60D vs. 6D slower at capturing focus

[langdonb]

I recently bought a 6D, have been shooting with a 60D for 2 years. In the last 4 months I have been shooting a lot of hummingbirds with the 60D and a 70-300 IS L lens. In the last week I started using the 6D for the same shots. I am finding that the 6D is decidedly slower at locking focus that the 60D. Most of my shots are at 300mm, f8, 1/1250, high speed flash snyc all on a tripod. I have shot many tack sharp images with the 60D, but can not match them with the 6D.

Any experiences, help or advice would be appreciated.

 

[verysimplejason]

I recently bought a 6D, have been shooting with a 60D for 2 years. In the last 4 months I have been shooting a lot of hummingbirds with the 60D and a 70-300 IS L lens. In the last week I started using the 6D for the same shots. I am finding that the 6D is decidedly slower at locking focus that the 60D. Most of my shots are at 300mm, f8, 1/1250, high speed flash snyc all on a tripod. I have shot many tack sharp images with the 60D, but can not match them with the 6D.

Any experiences, help or advice would be appreciated.

Used the 60D of my friend along with my 6D once. Definitely, in good light, 60D AF is better especially the outer points. In very low light, the 6D is better. I hope 6D Mark II will have all the points dual cross-type even if they retain the 9/11 points system though of course, a little bit more would be better. The -3 EV is very useful.

 

[vscd]

>Any experiences, help or advice would be appreciated.

As you use tripod, make sure the IS is turned off. Ths sounds awkward, but I know a lot of people forgetting this important fact.

Greetings.

 

[Marsu42]

Most of my shots are at 300mm, f8, 1/1250, high speed flash snyc all on a tripod. I have shot many tack sharp images with the 60D, but can not match them with the 6D.

Fyi: The phase af system always works with open aperture, in your case f5.6, no matter what aperture you use for the actual shot.

The 6d af system is known to be dodgy for fast lenses... but having said this I've got the same combination (6d/60d+70-300L) and with this lens you should get adequate or even better af precision than the 60d if (if!) you only use the center point. The problems with tracking and the outer points have gotten a lot of coverage, use search or read these.

http://www.canonrumors.com/forum/index.php?topic=17492
http://www.canonrumors.com/forum/index.php?topic=17879

As you use tripod, make sure the IS is turned off. Ths sounds awkward, but I know a lot of people forgetting this important fact.

The newer Canon IS lenses have tripod detection and are supposed to turn IS off automatically ... but in my experience for this to work the tripod really has to be 100% static, not a breath of air, so it doesn't hurt and manually turn it off - my 100L seems to work better with the latter, but it might be just a placebo impression.

 

[langdonb]

Yes, I am aware of that and have it turned off when on tripod. Thanks for the suggestion.,

>Any experiences, help or advice would be appreciated.

As you use tripod, make sure the IS is turned off. Ths sounds awkward, but I know a lot of people forgetting this important fact.

Greetings.

 

[Ruined]

I recently bought a 6D, have been shooting with a 60D for 2 years. In the last 4 months I have been shooting a lot of hummingbirds with the 60D and a 70-300 IS L lens. In the last week I started using the 6D for the same shots. I am finding that the 6D is decidedly slower at locking focus that the 60D. Most of my shots are at 300mm, f8, 1/1250, high speed flash snyc all on a tripod. I have shot many tack sharp images with the 60D, but can not match them with the 6D.

Any experiences, help or advice would be appreciated.

My experience is that the 6D is better at low light (works in near complete darkness) & slow moving subjects, while the 60D is better with fast moving subjects and tracking... Which makes sense given the strengths of the two AF systems.

 

[langdonb]

I only use center focus point for these shots as I had read the issues with other points. The problem remains, the 6D just takes longer than the 60D to capture focus.

I really wanted to buy the 5DIII, but thought I would try the 6D. I now think I will sell it and buy the III.

I suppose it would be worth sending it back to Canon to see if they can fix the focus issue.

Most of my shots are at 300mm, f8, 1/1250, high speed flash snyc all on a tripod. I have shot many tack sharp images with the 60D, but can not match them with the 6D.

Fyi: The phase af system always works with open aperture, in your case f5.6, no matter what aperture you use for the actual shot.

The 6d af system is known to be dodgy for fast lenses... but having said this I've got the same combination (6d/60d+70-300L) and with this lens you should get adequate or even better af precision than the 60d if (if!) you only use the center point. The problems with tracking and the outer points have gotten a lot of coverage, use search or read these.

http://www.canonrumors.com/forum/index.php?topic=17492
http://www.canonrumors.com/forum/index.php?topic=17879

As you use tripod, make sure the IS is turned off. Ths sounds awkward, but I know a lot of people forgetting this important fact.

The newer Canon IS lenses have tripod detection and are supposed to turn IS off automatically ... but in my experience for this to work the tripod really has to be 100% static, not a breath of air, so it doesn't hurt and manually turn it off - my 100L seems to work better with the latter, but it might be just a placebo impression.

 

[BPLOL]

Any experiences, help or advice would be appreciated.

I'm sorry for asking this, but do you half-press to focus first and then you take the shot? Or do you use a full button press to focus-and-shoot the most quickly possible?

The 6D has a delay that you can notice when using full button presses to take the shot. And that's compared to my XTi. I don't know if that is what you are experiencing. More info: http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/52069474

Turning off the "Superimposed Display" in C.FnII turns off the red blinking light, and resolves the issue (however you will have to stay without the red light confirmation).

 

[Marsu42]

The 6D has a delay that you can notice when using full button presses to take the shot. And that's compared to my XTi. I don't know if that is what you are experiencing. More info: http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/52069474

Thanks for the notification, I didn't realize this before which means that I focus/recompose for 99,9% of my shots.

I'd like to add that the "superimposed display" is a bit futile on the 6d anyway as most people will use the center point only, meaning the is no need to see which af point(s) have locked on, and in tracking it doesn't indicate the points anyway. So for most of us it's sufficient to see when the camera has af lock by the green dot in the vf.

 

[verysimplejason]

The 6D has a delay that you can notice when using full button presses to take the shot. And that's compared to my XTi. I don't know if that is what you are experiencing. More info: http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/52069474

Thanks for the notification, I didn't realize this before which means that I focus/recompose for 99,9% of my shots.

I'd like to add that the "superimposed display" is a bit futile on the 6d anyway as most people will use the center point only, meaning the is no need to see which af point(s) have locked on, and in tracking it doesn't indicate the points anyway. So for most of us it's sufficient to see when the camera has af lock by the green dot in the vf.

I didn't experience any of these. I'm using BBF.