6D and 5Diii

2012 was my first season working solo. I think it went pretty well - with lots of help from you guys, of course. I started with a 50D and upgraded to a 5Dii mid-season. I was thrilled with the 5Dii. Over the winter I wanted to get another FF body and couldn't decide between another 5Dii, a 6D or a 5Diii, so I rented a 5diii and 6D. I still have the 6D for a few days.

Without posting a huge review, I can quickly say that the 6D is definitely an entry level FF body. While it *may* have better image quality (DR) and ISO performance over a 5Dii, it doesn't feel nearly as solid. Everything from the menus (which are different than the 5Diii) to the shutter sound tells me it's not built for weddings and events. Out of the box, all the exposure settings have automatic pop-up menus explaining how they affect your photograph. For example, in manual mode when you adjust the shutter speed, a dialogue box opens noting that slower shutter speeds cause motion blur and faster shutter speeds freeze action. It's obviously a body geared toward the novice.

I guess for some this was obvious, but it wasn't for me. I'm glad I rented both bodies before I made the decision. If anyone has any questions on the 6D let me know and I'll do my best to post any info I can before I send it back.

My 5Diii should arrive tomorrow I know it would have been a smart move to get another 5Dii so I had a matching pair, but after using the 5Diii I just couldn't pass it up. I was able to get it for $2,975.

great buy. i got my 5D3 body at peak of 3400....

I'm glad you wrote this, because I was kicking around the idea of settling for 6Ds after seeing this:

http://bydawnlight.zen​folio.com …33883/h4f37d3fc​#h4f3f6310

The 6D is not a bad body by any means, but when you handle it, it's clear it's not in the 5D family. Image quality is fantastic, as your post above notes. It's the lowest pixel density for a (Canon) FF sensor so I'm not surprised by the DXO marks or the noise samples you posted.

Based on my experience with all three, the 6D has superior low-light focus performance. I'm not talking about maybe or marginally, either. I also think the 5Dii has better low-light performance over the 5Diii, but the 5Diii image quality makes up for it. For what it's worth, I tried using the following 5Diii AF setups in both Case 1 and Case 2 AI Servo modes:

AF Point Expansion (manual selection)
AF Point Expansion (manual selection, surrounding points)
Zone AF

As awesome as the 5Diii is, I feel like it's overkill for me. I have to believe that a lot of it's cost is in the AF system and my style of shooting basically neglects it. Maybe I'll get used to it as time goes on and I'll be able to take advantage of it, but for now I'm in using that insane 61 point system in manual single point center.

PS - There is no one-button access to FEC on the 6D. Huge bummer for me. The only way to control FEC is through the menus on the 6D or the speedlite itself.

Actually, im pretty excited about the -3 EV in the 6D and glad to hear that it works.....that means its gonna be in the next 5D update or in a firmware update for the 5D3. I think canon could get it better for the 5D3. Its good but not what i would have expected, otherwise the 5D3 is about as perfect as you can get for wedding and portrait work.

No intrest in the 6D for me

umphotography wrote in post #15451976
Actually, im pretty excited about the -3 EV in the 6D and glad to hear that it works.....that means its gonna be in the next 5D update or in a firmware update for the 5D3. I think canon could get it better for the 5D3. Its good but not what i would have expected, otherwise the 5D3 is about as perfect as you can get for wedding and portrait work.

No intrest in the 6D for me

I would be ecstatic if a firmware update brought -3EV focusing to the 5Diii.

The 6D goes back tomorrow. It was interesting to get my hands on it, but it's not a body I want to stick with.

I'm also a center point user. In what way is the 5Dii better than the 5Diii in low light? It doesn't lock on targets as well? That could be a deal breaker for me.

I've only shot two small events with a 5Diii now, so my experience is limited - But from what I can tell the 5Dii seems to find focus in low light better than the 5Diii. For example, reception dancing shots.

I'm treading lightly because I don't want it to seem like I'm bashing the 5Diii. Now that I've used all three, the 5Diii would be my pick.

