Upgrade from 60D to 6D. Is it worth the money?

[jdramirez]

When I owned my 60d I would shoot using the center af point and the servo mode... if you plan on doing that with the 6d, it should be fine. But you lose 2 fps & you also lose the perceived reach of the crop sensor.

I think the 6d is a very good upgrade from the 60d, but it all depends on how you use it.

 

[Meatcurry]

How about a used 1d4, 16mp APS-H sensor and 10fps+45 AF points, definitely a step up from 60d!

 

[jdramirez]

My Question: Would it worth the money to buy the 6D? Is the 6D faster than the 60D?

Given the basic level of research you did before asking, no, it's probably not "worth it" for you. If you're rather short on money, an "upgrade" should be driven by a very pressing need to improve in certain photography aspects. Since the video of the 6d is horrible, that leaves stills - what are the situations/settings your 60d fails, what are your lenses?

Horrible? Are we talking moire, fps options... I think horrible might be overstating it a bit.

 

[Dylan777]

I want to take photos in low light situations, landscape, sport... everthing with one camera

Welcome to Canon-land, this basically means you have to have two cameras (like a 70d crop + 6d ff) or the 5d3, that is if your lenses are long enough - and yours are as you've got 400mm with the extender.

Would the 5D III be an better allrounder as the 6D? The only things that will be better in the 5D III would be AF, dual SD slot and anti aliasing... I don't know if this would worth the 1000 € extra..

The 5d3 blows the 6d out of the water in features and usability, but only you can tell what $1000 means to you. The 6d basically is a good sensor in a bare-bones shell with everything removed Canon could get away with.

Looking at your lenses, a better af system would be useful because the 6d struggles with fast lenses (no cross point at all for f2.8, even the center is only f5.6 precision) and focus/recompose with fewer af points means way less keeper with a thin depth of field. And if you want to shoot sports as in "tracking", the 6d is simply out of the question, trust me, I've tried as a lot of others and the af system simply doesn't cope.

+1...Marsu42 knows 6D well. His comments are facts.

 

[rigrx]

Thank you for all your help! I think I am gonna with a 5D III and sell my other camera... I think this is the better solution for me :

 

[Marsu42]

Horrible? Are we talking moire, fps options... I think horrible might be overstating it a bit.

The "horrible" was about the video, and the evaluation is based on a comparison to older (5d2), cheaper (7d), more expensive (5d3), outdated (50d) or any half-decent dedicated video gear. The 6d has aliasing and doesn't do raw video with any sane resolution, and that's not good enough nearing 2015 a.d.

+1...Marsu42 knows 6D well. His comments are facts.

Thanks, I try to. As I'm rather short on money I tend to do a lot of research before purchases, and the 6d proved exactly what it is described as by many users: Be sure to know what you're (not) getting :-\

 

[TeT]

My Question: Would it worth the money to buy the 6D? Is the 6D faster than the 60D?

Given the basic level of research you did before asking, no, it's probably not "worth it" for you. If you're rather short on money, an "upgrade" should be driven by a very pressing need to improve in certain photography aspects. Since the video of the 6d is horrible, that leaves stills - what are the situations/settings your 60d fails, what are your lenses?

Horrible? Are we talking moire, fps options... I think horrible might be overstating it a bit.

6D video quality is fine, but the camera itself isnt video friendly ie. screen doesn't articulate, its all manual focus, probably other stuff as well..

 

[Dylan777]

Thank you for all your help! I think I am gonna with a 5D III and sell my other camera... I think this is the better solution for me :

Once you jumped into FF world, it will be hard to go back to crop. Don't forget to add one or two big whites to your kit

 

[bholliman]

Looking at your lenses, a better af system would be useful because the 6d struggles with fast lenses (no cross point at all for f2.8, even the center is only f5.6 precision) and focus/recompose with fewer af points means way less keeper with a thin depth of field.

-1 Not true about f2.8 and faster lenses!

We have had this discussion before. Stop making assumptions from reading specs and rent a f/2.8 lens and try it. I currently own 5 f/2.8 and faster lenses and the 6D autofocus is extremely fast and accurate with the center point and OK with the outer points. I've owned and sold f/4 zooms (24-105L and 70-200 IS) and the f/2.8 versions I own now focus faster and more accurately. My keeper rate for non sports/action is excellent.

And if you want to shoot sports as in "tracking", the 6d is simply out of the question, trust me, I've tried as a lot of others and the af system simply doesn't cope.

I agree the if action or sports is a high percentage of the OP's shots, they should look at the 5D3. I shoot a fair amount of our sons high school sports (football, basketball, wrestling, golf). My keeper rate isn't great, but is getting better as I've improved my technique. I have "hobby" money set aside that will more than cover an upgrade to a 5D3, but have found my 6D sports results are "good enough" considering this is less than 10% of what I shoot and the 6D is terrific for almost all my other uses.

