DSLRs are dead. Or at least that¡¯s the argument. Everyone, from users to manufacturers it seems, is moving to smaller mirrorless cameras with the same sized sensors that DSLRs have. Though Canon has been slow off the blocks, it¡¯s now ready to take on established players with the new M6 MkII mirrorless camera.
Of course Sony ran away with the market with its Alpha line and others like Fuji, Olympus and Panasonic have been dominating, the latter two with the micro four-thirds. Canon on the other hand took it slow and easy, concentrating on the traditional mirror flipping DSLRs. So does the new M6 MkII have what it takes to win over the enthusiasts? Here¡¯s what I found out in my time with the camera.
I¡¯m used to a DSLR so the first thing that really hit me was the diminutive size of the M6 MkII. Everything about it is small, even the camera strap that comes in the box. Size wise it sits between the compact cameras with in-built lens and DSLRs ¨C which is a kind of happy medium for enthusiasts upgrading from compacts.
In terms of controls, the top plate of the Canon M6 MkII features the mode dial with all the usual shooting modes. Alongside it are the ¡®Dial Func¡¯ and the power switch. Both are placed conveniently where your thumb would rest. The second dial is around the shutter release and next to it, is an M-Fn button. The top plate also houses the in-built flash and hotshoe for an external flash.
On the back is a 3-inch LCD touchscreen with 1.04 million dots that flips up 180 degrees for ¡®selfie enthusiasts¡¯ and also folds out and down for taking top-ish shots if the opportunity presented itself. Next to the screen is the focussing button and switch to jump between manual and autofocus modes. A d-pad below has controls for flash, exposure compensation, deleting pictures and drive mode, plus one more rotating dial. That makes four of them. Around the d-pad are four buttons ¨C to display images, access the camera menu, Info button and the video record button. On the right shoulder are the ¡®exposure lock¡¯ and ¡®focus point select¡¯ buttons. You can also plug in an external mic and remote shutter.
At the bottom are the tripod mount and the opening for battery and SD card compartment. Canon has also built in WiFi for transferring the images to a smartphone so they can be shared directly to Instagram and other social media platforms.
The EOS M range of cameras come with a ¡®new¡¯ lens mount called the EF-M mount. The 14-45mm kit lens that came with the camera features image stabilization and quiet focussing thanks to the STM. It¡¯s made of plastic and is quite lightweight. It doesn¡¯t feel flimsy however and the focus ring moves smoothly, if manual focus is your thing. It¡¯s not the brightest lens out there though with a maximum aperture of f3.5 at the wide end and f6.3 at the long end.
The kit that Canon is selling comes with the aforementioned lens, along with the body of the M6 MkII. There¡¯s also the LP-E17 battery pack with a capacity of 1040 mAh, accompanied by the charger, user guide and a slim camera strap. There¡¯s also a 16 GB SD card which is a nice addition, given that at one point a 4 GB SD card was the standard. Good to see Canon upgrade itself with the times.
The dinky camera¡¯s chassis is made of magnesium, just like that of the pro-grade EOS-1D X MkIII that costs more than five times as much. The lightweight stiffness of the body is to be held to be believed, if that makes any sense. It sat well enough in my average sized hands; the grip offered enough purchase so the camera could be held comfortably. But for those with big fingers I imagine it will be a bit uncomfortable.
You can¡¯t beat spending better part of the morning taking pictures on a sunny winter morning, so that¡¯s exactly what I did. As a DSLR user I had to quickly un-learn putting the camera to my face every time I wanted to take a picture. I have never been a fan of framing on a screen and sorely missed a viewfinder. Canon sells one separately ¨C the EVF DC2 ¨C that can be mounted on the hot-shoe. But it costs a pretty penny and depending where you look online, price can range between 23k and 26k. Unfortunately I couldn¡¯t find it on the Canon India website.
The small size and equally low weight meant that after four hours of holding the camera and dangling it around my neck, there were no aches and pains. This is probably the most impressive aspect of using the Canon M6 MkII.
JPEGs straight out of camera are pleasing and typically Canon ¨C punchy colours, slightly high contrast and tons of detail thanks to the new 32.5 MP APS-C sensor. There¡¯s Canon¡¯s renowned Dual Pixel Autofocus that is probably one of the fastest ones out there. Combine it with touch to focus and you don¡¯t really have to worry about out of focus images for most part. The touchscreen response is pretty accurate, just like using a smartphone, though reaction times aren¡¯t as snappy. But it¡¯s something you can live with. Then there¡¯s face detection autofocus that picks out faces automatically and Eye AF that locks on to eyes in close-ups. You can also pick one out of a total of 143 autofocus zones!
