Canon EOS M6 Review

Overview

Following up on their enthusiast-oriented mirrorless camera, the EOS M5, Canon's similar and slightly more affordable mirrorless camera, the Canon EOS M6, is actually the successor to the M3. In many ways, the M6 and M5 cameras are the most alike, especially on the inside, but they do differ in several ways. Let’s take a look at what the M6 has to offer.

Smaller than the M5 but no built-in electronic viewfinder

One of the biggest differences between the M5 and the M6 is that the latter does not have a built-in electronic viewfinder. The M5 was the first Canon mirrorless camera to offer a built-in EVF, but the M6 returns to the series' roots and opts to go without one. Although, like some prior M cameras, you can attach an optional electronic viewfinder accessory to the camera's hot shoe. The M6 is compatible with the Canon EVF-DC1 electronic viewfinder as well as the new EVF-DC2 which uses an OLED display instead of an LCD with the same number of dots (2.36 million), however it does not tilt like the EVF-DC1.

There are a handful of other differences between the M6 camera body and the M5. The Canon M6 employs a 3-inch LCD display rather than the 3.2-inch LCD found on the M5, although they are both tilting touchscreen displays. The tilting display on the M6 can tilt 180° up and 45° down, though the bottom of the screen is partially blocked by the top deck when facing forward. The EOS M6 display has a lower resolution as well, offering 1,040,000 dots versus the 1,620,000 dots found on the M5's slightly larger display. Further, when looking at the top of the camera, the M5 has a dedicated mode dial on the left whereas the M6 moves it to the right side of the camera next to the exposure compensation dial. The Canon M6 still has a dedicated dial like the M5 does, although on the M6 it is located underneath the exposure compensation dial. On the back of the camera, the button layout is identical for the two cameras.

Besides these few differences, the cameras look very similar; both cameras share similar styling and an enthusiast-oriented control layout. When it comes to dimensions, the M6 is 4.4 x 2.7 x 1.8 inches (112.0 x 68.0 x 44.5 millimeters) and it weighs 13.8 ounces (390 grams) with a battery and memory card. The M6 then is smaller than the M5 in each dimension, especially in terms of height thanks to the lack of built-in EVF.

Canon M6 shooting features

The M6 pairs a 24.2-megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor – which has a 1.6x focal length multiplier (like all APS-C sensors found in Canon cameras) – with a DIGIC 7 processor, both of which is shares with the M5. The EOS M6 offers a native ISO range of 100-25,600 and includes an Auto ISO feature (the ISO range in Auto ISO is 100-6400).

On the autofocus side of things, the M6 employs Canon's hybrid Dual Pixel CMOS AF system, which we have been pleased with when we have tested other Canon cameras using it such as the 80D and the M5. The autofocus system offers 49 user-controllable autofocus points and numerous autofocus area modes, such as Face + Tracking AF, Smooth Zone AF and 1-point AF. The autofocus system is rated to operate from -1 to 18 EV.

Metering is performed by a 384-zone evaluative metering system and the M6 has evaluative, partial, spot and center-weighted evaluative metering modes. The metering range is 1-20 EV. The camera offers +/- 3 EV of exposure compensation via the dedicated dial on the top of the camera.

Shooting modes include the standard program auto, aperture priority, shutter speed priority and full manual modes in addition to more creative modes that include Creative Filter modes and Scene modes, both of which have dedicated positions on the mode dial. The Scene modes include: Close-up, Sports, Food, Panning, Handheld Night Scene, HDR Backlight, Self Portrait, Portrait and Landscape. The available Creative Filters are: Grainy Black and White, Soft Focus, Fish Eye, Art Bold, Water Painting, Toy Camera, Miniature effect and HDR High Dynamic Range The Canon M6 also has a dedicated movie mode and an automatic shooting mode. For users who enjoy custom shooting modes, the M6 has a pair of those as well. Speaking of customized functions, the camera has five functional dials on its body.

The shutter speed ranges from 30 seconds to 1/4,000s. When shooting at slower speeds, the camera helps you capture sharp images with its hybrid 5-axis image stabilization system, which combines digital image stabilization with in-lens optical image stabilization when a compatible EF-M lens is attached. As a note, the M6 is fully compatible with the Canon EF-M lens adapter kit for Canon EF/EF-S lenses, which is available for just under US$200.

Thanks to its DIGIC 7 processor, the Canon M6 is a speedy camera. The M6 mirrorless camera offers continuous shooting speeds up to just over 9 frames per second with autofocus locked at the first frame. At these speeds, the camera can record 27 JPEG frames or 17 RAW frames. If you want servo autofocus, the speeds drop down to 7 fps, but the slower speed means a larger buffer. The Canon M6 is rated for 31 JPEG frames at 7 fps, although RAW buffer depth information is not available. It is worth noting that at a slower 4 fps speed, the Canon EOS M6 has a RAW buffer depth of 30 images. Unsurprisingly, considering the M6 uses the same image sensor and processor pairing as the M5, its continuous shooting speeds are practically identical. See our Performance page for details.

For low light shooting or for adding fill-flash, the M6 has a built-in pop-up flash. The flash has a guide number of 5 (ISO 100/m) and the camera has a max flash sync of 1/200s. If you want to utilize a Speedlite, the M6 also has a hot shoe.

Video features are similar between the M6 and other recent non-professional Canon cameras. The Canon M6 does not offer 4K UHD video recording but instead tops out at 1920 x 1080 resolution. The camera can record Full HD video at up to 60 frames per second and a maximum bitrate of 35 Mbps. The M6 has a maximum recordable clip length of 29 minutes and 59 seconds. Clips are recorded in MP4 files with H.264 codec and audio is stereo MPEG-4 AAC-LC. The camera does not have a headphone jack, but it does have an external mic jack.

With built-in Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and NFC, the Canon M6 has extensive wireless capabilities. It can communicate with the Canon Camera Connect application on compatible smart devices, offering image transferring and remote control capabilities. Like the M5, the Canon M6 can also send images to another Wi-Fi compatible Canon camera and connect to your smartphone via an always-on Bluetooth connection. Additionally, the M6 is compatible with Canon’s CS100 Connect Station, a photo and video hub for storing, managing and sharing media. The M6 is also compatible with Canon's RC-6 infrared remote.

Wired connectivity includes a Micro-B USB 2.0 port, a Micro Type-D HDMI port, a 3.5mm external microphone jack, and a 2.5mm RS-60E3 remote switch jack. The Canon M6's flash hot shoe also has connections for the EVF-DC1 and EVF-DC2 external electronic viewfinders mentioned previously.

Power is provided by a rechargeable LP-E17 lithium-ion battery and the camera comes with a dedicated battery charger. (In-camera charging via USB is not supported.) When using the built-in monitor, the camera offers up to 295 shots of CIPA-rated battery life. If you are using an optional electronic viewfinder, the battery life dips slightly to 290 shots. The M6 also has an Eco mode, which provides up to 425 shots when using the monitor by dimming it after about two seconds and then turning it off after ten seconds when the camera is idle.

The M6 records images and videos to a single card slot that is compatible with SD/SDHC/SDXC cards as well as UHS-I types.

Canon M6 versus Canon M5

As we have seen, the new Canon M6 is very similar to the M5 which was released last fall. There are some key differences between the two cameras, however.

On the pro-M6 side of things, the M6 is smaller and lighter than the M5. Further, the M6 costs less than the M5 by US$200 with current street prices. For the extra money, the M5 offers a built-in electronic viewfinder and larger rear display.

Both cameras utilize the same 24.2-megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor, DIGIC 7 image processor and share many of the same enthusiast-oriented physical controls. For more about the M5, head over to our Canon M5 Review.

Canon M6 versus Canon M3

Although similar in many ways to the recent M5, the M6 is the successor to the M3. There are numerous differences between the M6 and its predecessor. Under the hood, the primary differences are that the M3 uses Canon's Hybrid CMOS AF III system and a DIGIC 6 processor, while the M6 utilizes Canon's Dual Pixel CMOS AF autofocus system and a DIGIC 7 processor. The latter improvement leads to much better performance for the M6, including over twice the speed of image capture and a much larger RAW buffer size.

It is worth noting that despite both utilizing a 24.2-megapixel sensor, the M6 has a wider native ISO range (100-25,600 versus 100-12,800), and it offers a wider dynamic range than the M3 does. Further, the Canon M6 offers Full HD video recording at 60 frames per second, whereas the M3's 1920 x 1080 resolution video topped out at 30fps.

