After looking at thousands of photographs, I have developed a capacity to see a photo and know something about the camera that took the photo.
I am not claiming some special capability – rather it is open to anyone who spends enough time looking at photographs.
After testing full frame cameras from Canon, Nikon, and Panasonic and comparing them with APS-C cameras I have had, I concluded that full frame really is better than APS-C for clean images with lots of detail.
The only manufacturer that currently has heavier full frame models and lighter weight full frame models is Canon..
The R6 II is out of my budget but the R6 gets positive, even glowing reviews from everyone and it is tumbling in price. The only question mark hanging over it is that it is ‘only’ 20MP.
And Canon also has the lighter weight R8.
There is only one reason to get the Canon R8 over the Canon R6 and that is that it is lighter. It weighs 460g compared to the R6’s 680g – a difference of 220g.
The little Ricoh GR III weighs 257g, so how significant can that extra 220g be?
After picking up both and handling the two cameras for a while I can say that the added weight is noticeable. After handling the R8 for a while, the R6 feels heavy.
So what are the reasons to get the Canon R6 over the Canon R8
- Bigger battery
- Two SD UHS-II memory Card slots
- A joystick to move autofocus points
- In-body image stabilisation of up to 8 stops
- 0.5-inch OLED colour EVF 3.69 Million dots 1280 × 960 pixels
- Balances with longer lenses.
Reasons not to get the Canon R6 over the Canon R8
- 220g heavier
Reasons not to get the Canon R8 over the Canon R6
- Smaller battery
- One card slot
- No autofocus joystick to move autofocus points
- No in-body image stabilisation
- 0.39 inch OLED colour EVF 2.36 Million dots 1024 x 768 pixels
After hesitating for a while and testing other cameras I decided on an R6. If it feels too heavy and I can’t get used to it as an ‘all day carry around’ camera, then I can get an R8 as a travel camera – not ideal because of the lack of a second card slot, but doable. And because the two cameras are from the same manufacturer I can transfer the handling (where the buttons are, etc) to the other camera.
Here are a couple of shots I took today in the Botanic Garden in Cambridge with the R6 and the 35mm f1.8 STM lens. The second one is a 3:2 crop of the portrait orientation shot that I took, so it is 45% of the full frame.
