Canon EOS R6 Mark III vs EOS R5 vs EOS R5 Mark II: The Real-World Choice

Choosing between the Canon EOS R6 Mark III, the EOS R5, and the EOS R5 Mark II is not a spec-sheet game anymore, because all three are fast enough. The real question is which one matches the way you shoot when things get chaotic: action, low light, long video takes, or heavy cropping.

Coming to you from Jared Polin, this blunt video puts the Canon EOS R6 Mark III, the EOS R5, and the EOS R5 Mark II on the same table and forces the comparisons people keep avoiding. Polin starts with the sensors and quickly gets to what you actually notice: the R6 Mark III’s lower resolution versus the R5 pair’s 45 megapixels, and what that means when you want room to crop or when you want smaller files. He also gets specific about burst modes, including the trade between mechanical and electronic shutter options, and how bit depth can change depending on the mode. The practical takeaway is that “fast” is not one feature, it is a set of compromises that shift once you move from 12 fps mechanical to 20, 30, or 40 fps electronic. If you have ever come home with a sequence that looked great until you zoomed in, the sections on readout speed and rolling shutter artifacts will land.

Polin spends meaningful time on the features that quietly change hit rate, not just top speed. Pre-capture is one of those, and he treats it as a real separator rather than a bullet point, especially if you shoot birds or any moment where the best frame happens before your finger commits. He also calls out how the CFexpress Type B plus UHS-II SD card slot setup affects buffer clearing if you try to write redundant raw files to both cards. That is the kind of detail you only care about after the camera stalls at exactly the wrong time. There’s also an underappreciated angle here: maximum electronic shutter speed, which matters the moment you start shooting wide open in bright light without stopping down or reaching for ND. He gives the numbers and then ties them back to real shooting habits, including fast glass like the Canon RF 85mm f/1.2 L USM at f/1.2.

The autofocus section is where the video starts to feel less like a comparison and more like a decision guide. The R5 Mark II’s newer AF system and “action priority” mode is framed as a genuine difference in behavior, not just speed, especially in sports where the subject can change in an instant. Polin describes how the camera can anticipate the play and shift focus without you dragging a point around, which is the kind of thing you either trust or you do not. He also talks through “register people priority,” which is basically a way to tell the camera who matters most in a crowd, a feature that can save a wedding sequence or a corporate event set without making you babysit focus. On the video side, he lays out where the R6 Mark III pulls in Cinema EOS ideas from the Canon EOS C50, and where the R5 Mark II’s workflow gets easier if you care about long recording and ports, including the optional cooling grip. He also touches the “overheating” reputation of the original R5 and explains how firmware changed the day-to-day experience, which is useful context if you are shopping used and trying to separate old internet noise from current reality. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Polin.