Canon M6 pricing and availability

The M6 began shipping in April 2017. The camera is available body only for US$780 or in two kits: The first kit comes with an EF-M 15-45mm f/3.5-6.3 IS STM lens and retails for just under US$900. A second kit comes with an EF-M 18-150mm f/3.5-6.3 IS STM lens and this kit costs about US$1,100. The Canon EOS M6 is available in two colorways: black or silver.

In the Box

The Canon EOS M6 15-45mm kit retail box (as tested) ships with the following items:

• Canon EOS M6 body
• EF-M 15-45mm f/3.5-6.3 IS STM lens
• Front and rear lens caps
• LP-E17 battery pack
• LC-E17/LC-E17E battery charger
• Hot shoe cover
• Body cap
• EM-300DB neck strap
• Camera Instruction Manual booklet

Recommended Accessories

• Large capacity SDHC/SDXC memory card. Look for at least a Class 6 speed grade card if you plan on shooting video, and consider a fast UHS-I card to minimize buffer clearing times.
• Extra LP-E17 battery pack
• Additional lenses
• Canon EF-M Lens Adapter Kit for EF / EF-S lenses
• Canon EVF-DC1 or EVF-DC2 viewfinder
• External Speedlite flash
• External monaural or stereo microphone
• Micro (Type-D) HDMI cable
• Medium size camera bag

Optics

Our Canon EOS M6 came bundled with the EF-M 15-45mm f/3.5-6.3 IS STM lens. We have not done a full test on this kit lens yet, but to get an idea of how it performs see our Canon EOS M10 Optics page.

Below are our Canon EOS M6 viewfinder accuracy test results.

Viewfinder Test Results

Accuracy
Very good accuracy from the LCD in record mode.

The Canon EOS M6's LCD was pretty accurate in terms of coverage in record mode, resulting in just over 100% coverage. Very good results here.

The images above were taken from our standardized test shots. For a collection of more pictorial photos, see our Canon EOS M6 Photo Gallery .

Exposure

Color

Saturation & Hue Accuracy
Slightly below average saturation levels with excellent hue accuracy.

ISO Sensitivity
100	200	400
800	1600	3200
6400	12800	25600
In the diagram above, the squares show the original color, and the circles show the color that the camera captured. More saturated colors are located toward the periphery of the graph. Hue changes as you travel around the center. Thus, hue-accurate, highly saturated colors appear as lines radiating from the center. Mouse over the links above to compare ISOs, and click to load a larger version.

Saturation. The Canon EOS M6 produces images with mean saturation levels that are a little below average these days. Dark reds are boosted the most, with dark orange, dark greens and dark blues pushed just a little, while cyan and yellow are slightly muted. The mean saturation of 106% (6% oversaturated) at base ISO is a bit lower than the 110% average we normally see, but colors are still quite pleasing to the eye, and saturation levels are fairly stable across the ISO range, with a minimum mean of 105.3% at ISO 12,800. Most consumer digital cameras produce color that's more highly saturated (more intense) than found in the original subjects. This is simply because most people like their color a bit brighter than life.

Skin tones. The Canon EOS M6 produces pleasing, natural-looking Caucasian skin tones in our tests when using manual white balance (auto WB was very similar). Darker skin tones show a small nudge toward orange, but lighter tones are more pinkish. Very good results. Where oversaturation is most problematic is on Caucasian skin tones, as it's very easy for these "memory colors" to be seen as too bright, too pink, too yellow, etc.

Hue. As we've come to expect from Canon, the EOS M6's hue accuracy is excellent when manual white balance is used (as it always is for these results), and is much better than average. There are the usual shifts in cyan toward blue (though actually quite small), red toward orange, orange toward yellow, and yellow toward green, but all are fairly minor. Average "delta-C" color error at base ISO is only 3.36 (lower is better) which is excellent, one of the better scores we've recorded to date. Delta-C color error varies slightly with sensitivity, but remains better than average even at the highest ISOs. Hue is "what color" the color is.

Sensor

Exposure and White Balance

Indoors, incandescent lighting
Auto and Incandescent white balance settings both struggled with household incandescent lighting, though Manual worked well. Average exposure compensation required.

Indoors, under incandescent lighting, the Canon EOS M6's Auto and Incandescent white balance settings struggled, producing very reddish or orange/yellow color casts. Unfortunately, this is not uncommon among cameras we've tested, but disappointing nonetheless. The Manual setting produced the most accurate, neutral results without the greenish tint we saw with the M3. Skin tones were also more pleasing. The Canon EOS M6 required +0.3 EV exposure compensation for this shot, which is about average among the cameras we've tested. (Our test lighting for this shot is a mixture of 60 and 100 watt household incandescent bulbs, a pretty yellow light source, but a very common one in typical home settings here in the U.S.)

Outdoors, daylight
Very good color, though a tendency towards slightly cool color balance with somewhat high contrast under harsh lighting. Slightly below average exposure accuracy.

Outdoors, the Canon EOS M6 produced pleasing skin tones with both Auto and Manual white balance and overall color was generally very good. The Canon M6 required +1.0 EV exposure compensation to keep the mannequin's face bright, a little higher than average for our "Sunlit" portrait shot. The Canon EOS M6's default contrast is a little high, producing some washed-out highlights and dark shadows under the deliberately harsh lighting of the shot above left, though the camera's Auto Lighting Optimizer and Highlight Tone Priority settings help with high contrast scenes like these. See below for examples of this. The Far-field shot (above right) is a bit cool, and exposure is a bit dim at default exposure, but with the camera avoided blowing most highlights except for some specular highlights. There are some deep shadows which are a little noisy and discolored, but have good detail.

See full set of test images with explanations
See thumbnails of all test and gallery images

Resolution
~2,800 lines of strong detail from JPEGs, about the same from RAW.

Our resolution chart showed sharp, distinct line patterns up to just under 2,800 lines per picture height horizontally and to just under 2,800 lines vertically. Some may argue for higher numbers, but lines begin to merge at this resolution, and some aliasing artifacts in the form of moiré patterns can be seen at lower resolutions. Extinction of the pattern occurred between 3,300 and 3,500 lines. An Adobe Camera Raw converted .CR2 file produces about the same resolution as the in-camera JPEG, though complete extinction of the pattern was extended a bit. While ACR was able to extract more detail, it also produced more moiré and false colors. Use these numbers to compare with other cameras of similar resolution, or use them to see just what higher resolution can mean in terms of potential detail.

See full set of test images with explanations
See thumbnails of all test and gallery images

Sharpness & Detail
Somewhat soft images at default sharpening, but with noticeable sharpening artifacts. Minor to moderate detail loss due to noise reduction processing even at low ISOs.

Sharpness. The Canon EOS M6's 24-megapixel sensor captures very good image detail when coupled with a good lens, though JPEG images are a bit soft at default settings. (Keep in mind Canon has decided to keep an optical low-pass filter in the EOS M6 to reduce aliasing artifacts at the cost of slightly reduced sharpness, unlike some competing models which have gone the other way.) Yet the EOS M6's default sharpening setting generates visible edge-enhancement artifacts in the form of obvious sharpening halos around high-contrast edges, as shown in the crop above left. Edge enhancement creates the illusion of sharpness by enhancing colors and tones right at the edge of a rapid transition in color or tone.

Detail. The crop above right shows some detail loss due to noise suppression in darker areas and in areas with low contrast, perhaps just a little more than we're accustomed to seeing from an APS-C sensor at base ISO. Still, a good performance for a 24-megapixel model. Noise-suppression systems in digital cameras tend to flatten-out detail in areas of subtle contrast. The effects can often be seen in shots of human hair, where the individual strands are lost and an almost "watercolor" look appears.

In-Camera JPEGs: Standard vs Fine Detail Picture Style setting
The EOS M6 is the second Canon mirrorless to offer the new Fine Detail Picture Style first seen on the Canon 5DS R and 5DS DSLRs. Below is a comparison with the default Standard Picture Style.

Base ISO (100)
Camera JPEG, defaults	Camera JPEG, Fine Detail

In the table above, we compare the Canon EOS M6's default Standard Picture Style setting (left) to its Fine Detail preset at base ISO. Like the 5DS/R, the Canon EOS M6 offers users much more flexibility in sharpening than other EOS models, allowing you to adjust not only the "Strength" (from 0 to 7) but also the "Fineness" (1 to 5) and "Threshold" (1 to 5) operators. We believe these parameters correlate to unsharp mask options for strength, radius and threshold available in photo editing software such as Photoshop, although we don't know what the equivalent units might be.

