Upgraded to EOS 6D - first impression & some questions

Wow I have upgraded to Canon 6D & 24-105. I sold my 24-70f2.8 and Tokina 12-24f4. I have given away my EOS 500D in the family after buying a 18-55 kit lens for it.

I have the camera for 3 days now and took it for a walk around in Bombay. My first impressions (I am a hobbyist with interest in people, portrait and landscape):

Camera manual says it is for two cameras, namely, EOS 6D (WG) and EOS 6D (N). My camera is WG, the N version is yet to be released. The N version will not be having GPS & WiFi.

The camera feels good. It is quick and easy to get used to all controls & menus on the camera

Underexposes. I am increasing brightness by 2-4 steps in DPP.

The shutter button has vague soft position beyond half press, as a result it gets clicked while you think you are still pressing. Question of getting used to.

The AF points are visible only through view finder. I wish it was also visible on rear LCD with some function setting. In my opinion, one decides on AF point before putting camera on eye. (Top LCD, I am yet to pay attention to it)

24-105 is equally good lens as my earlier 24-70. I am already missing f2.8. IS and additional 35 mm in FL is excellent. Also new lens does not look like a canon.

RAW file is ~ 24 MB and JPG file is ~ 13 MB (As against 18 & 6 MB for my 500D). Took few pics in mRAW setting and the RAW file size is approx 18 MB.

My immediate question are -

If I use mRAW (I dont need so many MB as I print small and usally view on screen only), is there any affect on sharpness, color & contrast. Does the camera reduce the RAW file by software or is it that some part of sensor is not used?? If there is no affect, what is the harm of using it (I agrre to all answers that memory is cheap - still the question)

Should I overexpose by 2/3 stop while taking photo or should I do it in PP.

edit: Plse link me to references on what to set on C1 & C2 settings.

As far a MRAW I believe that they pixel bin meaning they count 2 as 1. MRAW looks sharper to me and is slightly more noisy and doesn't crop as well.I always over expose by 1/3 stop-better than in post.

ssmanak wrote in post #15396739
Should I overexpose by 2/3 stop while taking photo or should I do it in PP.

If you truly need to consistently adjust exposure for every photo, then it is better to do it using exposure compensation as you take the photo.

Adjusting the exposure in PP will introduce some noise to your photo. Not very much if only a stop, but still a better idea to fix it in advance if you know it will be necessary.

^^ Agree. Whenever I take portraits, especially with a bright backgroud, I either compensate or switch to center-weighted metering if I will be taking several similar images.

Congrats on your new toy
I use mraw alot - with my shooting style i need raw for pp but not the extra pixels
I usualy set ec to +1/3
I also view the histogram to make sure i expose to the right

canon rookie wrote in post #15396758
As far a MRAW I believe that they pixel bin meaning they count 2 as 1. MRAW looks sharper to me and is slightly more noisy and doesn't crop as well.I always over expose by 1/3 stop-better than in post.

In laymans language, would pixle bin mean average value of two adjacent pixles and thereby meaning some processing on RAW data.

In actual usage the image size does'nt exactly halve, ie 24 MB (RAW) Vs 14 MB (mRAW).

I have discovered answer to one of my questions in OP. The AF points selection is visible in 'Q' mode.

Another Question. Which site do you register this camera with canon.

ssmanak wrote in post #15398735
I have discovered answer to one of my questions in OP. The AF points selection is visible in 'Q' mode.

Another Question. Which site do you register this camera with canon.

Glad you found it. There's actually a menu setting to display the AF point grid full time (small) on the back LCD. Further, you can set the directional pad to move focus point without having to press anything else, makes it really easy to change focus points on the fly using either viewfinder or back LCD.

You can then set the "lock" switch to lock the directional pad so that you don't accidentally change focus points while fiddling with the camera.

And by default (I.e., out of the box) if you press the top-right most button on the back of the camera, a large display appears on the back LCD allowing to use the top dial to change the focus point selection.

Mraw is just resized down, unless canon has changed something during raw storage as compared to other previous models. I would rather use more elaborate resizing algorithms myself instead of what is in camera. Also there are times where I was happy to have the full sized raw due to a periodic killer photo.