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5D ii vs 6D for immediate purchase.
Whats up guys? I'm trying decide on a purchase of 1 of 2 cameras being offered to me this weekend. I have a choice from a ...
- Canon 5d ii body w/ shutter count @ 17k, 2 8g cards, remote trigger @ 1300
- Canon 6d body new still in box for 1700
A 5d iii is out of my price range and whatever is chosen will be ideally for landscapes and portraits. I'm assuming the 6d has better AF since its newer. I dont care about the GPS/WIFI but I would like to have a camera I can stay w/ for the the next 2 years or so and not feel obsolite. Any experienced opinions will be appreciated. I do have lense so only thing in question is the 2 bodies. I'll be moving away from my 60D and letting a family member become the new owner as soon as I make my decision.
- Canon 5d ii body w/ shutter count @ 17k, 2 8g cards, remote trigger @ 1300
- Canon 6d body new still in box for 1700
A 5d iii is out of my price range and whatever is chosen will be ideally for landscapes and portraits. I'm assuming the 6d has better AF since its newer. I dont care about the GPS/WIFI but I would like to have a camera I can stay w/ for the the next 2 years or so and not feel obsolite. Any experienced opinions will be appreciated. I do have lense so only thing in question is the 2 bodies. I'll be moving away from my 60D and letting a family member become the new owner as soon as I make my decision.
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The 6D is more sensitive so if you plan a lot of high-ISO shooting (in very low light) I suspect that you would be more pleased with the 6D. The 6D has 2 - more visible AF points, but the 5D MKII has 6 - invisible "helper" points which only engage in AI-Servo mode. For most shooting the 5D MKII AF is still pretty good and this concluding statement seems to sum up nicely:
"The bottom line is that the EOS 6D's phase detection autofocus system is about identical to that in the 5D Mark II, at least in terms of center point accuracy. It may be worlds better in low light, Servo mode, or with peripheral sensors; I can’t comment on that. And even if it doesn't rival that of the 5D Mark III, I actually didn’t find the EOS 5D Mark II's center point autofocus bad at all."
Source: http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2012/11/30/autofocus-reality-revisited-how-does-the-Canon-eos-6d-measure-up
(Emphasis mine.)
Then again, the shutter mechanism of the 6D is also new, and it's less capable than the shutter in the 5D MKII:
The 5D MKII has a max shutter speed of 1/8000th; the 6D is 1/4000th.
The 5D MKII has a PC flash port; the 6D has none (although you can add that with a third-party adapter to the hot-shoe.)
The 5D MKII has a shutter durability rating of 150,000 actuations; the 6D rating is 100,000.
5D MKII Shutter Lag, Full AF: 0.206 (W) seconds 6D: 0.290 (W) seconds (5D MKII better)
5D MKII Cycle Time Uncompressed Format: 0.37 seconds 6D: 0.52 seconds (5D MKII better)
5D MKII Continuous Mode Rate (fps): 3.89 6D: 4.44 (6D better)
(Source: Imaging-Resource)
The 6D does have an arguably more capable exposure system, but the 5D MKII will mostly get the job done (it's not bad, by any means.)
The 6D has reduced high-ISO noise, with an improvement in dynamic range (mostly visible at high-ISOs).
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Please remember that the 5D MKII and 6D only accept EF series Canon lenses; EF-S lenses will not mount. Does that affect you?
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All of the above can benefit from an Af-Assist light on either an external flash or something like the Canon ST-E2 transmitter. This is especially important for the 5D MKII.
Generally, you'll want to use the center AF point on either the 5D MKII or 6D. This means focus-and-recompose for many subjects, although you have enough pixels to focus using the center dot, and crop in post to recompose. The closer your subject the more you'll want to use the second method (crop in post), although with non-moving subjects the other AF dots can work OK if you give them enough time to function properly.
BTW, I'm not planning to replace my 5D MKII anytime soon. The newer bodies are nice but don't really offer tangible benefits over the 5D MKII if I do my job properly. It's still a very capable body and easily produces professional results.
One last thing, for best results at very high ISOs, the latest Canon DPP produces better noise reduction and, subsequently, better dynamic range than either Adobe or DXO RAW converters, by my testing.
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I did upgrade my 5dm2 to a m3, but it was because I shoot a lot of indoor volleyball and suffer a little from gear acquisition syndrome. I never had any complaints when using the 5dm2 center focus point. I rarely used it in servo mode, finding using the center point, back focus button, and good timing to be the best way to capture my subjects.
For portrait work, a focus assist lamp (or a pocket flash light) helps a lot in a dark studio / dusk / etc, when ever I put mine on a tripod for landscape, cityscape, architectural type work, find manual focus with 10x magnification to be a powerful combination.
