Canon R6III vs Sony A7V – What I Love and What I Don’t

This video is brought to you by Squarespace, the number one website platform for entrepreneurs. Come check this out. Look what I got over here. Watch out for the dogs. We are absolutely spoiled, y'all. In the not too distant past, these would have been flagship cameras. We got the R63, the A75, absolutely beast of a camera for three grand. But I will say on the spec sheet, the R63 is objectively the superior camera. But the A75 does have a superpower. That could negate a lot of those advantages. And that's depending on who you are. Now, one of those superpowers of the A75 actually prompted me to sell one of my favorite cameras of all time. The A7S III. I'll explain to you why. But there's actually a lot of little differences between these cameras. But I'm going to try to just focus on the ones that actually matter to me. OK, there you go. So the first thing that I wanted to know about these cameras was how dependable are they for long recording sessions, whether I'm in the studio recording, I could just set it and forget it. Or when I continue to mess up my talking heads and butcher them like I do all the time, am I able to just rerecord two to three times as many times as I need without this camera ever having to shut down because it's overheating. Now, overheating tests are generally boring, so I'll give you the results after this, but let me tell you the one thing that really stood out to me about this comparison between the A75 and R6 III is that when I was shooting 4K 30, which I was shooting 4K at the highest quality 4K intro on the Sony with the screen max brightness, the R6 III shut down at an hour and 22 minutes, which is good. But the A75 was still that over 30% battery when the R6 III shut down, and I got over two hours of footage off of one battery with no overheating indicator. Actually, the A75, I could never get an overheating indicator to pop up at any point of the testing, which is outrageous. But the efficiency of the A75, like I knew the A75 was more efficient than my other Sony cameras like the A1. And this is what I call like silent innovation, where cameras have become so efficient that they're able to put out this much effort, volume on a single battery charge. Now, for the actual overheating results, now 4K 30, modern cameras usually don't have an issue with that. And in a studio environment, 70 degrees, there's no issue with both cameras. 4K 30 open gate, 10 bit 422. I got maybe an hour and 10 minutes in total. The battery died out, but in the car filled up at like an hour five and it recorded a little bit longer. Very, very impressive. 4K 60, the A75. OK, the R6 III shot 26 minutes until it overheated. The A75 did never not not even overheating icon. I got like almost an hour and 50 minutes of 4K 60 straight from the A75. Which is outrageous. So in terms of dependability and overheating and thermals, I think both cameras passed the test for almost anybody out there shooting in a studio environment. But I do have to give the edge to the A75 because I couldn't even get a freaking overheating icon to pop up at any point, which is, again, pretty insane. Now, what about image quality? I want to be honest with you, as long as I got C-Log2, I'm good on the R6 III. But there's been a lot of talk about dynamic range and the A75 having 16 stops of dynamic range or just, you know, better than the R6 III. So I had to see what's going on. I did a little non-scientific test here in my backyard. I tried to match the focal length, the settings shot at the highest bit rate 4K. Now, I didn't use any ND filters. I literally just cranked the shutter speed until I became a silhouette on the rear screen. And in Final Cut Pro, using the basic color adjustments tab, I was able to get a little bit more detail out of the Sony than the Canon. But it's not by much. I did the same thing, but overexposed my shot. And again, I feel like I was able to get I was able to recover more than the Canon. With that said, it's not by much. It's by very, very little. And given how far off I was with the exposure, I'm good either way. I'm not going to base my camera decision based on a slight improvement in dynamic range. And if you want to go down that route, well, you can't ignore the fact that the Canon R6 III does have raw video capability. So it would most likely edge out the Sony in that sense. But that's not to hear there. There's more to a camera. There's usability. There's lenses. There's other features that will be more useful than just having a little bit more latitude in your file. In low light, the Canon struggled most at 5000 ISO when its second base ISO kicks in at 6400, stays relatively clean all the way up until 12,800. Now you get the most noise on a Sony at 6400 ISO, but it cleans up at 8000 and stays clean up until 12,800. I'd give a slight edge to the Sony on this one, but you can't go wrong with either one. Now, if you're tired of hearing me say that Sony has a slight edge, well, this is the section that you've been waiting for. The