CanonEOS 6D 20.1 MP CMOS Digital SLR Camera with 3.0-Inch LCD (Body Only)

Canon 6d ReviewI've now been using my 6d for a bit over a week and feel that I've handled it enough to write a comprehensive review. First, let me tell you that I upgraded from a Rebel T2i, which I absolutely loved. I'm by no means a pro, and I don't typically get paid for my work; but I would classify myself as a photo enthusiast. I travel a lot and size and weight were factors in my decision to go with the 6d. I also like to shoot with available light, which is why I wanted to go full frame for the high ISO performance. For some reason it says I purchased the body only, but I actually bought the kit.Let me address some of the "cons" that people are complaining about right out of the gate. I'm going to assume that most people considering the 6d are like me - looking to upgrade from a nice point and shoot style camera or a Rebel series or other APS-C style DSLR. Nearly everything that people are stating are "cons" I never had on my Rebel in the first place, so I don't miss these features. The AF system has gotten a lot of attention, but on my Rebel, I used the center point 90% of the time for focusing. The center point on the 6d is just amazing. It focuses in an almost completely dark room. Certainly it will be able to focus for any situation when you are going to shoot hand held. I will take the simplified control of 11 AF points and an absolutely fantastic center focus point over 61 points (caveat: I don't shoot sports or other fast moving objects so I wouldn't really benefit from the addition points for tracking a moving subject).I rarely, if ever, shoot video so not having a headphone jack doesn't bother me in the slightest. Also, not having a built in flash is no big deal to me either. I'm going to assume that people looking at this price range for a camera have an external flash and understand the limitations of a built in flash. I never used the one on my Rebel anyway. Finally, not having two SD card slots doesn't seem like a big loss to me. While I think the redundancy of two slots might be nice, I've never had an SD card fail on me and perpetually back up my images anyway.24-105mm f/4 Kit Lens:Honestly this was probably what was holding me back the most about going full frame. I previously have been using the Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS and I have to say that better than 90% of my pictures taken with my T2i were shot using this lens. While the 17-55 doesn't have a red ring or L in its name, it defiantly can run with the L glass. I worried that going from a relatively fast 2.8 (EF-S lenses do not fit on the 6d) to an f/4 would be limiting, but I also didn't want to give up IS and the 24-70mm was out of my price range anyway. Let me say that given the higher ISO performance, I don't really miss the stop I lost going to an f/4 lens. I actually like having a bit more reach with the 24-105. I would defiantly have kept my 17-55 f/2.8 if I could have, but I also don't feel limited by the 24-105 f/4. In the future I plan to get the 16-35 f/2.8 for use alongside the 25-105 f/4. So in summary, if you are like me and hesitating about giving up your 17-55mm f/2.8 for the 24-105 f/4, don't worry - the kit lens is fantastic and you won't regret going full frame for a second.ISO Performance:Let me sum it up in one word: amazing. I hate noisy pictures and I'd hesitate to shoot much above ISO 400 with my T2i. I have no problem shooting at 3200-6400 with the 6d. I took some shots basically in the dark at 25,600 and they were defiantly usable. Low light performance is just amazing. I can't comment on how it compares to other full frame cameras, but I do know there is just no comparison between APS-C sensors and this one.Auto ISO on this camera is awesome. I never used Auto ISO on my T2i (as I said above I hate noisy images and didn't like the camera constantly trying to push up the ISO). The Auto ISO on this camera lets you set a minimum shutter speed (great for people, like myself, who rarely use a tripod). It brings the shutter down to (near) the minimum, and then starts to the boost the ISO. Additionally (like most SLR's) you can set the maximum and minimum Auto ISO speeds.Autofocus:I touched on this above, but for its limitations, I actually like the AF system. I shoot mostly still subjects in available light and absolutely love the center AF point and its ability to focus in near dark conditions. AF is fast and of the few hundred pictures I've taken so far, hasn't missed yet. I like the simplicity of the 11-point AF system. I find the 61-point system hard to navigate. Coming from a Rebel, the AF system is very similar so there was really no learning curve when going to the 6d.Design & Button Layout:The 6d is surprisingly small and light. It's honestly not much bigger than my T2i, and only