I loved my 5dm2 and happily used it without every finding the AF seriously wanting, it could be better, but it worked well -- especially the center point. I suspect you will be happy either way, but unless you shoot a lot of very low light stuff, the 5dm2 is probably a slightly better camera than the 6d discounting the wifi/gps (if those things are important or intriguing to you go with the 6d).
Modeling lamps are a good idea to run on the monolights, but I still use an external flash in manual mode and with a focus-assist lamp if I have dynamic subjects. The difference is that an AF-Assist lamp projects a red pattern, which is much easier for the autofocus section to key upon, yielding faster and more accurate AF. (If you don't want the external flash to contribute light to the scene, just flash it at a very low power.)
For still-life, like an interior of a room for real estate, just use manual focus with the modeling lamps on and in Live-View mode.
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I just use an external flash in manual mode. I have a number of Canon 580EX and Sigma DG Super flashes to use for that purpose.
A Sigma EF610 DG Super flash costs around the same price as a Canon ST-E2, and it's a very capable flash (with some compatibility with Canon flashes too).
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/741717-REG/Sigma_189101_EF610_DG_Super_Flash.html
http://www.adorama.com/SG610EOS.html
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That's a very nice pairing of bodies.
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The day before a shoot after getting it, I went to plug my flash in to the camera and realized there was not connection for it.
You can either use a hotshoe flash and the optical slave on the strobe, or you can get a hotshoe pc-sync adapter.
Other then that, the camera is amazing, moving from the 40D to this is HUGE, twice the resolution really helps and the 24-105mm f/4 L is a great kit lens. I have been shooting almost exclusively with it so far and it has performed extremely well.
If you are worried about flashes and the x-sync speed, maybe you should look into the pocketwizard FlexTT5 or MiniTT1 to use their hypersync tech. It's really interesting!
I will say this, you think that the GPS and Wi-Fi functionality would not be a big thing for you, but while I am shooting, Shuttersnitch on an ipad is receiving the photos and I can immediately show my client. We finish by going through the photos that they like most and then its of to editing. Shuttersnitch also supports 6D raw as well. The iOS app canon made is a great tool for remote shooting for night photography, to eliminate camera shake. But if you are going to use both these features, make sure you have a spare battery. I am considering getting a third, only because I am a little trigger happy.
There is also no dedicated flash compensation button, but you can customize the buttons you do have, so I use the SET button for this. It helps a lot and its in a very convenient place.
I didn't buy the pair.. The person I was picking up the 5d II from never showed up to meet... so I decided to contact another local who had a 7D also @ a good price which ironically lived in the same area I was stood up on. When I called the guy he told me "sorry but theres someone coming to see it tomorrow and I gave him my word." 5 minutes later he calls me and says "if your willing to pay a bit more then I would sell to you" so much for a man of his words. As I was going back and forth over this 7D the original seller of the 5D ii contacted me and explained he had a emergency but could meet first thing the following morning which was what happened. Im still wondering whether I should have grabbed the 7D and saved a a few hundred bucks. Hey Iayuso I was aware of the 6D not having a pc sync bur I had a pc hot shoe I used w/ my prior 60D.
http://www.slrlounge.com/canon-eos-6d-dslr-review-and-field-test-canons-highest-quality-dslr-yet
In my opinion, it is one of the best cameras on the market by a long shot, and personally I would take it over the 5D mk2 any day. However, that is not to say that the 5D mk2 isn't a great camera, because obviously many full-time pros used the 5D mk2 very successfully for years, most probably still do.
Most of the reasons that I love the 6D come from the fact that I'm a Nikon shooter with certain quirky preferences and standards that I can't live without. The 5D mk2 was, in that respect, horrible. It has abysmal autofocus for shooting at extremely shallow apertures and in extremely low light, plus it has no one-click image playback zoom for quick 100% zooming which I have grown accustomed to in fast-paced situations such as weddings.
So, there you have it. The 5D mk2 is good, the 6D is great but has a few obscure limitations that in my opinion are better to deal with than the 5D mk2's drawbacks. Your experience with the 5D mk2 will eventually make your own preferences clear to you....
=Matt=
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--- Denise
Musings & ramblings at https://denisegoldberg.blogspot.com
the lack of a sync port doesn't bother me (I use wireless triggers). The newer 6D looks good but getting the 5D2 at a significantly lower price is also nice
If you shoot a lot of field sports, then maybe. Otherwise the iq of the 5d2 is noticeably better than the 7D, I had both. However below ISO 1600 you have to view at 100% to see it. I ended up using my 7D for field sports and my 5D2 for everything else. And the 5D2 can do field sports nicely if you can wait for the action to come close and you can accept a lower keeper rate.
An "accurate" reproduction of a scene and a good photograph are often two different things.
if I did a lot of sports, inside and out I'd trade them up for a 5D3