Canon 5D Mark 4 vs. Canon R6: Which one is BETTER?

kevin raposo here with speedyphotographer.com and today we're comparing the canon 5d mark iv to the canon r6 now this comparison will be based on 20 different factors that i personally feel are the most important and you can find all of the concepts and times referenced in this video are up on screen now before we jump in let me give you some context this is something that a lot of comparison videos will forget to mention understanding what i want from a camera is just as important as understanding this comparison itself because you might be looking for something different so to break it down for you in about 30 seconds i shoot about 50 photo and 50 video and more specifically my portfolio is a mixture of sports corporate content real estate and a little bit of portrait work on top of that i also shoot a ton of tutorial content for my online photography school speedy photographer and in terms of how much experience i actually have with these cameras i've personally owned the 5d mark iv for three years and i've taken over 40 000 pictures with it i picked up the r6 about a month ago and i've been using it for pretty much all of the same work as well so will i be keeping the r6 let's jump in and find out we can start by looking at the price at the time of making this video in march of 2021 the 5d mark iv is currently priced at 24.99 brand new the r6 is also priced at 24.99 brand new all prices in american but because the 5d mark iv was released back in 2016 you have a much better chance of picking up a used one or finding a good discount not only that but canon has an average release cycle of about four years and usually the price of their cameras will lower significantly after a new release so the price of the 5d mark iv has a much better chance of dropping whereas the r6 will probably sit around the same cost until 2023 so when it comes to the price point goes to the 5d mark iv now moving on to sensor size these are both full-frame sensors with the exact same field of view so no difference whatsoever here point goes to both cameras next we have the number of megapixels the 5d mark iv has a 30.4 megapixel sensor whereas the r6 has a 20.1 megapixel sensor but before i declare a winner here do i actually notice a difference in quality between these two cameras yes does it matter no if you shoot landscapes or your work is going up on a billboard then this might be a deal breaker for you for me it makes no difference i shoot in two high volume industries sports and real estate speed of delivery is much more important to me than having that extra fine detail and the lower resolution of the r6 actually allows me to process my images a lot more efficiently so on paper the 5d mark iv is the winner here but in practice i could care less moving on to dynamic range the dynamic range of the 5d mark iv when shooting at base iso is 13.6 stops of light while the r6 is slightly better at 14.3 stops of light so that means a point goes to the r6 but the difference here is so small that most photographers will never even notice it and even if you can tell both cameras include an hdr mode that will produce identical results next we have autofocus and this is not even close the r6 absolutely blows the 5d mark 4 out of the water here with 6072 focus points compared to just 61 human and eye autofocus significantly better performance in low light the list goes on but for me personally the biggest difference has been the 100 sensor coverage of the r6 i can focus anywhere in the frame without any kind of compromise which is an absolute game changer for me when it comes to tracking action the 5d mark iv already had outstanding dual pixel autofocus but i would occasionally lose my subject on the edges of the frame the r6 doesn't have this problem and even when your subject leaves the frame the autofocus system is intelligent enough to return focus to the same point i've also been extremely impressed with how accurate the eye tracking focus has been i haven't tested this on animals but when it comes to the human subjects the r6 quickly and consistently locks on and nails focus in both the photo and video modes it allows me to focus all of my attention on the creative aspects of my work rather than the technical side of things which is something i could never completely do with the 5d mark iv so a big point goes to the r6 here next up ergonomics and specifically we're looking at the weight the size and the feel of both cameras in your hand the 5d mark iv is significantly heavier weighing in at 890 grams while the r6 is only 680 grams however if you're using an ef mount lens with the r6 which many of you will be doing the official canon ef to rf adapters weigh in between 110 and 130 grams which will actually make the r6 weigh between 790 and 810 grams so the difference in weight is actually not that big unless you're exclusively shooting with rf mount lenses the 5d mark iv is also a bit taller and wider than the r6 while the r6 has a deeper hand grip because there isn't a mirror taking up that extra space inside the camera body you can really see how much deeper it is when you look at the positioning of the cable port while using an external battery so how does it actually feel in my hand personally the weight makes no difference but the deeper grip on the r6 is definitely more comfortable