feature set on the R6 III, this is where it looks the sexiest. This is where it has a pretty big advantage over the A75. Now you get 7K raw video up to 60 frames per second. Not something that I personally care about, but it is a feature capability that this that the A75 doesn't have. And when I asked Sony about internal raw video, they said that they believe that the user of this kind of camera doesn't care about raw video. That's totally fair. I totally understand that. But. It is still an advantage here. You get the pre-capture in video, so pre-shoot video up to five seconds, so you can go back in time five seconds and record something that you would have missed otherwise. I love it. 4K 120, no crop. Now, at 4K 120, I don't think it's the biggest issue to have a crop because, you know, generally speaking, I feel like most people use 4K 60. And that's where finally the A75 has caught up. They've been lacking. All right. Everybody's been doing 4K 60, no crop. You get the C-Log2, C-Log3 on this camera. You get monitoring tools like waveform, false color, something that Sony users have been clamoring for. You have a tally lamp here in the front, which is so nice when you're filming yourself. Like right now, I switched to the S1R2, got a tally lamp there. I know that I'm not wasting my time filming myself. So tally lamp is just really nice. A nice confirmation that everything everything's running. OK, and the biggest one for me is the OpenGate recording. Now, I love how Canon implemented OpenGate into this camera. It's instead of like having to toggle through different aspect ratios like I do on Lumix, they make it very user friendly where you can just toggle it on and off in the menu. And whether or not you think OpenGate is a big deal or not, I think my issue stems from people that have never tried OpenGate for themselves and just are declared that it's not useful when they've never actually used it. What the times where I have a natural way of composing my shot and there are times where I wish I could capture it, I could have more of that shot. It's a nice to have. Look, let me show you. I think this analogy will hit home for most of y'all. All right. So OpenGate is like a bidet. Yes, it's a luxury. OK, because we've gone by as a species using toilet paper, and that's totally fine. And when stock is low, maybe a sock or two, not speaking from experience. But hey, once you experience the stream, some of y'all are not going to want to go back and that's fine. Maybe some of y'all are just not a fan of a nice hands free car wash. And that's that's totally fine. Depending on what you do will ultimately determine whether or not OpenGate is valuable or not. Sure, simply backing up can get you more in the shot. OK, but that's assuming that you have the extra space that you know precisely what you're shooting and the parameters that you need to get everything in. Because when you're shooting something less predictable, having that extra wiggle wiggle room on the top and bottom of the shot can go a long way, not to mention the extra flexibility it gives you when cropping for vertical. Now, I remember in the beginning of the video when I spoke about the A75 having a superpower. Something that could possibly negate some of some of the benefits of having an R63. Well, now this is that time. The A75 is also an amazing APS-C camera, just like the A74. Now, so if you have any APS-C lenses in your stable or you want the smallest compact setup possible alongside your full frame, right? You can attach these small little APS-C lenses that Sony makes or that Viltrox makes or that Sigma makes. You could throw it onto this camera, get dual use out of it, or you can just switch to APS-C mode and get more range and more more, yeah, more range out of your full frame lenses. So this camera being a full frame and APS-C camera really, really makes it a very tempting option, I'm sure, for a lot of people that are also invested in APS-C or want to potentially invest in APS-C so that they can convert their full frame camera in and they can attach these small little lenses onto here, small and lightweight. It's a very powerful thing that this class of camera does. Out of all the things that I just talked about, this one is probably the most important because you're not just buying between the R63 and the A75, you're buying into an entire ecosystem. And this is where I feel a lot of people will immediately write off Canon because they don't allow third party manufacturers to make lenses for their cameras. And generally, I would agree with that sentiment. I have always said that Sony as a camera recommendation just makes sense because it gives you a ton of options, whether you're someone just starting out and you need budget gear or you want to buy the more expensive gear. They make a lot of small, lightweight. You know, they're at the cutting edge of this stuff. But it's not giving Canon a fair shake, I think. And I think that we're quickly we don't look enough to see what's going on this side. OK, so look, a lot of the Canon