HANDS-ON REVIEW

CANON EOS 6D

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About the AuthorLike you, I’m a photographer and inspired by beautiful photographs.

Not too long ago I finished a journey from Alaska to Argentina by land, pursuing the art of photography.

I quit my job recently (tech startup IT stuff) so I could do what I love most - writing, shooting and helping others in pursuit of beautiful people, places and ideas through photography.

This review wasn’t easy and it took a great deal of work. But it’s a gift for you, the pho-tographer, and I hope that you find it useful and valuable.

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The latest version of this review can be found at 6dreview.com

Downloadable Content

5.6GB of hi-res TIFF16BIT images and low-compression 1080p video (all watermark-free) captured on L lenses has been uploaded for you to download and review on your com-puter. download here

Canon 6D Video Review

After 1+ Year of Hands-on I thought it was a good time to do a video review. Check it out.

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THE CAMERAThe Canon EOS 6D is the worlds smallest, lightest full-frame SLR on the market. As a travel and landscape photographer, I was quite intrigued by the ultralight factor and immediately bought one of the first copies to ship.

This review is not based on marketing figures or datasheets. In-stead this review will focus on real-world usage and results from the perspective of a working landscape photographer. I have no preference for Canon over Nikon, I own both and consider them equal. Price can be of major concern for many when considering the purchase of a camera, however this factor did not influence my impressions or decisions and is therefore absent from this re-view.

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The first iteration of this review was published on March, 2013. At the time of writing I had approximately four months of hands on experience with the 6D primarily in San Francisco, California. Fast forward to nearly a year of consistent shooting and my expe-rience with the 6D has yielded more accurate and balanced re-sults. Not only have I learned quite a bit more about the intrica-cies of the camera, but I have taken the 6D to a fair number of wide ranging exotic and harsh environments in National Parks such as: Pinnacles, Yosemite, Kings Canyon, Sequoia, Death Val-ley, Grand Canyon, Big Sur (pacific ocean/coastline), Great Ba-sin, Banff, and Jasper, Grand Teton, Glacier, Canyonlands, Arches, Bryce Canyon, Zion, Joshua Tree and beyond.

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KEY FEATURESLIGHTEST FULL-FRAME BODY ON THE

MARKET

INTEGRATED GPS

3.0″ HIGH-RESOLUTION LCD

5472x3648 PIXELS/20.2MP

FULL HD 1080P VIDEO

ISO 50-102,400

INTEGRATED WIFI

DIGIC 5+ IMAGE PROCESSOR

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IMAGE QUALITYCanon implemented into the 6D a brand new Canon CMOS sensor with state-of-the-art technology. Pixel-level detail of this CMOS full-frame sensor is capable of producing incredibly detailed images with beautiful color rendition. I have printed large format prints from the 6D - up to 40x60 - and the level of detail is excellent. Compared to my 5D, 5DMkII, and 5DMkIII the print quality at these sizes is in-distinguishable. Just as important as image quality, however, is pre-visualization and getting the right information on the sensor. Image quality is only as good as visual quality!

The 6D has Canon’s most powerful image processor, the DIGIC 5+. The 6D’s DIGIC 5+ processor is 17x faster than a DIGIC 4 and 30%

faster than a DIGIC 5. The image processor of a camera is responsi-ble for reducing noise at higher ISOs, and the DIGIC 5+ represents the best to date. The introduction of DIGIC 5+ also introduced chro-matic aberration correction, based on lens profiles which are stored in-camera and therefore limited to Canon’s own lenses. In addition, the extra processing power allows the 6D to apply chromatic aberra-tion correction to JPEG images as well. These corrections are based on about 29 Canon-created lens profiles, which are stored in the camera’s onboard memory and can be updated in the future in the via firmware updates. In theory these profiles allow correction not only of lateral CA but also of the harder-to-fix axial CA.

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In real-world results I still get the same slight amount of chromatic aberration as I did previous to this feature implementation even with the best glass. Theoretically it may be less than it was, but percepti-bly it’s an insignificant advantage. It’s possible for Canon to modify these profiles through firmware updates, so perhaps we’ll see better CA processing in the future.

