Nikon Z6 vs Canon EOS R: Which Should You Buy?

canon eos r 3

This is the comparison between the Nikon Z6 and the Canon EOS R mirror-less cameras. Both the cameras are mirror-less and both has little bit similar features but the special features of their own makes them stand out.

MODELNIKON Z6CANON EOS R
BrandNikonCanon
SeriesEOS
Model3075C002
Part3075C002
DETAILS NIKON Z6 CANON EOS R
ColorBlackBlack
IMAGE SENSOR NIKON Z6 CANON EOS R
Image SensorCMOSCMOS
Effective Pixels 26.0 MP
Image Stabilization Image Stabilization
Resolution 6000 x 4000
VIEWFINDER & MONITOR NIKON Z6 CANON EOS R
Viewfinder Type Electronic
LCD 3.2″3.2″
FOCUS NIKON Z6 CANON EOS R
Focus TypeAuto/Manual
FLASH NIKON Z6 CANON EOS R
Flash ModeBuilt-in Flash
RECORDING SYSTEM NIKON Z6 CANON EOS R
Recording MediaSD / SDHC /SDXC Card
MOVIE NIKON Z6 CANON EOS R
Movie RecordingMovie Recording
LENS NIKON Z6 CANON EOS R
Compatible LensesCanon Lenses
Lens MountCanon EF Mount
INTERFACE NIKON Z6 CANON EOS R
HDMIYesYes
POWER SOURCE NIKON Z6 CANON EOS R
BatteryLi-ion Battery PackRechargeable Ni-MH Battery Pack
FEATURES NIKON Z6 CANON EOS R
Features30.3 Megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor and DIGIC 8 image processor ^^ Dual pixel CMOS AF with 5, 655 manually selectable AF points
DIMENSIONS & WEIGHT NIKON Z6 CANON EOS R
Dimensions (WxHxD)5.3 x 4.0 x 2.7″ / 134.0 x 100.5 x 67.5 mm
Weight1.29 lbs3.36
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION NIKON Z6 CANON EOS R
Date First AvailableNovember 20, 2018October 29, 2018
NIKON Z6CANON EOS R
PROSPROS
High-resolution EVF. 12fps burst shooting. Familiar and refined handling. Touchscreen interface. 4K video capture. 5-axis IS system.Great control customisation. Dual Pixel AF with 5,655 AF positions. Fully articulating screen.
CONSCONS
XQD card format has limited support. Limited dedicated lens range (for now). Limited buffer depth.No in-body image stabilisation. Cropped 4K video. Single SD card slot.

Expert Reviews For Nikon Z6:

By T3 Magazine
We waited a pretty long time for Nikon to join the full-frame mirrorless party, but once it did, we were very handsomely rewarded. The Z 6 and Z 7 duo are formidable beasts, both serving different types of customers very well indeed.The Z 6, being…

By Pocket-lint
When Nikon first announced the Z series we were holding our breath that it wasn’t going to go the same way as its ill-fated (and arguably ill-conceived) J series of mirrorless cameras. Having used the Z6 for two weeks, it’s very good news indeed: this…

By Expert Reviews
Nikon’s “mainstream” mirrorless model ticks all the right boxes – and then…

By dxomark.com
With the introduction of the mirrorless Z6, Nikon has adopted one of the best-performing full-frame 24 MP BSI-CMOS sensors. At base ISO, it has very good color and a wide dynamic range; additionally, the sensor has outstanding dynamic range at mid-ISO…

By Photo Review 
SPECSImage sensor: 35.9 x 23.9 mm backside illumination CMOS sensor with 25.28 million photosites (24.5 megapixel effective resolution); low-pass filterImage processor: EXPEED 6A/D processing: 12 or 14 bit (lossless compressed, compressed, or…

Expert Reviews For Canon EOS R:

By 91mobiles.com
It’s worth noting that the Canon EOS R is a first-gen offering considering it’s the Japanese brand’s very first mirrorless camera. Yet, the company has ensured that the shooter ticks the most right boxes, be it a good sensor, robust design with…

By Expert Reviews
This is a cracking debut to the mirrorless camera market for Canon. It won’t be a camera for every professional out there – not enough body controls, not enough frames per second and not enough battery life – but for enthusiasts who simply want the very…

By dxomark.com
Although we’ve not directly compared the two Canon 30MP full-frame CMOS sensors side-by-side in this review, it’s not surprising that the results for the EOS R are very close to that of the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. Both appear to use a similar sensor, with…

