5D MKII to 6D? Worth the hassle?

danny_bhoy

danny_bhoy

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Hi all,

Just putting this out there. I currently shoot with a pair of 5D MKII's and primes. Weddings and portraits in the main with the odd landscape thrown in when I have time.

I've got the itch to switch to a pair of 6D's. (I'd ideally like a pair of 5D MKIII's eventually but that a little way off yet)

Apart from the better high ISO performance of the 6D is there anything else to justify the considerable pain in the rear of selling my 5D MKII's and getting a pair of 6D's?

Cheers.
 
Ah sorry, was reading that as mk3! The focus point selection on the 6d is just using the rotate/dpad - think the 5d II has a separate thumbstick for it? Not sure if that would bother you?

The high ISO on the 6d is wonderful as is centre point focus sensitivity.
 
landwomble said:
Ah sorry, was reading that as mk3! The focus point selection on the 6d is just using the rotate/dpad - think the 5d II has a separate thumbstick for it? Not sure if that would bother you?

The high ISO on the 6d is wonderful as is centre point focus sensitivity.
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Yeah the focus point selection the MK2 is controlled by the little joystick. To be honest the outer focus points on the MK2 are so hit and miss that I tend to use the centre point and focus/recompose 99% of the time.

The better high ISO capability is really what's drawing me to the 6D as I'm trying to ditch flash as much as possible for weddings. Do you know if the 6D focuses better in low light?
 
Haven't used a 5d2 but I've played with a 3 and own a 6d. Centre point (which is all I use, to be honest) definitely better than a 5d2 in low light and apparently better than the 5d3 (rest of focus system in the 3 is better than the 6d, but that center focus point on the 6d is magic).

Use mine for gig photography in terrible light and it does the job really well.

High ISO perf as far as I know is essentially the same as the 5d3.
 
landwomble said:
Haven't used a 5d2 but I've played with a 3 and own a 6d. Centre point (which is all I use, to be honest) definitely better than a 5d2 in low light and apparently better than the 5d3 (rest of focus system in the 3 is better than the 6d, but that center focus point on the 6d is magic).

Use mine for gig photography in terrible light and it does the job really well.

High ISO perf as far as I know is essentially the same as the 5d3.
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More or less made my mind up for me right there. Thanks! :thumbs:
 
It's also relatively compact, at least compared to the 5D3. I did buy a Meike grip for mine thinking I'd need extra battery life but to be honest standard is so good I've never actually used it.

Not sure if you're interested in this kind of stuff but Magic Lantern works great on the 6D too.
 
landwomble said:
It's also relatively compact, at least compared to the 5D3. I did buy a Meike grip for mine thinking I'd need extra battery life but to be honest standard is so good I've never actually used it.

Not sure if you're interested in this kind of stuff but Magic Lantern works great on the 6D too.
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The more compact the better when I'll have two swinging from me all day. Little bit concerned about the supposedly more fragile build quality of the 6D but I'll just have to learn to be more careful :)

I don't do much video so not sure how much ML would benefit me - are there many other reasons to install it?
 
6D user here and ex 5D 11 owner 6D is a really good camera with excellent low light performance -3 ev same as the new 80D (which I hope to have in my grubby mitts later today) I have been pretty amazed of the low light performance of the 6D I would recommend given the price difference between a 5D 3 not that the 5D3 is a bad choice but I could not justify the cost vs the 6D
 
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It's pretty beefy, its not a 1d but not really noticed it feeling more fragile than a 5d3.
ML has nice stuff like intervalometer, better bracketing, better overlays for overexposure etc. It's pretty neat
 
I have the 6D and its far better on the iso front than the 5D2 after using my brothers, and as far as low light goes it will focus in my front room with only one candle as the light source, its said to have its limitations mostly in the lack of af points but as I only use the more sensitive centre point it has never been and issue and at 4.5 frames a second its slower than others, that being said I still maneaged some decent bif, so yes I'm sure you would otice a difference to the 5D2
 
mazdaman said:
6D user here and ex 5D 11 owner 6D is a really good camera with excellent low light performance -3 ev same as the new 80D (which I hope to have in my grubby mitts later today) I have been pretty amazed of the low light performance of the 6D I would recommend given the price difference between a 5D 3 not that the 5D3 is a bad choice but I could not justify the cost vs the 6D
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Thanks Terry - the low light performance is really swaying me and the 6D seems the obvious choice as buying 2x 5DMK3's is out of the qustion at the moment.
 
GordH said:
I have the 6D and its far better on the iso front than the 5D2 after using my brothers, and as far as low light goes it will focus in my front room with only one candle as the light source, its said to have its limitations mostly in the lack of af points but as I only use the more sensitive centre point it has never been and issue and at 4.5 frames a second its slower than others, that being said I still maneaged some decent bif, so yes I'm sure you would otice a difference to the 5D2
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That's good to know Gordon. Shooting weddings the 5DMK2 sometime struggles a bit with focus in darker venues and, not that a bit of noise bothers me in the slightest, it would be nice to be able to crank the ISO right up rather than introduce flash.
 
landwomble said:
Haven't used a 5d2 but I've played with a 3 and own a 6d. Centre point (which is all I use, to be honest) definitely better than a 5d2 in low light and apparently better than the 5d3 (rest of focus system in the 3 is better than the 6d, but that center focus point on the 6d is magic).

Use mine for gig photography in terrible light and it does the job really well.

High ISO perf as far as I know is essentially the same as the 5d3.
Click to expand...
High ISO is marginally better than 5d3, the 6d is Canons low light body :)
 
I cheerfully shoot ISO 10000 with the 6D and get decent results. Wouldn't be without it.
 
