Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsA lot of camera
Reviewed in the United States on January 16, 2024
I've been using prosumer cameras for 30 years. I decided it was time to replace my 13-year old Canon 7D, and I chose the Canon R6 Mark II. I'm very happy with it. I was considering buying the R8, but when I held it, I realized it was too small to fit comfortably in my hand. (I'm just an average size guy, with average male hands.) The R6 Mark II is 1/4" taller so it fits my hand better than the R8, plus it has a better viewfinder (especially important for glasses wearers like me), plus it has in-camera image stabilization. To me, those were the features that justified the extra price.
Compared to my old Canon 7D, the new R6 Mark II has *much* better focusing, better resolution (more than the extra 6 megapixels would suggest), and shoots in much lower light. With the 7D, ISO 1600 was the highest I could go if I wanted good image quality, but the R6 Mark II can easily go up to ISO 12800. Heck, even ISO 56000 works for casual use.
The camera has TONS of customizations. So if you like to tinker and read user manuals, you will be in heaven.
One of the cool new features is focus stacking. This lets you take a close-up picture of something and get the whole thing in perfect focus, front to back. The camera takes many individual shots, each at a slightly different focus point, and stitches them together in-camera. It works best with a completely still subject and a tripod, so I won't be using it a lot, but it is cool.
I was wondering how much I would like the electronic viewfinder, and it turns out I prefer it over a "real" viewfinder that older DSLR cameras like my 7D have. The biggest benefit is at night because the viewfinder is brighter; this makes the camera easier and more fun to use.
