Ive been staring at the BH and Adorama pages for like three hours now trying to figure out if I should pull the trigger now or just wait another week for the actual Black Friday drops. I currently shoot on an old Rebel T6i which has been my workhorse for years but the autofocus is just killing me lately especially when Im trying to catch my dog running around or doing street stuff so I was thinking about finally making the jump to mirrorless. I saw on some rumors site that the Canon R8 might go down to like $1100 or something body only which sounds like a steal but then I read a few threads saying the battery life is absolutely trash and it doesnt have a mechanical shutter which kinda scares me for some reason. So then my logic was maybe I should just stretch the budget and go for the R6 Mark II?

But even on sale thats gonna be pushing $2000 and I still need to buy an EF-RF adapter since I have a couple of nice L lenses I dont want to get rid of yet. My budget is pretty firm at $1800 total including taxes and maybe a spare battery so if the R6 doesnt drop significantly I might be stuck. I checked the Canon refurbished store too since people say thats where the real deals are but everything good is out of stock right now which is super frustrating. Im heading to Japan for a big trip in January so I really need to have this figured out and practiced with by then.

Is it even worth waiting for the actual Friday or do the early deals usually stay the same? I saw some Black Friday Price Protection badges on some sites but Im worried if I buy now Ill miss out on a massive bundle deal or some hidden coupon code that pops up on the day of. I also looked at the R7 but I think I want to go full frame this time around... just not sure if the R8 is too much of a compromise. What are you guys seeing for the R-series right now... like is there any specific site that usually has the best Canon bundles or should I just stick to the big retailers...