Is the Canon 6d £150 better than the 5dmk2?

scottduffy

scottduffy

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I have been looking for a 5d mk2 for a while now and cannot find one for sale in good condition. These seems to be selling for around £550 and I've noticed a few 6d's for sale around the £700 mark. I was wondering if anyone who has used both could tell me if you think the 6d is worth £150 more and why or should I just use that £150 and pick up some bits and bobs or put it toward a lens. Problem is I need this pretty sharpish so not sure I can really wait for weeks for a good example of a 5dmk2.

I've read umpteen review pages but just wondered what you guys think.
 
I've just moved from a couple of 5DMK2's to a couple of 6D's for weddings. You'll really appreciate the difference if you shoot in low light. The ISO performance of the 6D is much, much better. As is the sensitivity of the 6D's centre focus point in low light.

Apart from that the focus system is more less the same on both bodies. The 6D has the added advantage of built in wifi and GPS (only you can decide how much you need that).

All in all I'd say that the extra £150 is worth it for the 6D.
 
Cheers Danny. I will at some stage be using this for low light photography so that's a bonus. For the next while though i'll be shooting still life/Portraiture in a studio so I assume they would both be more than capable of tackling that. I think the low light performance will be important though as there are numerous modules which will no doubt involve night time shooting.

I'm not sure whether gps will be of benefit at all but I'm sure the wifi will come handy at some time.

I appreciate the info mate.
 
It certainly is. The high ISO performance sets it apart from the 5d2 in quite a big way. The AF is also a lot more sensitive in low light and tracks fast moving subjects (centre point) a lot better.

On a side note, the video is better (can shoot 60 fps / HFR if that's your bag), better buffer, slightly better FPS and of course its native ISO (rather than pushed) is a lot better. I'd say you get your £150 worth but that's not unexpected really :)
 
I'm happy with my 5D2 but would swap it plus £150 for a 6D due to the improved low light performance and built in wi-fi.
 
I was wondering the same myself as I was looking to upgrade to full frame.
I have used a 5D2 for a couple of weddings, and although the images are great the low light performance wasn't great.
I now have a 6D (s/h from Calumet for £699) and love it.
The low light capability is so much better.
The 6D is lighter to carry than the 5D2 but the 6D only shoots upto 1/4000 second vs 1/8000 for the 5D2. Might be a problem if shooting sports, but otherwise I couldn't come up with many downsides to the 6D.
Now if you were comparing to the 5D3.... ;)
 
ABTog said:
I was wondering the same myself as I was looking to upgrade to full frame.
I have used a 5D2 for a couple of weddings, and although the images are great the low light performance wasn't great.
I now have a 6D (s/h from Calumet for £699) and love it.
The low light capability is so much better.
The 6D is lighter to carry than the 5D2 but the 6D only shoots upto 1/4000 second vs 1/8000 for the 5D2. Might be a problem if shooting sports, but otherwise I couldn't come up with many downsides to the 6D.
Now if you were comparing to the 5D3.... ;)
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1/4000 is more than fast enough for any sports :)

The only time I've needed more than 1/8000 is when I've needed to shoot ballistic photography (bullets / pellets hitting objects and the resulting impact) but for that I use my 50d which will shoot 1/8000. I suspect 1/4000 might be enough for that too but I've always erred towards the faster shutter for obvious reasons.
 
I was always a fan of the 5D2 and 5D3. I never thought much of the 6D when I used these cameras but the 6D is basically a 5D2 with better low light performance, wifi etc and a little bit smaller, when I did get one I love it. Just sold it because I was using my 1DX more. £150 better, hell yes.
 
odd jim said:
1/4000 is more than fast enough for any sports :)

The only time I've needed more than 1/8000 is when I've needed to shoot ballistic photography (bullets / pellets hitting objects and the resulting impact) but for that I use my 50d which will shoot 1/8000. I suspect 1/4000 might be enough for that too but I've always erred towards the faster shutter for obvious reasons.
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I don't shoot sports and the only time I've needed a shutter speed over 1/4000 has been with a wide open lens in bright sunlight, but you can use an ND filter to manage that.
 
Cheers guys. I eventually went for the 5d mk2 and i'll stick that £150 toward something I need. For what I will be shooting which will mostly be studio based stuff I thought the extra money would be better spent elsewhere.
 
scottduffy said:
Cheers guys. I eventually went for the 5d mk2 and i'll stick that £150 toward something I need. For what I will be shooting which will mostly be studio based stuff I thought the extra money would be better spent elsewhere.
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Advice ignored then ;)

Hmmm. You don't get much for £150 photographically, so I think the 6d would have been the best bet. Studio or not.
 
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ABTog said:
I don't shoot sports and the only time I've needed a shutter speed over 1/4000 has been with a wide open lens in bright sunlight, but you can use an ND filter to manage that.
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You can also lower the 6d down to 50 ISO which I find solves that issue on the rare occasion I have it.
 
odd jim said:
Advice ignored then ;)

Hmmm. You don't get much for £150 photographically, so I think the 6d would have been the best bet. Studio or not.
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£150 might get a couple of cheap stands or 3rd party flashes ;)

odd jim said:
You can also lower the 6d down to 50 ISO which I find solves that issue on the rare occasion I have it.
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Yup it does, that was certainly a feature that I spotted. Not yet used it though.
 
Dammit, now i want a 6d!

When i first used a 5d2 (from 40d) i thought the low light was AMAZING. the idea that it pales in comparison to 6d... well... now i might have to go back on my 'i dont need to upgrade my camera again' point....
 