The Fine Detail Picture Style preset boosts the Sharpness Strength operator one notch (to 4 out of 7) while dialing down the Fineness (1/5) and Threshold (1/5) operators to their minimum compared to Standard which defaults to Sharpness: 3/7, Fineness: 4/5 and Threshold: 4/5. The result is improved, more natural-looking rendering of fine detail along with less obvious sharpening halos than the default Standard setting. However, noise is more visible in flatter areas, and contrast is lower, making the Fine Detail image appear to have less "pop". There also appear to be minor differences in color, even though Color Tone, Saturation and Contrast settings are identical between these two Picture Styles presets. Given the flexibility in settings, though, you may be able to find a better combination than the defaults compared above.

RAW vs In-Camera JPEGs
As noted above the Canon EOS M6 produces JPEG images with very good detail, but that are somewhat soft yet with visible sharpening halos when viewed on-screen at 100%. With a good RAW converter, additional detail can often be extracted with fewer sharpening artifacts. See below:

Base ISO (100)
Camera JPEG, defaults	RAW via Adobe Camera Raw

In the table above, we compare a best quality in-camera JPEG taken at base ISO using default noise reduction and sharpening (on the left) to the matching RAW file converted with Adobe Camera Raw 9.1 via DNG Converter 9.9 using default noise reduction with some strong but tight unsharp masking applied in Photoshop (300%, radius of 0.3 pixels, and a threshold of 0).

Looking closely at the images, we can see ACR extracts additional detail that isn't present in the default JPEG from the camera, particularly in the red-leaf and pink swatches where the fine thread pattern is likely treated as noise by the JPEG engine. Fine detail in the mosaic crop is also improved, but as is often the case, the conversion isn't as clean and smooth looking, with more noise that can be seen in the flatter areas of the bottle crop. You can of course apply stronger noise reduction (default ACR NR used here) to arrive at your ideal noise versus detail tradeoff. And, as expected, sharpening halos aren't nearly as strong as the default camera output. Still, not bad in-camera default JPEG processing, but as usual you can do noticeably better by shooting in RAW mode and using a good RAW converter.

ISO & Noise Performance
Good high ISO performance for a 24-megapixel APS-C sensor.

Default High ISO Noise Reduction
ISO 100	ISO 200	ISO 400
ISO 800	ISO 1600	ISO 3200
ISO 6400	ISO 12,800	ISO 25,600

Images are quite clean at ISOs 100 and 200, with just a tiny amount of luminance noise seen in the darker areas, and very little chroma noise. Some blurring of fine low-contrast detail is already visible at base ISO, though, as mentioned previously. Noise "grain" is slightly more evident at ISO 400, but detail remains very strong despite some minor blurring due to noise reduction. ISO 800 is of course a little noisier, but fine detail is still very good with a noise grain that's quite fine and chroma noise remains low. At ISO 1600 blurring becomes noticeably stronger resulting in a more evident drop in image quality, though a fair amount of fine detail is still left though. ISO 3200 is quite a bit softer and grainier with minor chroma blotching, but there is still some fine detail left. ISO 6400 is quite soft and grainy, but the grain is still fairly tight and not too obtrusive. Noise and the effects of noise reduction working hard to keep it under control really become apparent at ISOs 12,800 and 25,600 with heavier luminance noise, stronger blurring and more obvious chroma blotching.

Overall, good high ISO performance for a 24-megapixel APS-C sensor, though not quite as good as some rivals. See the Print Quality section below (when available) for our evaluation of maximum print sizes at each ISO setting.

A note about focus for this shot: We used to shoot this image at f/4, however depth of field became so shallow with larger, high-resolution sensors that it was difficult to keep important areas of this shot in focus, so we have since started shooting at f/8, the best compromise between depth of field and sharpness.

Extremes: Sunlit, dynamic range and low light tests
Strong overall detail, but somewhat high default contrast and unremarkable dynamic range. HTP and ALO options do a great job of dealing with tough lighting. Very good low-light performance.

The Canon EOS M6 produces images with moderately high contrast with some washed-out highlights and deep shadows under the deliberately harsh lighting of the test above. The mannequin's face was too dim at the +0.3 and +0.7 EV settings so we preferred the image with +1.0 EV exposure compensation. This resulted in some clipped highlights in the shirt and flowers, a bit more than we're used to seeing from an APS-C sensor lately, indicating mediocre dynamic range compared to the best of recent competitors. Shadow detail was however pretty good, though very deep shadows are a bit noisy and discolored. Bottom line: while dynamic range isn't bad, the Canon EOS M6 didn't do as well with this difficult shot compared to some recent state-of-the-art peers.

Because digital cameras are more like slide film than negative film (in that they tend to have a more limited tonal range), we test them in the harshest situations to see how they handle scenes with bright highlights and dark shadows, as well as what kind of sensitivity they have in low light. The shot above is designed to mimic the very harsh, contrasty effect of direct noonday sunlight, a very tough challenge for most digital cameras. (You can read details of this test here. In actual shooting conditions, be sure to use fill flash in situations like the one shown here; it's better to shoot in open shade whenever possible.)

Face Detection
Just like most point & shoot cameras these days, the Canon EOS M6 has the ability to detect faces, and adjust exposure and focus accordingly.

Face Detection
Aperture Priority Face Detect: Off 0 EV	Aperture Priority Face Detect: On 0 EV	Auto Mode 0 EV

As you can see from the examples above, it works, as the center image with face detection enabled is much better exposed for the face than the left image where face detection was not employed, by dropping the shutter speed from 1/100s to 1/40s, though overall exposure is a bit too bright. Full Auto mode (right) performed better than the default exposure at the left but is still a bit dim despite selecting a larger aperture (f/4 vs f/5.6 for the other shots). It selected a much faster shutter speed of 1/250s for some reason, and used the standard Auto Lighting Optimizer setting for a lower contrast image.

Highlight Tone Priority
The Canon EOS M6's Highlight Tone Priority (HTP) option did a good job of preserving highlight detail as shown below. (Mouse over the Off and On links to load the corresponding thumbnail, histogram and crops.)

Highlight Tone Priority (+1.0 EV)
HTP Setting: Off On
Highlights
Shadows (Levels boosted to reveal noise.)
Histogram

Both shots above were captured at the same exposure, the only difference being that HTP was enabled for the second shot which necessarily increases the ISO to 200; part of how HTP works. Very few highlights were blown at default exposure so we cranked exposure compensation up to +1.0 EV to cause some significant highlight clipping. As you can see, the histograms, crops and thumbnails above clearly show a reduction in highlights when HTP is enabled. If you look closely at shadows (the levels in shadow crops above are heavily boosted to reveal noise that would be difficult to see otherwise), you'll notice an increase in noise is the price you pay when ISO is boosted from 100 to 200, although noise is pretty low in the shadows from the M6 at ISO 200.

Automatic Lighting Optimization
Like previous Canon EOS models, the EOS M6 offers three selectable levels of Automatic Lighting Optimization (ALO), plus Off. In fully automatic (Scene Intelligent Auto) ALO is automatically enabled and it's available in P, Tv and Av exposure modes. Mouse over the links below to load the associated thumbnail and histogram, and click on the links to load full resolution images.

Automatic Lighting Optimization (+0.3 EV)
ALO Setting: Off Low Standard (default) High

As you can see above with images taken with only +0.3 EV exposure compensation, ALO has the effect of shifting shadows and mid-tones in the histograms to the right, brightening shadows and indeed most of the image while preserving highlights. ISO is not boosted for ALO so increased noise is not an issue, though it may be slightly more visible in shadows that have been boosted significantly.

HDR
The Canon EOS M6 includes a couple of High Dynamic Range modes, which take three continuous shots at different exposures and merges them together to create an image with wider tonal range than would be possible with a single exposure. There's an HDR Backlight Control scene mode, plus included in Image Effects (Creative Filters) there is an HDR mode that offers four Artistic effects: Art Standard, Art Vivid, Art Bold and Art Embossed, as well as a Natural setting. We did not test these modes in the lab, however there are some examples in our Gallery shots (look for filenames containing "HDR").

Dynamic Range Analysis (RAW mode)
While we once performed our own dynamic range measurements based on in-camera JPEGs as well as converted RAW images (when the camera was supported by Adobe Camera Raw), we've switched to using DxO Labs' results from their DxOMark website. As technology advanced, the dynamic range of modern high-end cameras in some cases exceeded the range of the Stouffer T4110 density scale that we used for our own measurements. DxO's approach based on RAW data before demosaicing is also more revealing, because it measures the fundamental dynamic range of the sensor, irrespective of whatever processing is applied to JPEGs, or to RAW data by off-the-shelf conversion software.

