In summary
The Canon EOS R6 Mark II second-generation model of a popular enthusiast’s camera with slightly higher resolution, improved autofocusing and more extensive video capabilities.
Full review
Announced on 2 November, Canon’s EOS R6 Mark II drops into the most competitive slot in the camera market, replacing the EOS R6 and targeting serious photo enthusiasts and professional photographers looking for a second camera body. The new model builds on the features offered by its predecessor, with a slight increase in resolution, more professional video capabilities and a marginally lighter body with improved ergonomics. Wired and wireless connectivity have also been improved.
Angled front view of the EOS R6 Mark II with the RF 14-35mm f/4L IS USM lens. (Source: Canon.)
Like its predecessor, the R6 II has dust- and weather-resistant sealing on all external doors and inputs, making it suitable for location work – with a similarly sealed lens. It is also supported by Canon Australia’s 5-year warranty when purchased from an authorised Canon Australia reseller.
We’ve reviewed the new camera with the RF 50mm f/1.8 STM lens which was reviewed with the original EOS R6 camera back in April 2021. The EOS R6 II will carry an RRP of AU$4499 (US$2499 = AU$3901) for the body alone. It will be offered with the RF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM kit lens for AU$6399. (US$3599 = AU$5618))
What’s New?
There have been a few changes to the camera body and controls, which are outlined in the ‘Build and Ergonomics’ section below. However, most of the important changes are internal and they’re more substantial.
The increase in sensor resolution is small; there’s not much real difference between 20 megapixels and 24 megapixels, although most photographers will take any extra resolution they’re offered. But the sensor and processor are new designs and, even though the sensor is front-side illuminated (rather than BSI or a stacked design), it’s a more capable chip.
When combined with the upgraded DIGIC X processor, which offers faster data transfer, the following improvements are promised:
1. An increase in the maximum burst speed with the silent electronic shutter from 30 fps to 40 fps with AF and AE adjustments frame-by-frame. However, readout falls to 12-bit in this mode.
2. A new auto AF mode with improved AI processing that can focus faster and more selectively, with the ability to track a wide range of subjects, including humans, animals (dog, cat, bird, horse) and vehicles (car, motorcycle, train, aeroplane) wherever they are in the frame.
3. Portrait photographers can now select which eye to focus on and toggle from eye to eye with a custom button as well as having the option to automatically focus on the nearest eye.
4. More shooting mode options (including three custom settings) are provided for video recording with the addition of aperture- and shutter-priority modes to the R6’s auto/manual settings.
5. 4K 60/50p video can now be recorded using the full sensor width, with an option to downsample from 6K to 4K for maximum quality. The R6 II also supports a ProRes RAW video workflow that can record 6K RAW footage to a compatible Atomos recorder or 3.7K video using a Super35 crop. FHD proxy files can be recorded internally during either process.
6. A new movie pre-recording mode lets users ‘buffer’ three or five seconds of video in standby mode, enabling action to be captured before the record button is pressed.
7. An improved circuit design allows longer recording times than the previous 30-minute limit, with more than 40 minutes of oversampled 4K 60p recording possible, or up to 6 hours at 4K 30p.
8. More connectivity options with the ability to use the camera for live streaming and video conferencing by simply connecting it to a computer via USB.
9. Separate menus are presented by the Q (Quick Menu) button, depending on whether the camera is set for stills or movie recording. The new camera also provides horizontal and vertical frame markers for different aspect ratios, along with a false colour display for evaluating video exposures.
10. A high-frequency anti-flicker shooting mode similar to the one found in the R3 has been added to suppress the banding caused by some LED and fluorescent lights (particularly older models).
Build and Ergonomics
Physically the EOS R6 II is quite similar to its predecessor, although it’s marginally taller and 10 grams lighter. According to Canon, it has a magnesium alloy chassis, with outer panels made from polycarbonate resin, reinforced with glass fibre and synthetic leather cladding on the grip surfaces. The weather-resistant sealing is also unchanged and the EVF and LCD monitor are the same as in the previous model.
The top panel of the EOS R6 (top) and EOS R6 II (below) with no lens fitted. (Source: Canon.)
The overall handling of the camera remains similar to the R6 but the layout of the top panel, shown above, has been changed. Canon has shifted the On/Off power switch to the right hand side of the camera and added a ‘Lock’ setting to prevent settings from being changed accidentally if the Main dial is moved.
There’s still no LCD data display but a new Stills/Video switch takes its place left of the EVF housing, making it simpler to see which shooting mode you’re using. This strategy makes the movie setting on the R6’s mode dial redundant.