Yep, I'm completely comfortable shooting at 10k or slightly above with mine. A revelation after coming from a 650D where 1600 was as high as you'd dare go, and that was noisy!
 
To be honest, if it had 2 card slots there'd be nothing that'd tempt me to buy a 5dIII.
I'm about to buy a 2nd, the weight and build quality I see as a positive, it's strong enough without feeling like a brick, and carrying 2 5dIII's around all day would bother me. I can see a future where we have a couple of 6dII's and a couple of 6d's.
 
Phil V said:
To be honest, if it had 2 card slots there'd be nothing that'd tempt me to buy a 5dIII.
I'm about to buy a 2nd, the weight and build quality I see as a positive, it's strong enough without feeling like a brick, and carrying 2 5dIII's around all day would bother me. I can see a future where we have a couple of 6dII's and a couple of 6d's.
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The only things I'd like, that the 6d doesn't have and the 5DMK3 does, are more focus points (so that I wasn't forced into focus/recompose most of the time) and the dual card slots.
 
From what I've read the 6d is definitely a step up from the 5dII - I've recently bought a 6d and am very impressed with the quality of the images in low light compared with my previous camera (a 70D). I'd say go for it for now and then see where you go from there :)
 
I was deciding between a 5d ii and the 6d. In Limited use I opted for the 6d thanks to the low light, high ISO. The focus point limitations are documented and can be annoying, but you just work to its abilities.
 
First Canon I'd use Auto ISO, SS set to 1/250 and I only have to set ISO when using flash.
 
For me your running a business so the question is will the 6D make enough of a difference to justify the cost and the answer for me is no all your getting is a slight bump in very high ISO and an improved centre point. Save your money and invest in something that will justify the investment. Obviously your mileage will vary!
 
a1ex2001 said:
For me your running a business so the question is will the 6D make enough of a difference to justify the cost and the answer for me is no all your getting is a slight bump in very high ISO and an improved centre point. Save your money and invest in something that will justify the investment. Obviously your mileage will vary!
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It's quite a bit more than a "slight bump"! Everything past ISO 800 is much better, I wouldn't take a 5d2 past 3200 ISO but the 6d is fine even past 10,000.
 
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a1ex2001 said:
For me your running a business so the question is will the 6D make enough of a difference to justify the cost and the answer for me is no all your getting is a slight bump in very high ISO and an improved centre point. Save your money and invest in something that will justify the investment. Obviously your mileage will vary!
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That's the right perspective, but the answer will depend greatly on the OPs business.
The high ISO can make s big difference to many wedding photographers. The weight might also be a concern.

But I'd be tempted to go for a single 5dIII, which might be a similar cost but would reap greater rewards.

That from someone about to get s 2nd 6d. :)
 
a1ex2001 said:
For me your running a business so the question is will the 6D make enough of a difference to justify the cost and the answer for me is no all your getting is a slight bump in very high ISO and an improved centre point. Save your money and invest in something that will justify the investment. Obviously your mileage will vary!
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It's very much a sound, thought-out, business decision. Firstly, the two bodies I have are currently getting up there in mileage so are coming into their 'twilight years'. Secondly, the ISO isn't just a tad better on the 6D, it's lightyears ahead. Couple the much better high ISO performance with better low light focusing and it's a no brainer for someone who wants to distance themselves from flash as much as possible.

Phil V said:
That's the right perspective, but the answer will depend greatly on the OPs business.
The high ISO can make s big difference to many wedding photographers. The weight might also be a concern.

But I'd be tempted to go for a single 5dIII, which might be a similar cost but would reap greater rewards.

That from someone about to get s 2nd 6d. :)
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I thought about ploughing all of my funds into a 5D3 Phil but I'm so used to shooting with two bodies that I don't think I could make it work. The lighter 6D will also be a nice bonus too.
 
Phil when you say "reap greater rewards" in what way? the 6D can work in very low light and as far as I remember slightly better than the 5D3, the iso is as good as the 5D3, its lighter as well, the only down side is the fps and lack of focus points compared to the 5D3, as a wedding, portrait or landscape body I think its one of the best, I have used my brothers 5D3 and whilst its a good camera the files from it look no different to the 6D... be interested in your comments
 
danny_bhoy said:
It's very much a sound, thought-out, business decision. Firstly, the two bodies I have are currently getting up there in mileage so are coming into their 'twilight years'. Secondly, the ISO isn't just a tad better on the 6D, it's lightyears ahead. Couple the much better high ISO performance with better low light focusing and it's a no brainer for someone who wants to distance themselves from flash as much as possible.



I thought about ploughing all of my funds into a 5D3 Phil but I'm so used to shooting with two bodies that I don't think I could make it work. The lighter 6D will also be a nice bonus too.
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I was thinking replacing one of the others obviously not going down to one camera.
 
GordH said:
Phil when you say "reap greater rewards" in what way? the 6D can work in very low light and as far as I remember slightly better than the 5D3, the iso is as good as the 5D3, its lighter as well, the only down side is the fps and lack of focus points compared to the 5D3, as a wedding, portrait or landscape body I think its one of the best, I have used my brothers 5D3 and whilst its a good camera the files from it look no different to the 6D... be interested in your comments
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Just
Better focussing options and the 2 card slots.
I love the files from the 6d, but the AF is like stepping back in time.
 
I take your point about the 2 card slot though it never bothered me but for a pro I can see the downside, the choices in af is a bit of a let down but I usually stick to centre point and it does OK, I also have a 1D3 so can obviously see the difference in speed and af points but that being said I was at Bempton with my brother who has the 5D3 and we both struggled to get decent in focus images in crap flat dull light and wish I'd have tried the 6D just to compare
 
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