and feels more secure i never really had a problem with the 5d mark iv here to begin with but going back to it now the r6 just feels better i'm also one of those people who likes to give other photographers a heart attack by dangling the camera by my fingertips and the deeper grip of the r6 makes it easier for me to do that i will say that i do prefer the button placement and selection on the 5d mark iv a little bit more but that doesn't outweigh everything else here so the point goes to the r6 but this is a very subjective category your experience might be different from mine moving on to build quality and weather sealing i spent a lot of time researching this one because it was very important to me i deal with poor conditions and i tend to be pretty aggressive with my cameras while i'm shooting sports and i have to admit the polycarbonate body of the r6 feels like a step down from the 5d mark iv even though it has a magnesium alloy internal structure it definitely doesn't feel like it can take as much of a beating the 5d mark iv feels more like a tank and i can personally confirm from my own experience that it operates like one too i might be wrong about this but i couldn't find a tear down of the r6 to see how it actually matched up internally with the 5d mark iv the best answer i could find was that canon claims the r6 offers weather sealing and durability that matches the old 6d line of cameras and this was a helpful reference point for me because i used to own the original 6d back in 2014 and i can personally confirm that it was not as durable as the 5d mark iv all of this goes to say that the point in this category is to the 5d mark iv next we have the lcd screen both cameras have touch screen lcds with the exact same resolution but the 5d mark iv is 0.2 inches larger than the r6 the 5d mark iv also has a top facing screen which allows you to check your settings while the r6 does not but the r6 has one major advantage over the 5d mark iv here the touch screen lcd is fully articulated this is a really big deal for me when it comes to both photography and video production as a sports photographer i'm always shooting low to the ground so the athletes look more impressive and if i'm shooting corporate video i'm usually juggling a teleprompter and i prefer to stand off center so i can track the script so for me the r6 wins this category because it unlocks new creative opportunities that are much more difficult without the articulating lcd this brings us to the viewfinder this is one of the most significant differences between these two cameras it's also one of the main reasons that i was hesitant to switch over from a dslr i really liked using an optical viewfinder and the 5d mark iv has an optical viewfinder while the r6 has an electronic viewfinder which can be used with a 120 frame per second refresh rate so after using the r6 for a month how do i feel about it it's good i do think that it's a bit blurry when i'm moving the camera quickly and i can definitely feel a very slight delay with that said it is really nice to be able to see the active focus point browse through the menus all things that would be impossible with an optical viewfinder so which one wins here honestly there are pros and cons to each i have to call this a draw point goes to both moving on to the memory cards both cameras include dual slots the 5d mark iv has a uh s1 sd card slot with about a 90 megabyte per second write speed and a cf card slot with about megabyte per second write speed the r6 has two uhs two sd card slots with about a 190 megabyte per second write speed so the r6 obviously wins this category but it's not just because of the write speed there are actually three other things that i really like number one the two slots are matching this means i don't have to carry around two different types of cards with me which was always really annoying number two the slot speeds are the same one of my biggest frustrations with the 5d mark iv was that if i was shooting in raw and i wanted to max out the buffer at 35 shots i could only write to the cf card which was faster if i tried also writing to the sd card i would max out after only 21 shots and number three all of my existing uh s1 sd cards were fully compatible with the r6 which means there was no hidden upgrade cost if i was buying something like the canon r5 instead i would also have to start buying cf express cards the one thing that does annoy me is that canon refuses to implement dual slot video recording in either camera which is only an option while taking pictures but that's not a deal breaker for me so we're about halfway through this comparison and if you found this helpful so far i thought i'd nicely remind you if you would like and subscribe to my channel that would be greatly appreciated this leads nicely into the next section burst rate and buffer and when it comes to burst rate the 5d mark iv can shoot 7 pictures per second while the r6 can shoot 12 pictures per second with the mechanical shutter and 20 pictures per second with the electronic shutter and when it comes to the buffer size as i just mentioned the 5d mark iv will fill up the buffer after taking 35 raw pictures if you're only using the cf card slot on the other hand when you're shooting with the mechanical shutter on the r6 there's no limit and when you're shooting with the electronic shutter on the