slightly heavier. It defiantly doesn't feel cheap though. It feels rugged, well built, and substantial in your hand. It doesn't have the plastic feel that the Rebels do. It feels like a pro-level camera. Coming from a Rebel, I felt pretty at home with the button layout. A few things are in different places (e.g. the mode dial is on the other side to make room for the top LCD screen) but I was adjusted within a day or so. The mode dial lock is a cool little feature, but I can't say I ever had an issue with the mode dial moving itself on my Rebel.The 8-way rocker is a bit annoying, but still a step above the four way buttons on the Rebel series. It's also nice to have the wheel on the back to adjust aperture (or shutter speed) in Manual mode, instead of having to press and hold a button and use the main dial on the T2i. The menu system feels well laid out and everything is pretty easy to find. Also having two custom spots on the mode dial is a nice addition (people seems to be complaining there are only 2 instead of 3, but let me say that 2 is much better than the zero I had before!). You can use the custom spots for pretty much anything (I have my set up for exposure bracketing and portraits). The ISO button location also takes a bit of getting used to when moving from a Rebel to the 6d, but the reassessed button and raised dot make it relatively easy to adjust quickly. Also you can customize a lot of the button assignments in the custom functions menu.Battery life seems to be pretty good so far. As expected, using GPS and WiFi considerably shorten the life, but it's certainly still acceptable. A note about aftermarket batteries: they work, but the camera doesn't play nice with them. If you put in an aftermarket battery the camera warns you that it isn't a Canon battery and asks if you want to continue. It also doesn't know how much battery life is remaining. I'm hoping the aftermarket battery manufacturers will update their batteries soon (Wassabi indicated within a month or two they would be releasing an update).WiFi & GPS:I bought this camera not really thinking I would use either of these features very often, but let me say they are welcome additions. The WiFi is pretty simple to set up (if you've ever set up a router or even configured your smart phone to connect to WiFi then you shouldn't have any issues). In less than 20 minutes I tried out connecting to an iPad, Android phone, laptop, and even a uploading directly to Facebook without any issues at all (note that you have to connect to your laptop first to set up Facebook and you have to register with Canon). Transferring images wirelessly from the 6d to a laptop is surprisingly fast and easy. Also, viewing images on an iPad wirelessly is easy (**01/07/2013: Canon confirmed to me that no dedicated iPad app is being developed and you must use the iPhone app). I don't have much to say about GPS, other than it works. I stepped outside and it acquired a satellite signal pretty fast. You can view the geotagged information either in the provided Canon Maps application or in Adobe Lightroom. I think this will be really great when I am traveling. Note that the GPS stays on even when the camera is off (WiFi does not, however). You can turn off (or at least turn down the frequency) of the "bread crumb" feature (which tracks your location at set intervals to plot your path) to save some battery life.**01/06/2013: The 6d only supports 2.4 GHz wireless bands, so if you are running a 5 GHz band router you won't be able to connect. Note most routers operating in the 5 GHz band also support 2.4 GHz so it may just be a matter of changing some setting on your router.Advanced Shooting Modes:HDR, white balance and exposure bracketing, and multiple exposure modes are all really great features. I love to shoot HDR and the camera does a pretty decent job of aligning and merging the images when shooting hand held. I do feel limited in that you can only take three exposures in HDR mode. I also find it a pain to have to turn off RAW mode in order to turn on HDR. I actually prefer the exposure bracketing. You can bracket up to seven shots in 1/3 EV steps (note that if you want to bracket more than the default three shots you have to change a setting in the custom functions menu).The camera contains a lot of features for JPEG shooters (since I shoot mostly RAW I don't use these features often, but they seem nice to have for people who don't use post processing software). The camera will now do lens profile corrections (fixing distortion, brightness, vignette, etc.) for the lens that is attached. I always apply this to my photos using Lightroom and it's nice to have in-camera.Summary:In sum, the 6d is a fantastic camera. I don't at all feel hampered by the so called "limitations" pointed out in some of the reviews (lack of pop of flash, only 11 AF points, a