Canon has replaced it with a Hybrid Auto setting on the mode dial for recording 2-4 second FHD (1080p) video clips of scenes just before a still shot is recorded. This is a consumer-focused feature formerly known as Movie Digest, which was introduced in Canon’s point and shoot cameras.
Another consumer-focused addition is a Special Scene mode with 13 pre-set selections, all with automatic exposure determination. These include the usual Landscape, Portrait, Sports and Close-up modes as well as HDR backlight control and a Silent Shutter mode.
Front and rear views of the EOS R6 II with no lens fitted. (Source: Canon.)
Aside from these changes, the R6 II’s body and control layout is effectively identical to the previous model and it can accept the same accessories – including the BG-R10 battery grip. An upgrade to the hot-shoe provides support for accessory microphone and the Tascam audio adapter, which accepts XLR connections for 4-channel audio recording. High-end flashguns can also be used to the new camera.
The HDMI connector is still ‘micro’ format and less robust than a full-size plug, which will limit the use of external recorders. But Canon says it has simplified Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections, which should please many potential buyers.
Potential purchasers will be happy Canon has retained the option to leave the shutter curtain open or closed when the camera’s power switch is turned off. The default setting is to close it, which helps keep dust and moisture off the image sensor when you’re changing lenses.
The EVF and LCD monitor are unchanged from the previous model.
Sensor and Image Processing
As noted above, the 25.6 CMOS sensor in the EOS R6 II is a new chip, designed and manufactured by Canon. The increase in effective resolution to 24 megapixels is relatively small and it’s paired with the same DIGIC X processor as used in the previous model. However, there’s a small increase in image sizes, a big jump in burst speeds (from 20 fps to 40 fps) with the electronic shutter and Canon claims rolling shutter performance is better.
No changes have been made to ISO sensitivity, with retains a native range of ISO 100-102400 plus extensions to ISO 50 and ISO 204800. If you opt for Highlight Tone Priority, the lowest sensitivity available is ISO 200.
File formats are also unchanged but the buffer memory capacity has been increased, especially for raw files. The table below shows the file sizes and buffer capacities for images captured with the default 3:2 aspect ratio using the electronic shutter at its highest frame rate (40 fps).
| Image format | Quality | Pixels | File size | Max. burst | |
| Standard card | High-speed card | ||||
| JPEG | Large/Fine
Large/Standard |
6000 x 4000 | 8.2MB | 190 | 190 |
| 4.4MB | |||||
| Medium/Fine | 3964 x 2656 | 4.6MB | 180 | 180 | |
| Medium/Standard | 2.6MB | ||||
| Small 1/Fine | 2976 x 2432 | 3.1MB | 180 | 180 | |
| Small 1/Standard | 1.9MB | ||||
| Small 2 | 2400 x 1600 | 1.8 MB | 180 | 180 | |
| HEIF | Large/Fine | 6000 x 4000 | 8.3MB | 180 | 180 |
| Large/Standard | 6.3MB | ||||
| Medium/Fine | 3964 x 2656 | 5.0MB | 180 | 180 | |
| Medium/Standard | 3.9MB | ||||
| Small 1/Fine | 2976 x 2432 | 3.5MB | 180 | 180 | |
| Small 1/Standard | 2.85MB | ||||
| Small 2 | 2400 x 1600 | 1.8MB | 180 | 180 | |
| RAW | Raw | 6000 x 4000 | 26.1MB | 74 | 75 |
| C-Raw | 3744 x 2496 | 13.2MB | 140 | 140 | |
Buffer memory capacity has also increased. When the mechanical shutter is used, the maximum frame rate drops to approximately 12 fps but the buffer capacity increases to 1000 for JPEG and HEIF files when high-speed cards are used. The raw file capacity tops out at 110 frames or 1000 frames for C-RAW files, both with high-speed cards.
Video
Aside from the features listed above, the R6 II shares many video capabilities with its predecessor, including being limited to IPB compression for all but the time-lapse movie modes, which use ALL-I compression. It can also use the full width of the sensor for 4K 60/50p recording, whereas the R6 cropped the frame by a factor of 1.07x.
Up to 40 minutes of recording is possible at this resolution and frame rate but there are no restrictions for 4k 30/25/24p recording, due to better heat management. There has been a slight increase (from 120p to 180p) in the maximum frame rate for FHD high frame rate recordings and users should be able to record for an hour before overheating kicks in.
Also largely unchanged is support for digital zoom, time coding and automatic frame cropping when RF-S lenses are used. Canon Log recording is only available in C.Log3 mode, which was added to the default C.Log mode in the R6 by a firmware update in November, and lets users choose between the BT 709, BT 2000 and Cinema Gamut colour spaces.
