Canon R6 Mark III Review

I waited a while before I decided to write a Canon R6 Mark III Review. I was tempted to put my thoughts down after the first few weeks I had one in my hands, but I felt I needed a little more time to make sure I had more variety in my samples and thoughts. I will say at the outset, I was happy with the Canon r6 Mk11. In fact I was very happy. Of all the cameras I have used for weddings, right from film in mid 2000 to the mirrorless age, the R6 mk11 was one of my favorites. For weddings I would say it was my favorite. I loved the size and 24 megapixels was great and the autofocus was great too. But I do a lot of weddings, I also do family and other photography, and both my R6 mk11 bodies were pushing 200 000 clicks on the shutter when the mk111 came out. I was either going to get two new mk11 bodies for weddings, or two new mk111 bodies. I have an R5mk1 and an R5 mk11, but on wedding days I found I seldom need such high pixel they offer and the R6 mk11 was just way cleaner in low light and faster to edit when you have 4000 photos to sort through.

So why did I upgrade to the Canon R6 mk111?

Well I have a few things that made me decide to upgrade, despite being very happy with the R6 mk11.

1. CF Express type B – This may be different to most people, but for my workflow where I edit a few quick teaser images during dinner at weddings, the incredible speed bump of CF Express is a huge factor. I can dump a few thousand photos in a minute rather than 10 minutes. If there had been no CF Express card slot I was going to get a second R5 mkII and just deal with the bigger files.
2. 32.5 megapixels – I was happy with 24 megapixels most of the day at weddings, but sometimes when I had my 85 mm lens on and I needed a little extra reach in a ceremony, I did not have much latitude to crop. I also just like all the extra pixels for bridal formals that I know may be a canvas order or large album print. I used to bring my R5 mk 11 along to weddings just for group formals and bridal portraits to have extra big files in case I needed them. But with 32. 5 I have felt no need to do that anymore. It made me feel like I was back with the old 5D m4 again in many ways. I loved my old 5D mkIV bodies and files.
3. The new battery and autofocus – I put these together as they were both less of a factor, but the new autofocus is snappier than the mk11, but it’s not like the older mk11 was bad at all. I use my R5 mkII in the studio a lot and had bought new batteries for that, so having all the same all new batteries across my main cameras just makes life easier.
4. The last factor I guess is more personal vanity and anxiety in a way, but I like to stay current while I can and I just out of habit get two new cameras every few years because I hate equipment failures and like to be over prepared for failures at weddings.

What I love about the Canon R6 mkIII

1. Ergonomics – It handles and feels like a Canon and is very similar to all the 6 series I am used to. I love the power with on the right hand side like the R5 mkII. I know some people did not like that swap from the R6mkI to the R6mkII, but I am glad they kept it on the right.
2. CF Express Card – As I mentioned above. For my workflow this is a deal maker. Had they changed nothing else I would have upgraded. Yes I have to carry a card reader now, but I have a magnetic mount for my mac studio so I have a dedicated card reader on the side of my studio display and a similar set up for my MacBook pro. The speed is so worth it at weddings and even in studio. In studio sessions when I do not shoot tethered, I can ofter dump a whole session while clients pack up and show them a preview before they leave. This Delta Hub Mount is awesome and I have one on my MacBook and another on my Studio display to hold a cf Express reader on each.
3. 32.5 Pixels – I love the bigger files despite not always needing more than 24 mega pixels. It uses less storage than the 45 mega pixels of my R5mkII but has enough resolution to allow cropping. I have been shooting in cRaw for about a year now. I cannot see any difference from Raw files and the smaller size is great at weddings.
4. Buffer – I have not tested the actual number, but I shoot cRaw on my CF card and .jpg to the SD and I know on entrances into the church when I squeeze off rapid fire, I have yet to hit the buffer limit. This was not the case with the R6mkII. It’s not a huge issue, but nice when I need more candids fast.
5. Low Light – I was concerned about the low light performance on this camera. I do not think it is quite as good as the Mark two but it is still in my mind and from what I’ve seen far better than the R5 Mark two. At Weddings I am very often shooting receptions at ISO 1600. For many venues this seems to be a happy spot where I can capture some ambient light and not have to use too much flash power. On rare occasions I have had to push my ISO up to 4000 or as high as 6400 while taking candid photos where I have not wanted to use flash I have found photos at ISO 4000 to be more than acceptable and ISO 6400 to be usable with some Lightroom work on noise reduction. This photo below is from a wedding where they were exiting the chapel and the sun was setting and I did not want to go and get a flash and miss anything Happening so I had to crank my ISO up to 4000 to get a shutter speed fast enough to freeze the action with a little bit of work in Lightroom I am more than happy with the results that I have here.