single SD card slot, etc.). If you are upgrading from a Rebel you will love the improved center AF point, high ISO performance, speed, build quality, advanced shooting modes, and WiFi and GPS built in. I don't feel the need to compare this camera to Nikon's or Canon's other offering, because honestly this is a fantastic camera in its own right. I was already invested with several lenses in the Canon system, so Nikon was never really a consideration for me. The choice was really between the 6d and the 5d M3 and given the relatively large cost difference the 6d was the clear choice. Also if your considering the 5d M2, I think the benefit of five plus years of development has greatly benefited the 6d, and therefore would highly recommend the 6d over the 5d M2 for the sensor and new Digic 5+ processor.Pros:+Awesome low light / high ISO performance+Great center AF point for very low light focusing+WiFi and GPS built in provide awesome flexibility in shooting, especially for travelers+Relatively light and small (for a full frame) without sacrificing solid construction+Very bright and clear viewfinder (especially when compared to the Rebels)+Digic 5+ processor provides great JPEG improvements and fast enough shooting speedCons:-Kit lens is only f/4, and the 24-70 f/2.8 is pricey!-HDR mode is slightly cumbersome to use and disappointing with its three shot exposure limitation-Button layout takes a bit to adjust toPlease feel free to sound off in the comments with questions!

I now have used the camera for the past 2 years. As I mention in my initial review, I wasn't getting good results consistently initially and mostly that was my fault and lack of knowledge. After spending some time educating myself and with now a few thousands pictures later I upgraded the start rating to 5.I see really no fault with this camera anymore, it delivers great images when used on the proper settings.It is billed as an entry level full frame and is priced as such. However, for a serious hobbyist, this is such an outstanding camera. I'm quite happy with this purchase and would definitely recommend it for anyone looking at a fantastic camera and not ready to drop $3K or more.**Initial review**I have never written a review for any product, but I liked this camera enough to take the time to write one.A little background and disclosures, I have had this camera since december 6th 2013, so nearly 2 month in use and nearly a 3000 pictures taken. I come from two prior canon bodies, the XS for 4 years and the T4i for one year.It took me a long time to decide between the Nikon D610, the sony A7 and this one. I finally when with this camera mostly because of my prior lenses and flash I had for my other canons, and I don't claim to compare this one to the two others. I read plenty of reviews comparing all three and for those who are looking for a comparison here you might as well google more professional reviews than mine.The bottom line for me after reading all the reviews was that these were great cameras producing great images, therefore, since I had already accessories, I went with Canon.Concerning my needs and why the need to upgrade from the T4i to this one was low light shooting indoors of my one year old. I was very unsatisfied with the low light capabilities of the T4i and the iso at 1600 looked too noisy for me. Otherwise, it was a great camera that served me well.Now, to the camera.Since I said low light was an issue for me, I took the camera and immediately snapped picture of my living room with no flash. It was dark enough and the auto iso went to 12800. I thought, Ok, it will probably be terrible but let's try. When I looked on my 27" screen at the result I was surprised. The picture was noisy sure but it was comparable to the results I got from my T4i at 1600 iso.So from there I started expecting great things from this camera and therefore I was disappointed rather quickly.I started using the kit lens which is an L lens and theoretically should be very good, but I found my 50 mm 1.4 produced way nicer images indoors. Outdoors, the 24-105 mm produced great images and proves obviously more versatile, I guess it's unfair to compare both these lenses since the 50 mm 1.4 is such a great lens anyways. But, in my mind, I thought an L lens should be way better than a cheap 50 mm that I got on amazon for $290.Now, the wifi and GPS.I have tried using the GPS, and I'm sure it can be helpful, but after I saw it draining my battery in one day while on standby, I just turned it off and decided to turn it on only when needed (like when traveling). The problem with this is that I went to DC took nearly a thousand pictures and forgot that it was off. Therefore, no geotagging for the whole trip (Granted, I can add that info later since I know where the pics were taken, but you get catch my drift). So I don't like how the GPS stays