r6 it'll fill up the buffer after 180 raw pictures and all of these examples obviously assume that you're using the fastest possible memory card so the r6 is clearly the winner here both on paper and in a real world setting i would constantly max out the buffer while shooting with the 5d mark iv but i can't possibly see how i would ever do that with the r6 the next thing i want to talk about is rolling shutter and the simple answer here is that both cameras have it and it isn't great as someone who constantly whips my camera left and right while i'm shooting action i was really hoping for a significant improvement with the r6 but as you can tell from the example up on screen there really isn't not only that but rolling shutter is also a problem when you're using the electronic shutter with the r6 it significantly limits how i can use that 20 picture per second burst speed which is a huge disappointment with all that said both are bad but at least i don't have to think about the problem at all when i'm shooting stills with the 5d mark iv whereas with the r6 i do if i'm using the electronic shutter so a very very small point here goes to the 5d mark iv with that said let's dive into the low light performance this was a very important category for me because i regularly shoot sports and real estate under horrible lighting conditions i've been forced to shoot the 5d mark for it up to iso 20 000 before and the results are absolutely terrible the 5d mark iv has an iso range from 100 to 32 000 whereas the r6 has an iso range from 100 to 100 and 2 400. what does that actually mean in practice well let's compare these two cameras and you'll see that they both look very similar from iso 100 all the way up to iso 1600 the r6 really begins to pull away when you hit iso 3200 and 6400 which is probably about the maximum i would ever want to push the 5d mark for at iso 12800 there's no comparison the r6 is totally acceptable and blows the 5d mark iv out of the water here's iso 25600 which is the absolute maximum i would be willing to push on the r6 here's iso 51200 the 5d mark iv tops out at 32 000 so it's no longer there and finally here's iso 102 400. so obviously point goes to the r6 in this category next we have image stabilization and this is pretty simple the r6 includes 5-axis in-body image stabilization while the 5d mark iv has nothing with that said it is worth mentioning that you only get 5-axis stabilization when you're using rf mount lenses i didn't even realize this until i read it on a forum but if you're using ef mount lenses you get downgraded to a two-axis mode but it's still better than nothing and it works well in my testing so point here goes to the r6 moving on we have the camera connections and both cameras have a lot of the standard ports that you would expect a headphone jack a microphone jack hdmi usb and a remote terminal i'm not going to go into specific detail here i'm sure that you can read a spec sheet just as well as i can what i do want to focus on are the two major differences number one the 5d mark iv includes a pc sync port but the r6 does not this is not talked about very often but it might be a deal breaker for some of you who like using hardwired connections to fire your flashes and number two the 5d mark iv is limited to 1080p output through hdmi while the r6 can output at 4k this is only a deal breaker if you plan to use an external recorder while you're shooting video which is a pretty small percentage of people i personally think that the lack of a pc sync port is pretty significant so point goes to the 5d mark iv here the next thing we're comparing are the wireless connections i'm not a big fan of using in-camera wireless connections because they never really seem to be reliable with that said the 5d mark iv includes a built-in gps along with wi-fi and nfc connection options on the other hand the r6 includes wi-fi and bluetooth but no gps and in my brief testing of these features i found that the wi-fi bluetooth and nfc functionality were all equally clunky and unreliable so there was no real winner here but the 5d mark iv does include a built-in gps which might be a big deal for you if you're a traveling photographer so i have to give the point to the 5d mark iv next up we have reliability and overheating now if the only thing you plan to do is shoot still photography then this category is a draw both cameras provide the classic canon reliability that keeps me a loyal customer but unless you've been living under a rock you've definitely heard that the canon r6 will overheat while you're shooting any type of 4k video for long periods of time and because of this i do have to avoid the point to the 5d mark iv in this category which does not have any kind of overheating problem but i do want to talk a little bit about my experience shooting 4k video with the r6 because i know that i was personally nervous about purchasing a camera that might overheat on me while i'm shooting at the time of making this video in march of 2021 firmware version 1.2.0 will overheat while shooting internal 10 bit 4k at 24 frames per second after an hour and 44 minutes and at 60 frames per second it'll overheat after 53 minutes i ran both of these tests twice in a room temperature environment of 21 degrees celsius and the result was almost identical each time but here's the thing in a real world setting