Before purchasing the 6D I owned a Canon 50D for about 5 years. I was pretty happy with that camera, but really wanted to take a step up to a camera with a full-frame sensor. The 24-105mm lens came bundled with the 6D body, but I was forced to purchase another wide angle lens as the Sigma 10-20mm I was using on the crop sensor 50D wasn't compatible with the new camera. I think the new Canon wide angle lens gives an overall sharper image than the Sigma lens, especially around the edges. Throughout this post I'll include some random sample images taken with the 6D and wide angle lens.
I've never owned any versions of the
Canon 5D or Canon 1DS, so I really can't accurately compare the quality or the features of the 6D against either of those camera models. The 6D wouldn't have the same build quality and apparently isn't as weather resistant, nor does it have quite as many features, but at a much cheaper price tag the 6D is an excellent camera to launch amateur and professional photographers alike into the world of full-frame photography.
After using this camera for around six months now I couldn't imagine going back to shooting with a crop sensor camera. There are many great crop sensor cameras out there (I'm not knocking them) but full-frame is so much better in my opinion. Even though the 50D is about 5 Megapixels less than the 6D, I found the images on the 50D quite grainy in comparison. Perhaps that's due to the quality of the sensor, I'm not sure, but definitely a lot less noise and grain with the 6D's images.
As I stated earlier, so far I've mostly used this camera for shooting landscapes (my preferred form of photography). I haven't done any portrait photography with it as yet, other than a couple of snapshots which came out okay (portrait photography is not my forte anyway). I did do a real estate shoot a few months back. My brother was selling his house so I photographed it for him. Below are a couple of sample shots from that shoot.
The shutter is quiet on the 6D and the read/write speed to the memory card is lightning fast. Admittedly I have a very fast SD card in the camera (and why not?), but the camera's communication with the card is instantaneous, even after a particularly long exposure. It took a little while to get used to the arrangement of the functions on the back of the camera, as the layout and functionality is somewhat different to what I was used to with the 50D, but now I actually prefer the layout and find the functionality easier to use than my old camera.
I've found the auto focus to be very sensitive in low light situations, which is definitely handy as I really don't like manual focusing. Lazy maybe, but the auto focus can see better than I can. There are plenty of features on this camera. Although I haven't used many of them yet, it's good to know they're there if I need them. I'm yet to utilize the GPS feature or to test out the camera's Wi-Fi capabilities, but I'm sure I will at some stage.
So far I haven't really found any negatives, anything I'm not happy with. It doesn't come with a built-in flash, which some photographers may find to be a minor inconvenience. Not everyone likes to mount a weighty
Speedlite on top of the camera, although the quality and control you get with a Speedlite is about 10,000 times better than any built-in flash unit. Sometimes it's handy just to be able to pop up that flash for a touch of fill light though. The only other very small criticism I would have is that the viewfinder doesn't quite cover 100% of what you are shooting. Apparently it's 97%, which is no big deal really.
Overall I'm really happy with the
Canon 6D so far. It's a lightweight unit, it's fast and accurate, the images are vibrant and sharp and I feel like a pro when I'm shooting with it. As time goes by and I use the camera more and more I'll either update this post with new thoughts, or create new posts on the camera's performance, as well as adding more sample images I've shot.
If anyone is interested in improving their landscape photography I recommend a great eBook on the subject:
The Science of Great Landscape Photography
