It was time to upgrade to the Canon R6 Mark III
I once received the following advice: "Don't waste your money running out to buy the latest and greatest gear unless you feel your current gear is holding you back in some way."
To be quite honest, I've never been a huge gear person. Aside from the camera body, I'm really happy with the gear that I've got and I do my best to get the most out of each piece.
For the most part, I was getting great results from the Canon Rebel T2i that I bought in 2011, but I did feel that it was holding me back in terms of its capabilities. That, and even more importantly is that the camera was beginning to malfunction. I had replaced pieces on it already and to top it off, the shutter button wasn't functioning half the time. If I didn't press it in just the right way, the shutter simply wouldn't fire. That was the biggest thing holding me back.
Knowing that the capabilities of modern camera's were miles ahead of what I was using was the extra push for me to finally upgrade.
Why did I decide to buy the Canon R6 Mark III, specifically? These are the pros to this camera.
I went back-and-forth between the Canon R7, Canon R6 Mark II, and the Canon R6 Mark III. The long and short of it is that I felt these camera bodies would offer me better picture quality. But after a lot of consideration, I decided on the R6 Mark III for several reasons. There are many factors that contribute to that and they're listed below.
FULL FRAME VS. APSC SENSOR
More pixels for printing larger
Given that I sell my photographs as prints, I was excited for the opportunity to be able to print at larger sizes.
More pixels for having to crop
For a little while, I was convinced that I was going to purchase the Canon R6 Mark II, but after some deliberation, I wasn't confident that I'd like pixel dimensions. Going from a crop-sensor to full-frame, I was worried about a lack of magnification and reach, so-to-speak, so I made sure to opt for the Mark III which had almost 50% more resolution than the Mark II. That way if I wanted to crop in a bit on an animal in post, I could do that and still have a quality image remaining.
Higher dynamic range
Full-frame sensors capture a wider range of colour. I love to incorporate colour, so that was appealing to me.
Softer backgrounds
Compared to a crop sensor, full-frame cameras create softer backgrounds, if using all the same settings. Given that I often photograph animals in complex environments, I felt that would help me to separate the animal from those environments a little.
Low-light capabilities
Full-frame camera bodies perform better in low-light situations, meaning that they produce less noise and grain in one's photo, making for a clearer and sharper image. Personally, I liked the sound of that. It means that I can push the camera a little further into the dark, either near dusk or dawn. Typically, those are the best times of day to photograph wildlife, due to the sun being low to the horizon and providing more dramatic side lighting on subjects.
AUTOFOCUS SYSTEM
I almost feel like I'm cheating when I use the Canon R6 Mark III. Focusing with this camera is so much better than my old camera. It's way faster and more accurate, plus, I don't even have to line up a focus point directly on a wildlife subject's eye anymore. With animal and eye tracking, I simply make sure the subject is away from the extreme edges of the frame and when I hold the focus button, the camera finds the subject for me. It's leaps and bounds ahead of what I was using previously. With that being said, it's worth noting that even it isn't perfect. There are some times where it fails to find a subject due to obstructions in the frame. It's still so far ahead of my old camera though.
CONTINUOUS SHOOTING
Continuous shooting speed
Having a camera that could shoot at a much faster rate than what I was using seemed very beneficial to me. I photograph songbirds and birds in flight quite often, so having a camera that could freeze more instances of that movement was important to me. I went from being able to shoot 2-3 frames per second to 40 frames per second, depending on which shutter mode I use.
Continuous shooting buffer
While deciding on which camera to buy, I was flipping between the Canon R6 Mark II and the Mark III. There were key differences between the two, but the buffer was another thing that pushed me to the Mark III. It offers a much larger buffer, which was key for photographing wildlife. My old camera used to have to stop during amazing wildlife moments after only 6 photos so that it could buffer, and it was so frustrating. I've missed so many opportunities because of that. The R6 Mark III has the ability—with the right memory card—to shoot at 40 frames per second and can sustain that speed up to about 150 raw files and over approximately 300 JPGs.
PRE-CAPTURE
This feature sounded incredible to me! With the right settings and compatible lenses, the R6 Mark III allows the user to buffer a half second's worth of photos before the shutter is fully pressed, allowing the user to capture moments that occur just before they actually press the shutter. A great example of this would be capturing the moment when a bird leaps off a branch.
VIDEO CAPABILITIES
Video is something that I've yet to truly explore, but it's nice to know that it's packed full of great video specific features and gives me tons of room to grow into it.
ERGONOMICS
The body of the Mark III is slightly larger than my old camera, which fortunately fits my hands a little better. I recall feeling during past shoots that my hands would cramp up a little if I was capturing a lot of photos.
CONS TO THE CANON R6 MARK III
With all that being said, the camera still isn't perfect. Here are the only downsides I've noticed so far.
AUTOFOCUS
While this focus system absolutely is impressive, I have still come across a few instances when the camera simply can't seem to find the subject. One of those instances, it was on a bird that was quite close to me, out in the open, with no obstructions. I was dumbfounded, but what are you gonna do? It was a Gold-crowned Kinglet, mind you, and they're very small birds. That or it could be user error and not yet understanding how best to achieve focus with it.
ERGONOMICS
Weight
While the camera is more comfortable in my hands, it is also heavier than my old apsc camera. That is to be expected, but it's worth mentioning. Carrying a smaller camera while travelling, for example, has its advantages.
PRE-CAPTURE
I was SO excited to try this feature, given that I photograph so many small, quick moving animals! But, when I went to try using it, the feature was greyed out in my system settings. From what I can tell, the issue is that I'm using a third party lens. I did so much research on this camera body and kept hearing about this feature, yet nowhere did I see that it might not work with my lens. That was disappointing, but the feature will still be there if I decide to buy a new lens one day at least.
ROLLING SHUTTER
This was a side effect I learned about shortly before buying this camera. Unfortunately my Dad was experiencing that with his camera of another model and I had no idea what was causing it. He noticed that when using the electronic shutter to utilize the fastest continuous shooting speed, some of his images were looking heavily warped, like flag poles that were bent, and a bird with an unusually large and curved beak for example. For those who aren't familiar with rolling shutter, it happens because the image is read line-by-line instead of as a whole, causing some images to look distorted. Cameras have varying readout speeds, so the effect is different between camera models. While I have experienced some rolling shutter, it hasn't been distorted enough for any of my subjects to look abnormal. Any time rolling shutter did happen, it was mild enough that nobody would notice but me.
Final thoughts
I'm still very early into my use of this camera body, so I still have tons to learn about it and have to test it in a number of ways yet, but so far, I love using this camera and don't regret it one bit. It's been incredibly capable so far and the pros far outweigh the cons for me. I can't wait to get out there and keep using it!
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