£150 would buy an 85mm 1.8, a consideration on a budget, or a 50STM and a flashgun.

But I'd still have got the 6d, for the size and low light performance.

ETA that said, I never paid £700 for my 6d either ;)
 
Phil V said:
£150 would buy an 85mm 1.8, a consideration on a budget, or a 50STM and a flashgun.

But I'd still have got the 6d, for the size and low light performance.

ETA that said, I never paid £700 for my 6d either ;)
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Hmmm, a reasonable used Canon 85mm f1.8 is still around the £180 mark... The 50mm STM is a good buy though if he doesn't already have one :)
 
I was thinking more the tripod and speedlight I bought. Couldn't get a 6d As kept getting outbid and ended up with a 5d mk2 for 500 delivered so happy with that. Now I'll concentrate on using it rather than buying and selling gear. Quite excited about this course. Just need to pick up a standard zoom then I'm all set.

Cheers for the advice folks.
 
@scottduffy when you're after more kit, it's worth checking out the selling forums on here, rather than getting stressed with ebay. i've bought a few bits and pieces and it's always been a straight forward and hassle free experience - you might get a better price than on ebay.
 
dan_yell said:
@scottduffy when you're after more kit, it's worth checking out the selling forums on here, rather than getting stressed with ebay. i've bought a few bits and pieces and it's always been a straight forward and hassle free experience - you might get a better price than on ebay.
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Sorry mate it was here I was referring to. Our classifieds has died on it's feet now. It's a pale shadow of the section we had before. This has forced me to use AV forums as well but every time I've bid for something even if no-one had showed interest in it someone has come in and placed a higher bid. I really tend not to use ebay although even recently I've had to sell stuff on there too. TP classifieds need some life breathing into it.
 
dan_yell said:
ok, ive not had that issue.
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I was watching a 5dmk2 that was for sale for £550 delivered and after a week or so I offered slightly less. Whilst I was waiting for the seller to get back to me someone bid £550 collected. Seems to have happened more than once recently. Even if I'd offered the whole £550 delivered he would have taken the collected offer anyway and saved himself the hassle of posting and the cost involved. Waited for a response on a 6d and 24-105 combo only to be told it had been sold off forum, bought the 5d mk2 I had then the 6d sale fell through and has been sold for less than I offered when you consider he's chucked I a speedlight. That's the main reason I didn't get the 6d I asked about. I'd have bought that in a minute but the saving has proved useful I suppose.
 
I guess I use the classifieds in a different way - most seem a pretty good deal so i don't often 'bid' or haggle. I've only been around a few years so perhaps I am unfamiliar with how things were previously.

i believe forum rules would have meant he should have accepted your offer if you had bid £550 as it would have been first, but perhaps I am naive about the 'first dibs' - if i were the seller, i would have done.
 
There are no rules concerning selling really buddy. Just recently someone on here put in a bid for a lens which was rejected but the seller made a counter offer which he accepted pending photos. Whilst waiting for the photos someone else offered the asking price and was promptly sold the item. The seller can sell to whoever he likes. I don't often haggle either but if something hasn't sold for a good while chances are you'll get a few quid off and every little helps as Tesco would say. I don't think I've ever had someone just offer me my asking price for an item. People are always looking for a small saving which is fine. I've no issue with it at all.

You used to want something and find it came up for sale within a few days now it seems like bloody weeks because the classified section had restrictions placed on it. By the way I have no problem with it I just preferred the time I could buy my gear from here rather than even contemplate ebay.
 
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ah i see, i thought there were 'fair play' rules, but had just assumed :-)
 
dan_yell said:
ah i see, i thought there were 'fair play' rules, but had just assumed :)
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There are certainly some rules but not concerning who gets the seller sells to as it's their prerogative. Not that I've ever had any problems mind you. Most people on here are good guys and there are not too many disputes. That I know of anyway.
 
I think the forum classifieds have died down a bit, (there's a whole thread about it), this is probably down to a number of factors, one is that compared to 5 years ago (or more) there are far more places that will buy your second hand kit from you, or offer you a trade in (places like MPB or CEX) and there are way more classifieds/trading sites, especially now via Facebook where there are numerous selling groups (I'm in 3 photography equipment selling groups myself). Of course ebay is there and even Amazon can be used to sell gear (some saying it's better than ebay). So this leads to fewer adverts on the TP forum.

I did buy my 6D from Calumet, but that was only after spending a few weeks watching ebay, searching the TP classifieds daily, searching Facebook groups and every retailer going. In the end I found mine by walking into the store and spotting it on their shelf.
I've been told by both the guys in Calumet and London Camera Exchange that it's often the case of trade-ins come in and go out so quickly that the effort of photographing and cataloging the items isn't worth it. Hence why those shops don't have as much listed s/h as the actually have in stock.

Due to upgrading, I was trying to sell my old 60D and 2 lenses, after days of advertising on here, I got no interest (despite the ads having been viewed many times) and ended up selling 1 lens via Facebook, 1 lens via eBay and then the body to someone I knew.
(Also as a slight aside, the new app doesn't give you any alerts, so you don't get notified if someone comments on your for sale advert).

I definitely think the 6D is worth the extra £150. A £550 5D2 is likely to be older, heavily used, higher shutter count before you even think about the spec upgrade. Having used a 5D2 a few times in low light, the 6D definitely has better performance.
But as you say you're mainly going to be using it in a studio situation, the low light performance may be less of an issue.
When you are on a limited budget, you have to go with what you can afford out of what's available at the time.
 
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