stuff is bigger and heavier, like the 24-70 2.8. But the advantage that Canon has over the majority of Sony glass is Canon has stabilization built into a lot of their lenses. So there's a 24-70. It is bigger. It's a lot older as well. And if it has stabilization. So that is a benefit, whether you're shooting photography or video. Canon L lenses are not cheap, but Sony G Master lenses are not cheap either. Canon does have an entire range of EF glasses as well that we tend to forget about if you adapt it to be a modern Canon camera. You're going to get native performance. They work really well. But on the cheaper side, on the on the under $1,000 side, they do offer a lot of the more popular focal lengths. They already have like a 35-1.8, a 24-1.8, the brand new 45-1.2, which I think is going to be the future of Canon glass moving forward, or at least that third party alternative 45-1.2 under $500. They also have the 16-2.8 pancake lens. They have the 28-F2.8 pancake lens, the 50-1.8, the 28-270, which is around $1,000. So they have options. They just don't have many different kind of options. They have the BCM 1.4 line of prime lenses that rival the price of, you know, the other brands. But under $1,000, we got these. Again, just trying to give Canon a fair shake there. I still think even though their glass is extraordinary, even though I have a soft spot for the Red Ring because it just brings back some nostalgia when I used to shoot Canon, I still think that you have to give Sony the edge here when it comes to lens selection. Even though they don't have stabilization, you have so many different options. And for APS-C and full frame, if you're someone that prefers the Canon look, feel, and you just like the ecosystem, I'm going to tell you what, it's also a great thing that you don't have a carrot dangling over your head every single week when a new Sony lens is announced. And now you have FOMO. Now you, you, there's always something to lust over, OK? It's always something to lust over. With Canon, you just use what you got. Now, before we go any further, let me tell you about today's sponsor, Squarespace. Now, whether you want a place to show off your portfolio, want to start an online store, even a personal blog, Squarespace makes it incredibly easy to create and manage any website. Now, I use them for absolutely everything. My portfolio, my online store where I sell my presets. I even built an entire off-camera flash course all by myself using their templates, their custom fonts, their color palettes, all the cool little graphics and their AI tools, OK? And I didn't need any graphic design skills to get up and to get everything up and running by myself. They also have 24-7 customer support. OK, so no more waiting. Try Squarespace for yourself and use the code Manny for 10% off. All right, now let's talk about usability. It's a very important one, but also this one is very subjective to the user. Both cameras, I think, offer a lot of functionality and like customization, quick controls. Like Sony has, I can get to the quick menu here. I can press the function button. I can customize and get access to a lot of my frame rates and IBIS. I can get to that really quickly. On Canon, I have the Q button. Press the Q button and I get access to pretty much all the things that I need. Color, IBIS, frame rate, I could do all that there. So they both offer a lot of customization, right? See the screen, if I find it too cluttered, I can just press touch operation off and now everything's gone. Now, I will say Sony does have an advantage with the four way screen, able to go to the side, go behind directly behind the camera. It also allows me to have more, you know, more space. Bringing up the camera for using up the ports just allows you to create more space and distance there where the Canon you see it will limit. But depending on what port you're using, the screen, the screen's rotation. Another advantage on the Sony is the ports. Not only are they higher quality, but they're more individualized. So if I'm using only the HDMI port, it doesn't leave all the other ports exposed. Whereas on the Canon, you have those rubber flaps and low key. I actually prefer the rubber flaps only because they're easier for me to open because I have no nails. Open them up. I don't need a flathead like I do on the Sony. And this one's very specific to me, but I do like the advantage of having this hot shoe with Sony. You have just more options with for audio, right? Like you have those DJI adapters that you can throw on here and you have the the XLR adapter that I have that. So for me, I like the audio options that I have on the Sony more than the Canon. Now, in Canon, you have things like the tally lamp, which I really love. I mean, Sony, if I press record, that's all you really know. If you're in front of the camera, all you have is going you're going off of that little red wreck at the top. That's not enough for me. I like having that extra confirmation. I also like how the Canon feels in the hand more than the Sony. I talked