Is the Canon R6 camera good for wedding photography?
Since the failure of one of our old Canon 5D Mark IV’s (a totally respectable camera that lasted us about ~7 years before kicking the bucket on us), we ended up purchasing a Canon EOS R6 camera as a main replacement camera body.
It felt like a bit of a risk for us – having to make this switch during our business fall wedding season EVER. But – our experience with the R6 has been extremely positive, and we’re excited to share 10 reasons why we believe it is so good for wedding photographers.
10 Reasons Why You Should Get a Canon R6
1). Incredible autofocus results.
The #1 reason why we decided to switch from our old DSLR cameras (which were great in our experience) to this new mirrorless camera by Canon was what we had been hearing from some of our photographer friends about it’s AF system. And wow – we have been amazed again and again with how well it has been performing for us given how hectic wedding days can be.
What is important to really understand is that virtually any camera (even one with a “bad” AF system) can operate well if you have a reasonable amount of time to set up a shot, set focus, and take some photos. During a wedding day, we often do not have that luxury.
As we document weddings, we are often firing away, looking to capture small moments as they happen, that can’t be recreated (you know – those candid moments everyone loves!). Even during portrait times, we are sometimes limited to the amount of time we have (we’ve photographed weddings where we’ve literally had 5 minutes for portraits with our couple) – and this results in rushing, which itself can lead to bad focus results thanks to camera shake and just plain missing the mark when focusing.
With the R6, we are finding that 95%+ of our images are in focus. This is after 6 months of use, around 30 weddings + 15 smaller sessions (like engagements for our clients). This is approximately 150,000 total images taken with the R6 in this timespan – which we feel is a solid sample to judge how the camera performs.
If you are having focus issues with your current camera system, this is an excellent reason to make the switch.
But wait – there’s more!
2). Lightweight.
As with most mirrorless cameras available on the market, the Canon R6 is very light, especially when compared with heavy DSLR cameras like the Canon 5D Mark IV. In particular, this makes carrying the camera around for a long wedding day much easier, as well as transporting when in a camera bag on your back for long periods of time (such as when photographing a hiking elopement wedding).
3). Electronic viewfinder.
The biggest change for us when it came to actually using the R6 on wedding days was adjusting our eyes to the electric viewfinder. Older DSLR’s used an optical viewfinder (which was basically like looking through a piece of glass). The electronic viewfinder essentially simulates what your photo will look like, before taking a picture. This means if you set a wide aperture (like f/1.2) and focus the camera, you will see the corresponding depth of field (DOF).
This definitely took a little time to get used to, but once we did it has been a really excellent feature. This is especially true in some situations like this – we’re setting up the couple for portraits, adjust our setting, then can check how the image will turn out before actually taking a picture. In the past, we’d constantly shoot multiple test shots, now we can reduce this greatly using the viewfinder built into the camera.
4). High speed burst mode.
The Canon R6 can shoot up to 20 frames per second, which is incredibly fast and especially useful for wedding photographers (like us) who create GIFs for their clients OR who like to rapidly fire to capture specific moments like the first kiss.
For a point of reference, the Canon 5D Mark IV only shoots up to 7 frames per second. The R6 is more than double, and results in much smoother transitions between frames.
5). A great selection of new lenses.
Every time Canon released a new major camera system, they also bring to market new camera lenses designed for that camera. In the case of the R6 (and other mirrorless models they offer such as the Canon R5, RP, R and R3), the Canon RF lenses have been widely noted has high quality, great performing, and extremely sharp choices that perfectly compliment the camera.
Canon RF glass is available at the key focal lengths you would need for documenting a wedding day perfectly. Some great options currently available:
6). And compatible with current EF lenses you may own.
As we were migrating over from our original DSLR system, we didn’t exactly want to invest in all new glass (and definitely not $10,000+ dollars worth). Fortunately, the Canon R6 is compatible with our already owned EF lenses with the support of an inexpensive lens adapter.
There are two Canon lens EF-to-RF lens adapters available:
Standard Canon EF-EOS R Mount Adapter. The “standard” option (also the lower priced of the 2) is simply the lens adapter with no additional features. Simply attach to the R6, then attach your lens, and you’re good to go like normal.
Canon EF-EOS R Mount Adapter with Control Ring. The more expensive option of the two, this adapter is a worthwhile consideration actually. It does the expected like the 1st lens adapter, but includes a new “control ring” that can be customized to allow you to make adjustments on the fly by rotating the ring itself. Some functions you can control using this ring include white balance, ISO, shutter speed, aperture. This functionality allows your older lenses to mirror the built in functionality found on all of the new RF lenses.
7). Dual card slots
Any professional wedding photographer will want a camera that can record images twice to ensure no images are lost. On older camera models, typically you would use 1 smaller SD card, and 1 bigger CF card. If you aren’t aware, the CF cards also would cost double (or more) for the same size card.
Now, the Canon R6 camera has 2 SD card slots – allowing you to put to use those smaller cards exclusively.
8). The best low light performance we’ve seen.
The one area of performance that we were not expecting was just how good the R6 performs in low light environments. We can shoot in poorly lit environments up until at least 5,000 ISO before we start to even notice any grain in our shots.
This caught us off guard as the Mark IV, our primary camera up until our switch, also performs well in low light – but clearly not as well. By around 3,000 ISO, the Mark IV’s images often become close to unusable.
9). Good image quality for our applications.
The main area of hesitation we had before buying the Canon R6 was what to expect from our image quality. The R6 has 20 megapixels, when compared to our previous camera the 5D Mark IV, which had 30.4 megapixels.
Granted, megapixels are not the only thing that contribute to image quality, but it is easy to see from this that there would be expected to be a difference.
In our experience, the difference in image quality is negligible. In a practical, real life scenario judgment of our R6 images – our clients have seen no difference, and still love their images. We have also had these images printed in high quality albums and large format wall prints – and the reproductions are also excellent.
Seeing these results for ourselves – we now know the image quality is high enough for professional applications. There are certainly other cameras available that offer even higher levels of quality (like the Canon R5 – the model above this one), but we don’t find it necessary for our use case.
10). Relatively low cost when considering the quality and performance.
And lastly – one of the biggest considerations for any wedding photographers (especially those on a budget) is the price. While this is not a “cheap” camera by any means, the Canon R6’s price point of $2,500 (at the time of this writing) is fair and very affordable, especially when compared to the Canon 5D Mark IV that released for $4,000 (and we bought it at that price point, too!).
Conclusion
We have been extremely satisfied with our purchase of the Canon R6 camera for use as wedding photographers. This is such a well-rounded and easy to use camera, that makes taking photos easier and getting good results just as easy. You would be hard pressed to find another camera that performs as well.
For a more in depth and general overview of the camera, you can also read through our Canon R6 review.
Canon R6 Sample Images from Real Weddings
The images below were photographed using the Canon R6 during weddings we covered through our business Hand and Arrow Photography. All images are copyright protected and provided here as an example of the image quality you can expect from the R6.