By AppleInsider
AppleInsider has spent the last month testing out Canon’s first full-frame mirrorless EOS R shooter to see how it stacks up in an ever-growing mirrorless market.Canon EOS RCanon EOS R displayCanon EOS R top controlsCanon EOS R media slotCanon EOS R iOS…

By thetechy.com
The EOS R launched with four RF lenses, but that doesn’t mean you’re stuck with just those lens. You can attach Canon EF full-frame or APS-C EF-S lenses on the EOS with three new adapters with no loss in quality.The Canon EOS R has a 30-megapixel…

Detailed Review:

INTRODUCTION:

Nikon Z6

This is the first mirror-less camera of Nikon. The weight and the grip and also the design of this camera is pretty good. One thing is just sure about this camera is that this camera is definitely better than the Nikon Z7.

Canon EOS R

This camera offers the 4k video and lot more positive features. All the functions are little bit similar to the expensive 5D Mark 4 camera.

nikonZ6 1

DESIGN & HANDLING:

Nikon Z6

It’s got a nice deep grip, it’s easy to hold and easy to use. Unfortunately, it’s lacking a flip screen. It’s not just vloggers that need to see themselves, most families take selfies. Unfortunately without a flip screen, you’re better off using your smartphone.

The build quality and grip is very good in the Nikon Z6. When you start using mirror-less cameras and you are already a DSLR user, there are certain mirror-less cameras whose grip is not that good. Especially, when I use the Sony mirror-less cameras, the grip is not that comfortable but coming from a Nikon DSLR user where the grip is really comfortable. I didn’t find it difficult to use the Nikon Z6. The grip is really deep and it is very comfortable to use. The overall build quality is very similar to the Nikon flagship bodies.

Canon EOS R

I liked it as a first full-frame mirrorless camera from Canon. I loved the feel of the body. Canon smartly went with a much larger DSLR sized body for the EOS R. There’s a 3.69 million dot OLED EVF along with a fully articulating touch screen LCD.

the body itself may be smaller than an EOS 5D mark 4 but it’s still a significant size especially when coupled with one of the larger RF lenses and that’s three out of four of them at launch. In terms of weight, it is a little lighter at 660 grams for the body and battery alone. The size has also allowed cannon to fit a decent size grip and I managed to get all four of my fingers wrapped around it.

The 3.1 inch screen can be flipped up and twisted to any angle making it ideal not just for framing at high or low angles in portrait or landscape orientation but also for facing forwards for vlogging or selfies. Amazingly, Canon is one of the only companies offering a fully articulated screen on its mirror-less cameras which giving it a key advantage over rivals for those who prefer them to a basic will be faster vertical tilt. The screen is touch sensitive and Canon has one of the best interfaces around, you can tap your way through just about any menu or setting as well as tapping to reposition the AF area. You will need to use this to quickly drag the AF around when composing with the viewfinder.

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FEATURES:

Nikon Z6

There are no buttons on the left side, all the buttons are shifted to the right side and the one major difference is the thumb pad which you can use for shifting your focusing points and now, shifting your focusing points becomes a lot easier.

The viewfinder and the LCD screen both are extremely high resolution, crisp and bright. Using the LCD screen and viewfinder is a very comfortable and enjoyable experience. Since, this is an electronic viewfinder and it’s a mirror-less camera, all the exposure adjustments you do you will be seeing that in the viewfinder as well. The viewfinder is slightly brighter just about 1/3 stop, when you take the image, the final image is a little bit darker than what you see in the viewfinder but overall the display and the viewfinder is top-notch.

You also get a top LCD screen where the camera settings are shown. The LCD screen doesn’t articulate completely, so if you’re a vlogger it might be a problem for you.

This camera is a 24 megapixel mirror-less full-frame camera. The Z6 was able to produce professional, usable, results but still it missed focused much of the time. The Z6 advertises 11 frames per second which is really fast but that produces significant viewfinder lag. If you try to shoot moving subjects at 11 frames per second, you’ll find it impossible to keep up. Therefore, you can use 11 frames per second for still subjects where you don’t really need it but you need to drop down to 5 frames per second for moving subjects if you’re going to keep them in the frame. The sensor is the opposite of what you want for wildlife.

Sensor dust is a big problem with mirror-less cameras that don’t close the shutter when you change your lens. The sensor is just exposed to the environment. It’s easier to fix on stills than in video.

