Canon EOS R6, R8, and R10

I wrote about why I chose the Canon EOS R6 over the R8.

You might think of the R8 as a travel camera alternative to the R6 for when you want to leave the heavier camera at home.

The R8 doesn’t have in-body image stabilisation. So you might want to put an image-stabilised lens on it. I tried the Canon RF 35mm f1.8 IS Macro STM lens, which is image stabilised – but the body is front heavy and tips forward.

And with the RF 35mm f1.8 IS Macro STM lens on the camera it is too heavy to be light and yet too small to be satisfying for its weight.

A Canon RF 50mm f1.8 STM Lens is half the weight of the 35mm, but it is not image stabilised.

Something else to think about is that to adjust ISO on the R6, you just spin the rear top dial. To adjust exposure compensation, you spin the rear wheel – both very quick and easy.

Not on the R8. I found the way (or a way) to adjust ISO on the R8, which is to use the Fn button that’s close to the shutter button. It works, but finding that button would take a bit of getting used to. Of course, there is AUTO ISO, but that’s not my preferred way to work.

Once you learn how to do that it starts to cannibalise the muscle memory of the button arrangement on the R6. In other words, the cameras are too near to one another to be different but too different to allow one to swap easily from using one to the other and back again.

Another choice for a travel camera is the Canon EOS R10 crop sensor camera. Pair that with the Canon RF 50mm f1.8 STM lens and the effective 75mm equivalent focal length might complement the 28mm on the GR III and do the job in good light. Maybe. But the R10 is not in-body image stabilised and the viewfinder magnification is 0.6x compared to the 0.76x of the R8.

I looked through viewfinders of both cameras, and the image in the viewfinder of the R8 is noticeably bigger than on the R10. That’s not to say that the viewfinder of the R10 is terrible, because it is not. But the R8 is brighter and the image in the viewfinder of the R8 is much steadier as you move the camera around.

In terms of weight with the 50mm f1.8 lens attached, there is hardly anything in it. The Canon EOS R8 weighs 460g, which is only 30g (one ounce) heavier than the R10. Of course either camera is much lighter than the Canon EOS R6, which weigh 680g.

Camera, Lens, and Camera Plus Lens

R6 – 680g
R6 plus 35mm lens – 980g
R6 plus 50mm lens – 840g

R8 – 400g
R8 plus 35mm lens – 760g
R8 plus 50mm lens – 620g

R10 – 430g
R10 plus 35mm lens – 730g
R10 plus 50mm lens – 590g