Canon released their new flagship mirrorless cameras, the Canon R5 and Canon R6 and I’m already noticing the hype and wedding photographers specifically getting curious. I’ve been following the rumors for a few months and if the live keyonote wasn’t at 5am here in Portland, you bet I’d be watching. But now I’m not sure if I’m even excited anymore.

On paper, both the R5 and the R6 are absolute beasts, with the R5 being designed to be a 8K RAW video machine and the R6 being more of a stills camera. The R6 makes more sense for wedding photographers with dual SD cards, 20 megapixels (which is definitely enough and more space efficient than the 45 megapixels on the R5), image stabilization, button layout looking like a good old 5D DSLR, friendlier price tag etc.

As a camera geek and wedding photographer, I definitely appreciate Canon making waves and trying to be the number one again. The R5 is definitely going to be a new standard every other camera will be compared to from now on. But I can’t help but wonder who does Canon think of when they make these cameras.

The R6 does feel like it was made for lifestyle and wedding photographers but the fact there’s still no native 35mm or 24mm L lens even though the R mount has been around for a few years already, is confusing and troubling. Instead they released a 100-500mm, a 600mm, a 800mm lens and a 85mm F2 macro lens to add to their pretty decent lineup of zoom L lenses. I’m sure sports photographers, wildlife photographers and all dads are rejoicing, but I couldn’t care less.

You CAN do adapters and use older lenses but the main reason I loved using my Canon in the past was that combination of a 5D body with a 24, 35, 50 and 85mm prime lenses. That look and feel is hard to replicate with a zoom lens or adapter.

I’m still tempted to preorder the R6 just to see what the files look like. If Canon did their magic with their color science again, that would be a good enough reason for me to use it. With current trends of making every next camera sensor more and more neutral and flat though (planing to write a blogpost on this topic next), I’m not expected to be blown away.

shot on 5D Mark iii + 35mm f1.4 lens.