The battery life is not great but it’s pretty good. I have been using this camera for shooting a lot of 4k videos and a lot of 1080p slow-motion and I’ve taken a lot of images as well and I didn’t find the battery life to be a negative point. Obviously, it is not as good as Nikon D750 but taking into consideration, this is the first mirror-less camera from Nikon I hope it can be improved in the future versions.

Canon EOS R

This was a completely new designed camera that spots a 30.3 megapixel sensor that was found in the Canon 5D Mark 4. The EOS are incorporated a brand new larger mount that’s built for the future and accepts canons RF glass. With a $99 adapter, you can use all your EF glass seamlessly.

It had an ISO range of 100 to 40,000 with the ability to shoot 8 frames a second but those eight frames come with an asterisk. It can only shoot eight frames a second in single focus and in continuous focus, you can get five frames a second or three frames per second with tracking priority. Dual pixel AF was incorporated for both Stills and video. In this, you had crippled and cropped 4k. The battery life seemed to be perfectly fine.

In terms of controls, Canons taken the opportunity to do things a little differently from normal. There’s a simple power dial on the upper left side but no mode dial to be seen. On the upper right side there’s finger and thumb dials as well as a small LCD status screen which can show two pages of information and can be backlit for easier visibility. To change the shooting mode, you’ll need to first press the mode button then use either dial to scroll through the modes on the upper screen or select the desired one via the touch screen on the rear. It’s not as quick as I also noticed the new flexible mode which effectively operate in full auto but individually tweak any of the its usual exposure settings.

There’s no AF joystick either, forcing you to use the screen as a touch-pad although there is at least back button focusing and a new M function bar. Pretty much every control is customizable on the EOS R including most of the buttons, the control dials, and the new M function bar.

As a mirror-less camera the EOS R is equipped with an electronic viewfinder. In this case, a three point six nine million dot quad VGA OLED panel with no point seven six times magnification which matching its latest rivals but looking really nice in practice.

On the right side, you’ll find a single SD memory card slot and even though it does support UHS 2 cards, this is undoubtedly the second big disappointment. On the left side, you’ll find a variety of ports including USB C at 3.1 speeds which can also support embody charging, HDMI which can output 4k in 10 bit, 3.5 millimeter microphone and headphone jacks and a remote chord input. There’s also Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The EOS R is power by an LP e6n battery pack which under CP conditions is good for around 370 shots. So, roughly similar to the Nikon Z bodies but around half the Sony A7 mark 3 bodies.

nikon z6 2

IMAGE QUALITY:

Nikon Z6

It’s full frame, a fairly low 24 megapixels and it has a sharpness reducing AAA filter. You usually need to crop heavily and refurbished D500 with a smaller sensor is about 30 percent less expensive than a Z6 and the FTZ adapter and the D 500 would produce about twice the detail that are focusing and it has a real 10 frames per second for wildlife. If you’re a serious wildlife photographer the Z6 just is not the best choice but the Z6 is a jack-of-all-trades and if you want to occasionally shoot wildlife, the z6 can do it.

Another challenge for both the Z6 and the Z7 is auto white balance. It’s the worst experienced in any modern camera. You need to set it manually or risk shots with really weird colors even in daylight. It’s fairly easy to fix in post but wedding and event photographers shooting and mixed lighting off to rely on auto white balance to speed their post-processing.

Metering on the Z6 is primitive too. Most modern cameras including Nikon’s D50 and D750 as well as most of the mirrorless competition will detect and properly expose a face in the same. The Z6 and Z7 can only do this in face detection mode which isn’t accurate enough for portraits. In single AF point mode the Nikon mirrorless cameras use basic metering to expose the scene. As a result, you had to constantly adjust exposure compensation to get the right exposure, if you didn’t do that the Z cameras with underexposed backlit portraits often by several stops.

Canon EOS R

The image quality matched that of the more expensive 5D Mark 4. When you’re snapping off images, you’re not exactly seeing a blackout free viewfinder but you’re seeing the last frame show up for a split second giving you the feeling you have a full view of your subject.

The EOS R is a thirty point three megapixel full-frame sensor with a low-pass filter. The specification sounds very similar to the EOS 5D Mark 4 sensor but it will be different, notably new micro lenses optimized for the shorter flange back distance which is now a mere 20 millimetres.

