When I'm not writing 10,000 words a week, I can usually be found playing video games, at a concert, planning my next tattoo... or out on a walk with a camera in hand. I've loved photography for as long as I can remember, and I'm very lucky that I get to bring my love of photography to my job.
As a reviews writer at Tom's Guide, I test the best mirrorless cameras, and last year alone, I reviewed nearly 30 cameras! And I'm showing no signs of stopping this year. For the last two weeks, I've been putting the Canon EOS R6 Mark III through its paces, and now that I've finished testing it, I can confirm that it's a phenomenal mid-range shooter.
Once I'd finished testing the EOS R6 Mark III, I took a look at how many photos I'd taken on it — and there were 6,569 stills for me to sift through. Many of them were throwaways or part of burst sequences (of which I only edited and finalized a few). I've been thoroughly impressed and delighted with the photos I've taken, so I thought I'd share my favorites with you. So please, enjoy!
Wildlife
Some of my favorite subjects to photograph are animals and birds, and the Canon EOS R6 Mark III is adept at wildlife photography. What I love about the EOS R6 Mark III is its rapid autofocus system featuring no fewer than a whopping 6,097 selectable points. In my testing, I found the EOS R6 Mark III was quick to lock onto the subjects I was photographing. It didn't falter even once.
All the images in the gallery above were captured with the AF set to Auto, and the camera was quick to recognize the subjects as birds, so it switched to Animal Detection.
When I wanted to capture birds in flight or in action, I took full advantage of the camera's 40fps sequential shooting or high-speed drive. The EOS R6 Mark III is capable of capturing 330 JPEGs and 150 RAW images with its electronic shutter. 40fps drive ensures you never miss a moment of action, and 0.5 seconds of pre-burst capture records 20 frames when you half-press the shutter button.
As soon as I spotted the two pairs of moorhens fighting with each other, I pointed the camera in their direction, and it locked onto them. I then fired off a burst (while 'Kung Fu Fighting' by Carl Douglas played in my head) and captured hundreds of images of the birds attacking one another with their feet and beaks. You can see a few of the sequential images in the gallery above.
Portraits
Alongside being a fast camera, the Canon EOS R6 Mark III is great for portraits, whether those are taken indoors or outdoors. The 32.5MP CMOS sensor captures plenty of detail, and there's enough room for making tight crops in post-production. Human subject detection and tracking is fantastic, and if the camera can't detect any eyes, it automatically and seamlessly switches to face and body detection, so the EOS R6 Mark III is very reliable.
There are a few in-camera filters to play with too, such as Vivid, Warm, Cool, and Monochrome, to name a few. The black and white color profile is adept at capturing dramatic portraits. I took a couple of photos of my colleagues in the Monochrome filter, as you can see above. Also, thanks to up to 8.5-stops of in-body image stabilization (IBIS), you can confidently shoot at slow shutter speeds when lighting isn't adequate.
The portraits I captured outdoors turned out just as lovely, even when the lighting was unpredictable and uncontrollable (unlike in a controlled studio environment). I adore the photos of my partner in the gallery above. The colors have come out beautifully, and I love the different shades of gray in the first slide.
Landscapes
The Canon EOS R6 Mark III is truly a jack of all trades, and if you pair it with a wide-angle lens, like the Canon RF 14mm f/1.4 L VCM, you've got a winning combination for landscape photography. You can capture a lot of the scene, as I did in the photos above.
Another feature that makes the EOS R6 Mark III an outstanding landscape snapper is its excellent dynamic range. The camera excels at retaining both shadow and highlight detail. This gives you more wiggle room in post-production as you can lift the shadows to reveal detail, and recover highlights by pulling them down. The result is a balanced image where highlights don't appear blown out, and dark areas remain noise-free.
The EOS R6 Mark III is fully weather-sealed too, and it's protected against dust and moisture, so you can shoot confidently in changing environmental conditions. As someone who lives in the U.K., where it can start raining out of nowhere, you have no idea what a boon this is.
Details
I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a massive fan of macro photography, but I've enjoyed capturing close-ups with the Canon EOS R6 Mark III. Well, the photos in the gallery above aren't exactly macros or close close-ups, but they're shots I've used to test the camera's ability to capture the finer details.
Thanks to the camera's 32.5MP CMOS full-frame sensor, the images are packed with detail, intricate textures, crisp edges, and fine gradations. As I mentioned earlier, you can crop a fair amount too to really highlight your subject — as I did with the photos of the bees on the flowers. The soft pastel shades of the flowers look gorgeous, too.
To sum up...
There's a lot more I can say about the camera, which is what my full, in-depth Canon EOS R6 Mark III review is there for, of course. For $2,799 at Adorama / £2,799 at London Camera Exchange, you're getting a camera that pulls out all the stops. 7K Open Gate video, CFExpress Type-B support, a 32.5MP sensor for beautiful photos, advanced autofocus, 8.5-stops of IBIS, and Canon's vaunted color science — all of these come together to deliver a powerful mid-range package.
Testing the EOS R6 Mark III has been a lot of fun, and if you're on the hunt for a camera that doesn't compromise on image quality and doesn't break the bank, few are better than this. Have you tried the EOS R6 Mark III yet, or would you like to? Let me know what you think in the comments below!
More from Tom's Guide
- I’ve taken over 6,000 photos on the Canon EOS R6 Mark III — and this feature-packed camera is nothing short of a mid-range masterpiece
- I tested the Canon EOS R5 Mark II to photograph wildlife — and this one feature has changed how I take photos forever
- ‘Few wildlife cameras come close to this’: why the OM System OM-1 Mark II is perfect for photographing birds in flight and other animals
