What made you switch to Canon RF mirrorless?

[YangMills]

Long time Canon user coming from 5DIII and 7DII with an investment in EF glass. Was considering the advantages of mirrorless for a while but R and RP didn’t seem to cut it. After the R5 and R6 had been launched for a while I decided the time was right and traded in the two EOS bodies, and my 24-105L but kept quite a bit of other EF glass like the 100-400LII and 85 1.4L which I’m still using adapted. I love it that I get all the benefits of mirrorless and my existing EF glass works better than ever.

 

[Barry]

Hi. Interesting what you decided to do. I would agree that the rf stuff works well with ef lenses. I wouldn't change my 5DmkIIII or 1DXmkIII as I was looking for a replacement fir the 7D mkII, but the R7 doesn't cut it for me. It's too toylike and is a mishmash of settings and features. As I have said before Canon should have made an rf version of the 7D. That's what we all hoped for..

 

[YangMills]

Hi. Interesting what you decided to do. I would agree that the rf stuff works well with ef lenses. I wouldn't change my 5DmkIIII or 1DXmkIII as I was looking for a replacement fir the 7D mkII, but the R7 doesn't cut it for me. It's too toylike and is a mishmash of settings and features. As I have said before Canon should have made an rf version of the 7D. That's what we all hoped for..

I don’t disagree with that at all - I had hoped for the same. But the upside is that the R5 45mp means that you seem to be able to crop forever so you get the equivalent of the crop sensor reach and the AF is great. I have bought an R7 body towards the end of last year to see if it’ll be even better but haven’t done anything serious with it yet.

Those puffins are fast little beasts. (R5 + EF100-400L II)

 

[JackC]

I don’t disagree with that at all - I had hoped for the same. But the upside is that the R5 45mp means that you seem to be able to crop forever so you get the equivalent of the crop sensor reach and the AF is great. I have bought an R7 body towards the end of last year to see if it’ll be even better but haven’t done anything serious with it yet.

Those puffins are fast little beasts. (R5 + EF100-400L II)

View attachment 14171

Great shot of the puffin!

 

[PhotoJim58]

Hi. Interesting what you decided to do. I would agree that the rf stuff works well with ef lenses. I wouldn't change my 5DmkIIII or 1DXmkIII as I was looking for a replacement fir the 7D mkII, but the R7 doesn't cut it for me. It's too toylike and is a mishmash of settings and features. As I have said before Canon should have made an rf version of the 7D. That's what we all hoped for..

Right now I think the R6mkII is the closet thing to a7D replacement. Even though the weather sealing is not on par with the 7d.

 

[hedleyw]

I used Olympus m43 gear for several years. Just after it was launched I stood next to a guy using an R5. A bird flew past, we both took photos and then compared keeper rates. The difference was so great that I decided there and then to make the switch to Canon‘s RF system and haven’t looked back. Good to see that Canon are now starting to engage more with computational features for which Olympus have a big lead.

 

[cdgta]

With all the different brands, systems, and formats out there, what made you specifically choose a Canon RF mirrorless camera? I hope this might be insightful to others searching out there and confused by all the choices.

As for my story, I had a Nikon D750 DSLR for 6-1/2 years and then decided to switch to mirrorless. I chose the Canon R6 because I was absolutely SHOCKED at the speed and accuracy of the AF, something that people weren't actually raving about regarding the Nikon Z6 II or Z7 II. Why not Sony? I CANNOT STAND their ergonomics and their bodies are just not comfortable for me to grip.

I also wanted to stick with full-frame despite the bigger size, weight, and cost versus APS-C or Micro Four-Thirds. Full-frame images have less noise at high ISO and there's so much more post-processing latitude.

So my main reasons for switching were 1) what I perceived to be the phasing out of DSLRs in short order and 2) the insane(!!!) AF of Canon RF mirrorless. Oddly enough, a third reason why I went with the R6 was the fully-articulating LCD.

The transition was a little rough at the start. It took me quite a while to wrap my brain around how to configure the various AF modes Canon-style, but once it all 'clicked' I realized actually how simple it is. Although it was far easier on my D750 to select what items to add to My Menu versus the R6 equivalent, I like that I can choose more items than on the D750. I love how there are so many buttons on the R6 that can be customized with all sorts of different options – and just the customizability of the camera in general. I like many of the littler things about the R6, like how custom shooting mode settings can be auto updated if one chooses.

The two things I didn't expect to be blown away by is the capabilities and responsiveness of the LCD touch-screen and the absolutely amazing MF peaking mode when using manual focus. No more trying to figure out the hyperfocal distance with landscapes - you see exactly what's going to be in focus and what isn't!

If there's only one thing I'm a little nervous about, it's the inability to back-up your camera settings. This is inexcusable at this price point and I was able to do this even on the much-older D750. If one ever has the camera reset for whatever reason, they can't simply import the settings from a backup SD card. They have to set everything up from scratch. I've created a couple of docs with all my setting choices if it should ever come to this, but what a time-consuming hassle!

The bottom line is that I liked how the D750 was like the "multi-tool" or "Swiss Army knife" of cameras - it did a whole lot of things really, REALLY well. I wanted the equivalent in mirrorless and I believe I found it in the R6, yet to a way better degree overall. I have very little regret about the switch, in other words.

I had shot both Canon and Panasonic then bought the Nikon Z6 when it first came out and I enjoyed it but by the time the Canon R6 was announced I was fed up with the very slow pace of Nikon in putting out Z lenses & adapters for older lenses. I still had some excellent Canon prime and L lenses and when I was assured that I could use them with the adapter with great results, I tried out the R6 (and the R5) and like you was blown away with the amazing AF functionality. I chose the R6 for its somewhat better low-light capability & wasn't worried at all by the 20mp vs 45mp thing because I had been taking photos since the early 70s and knew that great photos could be taken and printed with cameras with way lower mps available! My husband and I travelled a lot pre-pandemic so I wanted lightweight kit.

I agree with all you said about the customizations that are available in this camera...especially if one takes the time to research either by reading or watching videos or both (me!). One gets so much more performance out of it, or indeed any camera, if one takes the time to learn its features/settings. It is unfortunate when one thinks because they have used the dslrs of a camera maker that one knows all about its newer mirrorless cameras because one is bound to be disappointed in the performance then.

I used my mobile to take pics of the most important (to me) settings within the menus/sub-menus and saved to file just in case.

I love my R6 but am still sneaking peeks at reviews and posts about the R6 MII...what can I say?! I'm a photographer!!!

 

[cdgta]

I've been with Canon since my AE-1 then EOS 5 QD, 20D, 40D, 70D. Wasn't overly impressed by the early R series cameras and was thinking of getting a 90D when the R6 launched. I borrowed an R6 through the Canon scheme and was impressed by the autofocus capabilities (I like shooting birds in flight, my dog on the move) so I bought one. The question now is whether to move to the Mark 2?

My dilemma too! Or wait to see what comes next (since I am not unhappy by any means with my R6)...

 

[YangMills]

For me, the upgrade from R6 to R6II is not worth it. I try not to chase every launched product but wait a couple of generations at least. Some of my best images were shot with much older technology. The technology is nice but the eye is what counts.

 

[Grahamk]

In the past I've followed the miss a generation or two path as well - 20D, 40D, 70D. However, in this case I felt that the improved autofocus and tracking made the upgrade worth it for my favourite subjects - BIF & motorsports, hence I've bought the Mk2.