High frame rate movies are available at 150 fps, an increase on the 100 fps maximum provided by the R6. This mode remains restricted to Full HD (1080p) resolution. The other changes are outlined in the What’s New section above.
Playback and Software
There have been no significant changes to playback modes since the EOS R6 and, as usual, the software bundle must be downloaded from Canon’s website. It includes the following applications: EOS Utility, Digital Photo Professional and Picture Style Editor for computer use plus the Camera Connect, Digital Photo Professional Express and Mobile File Transfer apps for smartphones, the last two requiring a paid subscription.
Performance
While all our main test shots were captured with the RF 50mm f/1.8 STM lens, we also used the R6 II for our tests of the new Canon RF 15-30mm f/4.5-6.3 IS STM lens, which is reviewed separately. Our Imatest tests showed the review camera to perform at least as well as its predecessor and capable of delivering resolutions that comfortably exceeded expectations for JPEG files.
They were even higher for CR3.RAW files, which were converted into 16-bit TIFF format with Adobe Camera Raw. The graph below shows the results of our tests across the ISO settings.
Imatest showed colour accuracy to be similar to the results we obtained for the EOS R6, although with slightly better accuracy in the blue region. Raw files converted into TIFF format with Adobe Camera Raw had better accuracy, more modest saturation and smaller colour shifts.
Long exposures at night were slightly better than those we obtained with the R6 and exposures were a little better balanced. Noise was only visible as slight softening, which became visible from ISO 25600 on and increased very slightly thereafter.
The blocking-up shadows we observed in shots taken with the EOS R6 only occurred at the two highest ISO settings and was largely recoverable in raw files. These settings remained usable for non-critical images that wouldn’t be enlarged by more than about 50%.
Like its predecessor, the R6II lacks a built-in flash so we were unable to test white balance performance with flash lighting. It also provides two auto white balance options: ambience priority (which retains warm colour casts) and white priority, the latter reducing warm colour casts in favour of a whiter balance.
As before, we found neither of these settings could eliminate the warm cast of either incandescent or warm-toned LED lighting, although the white priority setting did reduce it noticeably. As expected, both settings delivered close-to neutral colours under white fluorescent lighting but all the pre-sets tended to over-correct.
When manual WB measurement was used, the review camera was able to deliver close-to neutral colours under both warm-toned lights. There are plenty of in-camera adjustments for tweaking colours on-the-fly and, as before, they are straightforward to use.
As with the previous model, we found autofocusing to be consistently fast and accurate although the two lenses supplied presented no real challenges to the AF system. There were no issues when focusing in very low light levels no perceptible delays in re-focusing when a new subject moved into the frame while recording video.
As with autofocusing, measuring stabilisation performance was impossible with the two lenses we had. However, we did register some camera shake when shooting hand-held with the RF 15-30mm f/4.5-6.3 IS STM lens at very slow shutter speeds of ¼ and 1/5 second, which is to be expected.
Video clips were similar in quality to those we shot with the EOS R6. Still frames from 4K clips contained plenty of detail with natural-looking tonal reproduction and a decent dynamic range. No extraneous camera noises were recorded in the soundtracks of video clips.
Our timing tests were carried out with two 64GB Lexar Professional SDXC II V60 U3 cards, which claim read/write times of 250MB/s. The review camera took half a a second to power-up ready for shooting, which marginally faster than the EOS R6 we tested.
Capture lag was negligible and totally eliminated when the lens was pre-focused. It took an average of 0.6 seconds to process a single JPEG or CR3.RAW file and 0.8 seconds for a RAW+JPEG pair. Shot-to-shot times averaged 0.2 seconds, which is as fast as we could keep pressing the shutter button.
In the high-speed continuous shooting mode with the electronic shutter and Dual Pixel AF disabled, the camera was able to record 158 Large/Fine JPEGs in 3.6 seconds before showing any sign of hesitation. This is close to the specified 40 frames/second. It took just over 13 seconds to clear the buffer memory. CR3.RAW files can’t be recorded at the top speed in this mode.
With the mechanical shutter, the camera recorded 116 frames in 9.8 seconds, which is close to the specified 12 fps frame rate. It took approximately three seconds to clear the buffer memory.
For RAW+JPEG file capture with the mechanical shutter, the camera recorded 117 shots in 10.2 seconds, which is almost identical to the rate we recorded for the R6 and slightly slower than we found with JPEGs. However, it took 3.7 seconds to process this burst.
