Pros & Cons
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- Stabilized full-frame sensor
- Class-leading autofocus
- Superb picture quality
- Magnesium body with dust and splash protection
- Sharp EVF and swing-out touch LCD
- 40fps tracking with e-shutter
- Full-width 4K60 with 10-bit color
- 6K support over HDMI
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- Limited third-party lens support
- Fragile micro HDMI port
Canon EOS R6 Mark II Specs
| Battery Type | Canon LP-E6NH |
| Connectivity | Bluetooth |
| Connectivity | Headphone (3.5mm) |
| Connectivity | micro HDMI |
| Connectivity | Microphone (3.5mm) |
| Connectivity | Remote (2.5mm) |
| Connectivity | USB-C |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi |
| Dimensions | 3.9 by 5.4 by 3.5 inches |
| Display Resolution | 1.62 |
| Display Size | 3 inches |
| EVF Resolution | 3.7 |
| Flat Profile | |
| HDMI Output | 4:2:2 12-bit |
| Lens Mount | Canon RF |
| Maximum ISO | 204800 |
| Memory Card Format | SDXC (UHS-II) |
| Memory Card Slots | 2 |
| Minimum ISO | 100 |
| Sensor Resolution | 24 |
| Sensor Size | Full-Frame |
| Sensor Type | CMOS |
| Stabilization | 5-Axis IBIS |
| Touch Screen | |
| Type | Mirrorless |
| Video Resolution | 4K |
| Viewfinder Magnification | 0.76x |
| Viewfinder Type | EVF |
| Weight | 1.3 |
The Canon EOS R6 Mark II ($2,499, body only) is a sequel worth paying attention to. The full-frame camera takes the world-class autofocus system from the EOS R3 and puts it into a more obtainable, carry-friendly form. It's able to detect and track all types of common photo subjects, and focuses quickly enough for 40fps bursts. A stabilized sensor, 4K60 recording, and a weather-protected build round out the features, and make the EOS R6 Mark II our new Editors' Choice winner for enthusiast-geared full-frame cameras.
Midrange Full-Frame
Canon positions the EOS R6 Mark II as a midrange full-frame model. In Canon's lineup, the R6 II sits in between the basic EOS R8 ($1,499) and the 45MP EOS R5 ($3,899). It offers some features you don't get with the R8, like in-body image stabilization, but it doesn't have a lofty pixel count like the R5.
The R6 Mark II uses a 24MP sensor, which is an upgrade from the original's 20MP sensor, and equal to competitors like the Panasonic Lumix DC-S5 II ($1,999) and the Nikon Z 6 II ($1,999), but behind the bar set by the 33MP Sony a7 IV ($2,499).
Its form factor matches up with other full-frame cameras. There are some variations in handling from system to system, but most competitors are in the same ballpark, size-wise. The R6 Mark II measures 3.9 by 5.4 by 3.5 inches (HWD) and weighs 1.3 pounds without a lens. If you're looking for a smaller camera, consider the Sony a7C for one with traditional handling or the Sigma fp if you want radically different ergonomics.
Like others in its class, the R6 Mark II incorporates weather protection and magnesium alloy in its construction. Canon skips weather protection on its entry-level options, the EOS RP and the EOS R8.
Canon offers the R6 Mark II in a handful of configurations. The body-only configuration is there for current system owners who already have some RF mirrorless lenses. Two kits are available: a starter bundle with the RF 24-105mm F4-7.1 IS STM for $2,799 and an upmarket option with the RF 24-105mm F4 L IS USM for $3,599.
The RF lens system has grown by leaps and bounds since Canon introduced it in 2018. Potential R6 buyers have plenty of options at price points ranging from cheap (like the RF 50mm F1.8 STM) to high-end. One thing missing is third-party support. Canon has blocked other companies from making autofocus lenses for RF. If you prefer a system camera with healthy third-party lens support, the Sony a7 IV makes more sense.
Handling and Controls
For the Mark II, Canon doesn't stray too far from the original R6 ergonomics, but its product designers didn't leave everything alone, either. Canon hasn't quite settled on where to put the power switch on R cameras. The Mark II moves it from the left of the top plate over to the right and introduces a new three-stage toggle. It has positions for Off, Lock, and On; Lock is used to keep controls locked down for situations where you don't want to make inadvertent changes to exposure settings.
Other aspects are familiar. The grip feels natural in my medium-sized hands when wearing gloves, with the shutter release sitting at a comfortable angle on top. Canon never puts a control wheel or power collar around the shutter release, an ergonomic touch that sets its cameras apart from the likes of Nikon and Sony.
The forward control wheel is also typical Canon; it juts out of the top plate vertically and is flanked by M-Fn and Record buttons. Aside from that, the top plate is fairly clean—the rear control dial sits flat behind the power toggle and the Mode dial is nearby. A toggle to swap between still and video modes is off by itself to the left of the EVF.
The rear panel houses a healthy spattering of controls. Rate and Menu buttons are in the top left corner, with Play and Delete down at the bottom right. The R6 Mark II also includes a dedicated focus thumbstick, AF-ON, exposure lock (*), and focus area selection buttons, along with a flat rear control dial.
