Luminous Landscape Forum

Equipment & Techniques => Cameras, Lenses and Shooting gear => Topic started by: marc on October 17, 2012, 05:51:31 am

Title: Canon 5D II vs 6D differences
Post by: marc on October 17, 2012, 05:51:31 am
I'm looking to pick up a full frame Canon and the 5D II and 6D are the ones within my budget. I'm trying to get a handle of the differences between the two, perhaps I can get some help here from those who have knowledge about them.

The 6D seems smaller and with some plastic in the build, not sure if the build is actually worse?
Shutter speed reduced to 1/4000 from the 1/8000 in the 5D (not happy about this)
The 6D has an option for a more quiet shutter? (I like this a lot)
Removal of a couple of buttons, noticably for me the focus point selection joystick (a negative)
The GPS in the 6D is a nice plus

Any word yet on the focus point spread and abilities between the two? I'm quite disappointed to hear that apparently the focus points are all packed together in the 6D, I rarely focus near the centre, and focus-recompose doesn't work for me (too limited dof). Which leaves manual focus, but that's tricky for the speed I usually need. Does the 6D offer replacement focusing screens?

Any other differences I may have missed?
Title: Re: Canon 5D II vs 6D differences
Post by: gullevek on December 16, 2012, 03:02:46 am
The AF is for sure much better than the 5D MkII (which has the most appalling AF ever), but it still has a similar layout. Both have a diamond shape one, but the 6D has two more left and right of the center point. If you need anything better than pure center point focus, save up for the 5D MkIII

It feels more plastic, because of the bult in GPS (at least that what the rumors say).
Title: Re: Canon 5D II vs 6D differences
Post by: Jeremy Roussak on December 16, 2012, 03:41:36 am
...the 5D MkII (which has the most appalling AF ever)

I'm not sure that such silly comments improve your credibility.

Jeremy
Title: Re: Canon 5D II vs 6D differences
Post by: gullevek on December 19, 2012, 04:00:20 am
Well, it has a pretty bad AF compare to other cameras around this time. It is pretty much the same AF system that was in the 5D. And if you ever tried to shoot in more darker scenarios the AF can be pretty much frustrating.
Title: Re: Canon 5D II vs 6D differences
Post by: John Gellings on December 19, 2012, 07:44:47 am
Well, it has a pretty bad AF compare to other cameras around this time. It is pretty much the same AF system that was in the 5D. And if you ever tried to shoot in more darker scenarios the AF can be pretty much frustrating.

I guess you never used some of the slower AF mirrorless cameras?
Title: Re: Canon 5D II vs 6D differences
Post by: MrSmith on December 19, 2012, 10:26:40 am
The 5dII AF is very poor once you venture outside the central AF zone. The MKIII is a massive improvement, I don't have to shoot much moving stuff and mostly use live view but recently I had to shoot some surfers on a wave machine which despite probably not using the ideal tracking settings there was only about 2 OOF out of 100+ shots the rest were bang on.
I was quite impressed, no way would the MkII return the same number in focus.
Title: Re: Canon 5D II vs 6D differences
Post by: scooby70 on December 19, 2012, 03:59:22 pm
Well, it has a pretty bad AF compare to other cameras around this time. It is pretty much the same AF system that was in the 5D. And if you ever tried to shoot in more darker scenarios the AF can be pretty much frustrating.

I must have a good one...

I've used my 5D for night shooting and not had a problem. If later Canon cameras have the same focus system they may lag other manufacturers but that in itself doesn't make them bad... and certainly I've not had any great issues.

If I knew how to post an example night shot, I would :D
Title: Re: Canon 5D II vs 6D differences
Post by: William Walker on December 20, 2012, 06:37:14 am

If I knew how to post an example night shot, I would :D

It's exactly the same as posting an example of a day shot ;)