With the electronic shutter for high-speed recording of CR3.RAW files, frame rates began to stutter after 1.8 seconds of recording, at which point the camera had captured 77 frames. It took 17 seconds to process this burst.
Conclusion
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SPECS
Image sensor: 35.9 x 23.9 mm CMOS sensor with 25.6 million photosites (24.2 megapixels effective), Bayer RGB primary colour filters and fixed low-pass filter; compatible with Dual Pixel CMOS AF
Image processor: DIGIC X
Lens mount: Canon RF
Aspect ratios: 3:2, 4:3, 16:9, 1:1 (1.6x crop also available)
Image formats: Stills: JPEG (DCF Ver. 2.0, Exif Ver. 2.31), HEIF (10-bit), CR3.RAW, C-RAW 14 bit , RAW+JPEG, RAW/C-RAW and JPEG/HEIF simultaneous recording; Movies: MP4 H.264/H.265, IPB compression; Canon Log 10-bit internal (card) recording
Audio: Stereo
Image Sizes: Stills – 3:2 ratio: 6000 x 4000, 3984 x 2656, 2976 x 1984, 2400 x 1600; Movies: 4K UHD (downsampled from 6K) at 60/30/24p, RAW Standard / Light video, 4K DCI / UHD @ 60/30/24p ALL-I / IPB (Standard) / IPB (Light); Full HD ALL-I / IPB (Standard) / IPB (Light); Canon Log 3; Colour sampling for 4K/ Full HD – YCbCr4:2:0 8-bit or YCbCr4:2:2 10-bit; FHD High Frame Rate video at up to 180p; continuous recording of 4K/30p video for up to 6 hours
Image Stabilisation:. Sensor shift up to 5 stops (up to 8 stops with RF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens); Movie digital IS
Dust control: Self-cleaning sensor unit plus Dust Delete Data acquisition and appending
Shutter (speed range): Electronically controlled focal-plane shutter with electronic first curtain; (30-1/8000 seconds plus Bulb; Electronic shutter range: 30-1/16000 (1/2 or 1/3 stop increments up to 1/8000 then 1 stop to 1/16000); X-sync with mechanical shutter: 1/200 sec. elec. 1st-curtain: 1/250 sec.
Exposure Compensation: +/- 3EV in 1/3EV or 1/2EV steps
Exposure bracketing: +/- 3EV in 1/3EV or 1/2EV steps
Other bracketing options: Focus, white balance (3, 2, 5 or 7 frames across +/-3 levels)
Self-timer: 4 or 10 seconds delay
Interval recording: Yes, for time-lapse 4K movies
Focus system: Dual Pixel CMOS AF II with 4897 selectable AF point positions for stills; 4067 points for movies; 100% frame coverage with Face + Tracking and Auto Selection modes; range EV -6.5 – 21
AF selection: AF Tracking for Humans, Animals (Dogs, Cats, Birds and horses) or Vehicles (Racing cars or Motor bikes, Aircraft and Trains)
Focus modes: AFS (Single) / AFF (Flexible) / AFC (Continuous) / MF
Exposure metering: 384-zone metering using signals from image sensor; Evaluative, Partial (approx. 5.9% of viewfinder at centre), Centre-weighted and spo t(approx. 3% viewfinder at centre) metering patterns; brightness range -3 to 20 EV
Shooting modes: Stills – Scene Intelligent Auto, Flexible-priority AE (Fv), Program AE (P)n Shutter-priority AE (Tv), Aperture-priority AE Av), Manual exposure (M), Bulb, Custom shooting mode C1, C2, C3 (Safety shift possible in Tv and Av modes); Movies – Auto, Tv, Av, Manual and Custom (x3)
Picture Style modes: Auto, Standard, Portrait, Landscape, Fine Detail, Neutral, Faithful, Monochrome, User Defined 1–3
Internal processing: Highlight Tone Priority (2 settings), Auto Lighting Optimizer (3 settings), Long exposure noise reduction, Clarity, High ISO speed noise reduction (4 settings) (stills and video), Lens optical correction, – Peripheral illumination correction, Chromatic aberration correction Distortion correction (during/after still photo shooting, during video only), Diffraction correction, Digital Lens Optimizer (during/after still photo shooting only), Focus Bracketing including image compositing, Resize to M, S1, S2, Cropping of images (JPEG/HEIF), RAW image processing: Dual Pixel RAW – Portrait Relighting, Background Clarity ( in camera), Raw Cloud processing, Multiple exposure, HDR – with moving subject suppression, HEIF to JPEG conversion (single or batch)
