Hands On with the 6D at Photoplus CPS Lounge

[tiger82]

I checked out the 6D with a 24-70 II, 70-200 II, and 200 f/2.  It actually had a grip attached. Silent shutter is very nice and the camera/lens combination felt okay.  They did have the shells of both the 5D3 and 6D and no comparison. The 5D3 and presumably 5D2 are tanks compared to the 6D.  It seemed that the fps was noticably slower than my 5D2.  I definitely think new 5D2's are better than the 6D unless you can't live without the GPS and wifi.

[pierceography]

I checked out the 6D with a 24-70 II, 70-200 II, and 200 f/2.  It actually had a grip attached. Silent shutter is very nice and the camera/lens combination felt okay.  They did have the shells of both the 5D3 and 6D and no comparison. The 5D3 and presumably 5D2 are tanks compared to the 6D.  It seemed that the fps was noticably slower than my 5D2.  I definitely think new 5D2's are better than the 6D unless you can't live without the GPS and wifi.

Is this based purely on body feel and FPS?  I wouldn't expect the 6D would be better built than the 5Dm2, and FPS is negligible.  But how are you rating your "noticeably slower" rating?  Were you shooting with a 5Dm2 as well?

Any reports on the AF?  I know a lot of people here have been curious about this...

[tiger82]

AF seemed pretty responsive and I had my 5D2 with me so I could do a comparison.  I was shooting raw and jpeg on the 5D2.  I did not have an SD Card on me for the 6D and I'm not sure if they would have let me put one in.  Shooting without a card should be faster, no?  Anyway, it was limited as to what I can do in a lounge setting.  Judging from the shells of the 6D and 5D3 they had on display, the 5D3 had more mag and the mag was thicker than on the 6D.

[DB]

tiger82 thanks for the update. The 6D is supposed to weigh just 770g (which is almost identical to the 760g of the new Nikon D600) and is modeled on the 60D footprint(dimensions) according to Canon, but I think Canon's claim to have the smallest & lightest FF body on the market is now redundant.

What we'd all like to know though is what the image quality is like and how good the AF is in low light conditions.

[seekthedragon]

I had a chance to try a 6D last weekend. Although I was not able to use my own card, but I could attach my almost parafocal 24-70 L. After testing the AF points, I can tell, that although the center point is quite good (AF on 24mm, then zooming to 70 and the result is track sharp as far as my eyes can tell), the side points are just crap. The are mediocre when the sun shines, and quiet useless in low light (where the center point still performs outstanding.)

I buy rather a cheap 5D mkII...

[Woody]

The 6D is supposed to weigh just 770g (which is almost identical to the 760g of the new Nikon D600) and is modeled on the 60D footprint(dimensions) according to Canon, but I think Canon's claim to have the smallest & lightest FF body on the market is now redundant.

Not quite. Weight of:
6D body only = 680g
D600 body only = 760g
6D with battery = 755g
D600 with battery and card = 850g

The joke is that Sony A99 without the chunky pentaprism still comes in with a weight of 812g (incl battery).

[Botts]

I played with the 6D at my local camera store a few days ago.  I happened to be in while the rep showed up.  I also got to play with the EOS-M, but wasn't as excited about that as the 6D.

The focus speed is far better than the 5D2.  The body was comparable to a 7D IMO.  I tested the AF, and it seems to lock very effectively in lower light.

I wasn't allowed to keep any images because the camera was pre-production, but the noise seemed quite a bit better than the 5D2 as well.  The rep said it is actually very similar to the 5D3.

In conclusion, playing with the 6D changed my initial thoughts on it, I am now seriously considering it instead of switching to the D600, or saving up and buying a 5D3.  I can't wait to rent it for a real world test.

[AdamJ]

I checked out the 6D with a 24-70 II, 70-200 II, and 200 f/2.  It actually had a grip attached. Silent shutter is very nice and the camera/lens combination felt okay.  They did have the shells of both the 5D3 and 6D and no comparison. The 5D3 and presumably 5D2 are tanks compared to the 6D.  It seemed that the fps was noticably slower than my 5D2.  I definitely think new 5D2's are better than the 6D unless you can't live without the GPS and wifi.

The frame rate in silent shutter mode is reduced to 3fps so that is probably why you found it slower than your 5D MkII.

[jocau]

I had a chance to try a 6D last weekend. Although I was not able to use my own card, but I could attach my almost parafocal 24-70 L. After testing the AF points, I can tell, that although the center point is quite good (AF on 24mm, then zooming to 70 and the result is track sharp as far as my eyes can tell), the side points are just crap. The are mediocre when the sun shines, and quiet useless in low light (where the center point still performs outstanding.)

I buy rather a cheap 5D mkII...

Comments like this make me wonder if I would spend so much money on a 6D. I have a 550D (T2i) right now and I really want to go fullframe. I can't justify it to spend more than 2000 euro on a body though. So the 5D3 is out. Switching to the D600 is an option, but I don't want to sell all my Canon gear. So I was at least hoping that the center point was great and the other points were decent. But since they're crap, I'm really having second thoughts...