 

 

What I do not like about the Canon R6 Mark III

1. Glitchy off camera Flash – There is not really much I do not like about this camera, but I have found off camera flash using the Canon EL5 flashes at weddings there is one small problem. I have six Canon EL5 flashes I traded in my Canon EL one flashes for the EL5 flashes purposely so I can use the MagMod system. When I use these flashes at a wedding for the reception I normally have one flash on camera set in TTL and then I have 2, 3, or 4 flashes off camera set in manual anywhere from 1/16 power to 1/4 power depending on how dark light the venue is. The system has worked extremely well for me. I often have a tungsten gel on all of the flashes and I get great light with no issues. However, I have found when I turn any of the off camera flashes to TTL my camera crashes and I get an error. This does not affect me at Weddings because I shoot with manual flash. I have upgraded the firmware on my camera cameras and my flashes, but it does not seem to fix the problem. Sometimes when I’m doing engagement photos, I may use the off camera flashes in TTL and forget and then my camera crashes and I have to take the battery out and put it back in. When I do this, I may get one or two shots and then I get an error message again. I am hoping Canon are aware of this issue. I am going to reach out to them about the issue and hope it can be fixed in firmware. I find when I use the Cannon triggers and shoot with TTL with the flashes off camera, there is no issue at all so normally on an engagement session I just take triggers instead of using an on camera flash now. This may be a flash issue, but I do not have this problem with my R5 or R5mkII.

 

Sample Images and a few comments, with technical info

 

Here is a selection of photos, mostly from Weddings. And a few from the studio and other events, I’ll put a few comments under some of the images and I will include all of the technical data on each photo. That way you can make an informed decision and see what the photos look like in real world use.

 

 

 

 

Believe it or not these two headshots of a bridesmaid were shot in a bathroom using natural light. I saw her in the good light doing here hair and naked her to look over for a few quick frames right where she stood. The Canon R6 Mark III is great for this type of candid work. Even at f1.4 it locked on her closest eye and ISO 800 is still very clean with very little noise in the photos.

 

 

 

 

Commercial work with the Canon R6 Mark III

These next few photos are from a commercial session for a kids museum. I am not allowed to use flash with these sessions and have to rely on fairly low ambient light. Often working at f1.6 to keep the shutter speed up and not go too high on the ISO speed. The R6 III handles this type of work really well. Some of these images ended up as posters in the museum and printed at 36 inches no problem.

In conclusion

I am very happy with my two Canon R6 Mark III bodies if you are currently shooting with the version two and do not need CF express cards I would not recommend you upgrade, but I chose to upgrade because I needed a new cameras and for me personally, the CF card is a big deal. The combination of the quality of the photos, the price of the camera bodies compared to the higher end canon R5 mark two and the weight of the cameras compared to a R one. I think it is a great camera and almost perfect for Weddings. This is why I take two to every wedding. I shoot with two cameras on me most of the day. For studio work I prefer my Canon R5 mark two because I like the bigger files and I’m not shooting at high iso limits.

 

I do not do a lot of reviews, but here is a link to the Canon RF 85 1.2L Lens. A favorite for me.