To summarize all of that:

• The Canon 6D has excellent image quality and performs as well as all of my 5D family bodies, from the original up through the 5D Mark III

• The DIGIC 5+ delivers better high-ISO performance, the rest is marketing

• I find the dynamic range and color rendition to likewise be excel-lent

“Maximum simplicity is always desirable. Three ba-sic requirements should be considered: quality, func-

tion and durability. There is a great illusion among photographers that creative work depends upon equipment - when in fact the equipment is some-

thing to be selected for a specific purpose. ”

Ansel Adams

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HARDWARE & DESIGN

DESIGNWhen first holding the Canon 6D the smaller form factor and light-ness are both very noticeable when compared to a body in the 5D-series. It has a great balance to it and the ergonomics are ex-cellent. Without a built-in flash it has a very durable and rugged construction without any play or flex. The internal frame is of course metal, and the 6D’s front and rear body covers are Magne-sium Alloy.

I had my doubts as to wether or not this different material would stand the test of landscape photography, which often puts equip-ment against harsh conditions. After a year of consistent use it ac-tually performs very well, just as good as the magnesium alloy

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Canon EOS 6D Gallery

that I’ve become accustomed to over the years.

The depth of field preview button is now accessible with your shooting hand and the streamlined redesign of the button layout has nearly all controls justified to the right, also accessible from the shoot-ing hand. All other controls and settings are where you would expect them to be. The shutter is hypersensitive, even more so than the Canon EOS 5D Mark II. There’s no lag in the shutter and the threshold from autofocus half-depression to full click is just right.

The play and trash buttons are justified on the right for easy selecting with your shooting hand, and in the dark they’re

easily found with a bit of practice. I do wish however that camera manufacturers would include more braille-like dots for the most accessed buttons for easier lo-cating. One of these is already included on the ISO button on the top-case, why not include them on other buttons?

The Canon EOS 6D has a very nice sounding normal shutter click, with nor-mal mode being slightly quieter than the 5D Mark III. The 6D also features Silent drive mode, which is a feature that came downstream from the Canon EOS 5D Mark III. This is significantly quieter than the standard “normal” shutter sound. I consider this feature to be a huge step forward for wedding photographers,

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“Why limit yourself to your eyes see when you have an opportunity to increase your vision?”

Edward Weston

documentary photographers, travel photographers, wildlife photogra-phers or any other type of photography where shooting unnoticed is best. On a chicken bus in Guatemala for example, one shot out of the window with a normal shutter may draw attention from passen-gers, whereas with Silent mode it’s likely to go unheard. It’s so quiet that when I’m out shooting, especially longer exposure shots, I typi-cally leave Silent Drive disabled as it’s easier to hear when the expo-sure has completed. It’s that quiet!

The mode dial is where you would expect it to be and like the 5D Mark III it has a lock button to depress so the mode doesn’t acciden-

tally change when shooting. I didn’t mind the 5D Original and 5D Mark II’s mode dial, but this is quite nice and physically it’s a bit smaller.

Like the 5DMkII and 5DMkIII, the LCD backlight button is logically located on the edge of the body for easy finding at night. The other buttons on the top are as you would expect.

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Durability

Landscape photography is a very unforgiving avenue when it comes to the conditions that equipment have to endure. Salt water, sand, high elevations, extreme cold and heat are just some of the environ-mental conditions my 6D has experienced during the last six months of shooting.

The top-case construction of the 6D is fiberglass-reinforced polycar-bonate, which was selected to permit WiFi and GPS signals. I had my doubts on the durability of this material, especially under pres-sure compared to that of a metal alloy, however it’s proven very dura-ble indeed. I rarely keep my 6D in a protective case when it goes in-side my climbing backpack, and it’s often freely moving about with other equipment.

The finish of the fiberglass-reinforced polycarbonate material is nice and smooth, however I have found the top-case near the hotshoe to be slightly more prone to wear than a metal alloy, and a bit faster too. Pictured below are the small areas of wear that I’ve experienced so far, and I think that for photographers who properly protect the body this would delay any wear by a couple years or so. Although the wear thus far is only aesthetic in nature and barely perceptible unless you were looking for it, I would imagine that during a couple years of consistent use the material may become smooth, much like the 5D magnesium alloy top-case. After years of use they lose their tactile finish to become nice and smooth; the marks of a well used camera.

