Photography News 83 Newsletter

Big test

£469

CANON RF 24-105MM F/4-7.1 IS STM

Final word

Verdict The Canon EOS R6 is an excellent camera and very capable of delivering awesome stills and video footage. It’s great to use thanks to Canon’s reliance on control dials and good-size buttons, plus there’s the usability of the touchscreen and the flexibility provided by customisable controls. Most importantly, I was pleased and impressed at what the camera produced, notably stills shot at high ISO speeds, and even though the 20 megapixels is fewer compared with many of its rivals, the images were packed with detail, contrasty and the Raws easy to work with. At £2499 body only, that is still a lot of money for a full-frame camera of this resolution, but there’s no denying that the Canon EOS R6 is an extremely capable and excellent-value camera. 23 /25 FEATURES The Canon EOS R6 is equipped to appeal to stills and video shooters

Canon already offers three standard zoom options in its R system, the top-end 24- 70mm f/2.8L IS USM (£2329), the mid-range, constant aperture 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM (£1119) and this nicely priced RF 24-105mm f/4-7.1 IS STM (£469). Its attractive price comes at a cost, however, and while the lens is compact and lightweight, a maximum aperture of f/7.1 at the 105mm is limiting. It’s just as well that the EOS R6 has such a good ISO performance, because you’ll need it when light levels drop. The lens zooms from 24mm to 105 in one quarter turn of the zoom barrel. There are just two controls: a stabiliser, on/off and the option of having what is usually the focus barrel working as a control ring. What the control ring adjusts can be set in the camera menu. There are 18 options, but some of those options double up: there are two ISO and two exposure compensation settings, the difference between the two being that the shutter button has to be partially depressed for the function dial to work.

Optically, this lens is a decent performer. At 24mm and f/4, sharpness is good at the centre, but less good at the edges. Overall, image quality at f/8 and f/11 was very good before diffraction softened shots at smaller aperture values. One thing worth pointing out at the 24mm end is its very obvious and significant barrel distortion that needs to be corrected in-camera or using software. The mid-range of this lens, around 50mm, performed well, especially at f/8 and f/11, with images of high sharpness

and contrast before the images softened with diffraction at f/16 and f/22. It was a similar showing at the wider apertures at ISO 105mm, with f/8 and f/11 respectably capable, but the smaller values were less good, and generally this setting was the least impressive of the tested focal lengths. The attraction of the RF 24-105mm f/4-.7.1 IS STM is its price (it’s under half the cost of the constant f/4 version) and its portability. It is a decent performer, too, if you keep to the wider and mid-value apertures.

24 /25

HANDLING Impressive and enjoyable to use with responsive AF and fast burst shooting PERFORMANCE Nothing but good things to say about the camera’s delivery of fine images, ably assisted by its IBIS system and low levels of noise VALUE FOR MONEY There is much to enjoy in the EOS R6, so although its megapixel count is modest, it’s still delivers high-quality images so rates good value OVERALL An impressive and very capable full-frame camera that’s also lovely to use, so the Canon EOS R6 is highly recommended

24mm F/4

24mm F/5.6

24mm F/11

24 /25

23 /25

50mm F/5

50mm F/5.6

50mm F/11

94 /100

105mmF/7.1

70mmF/7.1

105mm F/8

70mm F/8

105mm F/16

70mm F/16

PROS Good to use, very impressive high ISO performance, IBIS system, consistent exposures, AF responsive CONS Nothing significant but perhaps a slightly higher megapixel count would be nice

AF on the monitor, to pick out what I wanted sharp, and both methods worked well. My favourite setting for general stills shooting was the Expand AF area setting, which is an enlarged single zone, but no matter the mode in use, the Canon’s AF in low light and low contrast proved impressive, and there was little searching or hesitancy. For video, the face AF + tracking setting option worked well and it followed the subject as it wandered around the frame quite tenaciously. When it comes to video, the EOS R6 is richly featured, with 4K up to 60p and Dual Pixel AF available.

In standard 4K shooting there is a slight crop and this becomes more significant with the electronic image stabiliser – it’s 1.52x with the Digital IS Enhanced setting. There is a potential heat issue when shooting 4K, but only if you’re shooting 30 minutes and more, so I didn’t manage overheat the camera during my brief time with it – unlike the EOS R5, which I overheated several times, but that was shooting 8K. To sum up, I thought the Canon EOS R6 performed impressively in a wide variety of situations producing quality stills and video. It proved good company, handling

well and had lots of set-up options to configure it to suit me. Despite its slow aperture at the longer end, the 24-105mm f/4-7.1 made a nice standard zoom to have on the EOS R6, too. WC

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48 Photography News | Issue 83

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