Canon EOS R6 V First Impressions: Why Is Canon Crowding the Field?

When Canon launched the C50 and R6 Mark III last year, the comparison was pretty simple. But now, a third camera is in the mix complicating that up a bit.

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Before, you just had to pick between two options with notable differnces. Want a hybrid mirrorless camera with great video, an EVF and IBIS, but potential overheating? Go R6 III. If you crave nearly unlimited record times and a professional interface so much that you’re willing to forego the EVF and IBIS? C50 is for you. But now we have the R6 V which might be the perfect blend of those two cameras for videographers or a confusing middle ground.

The R6 V could be a great choice if you don’t want an EVF or mechanical shutter, but the reality is actually a bit more complicated than that, so let’s take a look at Canon’s latest hybrid body.

Canon EOS R6 V Review: How It Feels

Canon sent us a pre-production R6 V which Chris Niccolls and I used to film the video embedded above. However, because of its early nature, Canon has stipulated that we can’t do any detailed testing. That’s not a big concern, though, since this 32.5-megapixel sensor is a known commodity. We also used the new Canon RF 20-50mm f/4 L IS USM PZ (power zoom) kit lens, but we’ll save our detailed look at that for a separate review.

The design of this camera is a real mish-mash of the R6 III, R50V, and the C50. Due to the lack of an EVF hump, it is shorter than the R6 III but still has a chunky base that actually feels very good in the hand. Like most of Canon’s higher-end bodies, this has three control dials, though interestingly the rear dial also works as a four-way joystick, with zebra, peaking, AF point selection, and the audio menu easily accessible. The rest of the camera is covered in well laid out custom buttons that clearly show their function during capture and playback.

The majority of the camera’s back is taken up with a passable but unexciting three-inch display with 1.62M dots of resolution (900 x 600 pixels). As this is the only built-in way of monitoring your footage, I wish it were a more impressive display like what Nikon did with the ZR. It is, however, fully articulating and designed far enough away from the audio ports to keep the LCD from bumping into your cables.

The top has Canon’s multi-function hot shoe, which allows the use of many audio and flash accessories. Note that, unlike the C50, the R6 V does not include the XLR handle for connecting professional microphones. The top of the camera also features the zoom rocker which can be used for digital zoom, or optical zoom with compatible power-zoom lenses like the kit RF 20-50mm f/4L IS USM PZ kit lens. We also have a mode dial, though oddly for a video-centric camera, this cannot be locked.

The side of the camera has a lovely full-size HDMI port, USB-C, and mic and headphone jacks. You can also see the vent used by the active cooling system.

On the other side is a CFexpress Type B slot and an SD card slot. Conveniently, the SD card can be used for primary recording, backup or in high data rate modes, it can record a small Proxy file while RAW video is recorded to the CFexpress card. Here you will also find an extra 1/4-inch screw hole for mounting the camera vertically. It’s worth pointing out, though, that unlike the R50 V, which had a card slot on the bottom, here a quick-release plate will absolutely stop any attempt to access the card doors. That kinda sucks and makes this feature far less useful.

The base of the camera has the air intake vent, your second tripod mount, and the battery compartment. This LP-E6P battery has a form factor that will be familiar to Canon users and can accept older batteries, but several camera functions, including wireless transmission and some recording modes, will be disabled.

Canon EOS R6 V Review: How It Shoots

The sensor is Canon’s now-familiar 32.5-megapixel option, which is fantastic for video. It allows oversampled 4K up to 60p, subsampled but full width 4Kp120 and 2Kp180, and even Open Gate 7K up to 30p. Despite its conventional design, it holds its own against some of the new partially stacked sensors in this class. However, unlike the R6 III, this camera does not feature a mechanical shutter so it is a far less versatile photo system for| shooting moving subjects or in artificial light.

While we can’t test overheating with this early model, Canon did provide some estimated run times in various modes. We had some issues with the R6 III in its oversampled 4Kp60 and open gate 7K recordings, with both giving us around half an hour at room temperature. With the active cooling in the R6 V, we should be seeing over two hours of oversampled 4Kp60 and no restrictions on 7K Open Gate recording. This alone will make the R6 V a much more compelling option than the R6 III for long, uninterrupted recordings, like interviews or live music.

One feature that made me prefer the R6 III over the C50 for my work was the IBIS, or in-body image stabilization. Thankfully, that feature is included here, though surprisingly with a lower rating of 7.5 stops in the center of the frame versus the 8.5 stops found on the R6 III. Regardless, while not quite as smooth as Panasonic’s full-frame cameras, this does a great job of taking out micro-jitters and works great when trying to keep a static frame steady. Digital stabilization is used to further smooth out the footage, with a crop of the image and the expected image degradation that incurs.

The R6 V has an excellent variety of assist tools, including waveforms, false color, and histograms. This camera uses the Canon mirrorless menus, unlike the C50, which has the mirrorless menus for photo and the professional menu system for video. I would say that makes sense for this class of camera, however, the C50 offered the ability to simultaneously record horizontal and vertical clips from the open gate 7K image, a feature clearly perfect for the content creators the R6 V is designed for, but surprisingly unavailable here.

Canon’s Golidlocks Creator Camera?

Here’s the thing: while I get hung up on the missing EVF, videographers are clearly telling camera companies that they don’t care. The Sony FX3 is an incredibly popular camera for filmmaking, and the Nikon ZR looks like it’ll be a similar success. The R6 V follows a that formula, with some capabilities like open gate recording and a power zoom-enabled kit lens that set it apart.

But I can see how it could be very confusing for someone looking at a Canon full-frame camera primarily for video to look at the various benefits and trade-offs of the R6 III, R6 V, and C50. The $300 savings of the R6 V over the R6 III shouldn’t be your primary decision-making factor. Rather, consider if photography is going to be an important use case, and if you really enjoy having an EVF. If not, the R6 V is clearly the better choice. This camera also makes the C50 a much more targeted camera for shooters requiring professional tools like timecode, anamorphic support, various RAW video compression and ultimate thermal reliability. For the majority of people, the R6 V or R6 III will be the better choice.

After considering everything, I do think the R6 V makes sense in the Canon lineup and is sure to make plenty of working videographers and creators happy. But as someone who loves EVFs, I feel I have to keep up the good fight for capable, compact mirrorless optimized cameras that will let me see what I’m doing when it’s bright out.