[AdamJ]

I had a chance to try a 6D last weekend. Although I was not able to use my own card, but I could attach my almost parafocal 24-70 L. After testing the AF points, I can tell, that although the center point is quite good (AF on 24mm, then zooming to 70 and the result is track sharp as far as my eyes can tell), the side points are just crap. The are mediocre when the sun shines, and quiet useless in low light (where the center point still performs outstanding.)

I buy rather a cheap 5D mkII...

Comments like this make me wonder if I would spend so much money on a 6D. I have a 550D (T2i) right now and I really want to go fullframe. I can't justify it to spend more than 2000 euro on a body though. So the 5D3 is out. Switching to the D600 is an option, but I don't want to sell all my Canon gear. So I was at least hoping that the center point was great and the other points were decent. But since they're crap, I'm really having second thoughts...

At least wait until some more objective reviews are published. Personally, I simply don't believe that the outer AF points will be shown to be 'crap'.

[spinworkxroy]

I don't know if i'm the only one who thinks this way or if my thinking is all wrong but..the way i look at FF is, if you want to go FF, go for the best in its class.
So in this case, either the 5D3 or 1DX or even 5D2.
The 6D to me should be a secondary FF camera to compliment what you should already own, i don't think it should be your one and only camera. Simply because although it's FF, it is hindered by some other "lower" specs like the AF points.
Why should one compromise specs that are important just to go FF.
Maybe it's just me, but i never ever did look at the 6D as a primary camera

[Tozz]

I don't know if i'm the only one who thinks this way or if my thinking is all wrong but..the way i look at FF is, if you want to go FF, go for the best in its class.
So in this case, either the 5D3 or 1DX or even 5D2.
The 6D to me should be a secondary FF camera to compliment what you should already own, i don't think it should be your one and only camera. Simply because although it's FF, it is hindered by some other "lower" specs like the AF points.
Why should one compromise specs that are important just to go FF.
Maybe it's just me, but i never ever did look at the 6D as a primary camera

So you honestly think the AF of the 5D2 is better then the 6D's?
Why should someone need the 5D3's AF (or even 1DX) if he doesn't do sports?

Btw you are the first one who reported that the outer AF-Points are crap (what I read.. I'm sure I haven't read all reports out there ).

Oh and how can the 5D2 at 3.9fps be faster than the 6D at 4.5fps?

[mistabernie]

I got to check out the 6D @ Photoplus as well, and my findings are largely in step with most of the above. 

I didn't really get to put it through its paces because I could only go on Saturday and the CPS Lounge was closed (open for clean and check pickups only), but they had a couple out on the floor.  I didn't even bother with the other focal points - though I was interested in how exactly they planned on running 11 AF points as a design. 

From what I saw, focus was a bit quicker than the 5D2 and seemed to hunt less in sub-par lighting conditions.  There was no card in the body (taped over too, as expected); I would have hoped they would have left a card in so we could at least review the images we took (even if only on the LCD screen on the back). 

In my opinion, the jury is definitely still out.  I still believe this could outperform the 5D2 in many regards, but I think it should have been introduced at under $2000 personally (not because I'm notoriously cheap, which isn't the case, I assure you, but because Canon isn't going to have a hard time unloading the last of their 5D2s and they won't be in direct competition with themselves; if anything, leaving this priced closer to the price of the 5D2 may help them move the last of their product. By pricing it a few hundred dollars above rebates, I think they're going to run into people that will simply wait for the price to naturally turn downward after release, however long that may take. 

[jocau]

I'm wondering how the non-center AF points on the 6D compare to the corresponding AF points on my 550D. Will they be any better? Because in my dark bedroom with only the TV on and a small light behind it, my 550D (with 50mm F/1.8 II @ F/2.8 on it) regularly has trouble achieving focus at all when using any AF point except for the center one.

[Marsu42]

I'm wondering how the non-center AF points on the 6D compare to the corresponding AF points on my 550D. Will they be any better? Because in my dark bedroom with only the TV on and a small light behind it, my 550D (with 50mm F/1.8 II @ F/2.8 on it) regularly has trouble achieving focus at all when using any AF point except for the center one.

The pattern detection of the 6d will be as bad as the 550d - non-cross points except for the center one. This is different from low light af performance, and here afaik Canon hasn't released any specs for the outer af points except that they are not as capable as the center one - so only real life reviews might be able to tell us.

So you honestly think the AF of the 5D2 is better then the 6D's?
Why should someone need the 5D3's AF (or even 1DX) if he doesn't do sports?

The 5d3 (or 1dx) af doesn't seem to be that stellar in low light situations because it's slow - so the 6d might be more attractive than it seemed at first, see http://www.canonrumors.com/forum/index.php?topic=10275.new#new