The EOS R can fire at 8 frames per second when you have acceptor one shot autofocus that’s single auto focus. If you have it set to continuous autofocus though which also known as servo AF. the speed reduces to about five to five and a half frames per second. It also has a silent shutter mode but that unfortunately is not available with both shooting just one frame at a time.

canon eos r 2

VIDEO QUALITY:

Nikon Z6

The Z6 supports 4k at 30 frames per second with 10-bit color and high dynamic range N log when using an external field recorder like the $700 ninja 5. With the SSD and rig, you need you’ll spend an extra thousand dollars for the setup. The 10 bit does look a little bit better in the recovered shadows in extremely high contrast situations. If you’re a serious filmmaker carrying the extra rig in managing the huge video files might be worth it to you.

The Z6 has the best video focusing of any Nikon camera ever. Nikon made a huge leap in their technology, however, they’re still far behind Canon, Sony and Fuji. Even in good light, auto focusing often missed the main subject choosing to focus on the background. fortunately, you could touch the screen to manually pick a focusing point. The Z6 video auto-focus is good enough for casual shooters or more serious filmmakers using manual focus.

I discovered that the Z6 4k video looks great even in low-light with native f-18 primes because it’s sampling the full width of the sensor without skipping any pixels it outperforms the Canon EOS R, Nikon Z7, Nikon D50 and Sony A7R 3 which making it one of the best low-light video cameras ever made.

The Z6 has rolling shutter which works only in video snobs. It’s not the best and also it’s not the worst. The Z6 has a stabilized sensor like the Sony A7 III that should be a big advantage over the canon EOS R and Fujifilm AX T3 except that it didn’t work well for video. The sensor stabilization adds very strange jiggles and it makes the footage unusable. Having 120 frames per second slow-motion record a sound and that used the full width of the sensor making an vastly superior to the Canon EOS R and on par with the Sony A7 III.

The Z6 sensor stabilization was really jarring for filming while walking and no current native lens offers optical stabilization. Auto white balance was a constant problem in all lighting situations. However, it’s still way behind Canon and Sony’s latest mirror-less cameras.

Canon EOS R

In terms of movies, the EOS R film 4k UHD in 24 25 or 30 p but sadly not 50 or 60 p. You can film with IPB compression at around 120 megabits per second or in all I compression at around 480 megabits per second. Dual pixel CMOS AF focusing is available in 4k and you can see which pull the focus with the touchscreen using the 50 millimeter. Face detection and tracking is also available although works most reliable given reasonable lighting.

You can also film 1080 up to 60 P and 720 up to 120 P, so again that somewhere where Sony takes advantage offering 1080 at 120 P. The 1080 in 720 modes used the full sensor width but filming in 4k inherits that same limitation of the 5D Mark for where a 1 to 1 pixel crop has taken from the middle of the sensor resulting in a somewhat severe 1.74 x field reduction that’s actually more than aps-c. But, it does open up a possibility. If you remembered the EOS 5D mark 4, you’ll remember that camera applied about a 1.7 times crop when you’re filming in 4k and unfortunately that’s inherited by the EOS R which means that 24 millimeter.

nikon z6 3

AUTO FOCUS:

Nikon Z6

It’s working pretty well, in fact, it feels like it’s working better than the Z7. I love that the focusing points go right to the edge of the frame. If you’re thinking about upgrading from D750, really appreciate that, focus tracking in video has worked really low . If you’re thinking about this versus like a Sony or Fuji, they off I detect auto-focus  which is really not a shallow depth of field but if you have an existing passion that Nikon lenses that you want to keep using and you can’t put those under Sony or Fuji and get good results. Therefore the Nikon Z6 is probably best pack.

The Z cameras don’t have high detection auto-focus, Nikon has promised it for a future. As a mirror-less camera, the Z6 does have several advantages over the Nikon DSLR. It allows edge-to-edge focusing eliminating the need to focus and recompose. You can also preview your exposure in the viewfinder, so you never need the chip. However, if you’re in Nikon portrait photographer considering the Z6, we recommend saving yourself over a thousand dollars and buying a used Nikon D750 DSLR instead. A D750 would produce the same quality images with the same lenses at half the price with no need for an adapter and it includes faster focusing and two card slots.

Canon EOS R

The auto-focus seemed accurate, the EVF was fantastic and more accurate in my opinion than the Sony’s at the time. The touch and drag AF on the screen made it super simple to traverse edge to edge across five thousand-plus focusing points.