Menus and Displays
A touch interface is included to supplement on-body controls. Tap the Q menu on the rear display and an on-screen overlay pops up. Touch-sensitive columns run down the left and right of the screen and offer quick access to focus, drive, picture quality, metering, and white balance settings.
The full-text menu is touch-navigable, too. Canon hasn't made many changes to its system over the years, so long-time users will find the top-tabbed sections familiar. If you're coming into the system for the first time, be happy to know that the menu isn't too lengthy, and is thoughtfully organized. It also supports a custom My Menu tab, so you can keep frequently changed settings on one screen.
The rear monitor is a 3-inch LCD that shows sharp detail (1.62 million dots) and is bright enough for use outdoors under the sun. The display is on a vari-angle hinge, the type that flips out to the side to face forward. All in all, we've got no complaints about the LCD, and it's noticeably sharper than the one on the Sony a7 IV (1.04 million dots).
The R6 Mark II's EVF is a good one, too. The 3.7-million-dot OLED sports a large 0.76x magnification rating. It's as good as what you get with the a7 IV and Z 6 II. At default settings, the EVF shows a smooth 60fps picture, and you can set it to 120fps to better keep pace with moving subjects. The quicker refresh is more power-hungry, but doesn't make the picture quality suffer.
Power and Connectivity
The R6 Mark II uses the familiar LP-E6NH, the latest edition of Canon's long-running battery pack. It supports in-camera charging via USB-C and is rated for about 580 (LCD) or 320 (EVF) photos per charge, a bit less than what the Sony a7 IV gets from its Z power pack (580 LCD/520 EVF). Battery ratings are typically conservative, and you'll get far more photos if you use burst modes.
In addition to USB-C, the R6 Mark II includes micro HDMI, 3.5mm microphone and headphone, and 2.5mm remote control ports. The micro HDMI port is a downer for videographers who may use an external recorder, as the connector is notoriously fragile. The R6 Mark II can output 6K Raw video, so there's a reason to use it. If you're after a camera with full-size HDMI, the Panasonic S5 II and Sony a7 IV both have it.
Dual card slots are standard for this class of camera. The R6 Mark II uses UHS-II SDXC memory for both. The Sony a7 IV and Nikon Z 6 II are both a bit more flexible if you want to invest in faster media. The a7 IV has dual slots that both work with either SDXC and CFe (Type A) cards, while the Z 6 II splits its two slots between SDXC and CFe (Type B).
Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are included as well. Bluetooth is used to speed up pairing with a smartphone and for wireless remote control. Wi-Fi is included for smartphone remote control and image transfer. You'll want to grab the Canon CameraConnect app (available for Android or iOS) to set up the connection.
Subject Recognition Autofocus
The EOS R6 Mark II is among the best autofocusing cameras we've seen yet, and certainly the best in its class. Its subject detection, 12fps mechanical drive, and 40fps e-shutter outclass the fantastic autofocus in the Sony a7 IV. The R6 Mark II offers up more subject detection modes and is able to automatically determine if it's focusing on a person, animal, or vehicle. The a7 IV recognizes fewer types of subjects and makes you choose between them in the menu.
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In practice, subject detection works quite well. Leaving it set to automatic got good results for general snaps, though I did notice that it sometimes missed songbirds hiding in brush. It's one instance where picking the Animal subject detection setting boosted the R6's focus acumen. Once that was done I was able to get reliable focus on the bird, despite its tendency to hide behind small branches. If you're out taking nature snaps, it's a good idea to leave the focus set to Animal mode. Thankfully you don't have to pick between different types of wildlife; Sony and Fuji cameras make you pick between mammals and birds, for comparison.
As for focus speed, it's blistering fast with ultrasonic motor lenses like the RF 50mm F1.2 L USM, and still snappy with stepping motor options like the RF 35mm F1.8 IS STM Macro. I got good results with those lenses, as well as with an adapted EF 400mm F4 DO prime and 2x teleconverter (800mm F8) and the made-for-mirrorless RF 100-500mm F4.5-7.1 zoom. The R6 locks focus with little hesitation, even in early morning light with a relatively narrow aperture lens.
The fully mechanical shutter is able to snap full-quality 14-bit Raw files at 12fps, bettering the 7fps offered by the a7 IV. Granted, Sony's camera pushes more pixels and supports 10fps in a 12-bit mode, so it's no slouch for speed on its own. But creators who desire a faster burst can take the R6 Mark II to 40fps by utilizing its fully electronic shutter. Despite using a traditional CMOS sensor, the R6 Mark II does a good job suppressing motion distortion with its e-shutter.
The 40fps burst rate puts some stress on memory cards, even if you're using a fast SDXC card. I tested the R6 Mark II with a 299MBps Sony Tough card and found it to be decent for bursts, especially if you set the camera to JPG or Compressed Raw (C Raw). You can get 158 JPGs or 138 C Raw before the buffer fills. Switching to full quality Raw limits you to about 70 photos per burst, but that's still nearly two seconds of action at 40fps.