In the following, we use DxO's "Print" dynamic range results, which are scaled based on camera resolution. As the name suggests, this scaling corresponds to the situation in which you print at a given size, regardless of how many megapixels the camera might have. (In other words, if you've decided to make a 13x19 inch print, that's the size you're printing, whether the camera's resolution is 16 or 300 megapixels.) For the technically-minded, you can find a discussion of the reasoning behind this here on the DxOMark website. Also note that DxO Labs uses a signal-to-noise (SNR) threshold of 1 when defining the lower boundary of acceptable luminance noise in their dynamic range measurements, which corresponds to the "Low Quality" threshold of the Imatest software we used to use for this measurement.

Here, we compare the Canon EOS M6's dynamic range (in orange) to its predecessor's, the EOS M3 (yellow), and to the Sony A6300 (red), one of the most popular mirrorless cameras on the market.

As you can see from the above graph (click for a larger version), the Canon EOS M6's dynamic range significantly improved over its predecessor's at low ISOs, but it drops below the M3's at ISOs above 400. The M6's peak dynamic range at base ISO tested at 12.6 EV versus 11.8 EV for the M3, which is about a 0.8 EV advantage. At ISOs above 400, the M3's advantage is less than 0.5 EV.

The Sony A6300 however does significantly better across the board, with a peak dynamic range of about 13.7 EV at base ISO which is about a 1.2 EV advantage over the M6, and the Sony manages to keep a sizeable lead throughout its entire range of available sensitivities.

Bottom line, while dynamic range has improved significantly over its predecessor at low ISOs, the M6 still lags behind most recent APS-C rivals. Click here to visit the DxOMark page for the Canon EOS M6 for more of their test results.

	1 fc 11 lux	1/16 fc 0.67 lux	1/16 fc No NR
ISO 100	2s, f2.8	30s, f2.8	30s, f2.8
ISO 3200	1/15s, f2.8	1s, f2.8	1s, f2.8
ISO 25600	1/125s, f2.8	1/8s, f2.8	1/8s, f2.8

Low Light. The Canon EOS M6 performed well in our low-light tests for an APS-C camera, capturing bright images at the lowest light level (1/16 foot-candle), even with the lowest sensitivity setting (ISO 100). As expected, noise increases as ISO goes up and light levels go down, but luminance noise remains fairly low and fine-grained at ISO 3200. Some chroma noise in the form of subtle color blotching in the shadows and dark areas is visible at lower light levels, though it's effectively suppressed by default noise reduction. As you'd expect, noise is quite high at the maximum ISO of 25,600, particularly when noise reduction is minimized (rightmost column in the table above).

Color balance was very good with the Canon EOS M6's Auto white balance setting, just a touch cool even at 1/16 foot-candle.

We didn't see any significant issues with hot pixels or heat blooming, and banding (fixed pattern noise) appears to be very low in the shadows.

LL AF: The Canon EOS M6's autofocus system was able to focus on our legacy low-contrast AF target down to about -3.3 EV, and it was able to focus on our newer high-contrast AF target down to -4.5 EV unassisted with an f/2.8 lens. That's very good for a mirrorless camera and much better than its specification of -1.0 EV with an f/2 lens, though be aware we perform this test on a sturdy tripod so hand-held results may be different. The Canon M6 also has an AF assist illuminator, and was able to focus in complete darkness with it enabled.

As always, keep in mind that the longer shutter speeds here demand the use of a tripod to prevent any blurring from camera movement. (A useful trick is to just prop the camera on a convenient surface, and use its self-timer to release the shutter. This avoids any jiggling from your finger pressing the shutter button, and can work quite well when you don't have a tripod handy.)

How bright is this? The one foot-candle light level that this test begins at roughly corresponds to the brightness of typical city street-lighting at night. Cameras performing well at that level should be able to snap good-looking photos of street-lit scenes.

NOTE: This low light test is conducted with a stationary subject, and the camera mounted on a sturdy tripod. Most digital cameras will fail miserably when faced with a moving subject in dim lighting. (For example, a child's ballet recital or a holiday pageant in a gymnasium.) Large sensored cameras like the Canon EOS M6 do much better than point & shoots, but you still shouldn't expect a quick autofocus lock with moving subjects.

Output Quality

Print Quality
Very nice 30 x 40 inch prints up to ISO 400; a good 16 x 20 inch print at ISO 1600; and a nice 5 x 7 at ISO 12,800.

ISO 100/200 prints are quite good at 30 x 40 inches and larger, until you run out of resolution. The prints here yield nice colors, very good fine detail and balanced contrast.

ISO 400 images are good at 30 x 40 inches, with only the slightest decrease in overall sharpness, but still a nice print overall. 24 x 36 inch prints are even better, showing little to no evidence that the gain has been increased.

ISO 800 yields images at 20 x 30 inches that definitely pass our "good" seal of approval, with plenty of fine detail and good color saturation. There is a typical softening and loss of contrast detail in our tricky red-leaf fabric swatch, and a mild amount of noise in flatter areas of our target, but still a good print. For super-critical printing we recommend 16 x 20 inch prints here which will iron out even these mild issues nicely.

ISO 1600 prints just meet our "good" grade at 16 x 20 inches. There are mild issues evident, including a softening in the red channel and some minor noise in certain areas, but good detail and full colors are retained throughout.

ISO 3200 delivers a good 11 x 14 inch print, with only mild issues similar to the 16 x 20 inch print at ISO 1600.

ISO 6400 tends to be where most APS-C cameras begin to show real signs of ISO strain, and the EOS M6 is no exception. You can achieve good 8 x 10 inch prints here, but there is a general softening to the image and a slight muting of colors in general. It's still a good print overall, but for critical work we recommend remaining at ISO 3200 and lower.

ISO 12,800 shots can certainly be printed up to 5 x 7 inches, which really isn't bad for such a lofty sensitivity. The softening mentioned at ISO 6400 is still present, but for general-purpose use these prints will do the trick without any serious issues.

ISO 25,600 delivers a good 4 x 6 inch print, which is something not all APS-C cameras can boast. We always applaud when any camera can deliver a good 4 x 6 at its highest available gain setting, which is a sign that it's not artificially pumped just to pad the specs. (Hey, some cameras do this!)

The Canon EOS M6 yields print size results across the ISO range as we'd expect for this sensor size and resolution, and delivers a solid performance overall. Print quality is quite good up to ISO 800, offering the ability to print very large sizes, and the Canon M6 continues to offer the ability to print a good 11 x 14 up to ISO 3200. Once again, a solid effort all around in the print quality department here from Canon.

The images above were taken from our standardized test shots. For a collection of more pictorial photos, see our Canon EOS M6 Photo Gallery .

Not sure which camera to buy? Let your eyes be the ultimate judge! Visit our Comparometer(tm) to compare images from the Canon EOS M6 with those from other cameras you may be considering. The proof is in the pictures, so let your own eyes decide which you like best!

Performance

Image Quality

Below are crops from our laboratory Still Life target comparing Canon M6's image quality to that of its predecessor's, the M3, and also to its larger EVF-equipped sibling, the Canon M5. We've also compared the M6 to several other mirrorless competitors in its class or price range: the Fuji X-T20, Panasonic G85 and Sony A6300.

NOTE: These images are from best quality JPEGs straight out of the camera, at default settings including noise reduction and using the camera's actual base ISO (not extended ISO settings). All cameras in this comparison were shot with our very sharp reference lenses. Clicking any crop will take you to a carrier page where you can click once again to access the full resolution image as delivered straight from the camera. For those interested in working with the RAW files involved, click these links to visit each camera's respective sample image thumbnail page: Canon M6, Canon M3, Canon M5, Fuji X-T20, Panasonic G85 and Sony A6300 -- links to the RAW files appear beneath those for the JPEG images, wherever we have them. And remember, you can always go to our world-renowned Comparometer to compare the Canon M6 to any camera we've ever tested!

Canon EOS M6 vs Canon EOS M3 at Base ISO

Canon EOS M6 at ISO 100	Canon EOS M3 at ISO 100
Above we compare the M6 to its predecessor, the M3. Both use 24-megapixel APS-C sensors but the M3 uses a previous generation sensor and processor. The M5 image has somewhat lower noise as well as slightly more accurate colors, and our tricky red-leaf swatch shows some moiré patterns that the M3's images does not (which could indicate a slightly weaker anti-aliasing filter on the newer model), but otherwise image quality is very similar here at ISO 100.

