You'll also find that the camera's 20MP sensor has enough resolution to allow cropping without excessive quality loss, provided the image was taken at low ISO. As you'd expect, you'll find that some detail is lost at high ISOs, although we didn't start seeing this problem until ISO 20,000. The R6 also handles noise quite well.
We took a series of images on a very sunny day to find images that looked flat and lacked detail. Compared to the EOS 6D Mark II, we found its 26MP to have slightly more detail and texture than the R6, as you can see in the side-by-side 50% crop JPEG comparison above.
Tested Features of Canon R6
- slow-mo
- 4k video
- iso
- grains
- color tone
- W.B
- picture style
- blur
- bokeh
- low light
- picture quality
- touch screen
- auto light optimization
- burst shoot
- autofocus
- Sharpness
Canon R6 features a rating in Photography
- iso range: 10\10
- color tone: 9\10
- white balance: 9\10
- background blur: 10\10
- bokeh effect: 10\10
- grains coverage: 10\10
- highlights & shadows detail: 10\10
- autofocus: 10\10
- jpeg quality: 9\10
- continuous shooting speed: 10\10
- depth of field: 10\10
- live view photography: 9\10
- eye tracking: 10\10
- flashlight photography: 10\10
- HDR mode: 10\10
- Touch Screen Focus: 9\10
- sharpness: 10\10
- image stabilization: 9\10
Key features of Canon R6
- 20MP Full-Frame CMOS sensor
- DIGIC X image processor
- 4K60p and FHD 120p 10-bit internal video
- Sensor-Shift 5-axis image stabilization
- 3.69 MP EVF | Sensitive Electronic Viewfinder (EVF)
- 3˝ 1.62 MILLION DOT VARIABLE LCD TOUCH SCREEN
- DIGIC X PROCESSOR
- MULTI-CONTROLLER (AKA AF JOYSTICK)
- MODE SELECTION
- EYE DETECT AF + ANIMAL DETECT AF
- 2X SLAT ON SD CARDS
- SUPPORTS THE HEIF FILE FORMAT
While the R6 handled the resolution of stripes across the glass wall of the ferry dock really well, the 6D II had more detail on the dock roof and water surface. Even the colors on the R6 look flatter compared to DSLRs.
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This means that these are standard JPEG files - if you shoot HEIF files, the R6's 10-bit dynamic range will come into play and you'll be able to capture a greater tonal range. Note that software support for HEIF is still limited, although it's the default file format for Apple's Photos app, and you can convert all HEIFs to JPEG in-camera.
But it was the image stabilization that we wanted to test the most and, boy, did it impress. Paired with the RF 24-240mm f/4-6.3 IS USM lens, which itself has 5 stops of built-in image stabilization, we should have gotten a total of 6.5 EV of compensation, according to Canon's own claims. This means that at an effective focal length of 24mm, we should be able to hold the camera to a maximum shutter speed of 2 seconds, and in practice, it worked. The only downside to capturing accurate sharpness was the gusty wind we faced. However, the 1.6-second exposure time during that windy evening was perfectly usable.
With Canon's latest Digic X imaging engine under the hood, you'd expect the R6 to be as top-performing as the 1D X Mark III where the processor debuted. And our tests prove that it does.
The R6 is capable of capturing 5472 x 3648-pixel images (compared to the larger 8192 x 5464 on the R5) in JPEG or 14-bit RAW files. Compressed RAW is also available, but our file format of choice is 10-bit HEIF. To shoot in this format, you need to enable HDR PQ, which swaps JPEG for HEIF, and you can also convert it back to JPEG in-camera.
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To match the camera's burst speed, it's important that the R6 has an equally impressive buffer. While a lot will depend on the memory card you're using, the camera managed a burst of about 315 shots during our tests without thinking about it on a UHS-II SD card.
In fact, you'll be able to easily store over 1,000 JPEGs or compressed.CR3 RAW files on a UHS-II card without the camera slowing down. If you shoot uncompressed RAW, the buffer depth drops significantly to 240 consecutive files. Either way, it's a lot more than most people will need.
Canon says that animal detection on the R6 is currently only for cats, dogs and birds, but that doesn't stop the camera from focusing on anything it thinks is an eye or a head. For individuals as small as bees, R6 was able to find the insect's head and hold onto it as long as it was on the flower. However, we failed when trying to track the bees because we were too slow to track the busybodies, and the out-of-focus images were not the camera's fault, but the user's inability to keep up.
Canon's new Dual Pixel CMOS AF II system enables on-sensor focusing, giving you a whopping 6,072 AF points to choose from – up from the R5's 5,940 user-definable points. These points cover the entire horizontal frame and 90% vertically, which is more than most mid-range cameras offer.
In short, there is no other camera in this class that can do what the R6 does in terms of autofocus, at the speed it does, and probably at the price it does.
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Like the professional 1D X Mark III and the more expensive EOS R5, the R6 is remarkably fast and accurate with autofocus performance that is arguably the best in its class. From detecting the subject, focusing on a face or eye, and then tracking the subject, it was pretty much spot on every time we tested it.
Flashes of the seaplane in flight show every single frame in sharp focus, as do the sequences of bird shots we took. If the animal or person we were filming turned away from the camera, the R6 instantly increased the size of the focus area and locked onto the back of the head. In fact, if the subject turned to face the camera again, the R6 was able to focus on the eye without even blinking.
