Hi guys,
I'm tempted to really pull the trigger on that $2799 Canon Store refurbished 5D Mark IV but I just need a little push to either side of the fence! I'm a part time wedding photographer and I carry a 5D Mark III and a 6D with me. Things are working out fine but there are still some things left to be desired. These are the real world issues facing me…
1) I want to carry two dual slot full frame cameras with me for professional work, so I'm looking to upgrade that 6D. Although I know the chances of memory cards breaking is extremely low, working pros keep talking about how dual slots are a must and it only takes one incident to ruin you. I recently had a scare when one of my SD cards started to physically split apart, but thankfully I could still salvage the images from it.
Are dual slots really a big deal to working pros? I figure if I have a dual slot camera for redundancy and insurance, what’s really the point of having it on one when the other one doesn’t?
2) High ISO can always be better. I’ve had weddings when flash can’t be effectively bounced or is not allowed, so I’m cranking that ISO for those outdoor reception shots. There’s plenty of times when I’m hitting 25600 and I have to noise reduce the hell out of the images in post. This tends to create manikin-like people so I have to thread a fine line choosing how much of it to do.
Would the 32000 ISO and better sensor tech of the 5D Mark IV provide a noticeable difference from the 5D Mark III when I process noise reduction on the images? Would I notice the improvements in a meaningful away? I’m viewing the images on a 27’’ Thunderbolt display.
3) Autofocus is a big thing for me. For all its AF prowess, I think my 5D Mark III still pumps out too many out of focus pics for me to feel comfortable. Or maybe I’m just a terrible shot! But I do find myself shooting in technically challenging situations all the time… either it’s really dark to reliably focus or I’m shooting against the sun.
Will the new Dual Pixel AF system in 5D Mark IV allow me to just reliably track subjects in the dark or against the sun for stills? Do I need to enable Live View or would it still kick in through the viewfinder?
My other issue right now is that I have to slowly select focus points every time I want to nail focus on portraits. And during events when people are moving, selecting focus points can sometimes be way too slow to capture fleeting moments. Would the intelligent face tracker allow me to just shoot subjects on the fly without having to select single focus points for reliable AF? Would the face tracker also make selecting focus points redundant?
4) Sometimes I forget to set exposure properly when the lighting changes on me. Before I notice, I’d end up with a batch of severely overexposed or underexposed shots. This is when a EVF would really help me! I know shooting in Live Mode through the LCD would allow me to check the exposure before taking the shot, but in the 5D Mark III and 6D, Live View AF was too slow and unreliable for this to realistically be an option.
With the Dual Pixel AF in the 5D Mark IV, would Live View AF work just as fast as AF through the viewfinder? In fact if I wanted to, could I just shoot from the LCD indefinitely as a way to nail exposure every time, without sacrificing AF performance?
5) The 4K screen grab feature really intrigues me because I could totally see myself just using it on really fast paced action sequences, when I can’t trust myself to press the shutter button at exactly the right time.
Aside from the monstrous file sizes, which I feel is obviously necessary for high res screen grabs to work, would the quality be on par with actual stills? Would I be able to edit them almost the same way as I could with higher megapixel RAW or jpeg stills?
The other option is to just get another full frame camera with dual slots like a 5D Mark III or a 5D Mark II. The 5D Mark II could be bought for about a thousand these days, but it would be a step down in image quality from the 6D, and it’s also over a decade old. A 5D Mark III would cost double that but getting another one would not really help with the above issues I’ve outlined.
So my choices as I see them…
1. For a thousand more bucks, I could upgrade the 6D to a 5D Mark IV and be good for the next 3-4 years at least. If i was going to do this, I would sell the 6D for about $1000, and a Tammy 70-200 lens to fund the upgrade.
2. Or I could save some extra money and get an older camera with two dual slots.
3. Stick with my current setup (5D Mark III and 6D) and don’t even worry about dual slots and having that security when working paid jobs, because realistically memory card failure don’t even happen.
