The Canon EOS R6 will launch much later than expected, rumors suggest

The highly anticipated Canon EOS R6, which is rumored to be a more affordable version of the already announced Canon EOS R5, won’t be arriving or shipping until later this year, according to the latest rumors.

The full-frame mirrorless camera, which is expected to be the spiritual successor to the Canon’s EOS 6D range of DSLRs, had been slated for a May announcement. But according to the usually reliable Canon Rumors, the announcement has now been moved to July.

This news has apparently come from two different sources, which have also suggested that shipping won’t begin until late Q3 in 2020, which Canon Rumors speculates will be August or September.

This is a shame for those who have been excited about seeing some of the mirrorless power of the Canon EOS R5 packed into a body that will cost considerably less than that camera’s expected price of at least $3,500 / £3,500 / AU$4,500. 

The EOS R6 is expected to bring in-body image stabilization – which has arrived for the first time on a Canon camera with the EOS R5 – and match its bigger brother’s fast continuous shooting speeds of 12fps with the mechanical shutter or 20fps with the electronic shutter.

(Image credit: Canon)

Slowly but surely

Given the knock-on effects of the global pandemic on supply chains – which we’ve already seen hit both the Nikon D6 and DJI Mavic Air 2 – it wouldn’t be surprising to see Canon’s camera announcements for 2020 also affected.

Its approach for the Canon EOS R5 has been to split to the announcement into a series of teaser releases, which has gradually helped build up a picture of its video and stills capabilities.

But it seems unlikely that Canon will adopt the same approach for the EOS R6, given the latter will be similar to the EOS R5, only without headline features like 8K video or a 45MP sensor.

That said, for non-professionals the Canon EOS R6 is arguably shaping up to be the more exciting camera. It’s rumored to be able to shoot 4K/60p video and have dual card slots, which would also make it a strong upgrade on the slightly lackluster Canon EOS R from 2018.

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