The SD card door has spongy weathersealing material which pre-vents any play or flex when handling the camera, giving it a nice

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solid feel.

Weatherproofing

Canon advertises the EOS 6D as being “completely sealed from ex-ternal contaminants”. I had a surprise experience with gallons of sea-water coming down on top of me when shooting a Golden Gate Bridge sunrise. I thought the camera was done for, however after dry-ing it off completely all was perfectly operational. It would appear that the weatherproofing is fairly strong. As for “completely sealed from external contaminants”? Not so much. In fact, after a few days shooting in Death Valley National Park I had to clean the sensor due to extreme dust buildup on the sensor. Although the 6D has the same vibrational sensor technology found in other cameras, any seri-ous photographer will need a proper sensor cleaning kit to ensure the capture of clean, sensor dust-free images.

Weight

The Canon EOS 6D fits into a special class of ultralight SLRs, and a full-frame one at that. Take a look at how it compares to other full-frame SLRs in the weight arena:

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Canon 6D

Canon 1DX

Canon 5D Mark III

Canon 5D Mark II

Canon 5D

Canon 1D IV

Nikon D700

Nikon D800e

Nikon D600

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Polycarbonate Reinforced Fiber-glass

Justified to the Right

Full-frame viewfinderInfo / Auto Level

3.0” LCD

INTERACTIVE 2.1 Canon EOS 6D Backside Features

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Ports

Internal Mic

Magnesium Alloy

DOF PreviewWeather Sealing

INTERACTIVE 2.2 Canon EOS 6D Frontside Features

Weight & Size

The 6D fits into the ultralight category, which is perhaps one of the biggest advantages that drew me to it. How does it stack up to other full-frame contenders in the weight arena? Quite well as illus-trated in the graph below! In terms of physical size it’s very similar to the 1.6x camera bodies. Tap the chart above to see how the Canon 6D compares to other camera bodies with regards to weight.

Much of my genuine excitement every time I’m out in the natural world with a camera is due to careful moderation of gear for each situation, even if it sometimes cost me an image I dearly want. I’m always trying to maintain a minimalistic camera setup and the 6D has definitely helped to that end. For photographers looking for full-frame quality and durability but the size and weight of a 1.6x body, the 6D is an excellent choice.

Integrated GPS

The Canon EOS 6D is the first Canon SLR to have integrated GPS. For everyday shooters, wedding or sports photographers, the value of GPS may be minimal, however the value for travel and landscape photographers is sure to be huge. In addition to having accurate location-based data for every shot, the integrated GPS in the 6D also automatically sets the timezone. Remember when you had to adjust timezones manually on import? Those days are over!

The 6D’s GPS unit triangulates and obtains a good location lock in about 30-60 seconds, and maintains it well.

There hasn’t been a location yet - aside from caves - that I’ve shot where I didn’t have GPS signal.

One downside to the GPS is that there is no way to set an idle threshold for automatically turning it off. So what will happen if you put the 6D on the shelf for a week and come back to it? It’s likely the battery will die or it’ll be close to dead. Not very smart on Canon’s part for sure. To best work around around this you can add GPS to the fast menu and turn it on and off every single time to ensure best power efficiency. Also, for time-lapse photography, star trail photography and other extended shooting periods where the camera may be somewhat stationary, it’s best to disable GPS as it does put an additional draw on power consumption.

An option in the Canon menu system also allows for the logging of location data even when not shooting. This can be useful when wanting to log a trip, a hike or a vehicle route. Non-Canon EOS 6D photographers can purchase the GP-E2 GPS Receiver ($242.95) to achieve the same result, however with the added bulk on the top of the camera. Another interesting development with GPS data is the inherent SEO value attached to GPS coordinates in the EXIF data. It’s been predicted by some SEO profession-als that Google will place emphasis on GPS data in the near future as a way to confirm authenticity.

All things considered, this is one of the two most significant fea-tures one down from weight for me personally.