The Canon M6 MkII also has high speed drive modes for continuous shooting. So apart from single shot, you get slow continuous and high speed continuous modes. The latter does 14 fps, which is great for freezing movement, or a pan shot like this one.
During my time with the camera I was shooting manual, underexposing the shots to later extract details from RAW files. The M6 MkII shoots the new 14-bit CR3 format that was first introduced in 2018. And here¡¯s my grouse ¨C you need Canon¡¯s Digital Photo Professional software to read the files, which isn¡¯t the most powerful piece of software in the world. I, and many others, prefer Adobe Camera Raw and Photoshop/Lightroom to process their images. So I did the next best thing ¨C converted the CR3 files to the universal DNG files.
In bright light and low ISO settings, the M6 MkII controls noise very well and the dynamic range is better than previous generation sensors. The colours are slightly oversaturated though they are rendered accurately. Canon¡¯s white balance too feels better ¨C leaning towards warmer colours as always, but not as extreme. Canon has got the white balance pretty well sorted. You can leave it on auto and you don¡¯t have to bother after.
In low light conditions, the new CMOS sensor holds its own. The Canon M6 MkII has an ISO range of 100-25,600 which can be extended to 51,200, though competition still has a leg up on it. While the easy thing would have been to shoot a market place at a night time, to really push the camera to its limits I set up a makeshift test ¨C lighting a statuette using a single tea light candle. The camera was placed on a tripod and each frame was properly exposed. ISO speed was increased, by one stop, for each successive frame.
Here are 100% crops and you can clearly see how the increasing ISO affects the image quality. Up until ISO 3200 the Canon M6 MkII has good control over noise and there's decent amount of detail retained up to ISO 6400. One more stop increase in ISO and the only thing left to salvage is the colour. At ISO 25600 and HI rating of ISO 51200 there's tons of speckled noise.
Mind you, all this is evident only when you're pixel peeping at 100%. In real world use, even ISO 51200 images can be posted on social media and no one will know the difference.
Canon in the past hasn¡¯t been very generous when it comes to the video shooting ability of its entry level and mid-range DSLRs or mirrorless range. You got a maximum shooting resolution of 1080p, while 4K was reserved for the pro grade models like 5D MkIV and 1DX range. This is because Canon also sells the C series of cinema line cameras and giving affordable cameras 4K capability would lead to cannibalisation. Not any more. The Canon M6 MkII can shoot 4K video and is one of the first Canons to shoot uncropped 4K using the full width of the sensor. Current frame rate for 4K is limited to 30 fps, so movie makers out there have a reason to be disappointed. Canon though has promised 24 fps with a firmware update in the future.
I¡¯ll be honest I¡¯m no cinematographer, but even a layman like me will be able to discern the footage that the camera shoots. Apart from the optical stabilization in the lens, there¡¯s electronic stabilization on offer too. Unfortunately it was still no match for my unsteady hands. I¡¯m not proud of it, but that¡¯s what it was. At 1080p there¡¯s 30 and 60 fps available (or 25 fps and 50 fps for PAL). For slo-mo footage there¡¯s 120 fps, again only for 1080p.
4K footage isn¡¯t perfect and doesn¡¯t have the detail I expected. Personally, I preferred the quality of 1080p.
Video shooting length is limited to 29:59 minutes because Canon M6 MkII is a stills camera first and a video camera later. But you¡¯ll need a high speed UHS-1 card if you want to shoot a lot of 4K. The standard Class-10 card that comes in the box isn¡¯t able to keep up with the write speeds that the high-res footage demands. A nice bonus is the ability to shoot HDR video, although my untrained eye couldn¡¯t tell the difference.
Focussing speeds though make up somewhat for the shortcomings and all it takes it a tap on the screen. No hunting, no lagging, just lightning quick focussing. Here¡¯s a sample.
At Rs 83,995, the Canon M6 MkII offers a good mix of pro-grade functionality and performance with the ease of use. So who is the camera for? It¡¯s definitely not for the amateurs. A newbie can of course use it, but they will not be able to do justice to the kind of functionality built into it.
A seasoned enthusiast looking to upgrade is likely to get the most out of it. I suggest adding the M-mount adapter for the current stock of lenses and it will be a worthy kit. It¡¯s also a good pick for vloggers and Youtubers who want a light weight setup for shooting on-the-move. It also makes a great case for a professional looking for a second or a third body to supplement the current setup. I on the other hand am waiting for the price to drop a few notches.