In terms of auto focus EOS R employees Canon’s dual pixel CMOS AF which operates across 88% of the frame horizontally or 100% vertically. You can choose face detection with tracking single area to expand AF options or three zoned options. If you choose the small AF area size, you can actually address one of 5655 points which sounds absolutely mad but it’s actually a lot easier to implement in practice to just using the touchscreen and you just tap or drag it around wherever you want it. The AF system impressively operates down to -6 EV given an F 1.2 lens. There’s also eye detection although unlike Sony not with continuous AF and it really didn’t feel as confident.

If you prefer manual focusing there’s peaking assistance or magnification up to ten times right into the extreme corners of the frame but not with peaking at the same time. Manual focus with the RF lenses is by wire but a distance scale is shown as you adjust it.

canon eos r 1

LENS:

Nikon Z6

The lens mount that the Nikon mirror-less cameras use is the Z lens mount. So, it’s not the traditional lens mount that the Nikon DSLRs used to use. This one supports s lenses and you can also use your old in Nikon lenses with the FTZ adapter.

There are no native portrait lenses for the Z mount. It’s great to be able to use our favorite portrait lenses on a mirror-less camera. If you want to use Nikon lenses on a mirror-less camera the Z6 or the Z7 are the best cameras for that thing. However, the portrait lens produces such shallow depth of field that it requires very precise focusing and the Z6 regularly miss focus. As a result, you should forced to overshoot to be confident to get at least one shot in focus. Focusing completely failed in backlit scenarios which are common in portraits. As a result, you had to switch to manual focus.

Canon EOS R

The RF glass was revolutionary, a 28-70 mm F2 zoom along with super-fast 1.2 lenses. After a year also, it hasn’t aged very well. It was already behind the curve, when it was announced and a year later it’s slipping further and further down the wrong side of the slide. Professional Canon shooters are not replacing their 5D Mark 4 or 1D X Mark 2 with EOS R. Few people have picked up the EOS R for silent shooting and tethering in the studio but no one is using this camera anywhere near action. Even Canon’s EOS M6 mark 2’s tech is slightly better in some ways even though it’s a cropped body.

The biggest thing Canon got right is the RF mount and glass. They have some of the best mirror-less class around from a revolutionary and inventive 28 to 70 F 2 to the 50 and 85 1.2 and a Hebrew Trinity of a 15 to 35 2.8 IS 24 to 70 2.8 IS and a 70 to 200 2.8 IS. Canon’s glass is fast sharp and forward-thinking. The EOS mount is DOA and should be replaced with an RF mount.

The new RF lens mount which coincidentally shares the same 54 millimeter diameter as the earlier EF mount. Although before you get too excited, you will need to use an adapter to mount EF lenses. The first big disappointment to the new system is the EOS R does not include built-in stabilization making it the only one of its mirror-less rivals to lack the feature and at launch two of the four lenses did not feature optical stabilization, so you’ll need to hold them very steady.

The EOS R launches with four new native RF lenses: the RF 24 to 105 millimeter f/4l IS USM smaller than the existing EF 24 to 105 millimeter f/4 l but with nano USM focusing and claims of higher quality, the RF 28 to 70 millimeter f/2l usm the first f/2 full-frame standard lens but no image stabilization. The RF 35 millimeter at 1.8 Mac is an affordable model for Street and close-up photography. The RF 50 millimeter F 1 point 2 L USM the fastest full-frame f lens in its class and claiming better quality and faster focusing than the existing EF 50 millimeter F 1 point 2 L USM will be again without image stabilization. All RF lenses feature a function ring that can be customized to adjust things like the ISO or exposure compensation.

When switching a lens with the body powered off you’ll notice the shutter curtain is closed to protect the sensor. When the lens is mounted in the camera’s powered down, the lens also automatically closes its aperture to the minimum value and also focuses at the minimum distance.

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WHICH TO BUY?

When I looking at these cameras together, I think that both Nikon and Canon failed. I think that they failed because of different reasons but they both failed in comparison to what Sony is doing. They do good enough and is that what they were looking to do and hit the consumer market. I think what they’ve produced is good enough for the mirrorless market as of today.

No one is making anything stellar, everyone holds back that’s what I see has been They get just to a certain point especially Canon and then they just botch it up. Nikon could have really knocked it out of the park and they left stuff out of the camera. I think that there is reasons to go Canon and reasons to go Nikon. If you are currently a Nikon shooter, there’s no reason to go canon and there’s no reason to go Sony. If you’re currently a Canon shooter, there’s no reason to go Nikon and there’s no reason to go Sony. I think the Canon came up with a few more wins than Nikon.