on when your turn off the camera, this really limits battery life. When turned off, my battery lasts for days.The Wifi is arguable more useful, and the iPhone app is quite easy to use. However, I have had problems connecting to it using the camera as a router. It proved a little bit finicky where I would find it in the wireless networks but then it would disappear just when I connected to it. Weird, I'm probably doing something wrong here. Otherwise, when I connect the camera to my home network, My iPhone finds it and takes pictures and everything, no problems.I have not used it much though and I still need to find a smoother way to use it to automatically import my pictures into iPhoto. Currently, when it imports them it puts each picture in a new event, creating mayhem in my library. I have tried the eyefi card before on my T4i and it imported automatically with very little effort on my part and it kept my library well organized. Again, this is software issue but after tinkering with it for a while I couldn't solve that problem so for now I just pop my SD into my IMac, it's faster anyways.HandlingThe camera is quite large compared to my two previous bodies, so for me I felt this is the heaviest camera I have ever used. So I know how this is advertised as the smallest full frame DSLR in the world, but to me, and many people like me, we won't get to feel this way because we are coming from the opposite direction, from cropped sensors and point and shoot. However, despite it being large (again all is relative in this world) it didn't bother me much even when I have my Speedlite 430 EX II, as long as I don't carry it around my neck for a while. It's heavy enough that I actually carry it on my hand and in my bag most of the time as opposed to the XS or T4i where I could keep them for an hour or two with no problems around my neck. So for people looking at buying a small therefore light to travel camera, you need to realize that it is still a heavy camera, especially with the 24-105 mm attached to it! When I put the 50 mm on, it actually is way lighter and more friendly to my neck, but then you lose on versatility.The buttons, dials, wheel are easy to use and self explanatory. Since I am not a pro photographer, I can't really comment on what's missing and how it affects workflow, for me, it works quite well and is ergonomic enough.Picture qualityThat's why you get a large sensor right? I was disappointed initially because I didn't get the mind blowing images right off the bat. This is when I realized that this camera needs more knowledge to make a good picture than before. I admit I used the auto modes on my other cameras, and on this one I decided to use it mostly manual and aperture priority. So getting all the settings, exposure, aperture, shutter speed, iso etc, right is very important. When I get them right, I get outstanding pictures. However, I feel that there is a learning curve and obviously this camera can deliver great quality, I just need to work harder to get them from it.Now, the best part about this camera is the low light performance. I now routinely push the ISO to 1600, and I know my images will still be sharp and well exposed. The images are very good up till 10 000 iso, and some say usable at 12800. I have not tried 25600, but I bet they won't be that great. So I am very happy with that part, especially that most of the time I am taking pictures of my kid running around the house where lighting is not that great. Paired with my speedlite 430, I produce great images. (remember to bounce the flash of a wall to avoid the harsh shadows)Autofocus.Lot's of talk about the lack of points. But I came from the T4i, so it was still an upgrade for me. Since I use the camera in aperture priority most of the time, I also use the center point for focus 99% of the time. This works very well for still subjects. However, a one year old is rarely still and this is where my 24-105 mm with a max aperture of 4 fails sometimes miserably. When I pair it with my 50 mm, I get more consistent results of my running kid, but it still takes some effort to do so. I was expecting a little bit more forgiveness from the camera. Apparently I need to work more on getting a faster shutter rate, which means pushing my ISO higher which I don't really like to do even if the results are still outstanding.I have not tried the 5D mark III but now I'm curious.I will probably update this review at a later time when I figured out more of how to get more consistent results from this camera.Since I still feel that I didn't get everything that I wanted (maybe because of my own ignorance of how to use it) I gave it a 4 star review. This might change in the future.The bottom line is this is a great camera than can produce great images, but it needs some serious effort on the photographer's part (which I guess is normal)