 

[hanifshootsphotos]

-1 Not true about f2.8 and faster lenses! We have had this discussion before. Stop making assumptions from reading specs and rent a f/2.8 lens and try it. I currently own 5 f/2.8 and faster lenses and the 6D autofocus is extremely fast and accurate with the center point and OK with the outer points. I've owned and sold f/4 zooms (24-105L and 70-200 IS) and the f/2.8 versions I own now focus faster and more accurately. My keeper rate for non sports/action is excellent.

Shhhh stop telling everyone, lets others continue propagating the myth!

 

[Runnerguy]

I love my 6d and with center point af it focuses fast on my 300L f/2.8 II with the 2x III the only issue is the frame rate is a little slow at 4.5 fps but you just have to time your shots better but I do have the 7d II on preorder .

 

[Marsu42]

We have had this discussion before. Stop making assumptions from reading specs and rent a f/2.8 lens and try it. I currently own 5 f/2.8 and faster lenses and the 6D autofocus is extremely fast and accurate with the center point and OK with the outer points.

Congratulations that you're doing fine with the 6d, but I have to admit that I find the assumption that I'm talking off the top of my hat rather presumptuous.

I've got the 100L/2.8 (<---- note that), and have had plenty of opportunity to shoot various situations with it, macro, portrait, wildlife. The bottom line is that the center af point performs exactly as the spec is: It's not cross at f2.8, so if there is no clear contrast target the precision suffers because it has to fall back to the less sensitive cross point.

I hope you'll allow me to state my mixed experiences with the 6d, just as I wouldn't dare to say that your good experiences are because you're only shooting sitting ducks and easy-peasy high contrast scenes. Thanks.

 

[bholliman]

We have had this discussion before. Stop making assumptions from reading specs and rent a f/2.8 lens and try it. I currently own 5 f/2.8 and faster lenses and the 6D autofocus is extremely fast and accurate with the center point and OK with the outer points.

Congratulations that you're doing fine with the 6d, but I have to admit that I find the assumption that I'm talking off the top of my hat rather presumptuous.

I've got the 100L/2.8 (<---- note that), and have had plenty of opportunity to shoot various situations with it, macro, portrait, wildlife. The bottom line is that the center af point performs exactly as the spec is: It's not cross at f2.8, so if there is no clear contrast target the precision suffers because it has to fall back to the less sensitive cross point.

I hope you'll allow me to state my mixed experiences with the 6d, just as I wouldn't dare to say that your good experiences are because you're only shooting sitting ducks and easy-peasy high contrast scenes. Thanks.

Sorry for assuming you had no experience with the 6D and f/2,8 lenses.

We can agree to disagree about the 6D's AF performance with fast lenses.

 

[Marsu42]

We can agree to disagree about the 6D's AF performance with fast lenses.

Good we can settle this, and it's difficult to ascertain the exact reasons for af problems (or the perceived lack of) w/o lab tests - and obviously nobody of us does these.

For new 6d buyers, I guess it's safe to advise to do some research on the af system's performance for the intended use. And that the 5d3/1dx have double-cross af points vs. the 6d's hybrid center point for a reason, how large or small the effect might be in real world single point shooting.

 

[NancyP]

I have yet to take my 6D out for after-dusk birding, but I will have to test that center point for my 400mm f/5.6L. I have a 60D that I use for my birding, and I just grin and bear it at the high ISOs. I use my 6D primarily for landscape and night shooting. Manual focus is my M.O. for much of my 6D use, so the relative simplicity of the 6D AF system is of little concern to me.

 

[skoobey]

6D sucks for sport photography, great ISO, but terrible focus tracking.

Think 7d mkI mkII.

 

[sanjosedave]

I started with the 60D and purchased a 6D about a year-ish ago.

I purchased the 60D over the 7 because I wanted the folding screen more than fps. I was using it for macro flowers, hence the need for the folding screen. I've started experimenting with an ipad as an external screen with the 6D's wifi

I use the 6D for landscapes when I go out to Yosemite or the redwoods.

I am satisfied/happy with both.

When I go out birding(very green birder), I use the 60D with 70-200 and 2x. I also use it for baseball.

When I went to the coast earlier today, there were a bunch of brown pelicans hunting along the surfline and would have appreciated the 1DX AF tech that is pushed down into the 7II.

How low light do you really need?

If video is important, I'd consider the Panasonic 4ks

 

[ScottyP]

Apples and oranges.
I went FF to 6d to get better low light/high ISO image quality. You can't get that in any crop.
I alsoo plan to get a crop sports body like 70d or 7d2 so I can use 2 cameras at once at my kids' games. I will say the 6D actually does a good job on the soccer shots. No complaints, actually!

 

[nc0b]

My best raptors in flight were shot with my 6D and 400mm f/5.6 using the center point. For static bird shots my 60D, 70-200 f/2.8 IS II and 2X TC III were fine, but once a bird took off the focus was way too slow. I would never give up having multiple bodies. When on a trip by car, I keep three bodies setup with different lenses so I can pull off the road and grab the required focal length. A shot may only be there for a very short time. In the long run your biggest investment will likely be in glass, while selling a 60D may only net you $400.