about this in my last video. The ergonomics are very soft to the touch. Again, nothing wrong with a more tactile feeling camera. I also like it as well. But this one definitely has an advantage for longer days of shooting, especially if you're rigging up a camera. This has more of a grip to, let's say, if you put a monitor on the camera. So it's going to be more comfortable to hold, even though the Canon has a lower resolution screen and slightly smaller than the A75. I think the Canon screen is still superior. It's not about all. It's not only about resolution. The screen also gets brighter than the Sony. And I just like how the image looks on here better. So that's just that's always been the case, though. This is a very specific one, but I like how when you turn off the Canon. The shutter closes within like two, three seconds, I can make a quick lens change where on the Sony, it's about it's about double the time when I turn off the camera. It takes about like five, yeah, five, six seconds for the shutter to close. I'm impatient. I just want to change my my lens. And that's a little one. Now, another one to consider are the ports. So you have CF Express type B with SD card. And this one has CF Express type A with SD card. Now, if I had to start from scratch, I'm I'm most likely going to. I'd rather use the CF Express type B simply because they're just cheaper and they're more widely used than the CF Express type A. And honestly, they're just like a ton of different usability differences between the cameras that make them unique. You know, again, I talked about efficiency. This one has better battery life on a single battery. You have that that fast charge port on here. We can go back and forth all day, but it's very subjective. These are the ones that really stand out to me, though. The R63 has 8.5 stops. A75 has 7.5 stops. And this is kind of kind of weird to compare because Canon does have a natural advantage here because they have, you know, stabilization already built in. So I'm going to just try to keep this short and sweet for you guys. All right. In my experience, the R63 and let's say a 24-70 2.8 with stabilization on in the body, I have enhanced stabilization on and I'm taking a handheld shot and I want it to look like I'm on a tripod. Your shot's going to look like it's on a tripod with some good proper technique. There is it is so still it is incredible how good the stabilization is when doing a handheld shot with a setup like this, let's say at 70 millimeter with the Sony A75. If I'm on a 24-70 that's not stabilized and I'm using dynamic active, which we all know how good that is. And I'm at 70 millimeter. You are still going to see some movement. It is not as good. And with dynamic active, you are going to be cropped in a lot more than with enhanced. Not a lot more, but it is cropped in tighter. So obviously, if you put a stabilized Sony lens, it'd probably be better. But there aren't there aren't that many. Now, if you're doing if you're doing like walking, you're walking with. I feel like both do a pretty good job with walking. Again, the dynamic state, you are going to be cropped in a lot more when you're doing that. But the one part about the Canon that really lags behind I mean, the competition in general is the R63 still has the wide angle wobble. So if you're at a really wide angle, ultra wide, like 60 millimeter and you're vlogging with this camera, those corners are going to be flapping. The corners are going to be saying hello to the neighbors and all the people around you that are giving you social anxiety. That's that's still there. But other than that, it is better for locked off handheld shots, for sure. If anybody out here is complaining about the autofocus on a Canon or Sony. That screams first world problems, because these are two of the best out there. But I will tell you that I do think the Canon is better in the majority in in for the most part, it's better. Auto subject detection, the way it detects different kinds of subjects. It does it faster. It finds even when planes are flying over my crib, it'll look through those freaking branches and try to lock onto the plane. And when the plane comes into into, you know, in plain view, it will put a box around it and identifies it. Sony will put a lot of little boxes, you know, on the tree branches, but it's not going to be invasive. And then it'll barely have enough time to put a box over the plane. Even if I'm in plain autofocus, the Canon will do it whether I'm in auto subject or plain autofocus. I point this camera at my dogs. It'll identify the dogs really quickly, whereas the Sony will have to think a little bit and then it'll focus when you're in auto. Another aspect of the Canon autofocus that's better is the tracking ability. So I put both cameras on a slider and I've done this test with all of my other flagship cameras like the A1, Z9, R3. I never posted that video because it's just hard to get consistent results. The R63 gave me the best result out of any camera that I've ever used. And the battery is