JohnThomas wrote in post #15453240
I've only shot two small events with a 5Diii now, so my experience is limited - But from what I can tell the 5Dii seems to find focus in low light better than the 5Diii. For example, reception dancing shots.

I'm treading lightly because I don't want it to seem like I'm bashing the 5Diii. Now that I've used all three, the 5Diii would be my pick.

I've heard that from others, Nicksan I think said the same. That is really hard to hear. It's hard to justify the expense, especially for two of them when something so crucial is going to get worse! I want the dual slots and the improved ISO performance, but it needs to kill it on shots like reception dancing shots.

I guess I need to rent one and check it out. Maybe I'll end up saving myself some money and stay a 5DII shooter.

snakeman55 wrote in post #15453298
I've heard that from others, Nicksan I think said the same. That is really hard to hear. It's hard to justify the expense, especially for two of them when something so crucial is going to get worse! I want the dual slots and the improved ISO performance, but it needs to kill it on shots like reception dancing shots.

I guess I need to rent one and check it out. Maybe I'll end up saving myself some money and stay a 5DII shooter.

Adam

Its not like its a problem. It is slower, just a bit, 5D2 locks quicker on the center point only.But its not gonna miss, especially in servo. The advantage is the cross points all hit where as 5D2 has 1 spot only and thats in the center. 1Dx is same way as far as i can tell. I would NEVER use servo on the 5D2 in low light. Not reliable at all. If it moves, put it in servo, 5D3 is gonna get it. processionals are the true tell all for the comparisons and really, these is no comparison. 5D3 wont miss in servo or one shot,,click off 8 and 8 are good to go,,5D2 was click off 8 and hope for 2,,, no comparison or contest for that matter.

snakeman55 wrote in post #15453298
I've heard that from others, Nicksan I think said the same. That is really hard to hear. It's hard to justify the expense, especially for two of them when something so crucial is going to get worse! I want the dual slots and the improved ISO performance, but it needs to kill it on shots like reception dancing shots.

I guess I need to rent one and check it out. Maybe I'll end up saving myself some money and stay a 5DII shooter.

I just shot a wedding last Sat. Experienced the same.

At first, i got a ST-E3 on the 5D2 +24-70L, another ST-E3 on the 5D3+35L. 2 off camera 600EX-RT. I can't lock focus quick enough on the 5D3. Then I put the flash onto the 5D3 -> works better with ETTL. But its faster from 5D2 than 5D3 at centre focus. (No DJ lights, just decent low lights).

Scott

From what I've read in my 5D3 manual, focusing in low light is much more reliable if you have the center AF point selected. This is nominally a pain in the ass but, when I'm shooting fast-action dance scenes, I'm much more likely to place my subjects in the center of the frame anyway, since I'm constantly changing which subjects I'm shooting and where they are in relation to my OCF lights. I've just picked up my first 5D3 last week and have a wedding next Saturday so I'm anxious to try it out. If it completely fails me, I still have a couple backup 5D2 bodies I can switch to.

Here is a little review of the 5D3 that I posted on Facebook. I just copied and pasted. It is freaking amazing. I liked it so much I bought a second one as I love to have two of the same bodies for weddings.

5D Mark III Camera review. All people who don't care about gear should tune out now.

I'll make it a short review as not to bore you guys but here it goes. First I'll summarize and say that the 5D3 is everything I wished my 5D2 was. Its simply amazing.

I'm going to base my experience with the wedding I shot this past weekend as I've only had it for a week at this point. The autofocus is amazing. It works perfect in servo or one shot, almost every single time. I used servo at the reception which was very dark like normal and I was used to about 30% keepers in these conditions but with the 5D3 it was about 90%. The servo focusing system is simply able to track people wonderfully and is fully customizable to fit exactly your needs in any situation.

Second is the dual card slots. This wedding I shot about 91 gigabytes. All of my photos were backed up to the SD card as a 5.5 megapixel jpeg. I put a 32 gig card in there that should hold about 16K images without having to format it. Its a HUGE piece of mind knowing that if i have a memory card fail I instantly have a backup that I could print a 16x20 with. Between the dual card slots and the amazing autofocus I'd say the upgrade right there is worth it alone.