Great Performance From FSI CMOS
Canon went for a classic, front-side illuminated CMOS for the R6 Mark II sensor, which would typically raise a question mark around low light and e-shutter performance. Common reasoning says BSI CMOS sensors have an advantage in both regards, but Canon gets performance from the R6 Mark II that rivals picture quality from cameras with BSI sensors, including the Sony a7 IV.
The R6 Mark II supports a native ISO 100-102400 range and offers ISO 204800 as an extended setting. If you select JPG or HEIF photo modes you'll realize pictures with crystal clear detail and good-looking color up through ISO 6400. In-camera noise reduction kicks into higher gear at ISO 12800 and up; it cuts out grain and color noise but softens detail and smudges fine lines in the process. You can get decent results through ISO 51200, but there's more blur than detail at ISO 102400 and 204800.
Shutterbugs are likely to opt for Raw format capture, either in full-size Raw or compressed C Raw formats. In Adobe Lightroom Classic, our standard processor for camera reviews, we see flawless detail up through ISO 800, and excellent results through ISO 12800. Grain is visible at ISO 25600 and 51200, and starts to detract from picture quality. Expect grainy, rough results at ISO 102400 and 204800. The R6 Mark II is quite close to the 33MP a7 IV at equivalent ISOs, the only discernible difference is in the pixel count.
The R6 Mark II's Raw files are quite editable, too. I worked with C Raw photos in Lightroom and had no problem pushing shadows, pulling highlights, and adjusting white balance. If you prefer not to edit, JPG and HEIF offer up basic color profile options like Vivid, Neutral, and Black-and-White.
Stabilized 4K60 Recording
There's a lot for videographers of all levels to like here. The R6 Mark II supports 4K60 recording with 10-bit color internally and outputs 12-bit 4:2:2 6K over HDMI for Raw recording support along with an Atomos Ninja V+ recorder. For slow-motion, the camera pushes up to 180fps but drops down to 1080p to do so.
You can use any of the in-camera picture profiles for video that's ready to share without color correction. For creators who want to take control of a color grade, the C-Log3 flat profile is available. I used it for our sample footage and applied Canon's Rec.709 LUT in Final Cut Pro for a quick grade.
I can't find much fault in the 4K picture quality. The footage shows good, sharp detail and benefits from a stabilized sensor. It definitely benefits from oversampling—to get 4K video out of the sensor, the R6 takes a 6K signal and sizes it down in-camera, for sharper results than cameras that skip lines or bin pixels together to realize a 4K picture. Canon also smartly splits settings apart from stills and video modes, a benefit as the exposure settings seldom line up between the two.
There are a couple of quirks to the interface. Changing between standard and slow-motion is a drag, as the R6 Mark II always resets its standard-speed video to 1080p60 after the slow-mo mode is turned off. It should remember what you had set before turning High Frame Rate mode on in the menu.
I'll also call out one setting to change to get more consistent autofocus for present-to-camera vlogs. The Switched Tracked Subject setting in the video autofocus menu defaults to a neutral setting that often has it hunting and drifting just in and out of focus. Swapping it to its Initial Priority (0) setting keeps focus locked on a presenter effectively.
We're a bit down on the micro HDMI port. It's not going to matter for creators who record to a memory card, but if you're using the camera with an external recorder or video transmitter you'll want to take some extra care.
For audio, you get a mic input and a headphone jack, so you can plug in and check audio quality in the field. I used the in-camera mic for our test footage, but would not recommend doing so for any sort of serious video work. The built-in mic does a poor job of filtering out background noise in busy environments, and simply isn't as clear sounding as a good external mic.
The Pieces Fit Together Perfectly
Canon did a great job assembling everything into a cohesive package with the EOS R6 Mark II. It's easy to carry and benefits from well-reasoned ergonomics. Magnesium materials, along with dust and splash protection, are appealing to photographers who work out in nature, and the autofocus is simply phenomenal. We're especially impressed with the camera's ability to identify and track different types of subjects, including people, pets, and wildlife.
Stabilized 4K60 recording using the full sensor width, along with 10-bit color and a flat profile are pluses too. It's not a perfect video camera; videographers who rely on external recorders will cringe a bit at the sight of the micro HDMI port, and the R6 also skips some advanced video features like waveform monitors and open gate recording.
From a support perspective, Canon's decision to lock third parties out of the RF mount means there are fewer autofocusing lenses than you'll find for Sony cameras. It's a sticking point if you're yearning to save some money with Sigma and Tamron lenses—you won't find their newer releases in Canon RF. Even so, Canon has a strong library of RF lenses, ranging from budget to exotic on the price spectrum.
In sum, the EOS R6 Mark II is our favorite full-frame camera available for around $2,500, and our new Editors' Choice in the category, just edging out the Sony a7 IV. Creators with a bag of E-mount lenses will still enjoy great results from the a7 IV, but if you're starting fresh, the R6 Mark II ekes out a win. Its quicker burst rate and smarter autofocus system make a difference, and the R6 Mark II is just an overall joy to use.