensor and faster shooting speeds. The most important thing is that Canon has significantly reduced overheating issues in the previous model.

The EOS R6 was the most powerful camera in this price range at launch. Its speed, powerful video features and excellent Dual Pixel Hybrid Autofocus made it the best. But once again, Sony 2500 dollar A7 IVThe R6 was able to offer similar capabilities, greater accuracy, and no overheating issues.

Canon gave me permission to shoot with R6 Mark II models at a preview event in San Diego. I was able to use them for a few days in various sporting situations. This is not a final review as it still has bugs. However, we were able to share some initial impressions.

Body and handling

The EOS R6 II is more than a minor update copy “A”From the original. It has significant performance and physical improvements, starting with the 24.2MP sensor. It is not, contrary to rumors, the stacked-backlight sensor (BSI). EOS R3 camera; This model is important. It costs a lot.However, it does have some advantages over R6’s 20MP chips.

Canon promises an improved image quality thanks to its new image processing. It also has improved low-light sensitivities despite having slightly smaller pixels. Canon claims that the rolling shutter on the R6 is less.

The R6 also features some exterior modifications. The power/lock/off/power switch is now located to the right, making it easy to reach and difficult to reach accidentally. The new video/photo mode button keeps these functions and their settings separate. Flipping also changes menus. Canon provides a convenient, video-specific Q Menu.

It is about the same size and weight as the R6, and has identical grips and uprights, control layout, and handling. It also uses the display from its predecessor, which can be flipped out for videos and selfies, dual UHS II cards slots, and a 3.67million-dot electronic seefinder. It also has a microphone and headphone port, as well as a USB-C jack (unfortunately) and a microHDMI connector. It features a new IBS but offers the same 8 degrees vibration reduction as the EOS R6.

The battery is identical but Canon improves efficiency by increasing the number of shots from 510 on the R6 to as high as 760 on R6 Mark II. In a single day, I shot over 2,000 photos without changing the battery, using mostly a mechanical shutter—which is impressive.

Performance and image quality

The mechanical shutter burst speeds at 12fps are the same as RAW, full frame. This is good considering that there is an additional resolution. You can shoot RAW footage at 40 fps in silent mode. R6 II has a RAW burst mode that captures RAW files for up to half a second before the shutter clicks. This allows you capture a moment even though you may be reacting slowly. However, it does reduce battery life. I found that the feature allowed me to capture a few shots (outside of thousands) that I wouldn’t have otherwise.

These speeds are great but images can be distorted by excessive rolling shutter (hey Sony), then they are not useful. The rolling shutter is still available, but it is much more controlled than the R6 and less aggressive than what I saw with the A7 IV. It can take many shots (about 70-75 RAW files or 140 compressed RAW file) before the buffer fills. The buffer then resets quickly using UHS-II V90 card. It was nice to see CFexpress for faster and more efficient shooting of video files.

The R6 II’s autofocus, according to the company is more advanced than any Canon model. This includes the R3. It can now deal with people, animals and vehicles, including cars, trains and horses, as well as people and animals. It now has an auto-select option that lets the AI ​​decide what to track, which should be a requirement on every mirrorless camera.

The AI ​​tracked my objective eyes smoothly, but it got lost at times and didn’t live up to Sony’s high standards. Continuous continuous mode (without AI) gave me amazing shots in almost all conditions. The AF was as accurate as the R6’s AF. The AF can sometimes be confused by background or close subjects. These issues can be fixed by the December release date.

RAW files aren’t yet ready for viewing so it is difficult to judge the image quality. The JPEGs were great with the Canon-like warm skin tones, subtle colours, and excellent detail. The low-light capabilities were remarkable, with noise well controlled at ISO6400 and beyond.

Video

The biggest problem with the original EOS R6 was its video, particularly the overheating issues. This model can only shoot 4K 60p at 30 minutes. Then it will freeze for 10 minutes until it cools down enough to shoot again. It is a serious problem that professional photographers have to deal with.

These issues are effectively gone and Canon has also removed the 30 minutes timeout for recording. You can now shoot 4K 60p at 60p for 40 minutes without cropping and can even go further. You can crop 4K 60p for 50 minutes and 4K 30p for up to 50 minutes.

It also has higher video specs. Internally, 4K can be shot at 60fps from the 5.1K sensor or the entire sensor width with some biting. 4K can be taken at 30 fps using the entire sensor width. It now supports 180fps 1080p, an increase from 120fps. Capture files can only be saved to MP4 and Quicktime. This is probably due to UHS II cards. There is no pre-shoot option to capture 3 or 5 seconds of video in one loop before hitting the record button, just like photos.

The camera can also record 10-bit 4K video, and increase dynamic range with HDR PQ and CLog3. You can also shoot 6K raw on an external Atomos recorder. However, this feature is still in development.

Video autofocus tracks people, animals, and cars, just as with photos. In my limited testing, it worked well, focusing only occasionally on the background. Although subject tracking has not been as reliable as it was on the A7 IV so far, it could improve with firmware and other tweaks.

The video was sharp, and I didn’t experience any heat in San Diego where the temperatures were around 80 degrees in sun. 1080p 180p video looks a little poor. It was shot with a few contrasted pixels and 4K cropping has less sharpness than 4K full-frame. The color was excellent and the low-light video capabilities were excellent to excellent.

It is contained

The R6 II has a significantly improved heat issue and is a vast improvement on the R6. It also feels better for photography, thanks to its higher resolution, faster speeds and improved image quality, without the need for an additional stacked sensor.

Canon’s entire RF ecosystem keeps improving. Its latest lens, a 135mm F/1.8, joins 26 full-frame and zoom lenses. This system has been remarkably mature considering that it was only launched four years ago. As they are still in prototype, I cannot give you an accurate assessment of key features such as image quality and autofocus. When the Canon EOS R6 Mark II launches in December, we will be able to give you a complete review.