Considering a Canon 6d instead of 1ds/5d

[BlimeyCharlie]

Hello,

Anyone here got any experience of a Canon 6d?

I'm used to a 1ds, but it is old now, need a replacement, and sensor technology has come on a lot recently. Low-light sensor quality appeals to me more.

I don't really need the weatherproofed quality of a 1ds, as most of my work is not in an 'extreme' environment.

Couple of questions;
6d battery life?
And does it work with old 'L' series lenses? And a 580 EX flash?

Full-frame sensor really does appeal and seems good value.
Looks 'pro' enough to keep clients happy too.

I'll take one for a spin to see but would appreciate any comments.

Thanks.

[rottie102]

BlimeyCharlie said:

Hello,

Anyone here got any experience of a Canon 6d?

I'm used to a 1ds, but it is old now, need a replacement, and sensor technology has come on a lot recently. Low-light sensor quality appeals to me more.

I don't really need the weatherproofed quality of a 1ds, as most of my work is not in an 'extreme' environment.

Couple of questions;
6d battery life?
And does it work with old 'L' series lenses? And a 580 EX flash?

Full-frame sensor really does appeal and seems good value.
Looks 'pro' enough to keep clients happy too.

I'll take one for a spin to see but would appreciate any comments.

Thanks.

It works fine with 580 EX flash (why wouldn't it?), I don't have any OLD L lenses so cannot comment on that.
It's a great camera and for me it was perfect choice, I could afford the 5d but didn't see the benefit.
Battery life is very good

[flat-planedCrank]

How often do you need the 'sports' AF on the 1DS?

IIRC the 6D's AF is similar to the 5D2, great for portraits, landscape, etc. but might be found lacking for fast action?

5D3 an (expensive) middle ground?

[rottie102]

flat-planedCrank said:

How often do you need the 'sports' AF on the 1DS?

IIRC the 6D's AF is similar to the 5D2, great for portraits, landscape, etc. but might be found lacking for fast action?

5D3 an (expensive) middle ground?

I shoot a lot of running dogs, admittedly mainly with 70-200 2.8L IS which is very good at focussing but I've never found any problems with 6d in this combo

[tog]

I've just got a pair of 5D3s to replace a pair of 5D2s. I looked at the 6D, but for me the better build, better AF and more familiar handling of the 5D3 won the day. The 6D was tempting though, I like the smaller size like the original 5D, and built in wifi might occasionally have been useful.

[RobDickinson]

I had one on loan for a month.

The low light ability and the sensor cleaning will stun you.

It works great with L lenses, and the 580 flash.

Battery life os good unless you use wifi or gps, in which case have spares.

AF is adequate, good in low light. Better than the 5d2, way short of the 5d3/1dx.

[markmullen]

If the 6D had dual slots I'd swap my 1Ds Mk2 for one, it is the only thing putting me off having one as a spare body to my 5D Mk3

[BlimeyCharlie]

rottie102 said:

It works fine with 580 EX flash (why wouldn't it?), I don't have any OLD L lenses so cannot comment on that.
It's a great camera and for me it was perfect choice, I could afford the 5d but didn't see the benefit.
Battery life is very good

The reason I ask about 580 etc is that I bought a new Apple iPhone 3 years ago that I found would not work with my very expensive Apple G5 Tower Mac-Apple's range topping product when it was new.
So had to by another Apple product with a more recent operating system to actually use the phone, which left a bad taste in my mouth.

[BlimeyCharlie]

Also, I tend to focus on an area and then compose the picture after depressing the shutter half way on the 1ds, which keeps that focus point unless I take my finger off the trigger. For example I want a sharp subject but blurred foreground.

Can this be done on a 6d?

I prefer to use a camera manually like a film camera anyway, apart from focussing on a 'point' using auto-focus, but like to use that function when focusing/composing.

Aware I am asking basic questions here but I am interested in real-life experiences of other users.

Thanks everyone so far.

[RobDickinson]

You use the centre point to focus then recompose? Sure the 7d can do that.

Most of us I think now use back button focusing (i.e. shutter does no focusing , just metering and firing. This makes focusing a separate act to shooting, though you can obviously do both at the same time

One thing the 1 series do that the others dont is focus point spot metering. The lower bodies only spot meter on the centre point even if you are focusing with another point. I've never got the hang of spot metering.

[BlimeyCharlie]

RobDickinson said:

You use the centre point to focus then recompose? Sure the 7d can do that.

Most of us I think now use back button focusing (i.e. shutter does no focusing , just metering and firing. This makes focusing a separate act to shooting, though you can obviously do both at the same time

One thing the 1 series do that the others dont is focus point spot metering. The lower bodies only spot meter on the centre point even if you are focusing with another point. I've never got the hang of spot metering.

Thats a good point.
I kind of 'know' what exposure I should be and adjust/set up first if I can even on a 1ds. So I probably don't use the spot metering as I did on my old film cameras.

On the 1ds I leave the focus point in the middle (it won't quite go dead centre) and just focus first, keep it on that point, and compose the picture. Sounds laborious but I don't even think about it.
Of course if I'm taking several I'll turn autofocus off on the lens so it does not hunt around as well.

I'm probably best going to have a look at one and a try-out. But based on what I need, instead of what I want, then a 6d sounds like massive progress to me.
What I needed and what was available 5 years ago was pretty limited, and I needed a 1ds for magazine work (double page a3 spreads) and sports stuff.

Now it is mainly the feature work where I have more time/control over what I'm taking, so need a better sensor, mainly in low light.

[RobDickinson]

BlimeyCharlie said:

Of course if I'm taking several I'll turn autofocus off on the lens so it does not hunt around as well.

With back button focusing you just take your finger off the af-on button and shoot.

[jimbo2112]

I've been trying to persuade the wife to consider the 6D over a new 5D III. I just think the price diff is so huge that the 6D would be a better buy (especially with the WiFi and geotagging for Flickr).

The better AF on the 5D III would be good for my motorsport shots (and the running dogs for the original poster in this thread!).

Waiting for the 5D III to come down in price and really confuse me!