about to die. So we'll see. The R63's tracking. So if I have a Canon, I put a Canon lens and I tap the Canon logo on the back of the camera. The Canon with autofocus on moving on the slider back and forth. It locked on like I never I never seen before. I never seen a camera do this well. It didn't lose the Canon logo, whereas on the Sony, it's what I expected. It will track it for the most part. Then eventually it'll kind of like start to float away a little bit. It'll kind of pulse a little bit slowly as it's going. But I've never seen a camera do it this freaking good. And I had settings to locked on on both right sensitivity on low so that it doesn't float, doesn't move around. That was really impressive. So I think both are extremely, extremely good. But I do give the Canon edge the edge here on autofocus. All right, y'all. So I just got back from Imaging USA, and when I got home, I couldn't help but feel like like, what am I doing here? What the hell am I doing? I feel like I'm wasting my time. This video is over 20 minutes long. I came back to it. I'm like, why am I going to keep comparing these two cameras? They are so evenly matched. It's just not satisfying anymore. I feel like it's painful to continue this comparison. So I'm going to just try to get to the point here. Now, I did mention the A7S3 in the beginning and why I sold the A7S3. And I don't want you to think that I that I think the A75 completely replaces the A7S3 for me, that camera is infamous. It changed the industry. And I said I was never going to sell it. But hey, we're here now. All right. Now, the A7S3 had a particular had specifically things that no other camera could do on the Sony system. So it's a traditional body with an electronic viewfinder that had a great thermal performance that could shoot 4K 120 and it had good low light or great low light performance. Now, the A75 checks most of those boxes. But at the same time, now I have it unlocks photography and photography doing flash shooting flash outdoors. As you know, I've talked about it. Most Sony cameras have electronic first curtain shutter. This is the only camera that I have right now from Sony that has a full mechanical. And I will be using this as my main photography camera out when I'm shooting outdoors and stuff like that. So this doubles down it. Decent low light performance, right? It has great thermal performance, at least in a studio. Has an EVF, although it's not great. It checks most of the boxes. Now, look, comparing these cameras. Like I said, it's so close. If I had to give an edge to the Sony over the R63 and in the grand scheme of things that would actually matter to me. I think that the sensor in the A75 is just slightly superior to the one of the R63 in a sense that it's slightly faster because it's partially stacked. But the Canon is still really fast. It's just not as fast to get the slightly stacked sensor. I feel like it's slightly better in low light. I like the four way screen. I think that the thermal performance, although both are great, the Sony does have an edge in the thermal performance and efficiency. If I'm shooting video, I'm giving the edge to the R63. This is the only camera I took with me to Imaging USA because I just wanted to get more time with it hands on. And yeah, I think the R63 is the better video camera overall, not only because it gives you more features, but just having the option of shooting open gate and it being extremely reliable. I can shoot over an hour in a studio environment. You know, being able to do that. I love when I'm shooting video. Having the tally that makes all the difference, especially when I'm off angle on the camera. I can't really see if I'm recording how many times I've recorded nothing, actually. I do think on the video side again, I think I do think the R63 is is the superior video camera for. All the reasons that I mentioned in this video, but you can't go wrong with either one, OK? I think that I've never compared two cameras from two different brands that are so evenly matched. And and here we are now for the people out there that are looking for the absolute best video camera and video is your number one option. I'm going to just question you like what you're doing here. What are you doing here? OK, the superior video camera already exists. It's the S12, which I'm filming with right now. I think the S12 is I think the S12 checks all the boxes. I think that it's it's mostly if the S12 was was rebadged and this was if Sony released the S12 with all the same features. Oh, my God, the sky would fall. I think Lumix, you know, just doesn't have as many lenses, right? The ecosystem is not as robust. I think the user experience in the menu system could could could use some improvement, but in terms of video, really nothing touches the S12 in terms of specs, in terms of sheer horsepower. And like I said, what are we doing here? If you only care about video, these are two great hybrid cameras. That sweet spot for photography, sweet spot for video. Two of the best out there right now, for sure.