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HARDWARE

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Canon EOS 6D Gallery

AUTOFOCUS - THE BEST AND WORST FEATURE OF THE 6D

ALL ABOUT AUTOFOCUSProbably the biggest feature difference between the Canon EOS 6D and the 5D or 1D-family bodies is autofocus. One of the main friction points of the 5D Mark II was it’s “older” 9-point AF system. The 5D Mark III has a 61-point AF system, and the 6D has an 11-point AF system (pictured below) with a center cross-type of f/5.6 with addi-tional sensitivity when an f/2.8 or wider max aperture lens is used. For sports, action or wedding photographers who rely on auto-focus, the 11-point may not cut it as it doesn’t have entire frame cov-erage. For landscape photography I prefer the simpler AF system of the 6D. Check out the 6Ds AF grid by tapping the AF overlay above!

The 6D’s 11-point AF system also offers the strong-est low light performance of any Canon AF system to date. With focusing down to EV-3, the equivalent of moonlight, subjects remain in-focus in even the most challenging lighting conditions – offering the

freedom to shoot landscapes or portraits at night and capture the true atmosphere of the scene with minimal noise. This is a clear win for me as I often use ND filters (up to 10-stops of light) to push expo-sure times and occasionally rely on autofocus bracketing to obtain critical sharpness. It accurately and predictably locks on subjects  even if the viewfinder is black.

For example, when shooting star trails at Grand Canyon National Park, I selected a focus point on a star and the 6D locked to it very quickly. This is a huge advantage for obtaining critically sharp night images.

So to summarize, for those shooting fast action sports where more AF points may be better, the 6D clearly lacks those. For landscape photographers who rely on fast and accurate AF locks in low light, the 6D is currently unparalleled.

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5D Mark III vs. 6DMany people reading this article are likely looking for a comparison between the Canon EOS 6D and the Canon EOS 5D Mark III in addi-tion to a review of the Canon EOS 6D. I won’t be providing a compre-hensive technical review of the two, as that’s been done elsewhere, however let’s take a look at a real-world feature comparison in order of importance for travel and landscape photographers, with GREEN having an advantage and RED having a disadvantage.

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Image QualityCANON EOS 5D MARK I I I

CANON EOS 6D

Size & WeightCANON EOS 6D

CANON EOS 5D MARK I I I

Durability & WeathersealingCANON EOS 5D MARK I I I

CANON EOS 6D

Lowlight Autofocus SensitivityCANON EOS 6D

CANON EOS 5D MARK I I I

Integrated GPSCANON EOS 6D

CANON EOS 5D MARK I I I

LCD QualityCANON EOS 5D MARK I I I

CANON EOS 6D

Battery LifeCANON EOS 5D MARK I I I

CANON EOS 6D

Integrated WiFiCANON EOS 6D

CANON EOS 5D MARK I I I

Number of Autofocus PointsCANON EOS 5D MARK I I I

CANON EOS 6D

CONCLUSION

IS THE 6D WORTH IT?In my opinion, the Canon 6D is one of the best ultralight full-frame cameras on the market, regardless of brand. Durable con-struction, excellent low-light AF and GPS are some of the key dif-ferentiators of the 6D that are likely to be included as features in future cameras, but for the present the 6D wins on those terms. For professional landscape photographers who are looking to retain extremely high image quality in the smallest form factor available, I’d highly recommend this camera.

Thanks for reading this review! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing, designing and shooting for it. If you have any questions or comments please let me know by commenting be-low. Some people just say that but I MEAN it! Email me directly: graham@breakthroughphotography.org

SAY HELLO!Did you find this review to be useful, interesting or did it help you save some valuable time? If so, AWESOME! That was the purpose of this review. For more reviews, news and articles just click on the link below to visit our website where I’m constantly coming out with new reviews, articles and videos. Be sure to say hello.

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GIVE BACK TO THE WORLDIf you found this review useful or if it has helped in your buying decision, consider buying your equipment from one of the stores below. We donate 100% of our affiliate commissions to World Wildlife Fund.

You don’t pay an extra dime, it comes out of the stores cut! Buy anything from the links below and start helping make the world a better place today.

Buy the Canon EOS 6D on AmazonBuy the Canon EOS 6D on B&H