I'm tempted to really pull the trigger on that $2799 Canon Store refurbished 5D Mark IV but I just need a little push to either side of the fence! I'm a part time wedding photographer and I carry a 5D Mark III and a 6D with me. Things are working out fine but there are still some things left to be desired. These are the real world issues facing me…
1) I want to carry two dual slot full frame cameras with me for professional work, so I'm looking to upgrade that 6D. Although I know the chances of memory cards breaking is extremely low, working pros keep talking about how dual slots are a must and it only takes one incident to ruin you. I recently had a scare when one of my SD cards started to physically split apart, but thankfully I could still salvage the images from it.
Are dual slots really a big deal to working pros? I figure if I have a dual slot camera for redundancy and insurance, what’s really the point of having it on one when the other one doesn’t?
2) High ISO can always be better. I’ve had weddings when flash can’t be effectively bounced or is not allowed, so I’m cranking that ISO for those outdoor reception shots. There’s plenty of times when I’m hitting 25600 and I have to noise reduce the hell out of the images in post. This tends to create manikin-like people so I have to thread a fine line choosing how much of it to do.
Would the 32000 ISO and better sensor tech of the 5D Mark IV provide a noticeable difference from the 5D Mark III when I process noise reduction on the images? Would I notice the improvements in a meaningful away? I’m viewing the images on a 27’’ Thunderbolt display.
3) Autofocus is a big thing for me. For all its AF prowess, I think my 5D Mark III still pumps out too many out of focus pics for me to feel comfortable. Or maybe I’m just a terrible shot! But I do find myself shooting in technically challenging situations all the time… either it’s really dark to reliably focus or I’m shooting against the sun.
Will the new Dual Pixel AF system in 5D Mark IV allow me to just reliably track subjects in the dark or against the sun for stills? Do I need to enable Live View or would it still kick in through the viewfinder?
My other issue right now is that I have to slowly select focus points every time I want to nail focus on portraits. And during events when people are moving, selecting focus points can sometimes be way too slow to capture fleeting moments. Would the intelligent face tracker allow me to just shoot subjects on the fly without having to select single focus points for reliable AF? Would the face tracker also make selecting focus points redundant?
4) Sometimes I forget to set exposure properly when the lighting changes on me. Before I notice, I’d end up with a batch of severely overexposed or underexposed shots. This is when a EVF would really help me! I know shooting in Live Mode through the LCD would allow me to check the exposure before taking the shot, but in the 5D Mark III and 6D, Live View AF was too slow and unreliable for this to realistically be an option.
With the Dual Pixel AF in the 5D Mark IV, would Live View AF work just as fast as AF through the viewfinder? In fact if I wanted to, could I just shoot from the LCD indefinitely as a way to nail exposure every time, without sacrificing AF performance?
5) The 4K screen grab feature really intrigues me because I could totally see myself just using it on really fast paced action sequences, when I can’t trust myself to press the shutter button at exactly the right time.
Aside from the monstrous file sizes, which I feel is obviously necessary for high res screen grabs to work, would the quality be on par with actual stills? Would I be able to edit them almost the same way as I could with higher megapixel RAW or jpeg stills?
The other option is to just get another full frame camera with dual slots like a 5D Mark III or a 5D Mark II. The 5D Mark II could be bought for about a thousand these days, but it would be a step down in image quality from the 6D, and it’s also over a decade old. A 5D Mark III would cost double that but getting another one would not really help with the above issues I’ve outlined.
So my choices as I see them…
1. For a thousand more bucks, I could upgrade the 6D to a 5D Mark IV and be good for the next 3-4 years at least. If i was going to do this, I would sell the 6D for about $1000, and a Tammy 70-200 lens to fund the upgrade.
2. Or I could save some extra money and get an older camera with two dual slots.
3. Stick with my current setup (5D Mark III and 6D) and don’t even worry about dual slots and having that security when working paid jobs, because realistically memory card failure don’t even happen.