Custom functions: 22
Colour space options: sRGB and Adobe RGB plus BT 709, BT 2000 and Cinema Gamut for movies when C.Log3 is selected
ISO range: Auto, ISO 100 to ISO 102400 (in 1/3-stop or 1 stop increments) with expansion to ISO 50 and ISO 204800
White balance: Auto (Ambience priority/White priority). Daylight, Shade, Cloudy, Tungsten light, White fluorescent light, Flash, Custom (Custom WB), Colour temperature; WB adjustment of +/-10 levels Blue/amber bias or Magenta/green bias
Flash: External flash only with ambience priority, standard, flash priority
Flash modes: Continuous shooting priority (CSP) mode, Safety FE, E-TTL balance
Flash exposure adjustment: +/- 3EV in 1/3EV or 1/2EV steps
Sequence shooting: Max. 40 shots/sec. with silent electronic shutter; 12 fps with mechanical shutter
Buffer capacity: Max. >1000 Large/Fine JPEGs, 111 RAW files (with mechanical shutter/electronic 1st curtain) or 75 RAW frames or 140 CRAW images with electronic shutter
Storage Media: Dual slots for SD, SDHC, SDXC cards (both UHS-II compatible)
Viewfinder: 0.5-inch OLED colour EVF with 3,690,000 dots; 119.88 fps refresh rate; approx. 0.76x magnification, 23 mm eyepoint, -4.0 to + 2.0 dpt adjustment
LCD monitor: 3.0-inch (screen aspect ratio of 3:2) Clear View LCD II with 1,620,000 dots; touch-screen operation; viewing angle 170° vertically and horizontally,
anti-smudge coating
Interface terminals: SuperSpeed USB 3.2 Gen 2 USB C connector UVC/UAC support Windows / Mac OS compatible with Zoom / Skype / Teams / Meet / Webex;. HDMI micro OUT terminal Type D, 3.5mm microphone and headphone terminals, remote terminal (E3 type)
Wi-Fi function: Built-in (IEEE 802. AC/ab/g/n; 5/ 2.4 GHz)) 2.4GHz; Bluetooth 5.0
Power supply: LPE-6NH rechargeable Li-ion battery; CIPA rated for approx. 760 shots/charge with LCD; approx. 450 shots with EVF
Dimensions (wxhxd): Approx. 138.4 x 98.4 x 88.4 mm
Weight: Approx. 670 grams with battery and card
Distributor: Canon Australia; 1800 021 167
TESTS
Based upon JPEG files recorded with the RF 50mm f/1.8 STM lens.
Based on CR3.RAW files recorded simultaneously and converted into 16-bit TIFF format with Adobe Camera Raw.
SAMPLES
The images below were captured with the RF 50mm f/1.8 USM lens
Auto white balance with incandescent lighting.
Auto white balance with incandescent lighting, white priority.
Auto white balance with fluorescent lighting.
Auto white balance with fluorescent lighting, white priority.
Auto white balance with warm-toned LED lighting.
Auto white balance with warm-toned LED lighting, white priority.
30-second exposure at ISO 100, f/4.5.
20-second exposure at ISO 800, f/9.
8-second exposure at ISO 6400, f/13.
5-second exposure at ISO 12800, f/14.
5-second exposure at ISO 25600, f/20.
2-second exposure at ISO 51200, f/16.
1-second exposure at ISO 102400, f/16.
ISO 100, 1/640 second at f/9.
ISO 100, 1/800 second at f/9.
ISO 100, 1/400 second at f/9.
ISO 100, 1/1000 second at f/13.
ISO 100, 1/200 second at f/8.
ISO 200, 1/500 second at f/8. (From CR3.RAW file.)
ISO 100, 1/1000 second at f/6.4.
ISO 16000, 1/60 second at f/8.
ISO 12800, 1/80 second at f/5.6.
ISO 20000, 1/40 second at f/7.1.
ISO 25600, 1/30 second at f/5.6.
ISO 20000, 1/60 second at f/7.1.
ISO 25600, 1/2 second at f/8.
Still frame from 4K 50p video clip.
Still frame from 4K 25p video clip.
Still frame from Full HD 50p video clip.
Still frame from Full HD 25p video clip.
Additional image samples can be found with our review of the Canon RF 15-30mm f/4.5-6.3 IS STM lens.
Rating
RRP: AU$4499 (body only); $6399 (with RF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM kit lens)
- Build: 9.0
- Ease of use: 9.0
- Autofocusing: 9.0
- Still image quality JPEG: 9.0
- Still image quality RAW: 9.0
- Video quality: 9.0
BUY
