M6 Mark 2 vs R7

Sittatunga wrote:

CamerEyes wrote:

nnowak wrote:

CamerEyes wrote:

Taking my chance to shoot out this question. Rejoining the forum after almost a decade of being away from photography websites.

Now on the hunt for cropped body, coming from an 80D. I know the R7 has all the bells and whistles of the new Canon tech and hardware. Does not mean it's worth that much money compared to the really cute and capable M6 Mark 2 which I tried in the store over the weekend and found impressive for its size. Mostly I do take photos on foot, while doing a bit of hiking and occasionally from hillside locations, with a small tripod in a small backpack.

Or maybe I should invest in new tech like the R7 so I don't have to change it for the next 3-5 years?

Canon is slowly phasing out the M system in favor of the R system. The M6 II has already been discontinued in several places around the world and the higher level M5 was discontinued a couple years ago.

If the M system already has everything you could want in the way of lenses and bodies, then don't be afraid to go for it. However, you should assume that no updates or new lenses are coming in the future for the M system.

The crop R cameras just launched and the line is still being filled out. A smaller, lighter, and cheaper R crop body is rumored to be coming, as well as several crop R lenses. If you go with the R7 right now, you may need to rely on full frame RF lenses or adapted EF/EF-S lenses to meet your needs in the interim. If you are planning to adapt your existing lenses that you are currently using on your 80D, the current lack of crop RF glass will be less of a concern.

Basically, your question is coming right as Canon is in the middle of a transition and there is no perfect answer. A year or two from now and the choice would be more obvious.

A few side notes on the R7... While not as small as the M6 II, it is still quite a bit smaller and lighter than your 80D. The R7 can reuse your 80D batteries while the M6 II uses a different, lower capacity battery. Would the IBIS of the R7 allow you to forego the small tripod?

Your comment nails it for me. Thank you. I think the R7 and the entire RF mount is the future of Canon cameras. That's not a debate anymore. So it's where new tech, lenses, accessories are going to be. And I may not want to miss that!

Full-frame RF mount is definitely Canon's future.

RF-s would be the third time around for Canon APS-C lenses though. We had 24 EF-s lenses (of which 9 were 18-55mm) over 13 years (3 at launch, 7 in the first year, but that includes the first four 18-55mm lenses). We had 8 different EF-M lenses over 6 years (2 at launch, 3 in the first year). We now have two RF-s lenses; one that looks suspiciously like a slightly revised EF-M lens, the other is an 18-45mm with a lower specification than any EF-s or EF-M zoom. I'm not expecting a rich and interesting range of RF-s lenses, I think Canon will continue their trend.

You are conveniently ignoring all of the small and inexpensive full frame RF lenses that make perfect sense on a crop camera.

• 16mm f/2.8
• 35mm f/1.8 Macro IS
• 50mm f/1.8
• 85mm f/2.0
• 100-400mm f/5.6-8.0

None of those lenses costs more than $600, and most of them would require adapting an old EF lens to get something similar in the M system.