Image quality is better. Is it tons better than the 5D2? No. Is it better? Yes. As many of you know the 5D2 suffered from pattern noise and shadow noise especially when you adjust exposure up, the noise would come out of the shadows and its was ugggggg-lyyyyyy. Not a problem anymore. Period. This really helps the real world dynamic range of the sensor as with the 5D2 you got shadow noise even at ISO 200 and 400, heck even 100 at times if you boosted the exposure. The files out of the 5D3 are much more forgiving allowing significantly more flexibility. With the sensor improvements I'd say that I can easily shoot at ISO 6400, even 12,800 in a pinch. Its about a half to 3/4 stop better than the 5D2 I'd say and the noise is much, much less blotchy and with almost no banding so the noise that is there is easily tamed with Lightroom and is much more pleasing to the eye bearing a close resemblance to film grain instead of digital horror.

Ergonomics... Amazing. The level of customization you can do to the camera and all of its buttons is FREAKING AWESOME. I could write a huge post on this alone. It is so easy to use and lets me do things that I didn't even think of before with my 5D2. One such example is the ability to switch between servo and one shot focus with the press of a button. I made this function to be activated using the DOF preview button. Its crazy. Here's how it works. Lets just say that your at a wedding (or whatever) and the bride and groom are introduced mr and mrs smith, they are standing still and your in one shot focus mode. Then they start walking down the isle to leave the church towards you. As they started towards me I simply pressed the button and it switched from one shot to servo just like that! It switches between servo to one shot or one shot to servo, what ever mode you happened to be in, it goes to the opposite you can track a bird in flight with servo and as soon as it lands, you press the button and it goes right to one shot for that perfect tack sharp shot with the bird perched. You simply hold the button in to keep the focus mode switched and when you release the button it goes back to the original focus mode. Its brilliant. there are many, many features that I could go on about but you get the idea.

Then there is the amazing LCD you can see in bright daylight, the 100% coverage viewfinder. Also, The larger rubber cup around the viewfinder like on canons 1 series bodies is more comfortable, the mode dial locks (which some hate I know) but I no longer bump it from M to Av or Tv, it stays whrere I put it.

Then there is the flash compatibility with the new 600EXRT flashes. I'm now able to shoot in Gr (group) mode. At this past wedding I was able to set two flashes on stands at either side of the reception hall at 1/8th power and have my on camera flash on ETTL bouncing off the ceiling for fill... all using the built in radio for triggering. Previously I had to have them all in ETTL or manual, I couldn't mix the modes. Not anymore. It was so nice to set flash power on the flashes on the stands right from my camera(which I could do with my 5D2) and then shoot with ETTL on camera. It lit the room almost perfectly every time, tons of glorious light bringing out the detail and balanced with the ambient to still maintain the atmosphere and ambiance of the venue. LOVE IT!!!

These are just a few of the improvements that I noticed, there are many many more but this is already the longest post I've ever had on FB. If anyone has any questions please feel free to let me know and I'd be happy to try and help. Now its back to my new problem... sooooo many tack sharp photos to pick from from the wedding. Later gators. =)

Thanks to everyone that weighed in. I'm definitely going to give it a try this year. Worse case scenario I go back to 5Diis which I was plenty happy with anyway.

gh patriot wrote in post #15456104
Second is the dual card slots. This wedding I shot about 91 gigabytes. All of my photos were backed up to the SD card as a 5.5 megapixel jpeg. I put a 32 gig card in there that should hold about 16K images without having to format it. Its a HUGE piece of mind knowing that if i have a memory card fail I instantly have a backup that I could print a 16x20 with. Between the dual card slots and the amazing autofocus I'd say the upgrade right there is worth it alone.

=)

With the 5D3, i can have Sandisk extreme pro SDHC 95mb/s and Lexar Professional 1000x CF cards. Reliable to the max!