Canon EOS M6 vs Canon EOS M5 at Base ISO

Canon EOS M6 at ISO 100	Canon EOS M5 at ISO 100
The Canon M6 and M5 share the same image sensor and processer, so it's no surprise image quality is essentially the same from these two siblings, with just minor differences in color which is likely due to slightly different custom white balance.

Canon EOS M6 vs Fujifilm X-T20 at Base ISO

Canon EOS M6 at ISO 100	Fujifilm X-T20 at ISO 200
Here we compare the M6 to another 24-megapixel APS-C mirrorless, the Fuji X-T20. The X-T20 uses Fujifilm's proprietary X-Trans color filter, though, while the Canon uses a traditional Bayer filter. When looking closely at the images, you can see than the X-T20 image has higher luma noise than the M6 in the shadows, but keep in mind its higher base ISO. The X-T20 image however has lower chroma noise. Both images show noticeable sharpening halos, however the X-T20 image is crisper overall. Resolving power is similar as you'd expect given the identical pixel counts, however the X-T20 doesn't do quite as well with certain types of detail such as the fine text in the beer bottle label or the green fabric swatch, likely because of its more "random" color filter array and the more complex demosaicing it requires. Contrast is much higher from the Canon in our tricky red-leaf swatch and subtle detail is a bit better too, which may be the result of the Fuji's stronger chroma noise suppression. Both cameras produce pleasing color but the Canon pumps reds a bit more.

Canon EOS M6 vs Panasonic G85 at Base ISO

Canon EOS M6 at ISO 100	Panasonic G85 at ISO 200
Above we compare the M6 to a 16-megapixel Micro Four Thirds camera, the Panasonic G85. With a smaller, lower-resolution sensor and a higher base ISO, we might expect the M6 to easily trounce the G85, and it does in sheer resolving power, but the G85 otherwise competes quite well producing a crisper image with more refined sharpening. However if you look very closely, you can see signs of its area-specific noise reduction already here at ISO 200. The G85 also does better with reproducing fine detail in our troublesome red-leaf swatch, however the M6 produces more accurate colors and has a more pleasing tone curve as well.

Canon EOS M6 vs Sony A6300 at Base ISO

Canon EOS M6 at ISO 100	Sony A6300 at ISO 100
In this comparison, we pit the Canon M6 against Sony's popular 24-megapixel APS-C mirrorless, the A6300. It has either a very weak or no AA filter which helps maximize sharpness and detail, and Sony's processing produces a crisper, more detailed image without the obvious and unsightly sharpening halos produced by the Canon's default settings. However we do see stronger aliasing artifacts from the A6300, especially in the red-leaf fabric. Color is noticeably better from the Canon, though.

Canon EOS M6 vs Canon EOS M3 at ISO 1600

Canon EOS M6 at ISO 1600	Canon EOS M3 at ISO 1600
Here at ISO 1600, we can see a greater improvement in image quality from the newer M6, as its image contains slightly lower noise yet still manages to hold onto much more detail in our tricky red-leaf swatch. Color continues to be slightly more pleasant and neutral from the newer model as well.

Canon EOS M6 vs Canon EOS M5 at ISO 1600

Canon EOS M6 at ISO 1600	Canon EOS M5 at ISO 1600
As expected, there is virtually no difference in image quality between these two closely related siblings at ISO 1600.

Canon EOS M6 vs Fujifilm X-T20 at ISO 1600

Canon EOS M6 at ISO 1600	Fujifilm X-T20 at ISO 1600
The Fuji X-T20 still comes out ahead here at ISO 1600, with a crisper image, finer detail and less smearing by noise reduction. Luma noise is however a bit higher and less consistent, and while subtle detail in our troublesome red-leaf swatch is better than the M6's, contrast is still much lower.

Canon EOS M6 vs Panasonic G85 at ISO 1600

Canon EOS M6 at ISO 1600	Panasonic G85 at ISO 1600
The Panasonic G85 does surprisingly well here at ISO 1600 against the M6. The G85 image is crisper, has lower noise in the shadows that is more finely grained, and fine detail is better in our mosaic crop with less smudging due to noise reduction. The G85 image does however look a bit more processed with some rectilinear artifacts in flatter areas and along some edges. Both cameras smudge our red-leaf swatch about equally, but the Canon holds onto a touch more detail there. Colors are still much better from the Canon.

Canon EOS M6 vs Sony A6300 at ISO 1600

Canon EOS M6 at ISO 1600	Sony A6300 at ISO 1600
The Sony A6300 continues to deliver a sharper image with better detail at ISO 1600, though aliasing artifacts are still more visible. Noise levels are comparable, however the noise "grain" from the Canon is more consistent and film-like, while the Sony's noise reduction processing produces some darker pixels and other artifacts which give flatter areas a less natural look. Color is still better from the Canon.

Canon EOS M6 vs Canon EOS M3 at ISO 3200

Canon EOS M6 at ISO 3200	Canon EOS M3 at ISO 3200
The Canon M6 still comes out ahead of its predecessor here at ISO 3200, though both cameras begin to struggle with noise and noise reduction artifacts. Noise levels are similar but perhaps just a touch lower from the M6. Both cameras smear fine detail in the mosaic crop with the M6 producing a slightly softer rendition but with fewer noise reduction artifacts. The M6 continues to do noticeably better with our red-leaf swatch, retaining much more of the leaf pattern than the M3.

Canon EOS M6 vs Canon EOS M5 at ISO 3200

Canon EOS M6 at ISO 3200	Canon EOS M5 at ISO 3200
Once again, virtually identical image quality from the M6 and M5 here at ISO 3200, as expected.

Canon EOS M6 vs Fujifilm X-T20 at ISO 3200

Canon EOS M6 at ISO 3200	Fujifilm X-T20 at ISO 3200
Here at ISO 3200, the Fuji X-T20 pulls farther ahead of the M6 with a much crisper, more detailed image. Noise is also lower and more tightly grained from the X-T20, though some edges look smoother and a bit more natural from M6. The Canon still produces higher contrast in our red-leaf swatch though the Fuji still manages to hold onto more subtle detail.

Canon EOS M6 vs Panasonic G85 at ISO 3200

Canon EOS M6 at ISO 3200	Panasonic G85 at ISO 3200
In the crops above at ISO 3200 we can see the Panasonic G85 is working very hard to keep pace with the M6. Noise is still lower and fine detail is less smudged than the Canon, but the G85's image looks more processed and digital with a slightly unnatural-looking noise grain and some rough edges. Both smudge our tricky red-leaf swatch quite a bit, but the Canon holds onto a bit more detail there while the G85 retains more detail in the pink fabric. Color and contrast are still better from the Canon.

Canon EOS M6 vs Sony A6300 at ISO 3200

Canon EOS M6 at ISO 3200	Sony A6300 at ISO 3200
The Sony A6300 continues to produce a crisper, more detailed image than the M6 at ISO 3200, however its area-specific noise reduction generates more artifacts in flatter areas and along edges than Canon's more traditional approach to noise reduction. The M6 blurs our tricky red-leaf fabric heavily at ISO 3200, but much of the Sony's apparent detail in that fabric is false. Overall, though, we continue to give Sony the advantage here.

Canon EOS M6 vs. Canon EOS M3, Canon EOS M5, Fujifilm X-T20, Panasonic G85, Sony A6300

Canon EOS M6 ISO 100 ISO 3200 ISO 6400	Canon EOS M3 ISO 100 ISO 3200 ISO 6400	Canon EOS M5 ISO 100 ISO 3200 ISO 6400	Fujifilm X-T20 ISO 200 ISO 3200 ISO 6400	Panasonic G85 ISO 200 ISO 3200 ISO 6400	Sony A6300 ISO 100 ISO 3200 ISO 6400
Detail comparison. High-contrast detail is also important, pushing the camera in different ways, so we like to look at it, too. Here we see again that the M6 is slightly improved over the M3 at higher ISOs, and does about the same as the M5 at all three ISOs. The Fuji-X-T20 produces similar contrast and detail, however sharpness is a bit better, but sharpening halos are more visible as well. The Panasonic G85 does quite well in terms of crispness and detail especially considering its lower resolution, however contrast is the lowest of the bunch. The Sony A6300 is the overall winner in this group, producing excellent sharpness and contrast with almost no degradation as ISO climbs, and with hardly any sharpening halos.

Canon M6 Print Quality Analysis

Very nice 30 x 40 inch prints up to ISO 400; a good 16 x 20 inch print at ISO 1600; and a nice 5 x 7 at ISO 12,800.

