GEAR CANON R6 III VS C50
more predictable when pushed hard and offers around half a stop more dynamic range – exactly what you’d expect from a cinema-first design. Sharpest of shooters Canon’s celebrated Dual Pixel CMOS AF II underpins both EOS cameras, offering reliable subject detection and tracking across people, animals and birds. Creators can even choose which eye to prioritise and fine-tune AF speed and responsiveness to suit the subject. As always, however, it’s the implementation that matters. The R6 III introduces cinema- inspired AF behaviour, including adjustable focus acceleration and deceleration, plus refined people priority. For solo operators, this is hugely valuable. You can trust the camera to make sensible decisions while you concentrate on framing and movement. The C50 focuses on consistency, particularly at high frame rates and in complex scenes. AF performance is solid even at 120fps, so it is viable for slow-motion work without having to revert to manual focus. Both systems are excellent and as good as anything else on the market.
Base ISO – how low can you go? A key difference between the Canon cameras is base ISO: while the R6 III doesn’t have dual base, the C50 does it properly. The C50 offers dual base ISO at 800 and 6400 in Canon Log 2, with an auto-selection option that intelligently switches between them. In practice, this gives remarkable flexibility across lighting conditions. Night interiors and mixed lighting environments all benefit from the higher base ISO, with noise staying well controlled and colours holding together impressively. You can really see the reduction in noise when going from ISO 5000 to 6400, for example. It seems counterintuitive, but works. The R6 III doesn’t emphasise base ISO in the same way, but still delivers strong low-light performance thanks to the 7K sensor and Canon Log 2. Crucially, it features pro monitoring tools such as waveform, reinforcing the idea that this is a serious video camera – not just a stills body that also happens to shoot video. We shot identical scenes on both cameras, matched exposure precisely and then pushed shadows and pulled highlights in post. Both cameras held up extremely well, but the C50 feels
a body that can still fit on a gimbal. But the R6 III also has a slightly more limited choice of non-Raw codecs. While the C50 offers Cinema Raw Light in HQ, ST or LT versions, the R6 III has just a Raw video format in standard and Light versions. The R6 III also allows you to choose between line-skipped and oversampled 4K – labelled as Fine in the menu. This footage is crisp without being clinical, and Canon’s colour science remains one of the most forgiving in the business, especially for skin tones. Raw on the R6 III still feels like a choice, not an expectation. File sizes escalate quickly, media demands rise and battery life inevitably takes a hit, and it’s already under stress anyway. For lots of shooters, the sweet spot will be oversampled 4K in Log 2 instead of full-fat 7K Raw. On the C50, Cinema Raw Light up to 7K/60p feels more like the camera’s native tongue. This is a camera that’s built around sustained high-bit-rate recording, with its cooling and power set up accordingly. In addition to Raw, the C50 offers a suite of XF-AVC options, making it easy to tailor bit rate and codec choice to the job at hand. Whether you are shooting a documentary series or a commercial with a full post pipeline, the camera never feels like it’s being pushed out of its comfort zone. Both cameras deliver excellent image quality, but they shoot Raw differently. On the R6 Mark III, it is something you enable only when you need maximum flexibility. On the C50, however, it is how the camera expects to be used. A reality check is that 7K Raw Light generates huge files, so you’ve got to plan your media carefully. The R6 III suits short bursts of Raw capture, but the C50 is built for sustained, all-day Raw recording. Having said that, we had no overheating issues with the R6 III, but we are in a chilly British winter. For faster workflows without the strain of Raw, oversampled 4K Log 2 remains the most practical option.
LORD OF THE RIGS The C50 is built for video, with mounting points for accessories, a cine menu and fab cooling fan
WIDE OPEN The fast 24mm f/1.4 lens is perfect for the C50 in low light or when you want shallow depth-of-field
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