Let’s clear the elephant in the room right at the start.
It looks like a stills camera. It’s priced in the same area as Canon’s other R series cameras. But at the end of the day, Canon expects the EOS R6 V to be used mainly as a video camera. And the lack of a viewfinder, says the general consensus, that Canon has done this deliberately.
I disagree with the concept. Not having a viewfinder in any camera I think should be a criminal offence. Well maybe not that far, but a flogging with wet lettuce at the very worst.
How is anyone expected to frame up accurately, especially in bright sunshine, without a viewfinder and only a flip out LCD, no matter how good it is?
Oh wait, so maybe the EOS R6 V is designed as a vlogging camera, so it merely sits on a tripod pointing at someone who then yabbers away about what they want to – well yabber away about?
If that is so, then the $3599 price tag body only makes it bloody expensive, although you do get a freebie RØDE Mic kit thrown in. So is there more to it than that?
Before I comment further though, let’s look at the EOS R6 V from a technical and features point of view, that is, as a camera as against which segment of the market it may, or may not be aimed at.
Features
The major claim to fame is that the R6 V is a full frame camera, supporting full open gate (ie uses the whole of the sensor for image capture) in a compact form. Although in this sense, compact just means a bit smaller than a dSLR or mirrorless counterpart and that is mainly due to the lack of viewfinder. It weighs in at 668g with battery but sans lens, so it is quite light though.
It does share the same sensor with its sibling, the R6 III as well as the pro-level C50, so in the tech department, it’s no slouch or lacking shooting features and quality.
The EOS R6 V can shoot video at up to 7K 650p RAW and has in-built stabilisation up to 7.5 stops, and in my tests out in the back yard between storm showers, the stabilisation is excellent. Other techie stuff includes an ISO range from 50 to 102,400, a metering range of -3EV to +20EV and an electronic shutter range of 30 seconds to 1/16,000 of a second.
To keep the R6 V motoring along, there is an automatic active cooling system incorporated, and the body is also dust and water resistant as you’d expect.
If you want the full gamut of specifications, you can find them here.
In Use
One thing I do like is a generous helping of manual controls on the R6 V, including two top mounted dials, a joystick, a rear mounted control wheel, plus a dedicated photo/video switch and a mode selector. There are also seven programmable buttons.
This means once you have the R6 V setup to your own tastes, there should be little need to fire up the menu system – which is very good by the way. I admit I am used to the Canon way of doing things, cutting my teeth on my 5DS having said that, so not as familiar with menu systems from say, Sony or Nikon.
The LCD is a 3″ multi-angle beastie with a resolution of 1.62 million dots, but I found it to be a bit on the dull side, especially in bright sunlight. That is a big drawback, and in my opinion, negates the EOS R6 V in the video field for outdoor sport shooting such as motor racing as is my bent.
Sorry folks, old school on this area I may be, but give me something like a Canon HFG40 for that sort of work any day of the week.
Shooting
You can shoot up to 7K 12-bit RAW video either in 3:2 open gate mode (6,960 x 4,640 at 30 fps) or 17:9 (6,960 x 3,672 at up to 60 fps) using RAW or RAW light codecs.
For storage you get both a CFExpress Type B slot and an SDXC UHS II slot. If you plan on using the CFExpress slot, be prepared to dig dep though as prices as not cheap with 512GB cards (which is what you’ll need for 7K RAW) setting you back around $450 a pop with premium cards possibly twice that.
You can shoot the RAW footage to the CFExpress and shoot proxies for easier editing to the SD card.
One neat function is the ability to store the profiles of up to 10 people’s faces in order of priority in the R6 V. This could be invaluable for wedding and events shooters for example.
During my testing, the AF feature was exceptionally good, even when the subject (DougietheDoggy) went out frame for a moment.
And of course, Canon has been doing this a long time, so colour accuracy was never an issue whether it be shooting people, animals or landscapes, and they sorted out low light shooting aeons ago, so no dramas there either.
Finally, you get the full HDMI, USB-C, Wi-fi, Bluetooth, headphone and external mic ports.
Sample footage from the Canon EOS R6 V on a dull, cloudy, rainy day.
Conclusion
The Canon EOS R6 V for me is a camera that is designed primarily for video, but specifically for vlogging. Now if we accept that vlogging is the practice of regularly creating and sharing video content that documents a person’s daily life, opinions, experiences, or expertise on a particular topic, then in general, the R6 V is a fit. But if we narrow it down to a particular Vlog, then I’d suggest you need to look closer as to whether it remains a fit as there just some things I don’t consider it suitable for.
In fact I’d even suggest the R6 v has a wee bit of an identity crisis as it is not quite sure what it wants to be.
This is not to suggest it is a bad cameras – far from it as technically it is very excellent indeed. You just need to make sure it will fit in with your needs so I’d recommend doing some very close comparisons and a lot of homework before buying.
For photography though, as I have been hinting at all the way through, if this is your primary function, I’d consider the R6 III a better option.
Things to like:
- Control layout
- Colour capture is extraordinary, even out of the box with no “tweaks”
- Stabilisation
- Register People Priority Function
- Excellent AF
Dislikes:
- No Viewfinder
- Ergonomics for sport shooting
- Expensive CFExpress cards needed for full advantage of 7K RAW
You can download the Canon PDF brochure for the Canon EOS R6 V from here.