ISO 100/200 prints are quite good at 30 x 40 inches and larger, until you run out of resolution. The prints here yield nice colors, very good fine detail and balanced contrast.

ISO 400 images are good at 30 x 40 inches, with only the slightest decrease in overall sharpness, but still a nice print overall. 24 x 36 inch prints are even better, showing little to no evidence that the gain has been increased.

ISO 800 yields images at 20 x 30 inches that definitely pass our "good" seal of approval, with plenty of fine detail and good color saturation. There is a typical softening and loss of contrast detail in our tricky red-leaf fabric swatch, and a mild amount of noise in flatter areas of our target, but still a good print. For super-critical printing we recommend 16 x 20 inch prints here which will iron out even these mild issues nicely.

ISO 1600 prints just meet our "good" grade at 16 x 20 inches. There are mild issues evident, including a softening in the red channel and some minor noise in certain areas, but good detail and full colors are retained throughout.

ISO 3200 delivers a good 11 x 14 inch print, with only mild issues similar to the 16 x 20 inch print at ISO 1600.

ISO 6400 tends to be where most APS-C cameras begin to show real signs of ISO strain, and the EOS M6 is no exception. You can achieve good 8 x 10 inch prints here, but there is a general softening to the image and a slight muting of colors in general. It's still a good print overall, but for critical work we recommend remaining at ISO 3200 and lower.

ISO 12,800 shots can certainly be printed up to 5 x 7 inches, which really isn't bad for such a lofty sensitivity. The softening mentioned at ISO 6400 is still present, but for general-purpose use these prints will do the trick without any serious issues.

ISO 25,600 delivers a good 4 x 6 inch print, which is something not all APS-C cameras can boast. We always applaud when any camera can deliver a good 4 x 6 at its highest available gain setting, which is a sign that it's not artificially pumped just to pad the specs. (Hey, some cameras do this!)

The Canon EOS M6 yields print size results across the ISO range as we'd expect for this sensor size and resolution, and delivers a solid performance overall. Print quality is quite good up to ISO 800, offering the ability to print very large sizes, and the Canon M6 continues to offer the ability to print a good 11 x 14 up to ISO 3200. Once again, a solid effort all around in the print quality department here from Canon.

Field Test

A less expensive M5 delivers same good images, performance

By Jeremy Gray · 04/28/2017

Canon has been reinvigorating its interchangeable lens mirrorless M series, first last fall with the EOS M5 and now with the new EOS M6, which is the successor to the EOS M3. The Canon M6 packs in many of the new features introduced in the EOS M5, including Dual Pixel CMOS autofocus and a DIGIC 7 image processor.

I have been using the Canon EOS M6 and it has impressed me in many of the same ways that the M5 did when I tested it earlier this year, including the camera's handling and image quality.

Key Features and Info

• Compact interchangeable lens mirrorless camera
• 24.2-megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor
• 3-inch tilting touchscreen display
• Dual Pixel CMOS AF autofocus system
• DIGIC 7 image processor
• Over 9 frames per second continuous shooting
• Full HD video at 60fps
• Built-in Wi-Fi, NFC and Bluetooth
• Under US$800 body-only street price

Camera Body and Handling: Canon EOS M6 is compact and easy to use

The Canon M6 body is compact, but that doesn't mean it skimps on controls. The camera feels good in the hand and the small front grip does a good job of allowing you to get a decent handle on the camera. The rear grip and thumb rest are comfortable as well.

With that said, because the camera body is small, the controls can feel somewhat cramped. There are a lot of buttons in a limited space. The rear buttons, while located in convenient areas, are quite small and sometimes difficult to press. They also sit nearly flush with the surface of the camera, which can make them hard to find when busy shooting, which I imagine would be particularly difficult if you were shooting using the optional electronic viewfinder attachment, which costs just over $200.

The four diamond-knurled dials on the camera feel good and have nice textured finishes to provide grip. They rotate with a distinct click, which is nice for making precise settings adjustments. The front or main command dial is around the shutter release and is well-suited for making precise adjustments to shooting settings (shutter speed in the case of manual and shutter-priority modes and aperture in aperture-priority mode). The exposure compensation dial is located right above the rear command dial and it requires considerable force to rotate so I never accidentally rotated it while making adjustments using the rear command dial. It's an odd location, but it works. The mode dial can be rotated using your thumb, which is nice so you don't need to stop shooting to change shooting modes.

There is also a programmable Function button on the top of the camera to the right of the shutter release. It's a small button and it can be hard to locate because it sits flush with the top of the camera. The button is in a good spot, but I really wish it had a bump on it to make it easier to find when shooting.

On the rear of the camera, there is a 3-inch touchscreen LCD. The display has about 1,040,000 dots and it tilts up 180° and downward 45°. The touchscreen functionality works well and it accurately reads touches. The menus also work with touch, although not all menu options are easy to touch. The control dial around the directional pad is okay, but it rotates a bit too smoothly for making precise adjustments and feels too loose for menu navigation.

At the default brightness (3 of 5), the LCD screen is hard to see in bright outdoor conditions. The menus are dark with white text by default, which can be tricky to see when shooting outdoors. At maximum brightness, it is much easier to use. Further, the ability to tilt the display helps. Regarding using the display in low light, it's fine, but there's actually a special night display mode which darkens the display and switches the text to a dark orange color. It's not exactly a great camera for night shooting, but that aside, it's a really neat feature for the display.

For shooting in low light or for adding a bit of fill flash, the Canon M6 has a built-in flash on the top left which has a Guide Number at ISO 100 of only 16.4 feet (5 meters). The maximum flash sync is 1/200s. If you need more power, the M6 can take an external flash via the hot shoe.

Overall, the camera layout is good. There is not a lot of real estate on the camera itself, so it makes sense that the controls would feel slightly cramped. The camera would be easier to use if some of the buttons protruded further or had bumps on them. The LCD generally works great, although if you want to use a viewfinder, you will need to purchase an EVF separately (or get the M5). The Canon EOS M6 is a compact camera that handles well and despite its size offers a lot of physical control for enthusiast photographers.

Canon EOS M6 Shooting Features and Experience

The Canon EOS M6 employs the same 24.2-megapixel CMOS APS-C sensor as the EOS M5. The sensor is self-cleaning and has a focal length multiplier of 1.6x (unlike non-Canon APS-C sensors which usually offer a 1.5x focal length multiplier).

The sensor produces good quality images -- both JPEG and RAW -- with pretty low noise and pleasing colors. I found that the Canon M6 produces acceptable JPEG images straight from the camera at default settings. Dynamic range is good as well, although not the best compared to other APS-C cameras I've used. With that said, dynamic range performance from the EOS M6 is certainly better than the Canon M3 and M10 cameras I have used.

While the camera does employ fairly strong default noise reduction, even at base ISO, which can reduce fine details, the Canon M6 still produces pretty detailed images for its sensor size and megapixel count.

With that said, noise levels can get fairly high at higher ISOs. With a native ISO range of 100 to 25,600, the EOS M6 is a versatile camera, but high-ISO performance is not a particular strength of this camera, though it performs well for an APS-C camera.

Canon M6 ISO Comparison 100% center crops from RAW images processed in Adobe Camera Raw with default settings. (Click for access to the .CR2 RAW files.)
ISO 100 Full Scene
ISO 100	ISO 200
ISO 400	ISO 800
ISO 1600	ISO 3200
ISO 6400	ISO 12800
ISO 25600

In the RAW crops above, we can see that the Canon M6 produces decently clean images at lower ISOs, but at ISO 800 there is noise creeping in. At ISO 1600, there is quite a bit of visible noise, but the grain is fine and it is easily reduced during post-processing. At ISO 3200, the noise increases quite a bit and would be difficult to remove without reducing sharpness drastically. I would personally not shoot past ISO 3200 unless I were going to be making very small (4 x 6) prints or sharing an image on social media.

Canon M6 ISO Comparison 100% center crops from JPEG Fine images with default settings. (Click for full-size images.)
ISO 100 Full Scene
ISO 100	ISO 200
ISO 400	ISO 800
ISO 1600	ISO 3200
ISO 6400	ISO 12800
ISO 25600

Straight from the camera, the Canon M6 produces detailed images at low ISOs, but it also performs some noise reduction. At ISO 400, the noise reduction creates a few issues with edges, introducing artifacts in some situations. With that said, JPEG images retain a lot of detail through ISO 1600. At ISO 3200, fine details are washed out by the default noise reduction, but images through ISO 6400 look decent enough for small to medium-sized prints. Beyond ISO 6400, images become very soft and I wouldn't recommend using them.