overheating has never been an issue for me even when i'm not trying to be careful with overheat control set to on i've been happily shooting real estate in 10 bit 4k at 60 frames per second for a month without the camera overheating on me all of this helped me to realize that despite being very nervous at first there are very few situations where i actually shoot for half an hour straight so if you're like me shooting a lot of short video clips for a minute or two at a time i honestly don't think that this will be a problem for you now if you're shooting long-form video content like interviews then yeah get yourself a different camera moving on we have lens options the 5d mark iv is only compatible with ef mount lenses while the r6 can use both ef and the newer rf mount lenses for mirrorless cameras some people have expressed concern online about the fact that you need an adapter for the r6 but in my experience the ef mount lens performance is 100 identical so not only do you have more selection with the r6 but canon has been very clear that their attention is now shifting to the rf mount so you're probably going to have access to new lenses in the future whereas the ef mount is beginning to near the end of its life cycle so point goes to the r6 in this category next up battery life unlike many of the other things i referenced in this comparison i haven't done any scientific testing to prove this but in my experience the 5d mark iv lasts noticeably longer than the r6 both when shooting photo and video this probably has a lot to do with the electronic viewfinder requiring more battery power and the fact that the r6 is doing serious processing when shooting in 4k so in this category the point has to go to the 5d mark iv last but not least let's talk about video and the truth is this really isn't close the 5d mark iv is limited to 8-bit 4k at 30 frames per second while the r6 can shoot 10-bit 4k at 60 frames per second the 5d mark iv uses an extremely outdated and bloated mjpeg codec while the r6 uses h.264 or h.265 depending on the mode you shoot in the 5d mark iv has an absolutely brutal 4k crop factor of 1.74 times while the r6 is effectively using the entire sensor with a crop factor of only 1.07 times the 5d mark iv doesn't include zebras focus peaking digital image stabilization or any other kind of professional feature you would expect from a video camera whereas the r6 includes all of these things and a few more i could go on forever here but i think you get the point the only thing that the 5d mark iv can do when it comes to video that the r6 cannot is shoot in dci 4k which is slightly wider at 4096 by 2160 and also the agreed upon standard in 4k film production but no professional filmmaker is going to use either one of these as an a camera for something to be shown in theaters so that really means nothing the r6 wins this category by a landslide if you're a hybrid shooter looking for a camera do not waste your time with the 5d mark iv so when we tally up all 20 of these categories it looks like the r6 is the winner so does that mean i think it's the better camera overall yeah it incorporates a ton of new functionality developed between 2016 and 2020 and mirrorless cameras are definitely the way of the future and yes big surprise i will be switching to the r6 i've been looking to make the jump to mirrorless for a long time but i was just waiting for canon to stop dragging their feet and make some serious strides in this space and when the r5 and the r6 came out it was a no brainer for me i do miss the build quality of the 5 series but don't get me wrong on this point the r6 is still a sturdy and capable camera but with all that said there are still a couple of things that might make it worth it for you to consider the 5d mark iv of course all of these things are subjective and the person behind the camera matters more than the camera itself so if you're looking for more tutorial content don't forget to subscribe and you can also check out my online photography school speedy photographer here i teach you everything from how your camera works to how you can grow your business and land new clients doing photo and video there's no fluff there's no wasted time and that's because the entire course is based on over 300 pages of scripted training content don't just take my word for it these are the comments that all of you have been leaving me on some of the free stuff that i post on youtube so thank you very much for watching let me know if you have any questions and i'll see you in the next video [Music] you

Channel: Kevin Raposo

Views: 147,974

Rating: 4.8870888 out of 5

Keywords: Should we all Switch to MIRRORLESS??? Canon R6 vs 5d Mark IV, canon, canon 5d mark 4, canon 5d mark 4 vs canon r6, canon 5d mark 4 vs r6, canon 5d mark iv, canon 5d mark iv vs canon r6, canon 5d mark iv vs r6, canon eos r, canon eos r6, canon mirrorless, canon r5, canon r6, canon r6 review, digital photography, nikon, photography, photography basics, speedy photographer, canon eos r6 review, canon r6 video, canon r6 overheating, r6, eos r6 review, canon r6 low light

Id: QYAANol8oXY

Length: 17min 40sec (1060 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 20 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/USFederalReserve]

Probably better for a more camera focused sub. r/videos is too broad for a niche vid like this IMO