Canon R6-II Hands-on: Faster, extra decision and decreased heating points | Engadget

Just two years after the launch of the unique EOS R6, Canon has unveiled its successor, the $2,500 EOS R6 Mark II. It brings quite a few key enhancements, like a higher-resolution 24.2-megapixel sensor and quicker taking pictures speeds. Most importantly, Canon has considerably decreased the earlier mannequin’s points with overheating.

The EOS R6 was one of the best digicam on this necessary value vary when it launched, due to the velocity, highly effective video options and wonderful Dual Pixel hybrid autofocus. However, as soon as Sony’s $2,500 A7 IV got here together with comparable talents, extra decision and no overheating issues, the R6 misplaced that exact crown.

At a preview occasion in San Diego, Canon let me shoot with R6 Mark II prototypes for a few days in quite a lot of sports activities conditions. As it’s not a manufacturing mannequin and nonetheless had just a few bugs, this isn’t a ultimate evaluation – however it gave us an opportunity to share some early impressions.

Body and dealing with

The EOS R6 II isn’t only a barely up to date ‘A’ version of the unique. It has vital bodily and efficiency adjustments, beginning with the brand new 24.2-megapixel sensor. It’s not, as rumors instructed, the stacked backside-illuminated (BSI) sensor from the EOS R3; there’s a cause that mannequin costs so much. But it does supply some advantages over the 20-megapixel chip on the R6.

Canon guarantees improved picture high quality past simply the additional megapixels, due to the up to date picture processing. It additionally presents improved low-light sensitivity regardless of the marginally smaller pixels. And Canon says that rolling shutter is decreased over the R6.

The R6 options some adjustments on the surface as effectively. The energy/lock/off swap is now positioned on the proper the place it’s simpler to entry but tougher to hit by chance. It additionally has a brand new video/picture mode swap that retains these features, and all their settings, separate. Flipping it additionally adjustments the menus, and Canon has launched a handy video-specific Q menu.

Otherwise, it is roughly the identical weight and dimension because the R6, and has an an identical grip, menus, management structure and dealing with. It additionally makes use of its predecessor’s in-body stabilization, good flip-out show for vlogging or selfies, twin UHS II card slots and three.67-million-dot digital viewfinder. And, after all, it comes with microphone and headphone ports, together with a USB-C socket and (sadly) a microHDMI jack.

The battery is an identical, too, however Canon has boosted effectivity, from 510 photographs max on the R6 to 760 on the R6 Mark II. In at some point, I shot over 2,000 pictures with out altering the battery, principally utilizing the mechanical shutter – fairly spectacular.

Performance and picture high quality

Mechanical shutter bursts speeds are unchanged at 12fps (RAW, full-frame), which is nice contemplating the additional decision. However, now you can fireplace RAW photographs in silent mode at an exuberant 40 fps. What’s extra, the R6 II now comes with a pre-shooting possibility (RAW burst) that captures RAW recordsdata for a half second earlier than you push the shutter. That helps you to catch a second even should you react slowly, albeit on the expense of some battery life. When attempting the characteristic, I discovered that it maybe let me seize just a few photographs (out of 1000’s) that I would’ve missed in any other case.

Those speeds are very good, but when pictures are marred by extreme rolling shutter (howdy Sony), they aren’t that helpful. Luckily, rolling shutter is current however higher managed than on the R6, and far much less extreme than I noticed on the A7 IV. It can take a pretty big variety of photographs (about 70-75 uncompressed RAW recordsdata, or 140 compressed RAWs) earlier than the buffer fills, and it resets pretty rapidly with quick UHS-II V90 playing cards. Still, it could have been good to see a CFexpress slot for quicker taking pictures and higher high quality video recordsdata.

The autofocus on the R6 II is extra superior than any Canon mannequin thus far, together with the R3, the corporate says. It now handles folks, animals and automobiles, together with bikes, automobiles, trains and horses. And it now has an auto-select possibility that lets the AI resolve what to trace, which ought to be a requirement on each mirrorless digicam.

The AI easily tracked my topic’s eyes, however it sometimes obtained misplaced and wasn’t fairly as much as Sony’s excessive requirements. In common spot steady mode (no AI), the autofocus appeared as correct because the R6, nailing photographs in most circumstances. It was sometimes confused by the background or shut topics, however once more, this was a prototype unit; these points could possibly be improved by the December launch date.

Image high quality can be exhausting to guage at this level, as RAW recordsdata aren’t but able to be seen. But JPEG recordsdata seemed nice, with traditional Canon-like heat pores and skin tones and correct hues. Low-light functionality was surprisingly strong, with noise well-controlled at ISO 6400 and even past.

Video

My greatest difficulty with the unique EOS R6 was video, and particularly the overheating points. That mannequin may solely shoot 4K 60p for half-hour, and just for one other 10 minutes or so after it cooled sufficient to shoot once more. Suffice to say, that’s a significant issue for skilled shooters.

Those points are successfully gone, and Canon additionally eliminated the 30-minute time restrict for recording. You can now shoot 4K 60p uncropped for 40 minutes and it might usually go effectively past that. Cropped 4K 60p has a 50 minute restrict, and supersampled 4K 30p has no limitations.

It additionally has higher video specs total. Internally, you’ll be able to shoot 4K 60 fps supersampled from a 5.1K portion of the sensor. 4K at 30 fps is supersampled from 6K utilizing the complete sensor width. And it now helps 180 fps for 1080p, up from 120 fps earlier than. Capture recordsdata are nonetheless restricted to MP4 and Quicktime with no ProRes internally – probably a limitation of the UHS II playing cards.

Additionally, the digicam helps 10-bit 4K video and elevated dynamic vary with both HDR PQ or CLog3. And you’ll be able to even shoot 6K RAW to an exterior Atomos recorder, although that characteristic wasn’t prepared but for testing.

As with pictures, AF for video tracks people, animals and automobiles. In my restricted testing, it carried out effectively, solely sometimes specializing in the background. So far, topic monitoring isn’t fairly as dependable as I noticed on the A7 IV, however once more, it could enhance with some firmware or different tweaks.

Video was sharp and I didn’t run into any overheating points in San Diego, the place temperatures hit about 80 levels within the solar. 1080p 180p video appears a bit smooth, because it’s captured with some pixel binning, and cropped 4K additionally lacked sharpness in comparison with full-frame 4K. I used to be pleased with the colours, and low-light video functionality was good to wonderful.

Wrap-up

By minimizing warmth points, the R6 II is already an enormous enchancment over the unique R6. But it additionally seems to be like a greater digicam for pictures due to the upper decision, quicker speeds and improved picture high quality – with no stacked sensor required.

Canon’s total RF ecosystem retains getting higher, too. Its newest lens is the spectacular 135mm f/1.8, becoming a member of 26 different full-frame prime and zoom lenses. So, this technique has grow to be surprisingly mature, contemplating it solely launched 4 years in the past. I can’t offer you a ultimate analysis for key options like picture high quality and autofocus, because it’s nonetheless within the prototype stage. However, we anticipate to revisit the Canon EOS R6 Mark II within the type of a full evaluation as soon as it launches in December.