The Canon EOS M6 produces good overall image quality overall given its megapixel count and sensor size. In-camera sharpening isn't great and noise reduction can be a bit heavy-handed, but the camera is capable of producing quality images across a fairly wide range of ISO speeds. Unsurprisingly, the EOS M6 is comparable to the EOS M5, which means that it is a step-up over previous EOS M-series cameras and is quite impressive overall.

Like the M5, the Canon EOS M6 includes the company's excellent Dual Pixel CMOS autofocus system. You can read about this system in detail here, but suffice it to say, the Dual Pixel CMOS AF technology is impressive and it works well in the EOS M6; autofocus performance is fast and accurate.

With its on-sensor phase detect autofocus system, the Canon M6 offers a variety of autofocus modes including: Face+Tracking AF, Smooth Zone AF and 1-point AF area modes. The 1-point AF mode works particularly well with the M6's touchscreen. When using zone and 1-point autofocus area modes, you can select from 49 autofocus points.

Autofocus works quite well in low light, proving to be fairly quick and accurate in dim conditions. The kicker here is that EF-M lenses are by and large not particularly fast lenses, thereby limiting the usefulness of the M6's autofocus system in darker shooting conditions.

Face tracking with the M6 works quite well but it can't keep up with fast-moving faces. The continuous autofocus on the M6 can't keep up with fast-moving subjects in general, but it does a good job identifying stationary people or someone moving slowly.

In our lab, the Canon EOS M6 performed similarly to the EOS M5, which is expected given their use of the same autofocus system. Performance was generally quick, especially for a mirrorless camera.

Overall, the Canon EOS M6 offers a sophisticated autofocus system which performs well, offering users fast and accurate autofocus.

The Canon EOS M6's exposure and white balance metering worked quite well in my experience, requiring exposure compensation in limited situations. When exposure compensation is needed, it is available up to +/-3 EV and can be easily adjusted using a dedicated dial on the top of the camera in 1/3 EV steps. The Canon M6 offers evaluative metering (384 zones), center-weighted, partial (10% of the image area) and spot (central 2% of the image area) metering modes. However, spot metering is not tied to the active autofocus point.

White balance metering worked well and auto white balance was sufficient in most situations, with images requiring either no or very little white balance adjustments during post-processing. If you shoot only JPEG, auto white balance should prove very capable in typical shooting conditions.

The Canon EOS M6 offers very good performance overall for its class. The M6 utilizes Canon's DIGIC 7 image processor, which results in much better performance than its predecessor, the M3.

Single-shot cycle times were twice as fast with the M6 than they were with the M3 in the lab, coming in at just over half a second on the new mirrorless camera. On the other hand, shutter lag time was about the same on the M3, but that's no problem as the full autofocus single-shot shutter lag of 0.126 second was already quite good.

Looking at high-speed continuous shooting performance, the Canon M6 captured 27 best quality JPEG frames at over 9 frames per second in the lab. (It is worth pointing out that high-speed continuous shooting on the M6 is capped at 7 fps when you want to use continuous AF and AE.) The buffer depth isn't large at this burst speed, but it can be cleared in around three seconds with a fast UHS-I card, which is impressive. When shooting RAW images, performance was a bit faster at 9.3 fps (versus 9.2 fps), but buffer depth was 17 frames and it cleared in 8 seconds. RAW + JPEG shooting performance was fast as well, 9.4 fps, and the M6 could capture 16 frames and clear the buffer in 11 seconds. While buffer depths when shooting RAW files at top speed aren't generous, they are however much improved over the M3, which could only manage 4 RAW or RAW + JPEG frames despite its much slower top speed of 4 fps. The Canon M6 also has a low-speed 4 fps continuous mode with much deeper buffers. Canon claims up to 1000 JPEGs or 30 RAW files in that mode.

CIPA battery life is a little below average for a mirrorless camera, but improved over the M3. The Canon M6 can capture just under 300 shots when using the LCD monitor or the optional EVF. The M3's battery life rating was 250 shots with the same battery.

During real-world shooting, the Canon M6 feels pretty snappy. It is slow to process HDR images in-camera, but navigating menus and doing normal shooting feels plenty fast. Overall, the EOS M6 has very good performance and is improved over its predecessor in many respects, particularly with startup time, cycle times and buffer depth.

There is something for everyone with the Canon M6's shooting modes. The camera offers the typical four shooting modes (program, aperture-priority, shutter-priority and manual) but also offers an impressive Scene Intelligent Auto shooting mode.

If you want to add a creative twist to your shots, there is a lot to choose from with the M6. There is a Creative Assist mode which utilizes the touchscreen and is quite neat, allowing you to quickly adjust a variety of picture settings such as background blur, brightness, contrast, saturation and color tint. The M6 also offers in-camera HDR shooting with five different styles: natural, art standard, art vivid, art bold and art embossed, as well as a number of Creative Filter effects.

When shooting specific scenes, the Canon M6's scene modes work well. You can use self-portrait, portrait, landscape, close-up, sports, food, panning, handheld night scene and HDR backlight control. These scene modes adjust camera settings to make capturing certain shots easier, so you can do all the same adjustments on your own, but they're nice for users who aren't as familiar with semi-manual shooting modes.

The Canon M6 controls well in manual shooting modes, so advanced photographers will feel like they are offered ample control over their photography when using the camera, but it doesn't overwhelm novices either, offering an effective full auto shooting mode and a variety of easy-to-use creative shooting modes.

The Canon EOS M6 has built-in Wi-Fi, NFC and Bluetooth. You can connect the camera to compatible wireless printers or your smart device through the Canon Camera Connect app. On iOS, the camera connection process is a bit tedious, as is typical, and requires selecting the camera through the device's wireless settings and entering the password that appears on the camera.

After connecting, you can view and transfer images and remotely capture images. The remote control function using Wi-Fi works okay, although during my testing, the live feed on my phone frequently froze for a second or two before catching back up. You can adjust some settings through the app, such as drive and autofocus modes, and you can also control autofocus using the smartphone's screen. However, any settings you adjust on the camera itself, such as exposure compensation or shooting mode, don't register in the application until you disconnect and reestablish the connection.

When using Bluetooth, you can remotely use the camera, but it's a simplified remote controller offering only shutter release functionality (for stills or video) that offers no live view. For what it's worth, when I wanted to reconnect via Bluetooth, I had to delete the remembered device in my iOS Bluetooth settings or else the camera would tell me to use the app and the app would say to use the camera and they would never connect again. You can log location information using Bluetooth but it must be sent over Wi-Fi. And when you try to send images when connected via Bluetooth, the app tells you to switch to Wi-Fi.

Overall, the app is fine and would be nice for certain things, such as quickly moving images from your camera to your phone or capturing a family portrait, but it is not full-featured.

With its Dual Pixel CMOS AF, the Canon M6 is well-equipped for recording good video in a variety of situations. With that said, its resolution tops out at 1920 x 1080 (Full HD), which is unfortunate for shooters looking for 4K recording. The Canon M6 can record video at up to 60 progressive frames per second (60p), but does not offer any high-speed or slow-motion recording options.

If you're looking for solid Full HD video recording though, the Canon M6 delivers. Its fully automatic video recording mode works well both in terms of exposure and focus performance. But if you're looking for more control, you can record with full manual control over shutter speed, aperture and ISO sensitivity as well.

Video quality from ISO 100 to 400 is sharp and detailed, offering a very clean file. At ISO 800, the sharpness decreases a bit as the camera works to reduce visible noise, but it still looks good. ISO 1600 and 3200 remain usable, in my opinion, but ISO 6400 video is a bit too soft.

The Canon M6 records video in MP4 format and has built-in stereo audio recording. The camera also includes a microphone jack (although no headphone jack) which is good for videographers looking to use an external mic. There is Full HD video out at up to 60p via the HDMI port as well, though it's not "clean" output meant for external recording (it outputs the shooting screen without sound in record mode).

In NTSC mode, the Canon M6 can record 1920 x 1080 at 60p, 30p and 24p, as well as 1280 x 720 at 60p and 640 x 480 at 30p. When set to PAL mode, framerates are 50p or 25p. In all modes, clips are limited to 29 minutes and 59 seconds each.

Overall, the Canon EOS M6 produces good Full HD video. The camera offers a variety of nice controls and features, such as touch to focus and full manual video recording. It would be nice to have zebra stripe exposure warnings and 4K UHD video recording, but for a lot of general-purpose video recording, the M6 delivers, especially considering its price point and ease-of-use.

What I like:

• Compact camera body with multiple dials
• Tilting touchscreen display
• Dual Pixel CMOS AF works well
• Approachable menus and shooting modes
• Fast continuous shooting performance

What I dislike:

• In-camera noise reduction and sharpening does a poor job, especially at higher ISOs
• Shallow buffers when shooting at 9 fps
• No 4K video

The Canon EOS M6 is a great follow-up to the Canon EOS M3 and a capable alternative to the slightly more expensive Canon EOS M5, offering the same image quality and performance in a smaller, lighter body. For those who want a viewfinder, the M6 supports an optional EVF but if you prefer a permanent EVF, Canon gives consumers the choice to opt for the M5 and its built-in electronic viewfinder. The M6 body is otherwise full-featured and it handles well for beginners and enthusiasts alike, and its image quality and performance are impressive for its class.

Overall, the EOS M6 is a nice addition to the EOS M lineup and a signal that Canon is continuing to improve its mirrorless offerings at various price points and bring their cameras more in line with enthusiast mirrorless ILC cameras produced by competing manufacturers. The Canon M6 is an affordable, capable camera that provides good performance across the board.

Flash

Canon EOS M6 Flash

Built-in Flash Test Results

Coverage and Range
A weak flash with very narrow coverage. Average positive exposure compensation required.

Coverage

15mm @ f/3.5

Coverage. Flash coverage at wide angle was very narrow leaving very large, dark corners and edges, but keep in mind the kit lens is wider than most (15mm or 24mm equivalent). We no longer test flash coverage at telephoto, as it is invariable better.

Exposure. Indoors, under incandescent background lighting, the Canon EOS M6's flash underexposed our standard flash test scene without any flash exposure compensation, even with Auto ISO enabled. The camera produced a good exposure with +0.7 EV flash exposure compensation, but the camera boosted ISO to 800 to achieve that, and the resulting image was quite warm and orange because of the relatively high sensitivity and ambient lighting.

Manufacturer-Specified Flash Range

6.6 feet ISO 200, f/3.5

Manufacturer Specified Flash Test. The Canon EOS M6's built in flash has a rated Guide Number of only 5 meters or 16.4 feet at ISO 100. At ISO 200, that works out to about 6.6 feet at f/3.5, the maximum aperture of the kit lens at wide angle. In the shot above at those settings, we can see that the Canon EOS M6's built-in flash performed to specification, producing a well-exposed central area in the flash target at the rated distance.

Conclusion

The Canon EOS M6 joins the EOS M5 in Canon's current mirrorless lineup as a more affordable, more compact alternative. The M6 and M5 are essentially the same in terms of functionality and performance, which is to say that they are both noticeably improved over the Canon EOS M3 and M10 cameras.

During our field time with the camera and in the laboratory, the Canon M6 proved impressive in many respects, including image quality and performance. We are ready to conclude our review of the Canon EOS M6, so let's see how it stacks up in greater detail.

Shooting Experience

Image Quality: Canon EOS M6 offers good image quality and is improved over the M3

The EOS M6 uses Canon's latest 24.2-megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor which delivers good image quality across a wide range of situations. Considering color accuracy first, the M6 captures images with pleasing colors and excellent hue accuracy when using manual white balance.

When using automatic white balance, the results varied quite a bit depending on the lighting. Indoor incandescent lighting caused a lot of difficulty for the M6 with results showing reddish and orange color casting with automatic and incandescent white balance settings. Outdoors, the results with auto white balance were much better, although a bit on the cooler side.

Looking at our test images, we found that images are slightly soft at the default sharpening settings yet still display noticeable sharpening halos. The M6 does however provide Canon's Fine Detail Picture Style, which provides a lot of flexibility in the sharpening strength, fineness and threshold, producing results similar to unsharp mask sharpening in Photoshop.

ISO performance is good for a 24-megapixel APS-C camera. At ISO 100 and 200, images are clean, and at ISO 400 a bit of noise grain creeps in. It is not until ISO 1600 when image quality noticeably drops. At ISO 3200 and 6400, the image quality is much softer, but you can still make a nice 8 x 10 inch print at ISO 6400. Beyond that, print sizes drop to 5 x 7 at ISO 12,800 and then 4 x 6 at ISO 25,600.

We no longer perform our own dynamic range tests, but the fine folks at DxOMark have tested the Canon EOS M6. When comparing the EOS M6 to the EOS M3 at base ISO, the new M6 is much better, producing a peak dynamic range of about 12.6 EV compared to about 11.8 EV from the M3. The advantage vanishes as you increase ISO, but the M6 is still a marked improvement at low ISOs. When you consider other APS-C competition, such as the Sony A6300, the situation is not as good for the M6 as the A6300 offers up to about a 1.2 EV advantage over the M6. Nonetheless, despite lagging behind some leading rivals, the M6 is a big improvement over the M3.

Overall, image quality from the 24.2-megapixel APS-C sensor in the Canon EOS M6 is quite good. The M6 produces image quality which is demonstrably better than its predecessor.

Autofocus: Dual Pixel CMOS AF works very well

The Canon EOS M6 utilizes Canon's impressive Dual Pixel CMOS AF autofocus technology. The system provided fast, reliable autofocus performance during our real-world and laboratory testing when shooting both stills and video. The 49-point autofocus system offers Face+Tracking, Smooth Zone AF and 1-point autofocus modes. The touchscreen allows for touch to focus functionality, which worked well during our testing.

In the lab, full autofocus with the single-point (center point) autofocus mode focused and captured an image in as little as 0.126 second, which is the same as the EOS M3, but faster than many mirrorless cameras. Canon's Dual Pixel CMOS AF system has worked well in other cameras we've tested and that continues with the EOS M6.

Performance: DIGIC 7 processor provides good performance gains for the EOS M6

For its class, the Canon EOS M6 offers very good performance. The DIGIC 7 image processor provides a lot of improvements over the Canon EOS M3 and offers performance in line with the very similar Canon EOS M5. Single-shot cycle times are just over 0.5 second, which is a huge improvement over the M3's 1.1 to 1.3 seconds. The M6 can capture images at over 9 frames per second with AF locked at the first frame, compared to only about 4fps for the M3. RAW buffer depth is improved as well, at 17 frames compared to only 4 frames for the M3, despite the faster burst rate. This is very good performance overall for its class.

It is not all good news, however, as the M6 still comes up a bit short in the battery life department. Battery life is CIPA-rated for only 295 shots. While this is improved over the M3's 250 shot rating it is still below average for a mirrorless camera. It's a good idea to have an extra battery pacl for your Canon M6.

Overall, though, performance is very good. Despite below average battery life, every other aspect of the Canon EOS M6's performance is impressive for its class.

Video: Full HD video is good, but the lack of 4K UHD recording is unfortunate

If there is a weak area for the Canon EOS M6, it is likely its video performance. While the video quality proved to be fairly good, the camera tops out at a resolution of 1920 x 1080 (Full HD) and a frame rate of 60 progressive frames per second (60p). Compared to some of its APS-C competition, the features list is lacking. The M6 does offer manual video recording though, which is nice and it includes a microphone jack, although no headphone jack. It is not well-suited for users who are primarily interested in video, but it can record good-quality Full HD video and offers a decent level of control as well as great autofocus performance.

Build Quality and Handling: Compact M6 offers a nice alternative to the M5

The Canon EOS M6 is a compact, stylish camera. It is small, but it still offers a good amount of physical controls, including a pair of command dials, a dedicated exposure compensation dial, a control dial and a multi-function button, and a lot of the buttons and dials can be customized. The highlight of the camera is its 3-inch tilting touchscreen, which works very well. The display tilts up 180° and down 45°, though the bottom of the screen is partially blocked by the top deck when facing forward. The default brightness level is insufficient when shooting in bright outdoor conditions, but thanks to the ability to make it brighter and tilt the display, it can still be completely usable even in bright conditions.

If you want a viewfinder, the EOS M6 can use an optional one via the hot shoe on the top of the camera. However, if you want an electronic viewfinder and think you'll use it frequently, then the Canon EOS M5 might be a better option as the M5 and M6 are very similar except for the camera body design and the M5 has a built-in EVF. It's great that Canon offers consumers a choice and the M6, thanks to its compact but functional design, is likely a great option for many users looking for a Canon EOS M series camera.

Summary

The Canon M6 is a compact but powerful mirrorless camera and is Canon's best combination of portability and performance to date in its M series. While the M5 has the nice built-in electronic viewfinder and larger body, for users looking for something more compact and lightweight, the M6 offers that without skimping on image quality and performance, making it a definite Dave's Pick for those that don't need advanced video features or 4K.

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