Canon 6D: Fixed the banding and plenty of DR?

In my testing so far, I have found the Canon 6D RAW files when put through ACR 7, can have the exposure lifted by 5 stops and banding is nowhere to be seen. Sure there is noise, but at 5 stops it is to be expected. For my landscape work, I never find myself lifting more than 3 stops, which my 5D2 would start to get fussy and start banding in the red channel. I have yet to find any banding at any ISO up to 1600 for pushing shadows. Obviously the DR begins to diminish with increased ISO, but so does Sony's sensors and they are all equal from ISO 800 and up for DR. I go up to ISO 800+ often for controlling shutter speed at dusk when doing landscapes, so in those cases, Canon and Sony are on equal ground.

It could be argued that the 6D has the best sensor Canon has ever made into production. High ISO is great and the DR is also great at ISO 100. I also find the color channels to be very balanced and not overly blown out in the reds like my 5D2 was.

Of course it would never hurt for Canon to make the DR better and better, but for my uses in doing landscape work, the available DR in the 6D is what I would have expected from the 5D2 had it not been so prone to banding, which ruins shadows pretty easily.

I might post some samples once I get more time to prove this, but in the meantime, I am thrilled that Canon has given a good look into improving every one of their sensors that have been delivered in the last year. They just keep getting better and better.

Any other 6D owners notice this too, or am I just lucky?

Yes, this is nteresting. I have read a couple of reviews already where they say that the 6D sensor is better than the 5D3 and 1DX sensor. Apparently, the 6D has the best DR ever from Canon.

Does anyone know where I can download a couple of ISO 100 RAW-files from the 6D? I'd like to see how they hold up when pushing shadows in Lightroom.

Canon_Lover, congrats on your new purchase. Just wanted to mention, if you know your way around around PS, taking a separate exposure and using a layer mask is usually much more effective than trying to lift shadows ime. It's good to know it's there when you need it though. Good on Canon.

I'll also do a test to see how much I can pull the highlights down while lifting shadows.

In my informal testing so far, it seems like the highlight has plenty of headroom too.

So, shoot in Neutral Style with the contrast reduced completely, and this will give a better indication in the RGB histogram on the camera as to how much you can shoot to the right. Even if shooting in RAW, always use neutral picture style with fully reduced contrast. Previous Canon's measured it off the JPG imbedded file, and not the RAW file itself, I believe. Please someone correct me if I am wrong.

Regardless, there is a lot of DR range there to suit many people's needs, including landscapes. Nikon's sensors still produce less noise when lifting shadows, but what Canon has delivered, is plenty for many cases.


Also, I am really loving how ACR 7 is handling the 6D RAW files. The color balance is something I would expect from a high grade color film and the 6D has very little of the digital look unless you really try hard to get it there.

RogerC11 wrote in post #15595335
Canon_Lover, congrats on your new purchase. Just wanted to mention, if you know your way around around PS, taking a separate exposure and using a layer mask is usually much more effective than trying to lift shadows ime. It's good to know it's there when you need it though. Good on Canon.

That is what I do 99.99% of the time anyways. But it doesn't hurt to be able to avoid exposure blending when you can lift the shadows a bit without fear. It saves some time when doing panoramas if you don't need to bracket every shot. Also exposure blending can get rather tricky when you have a complex border area that is full of tree branches or something. That has been the thorn in my PP side.

Canon_Lover wrote in post #15595351
So, shoot in Neutral Style with the contrast reduced completely, and this will give a better indication in the RGB histogram on the camera as to how much you can shoot to the right. Even if shooting in RAW, always use neutral picture style with fully reduced contrast. Previous Canon's measured it off the JPG imbedded file, and not the RAW file itself, I believe. Please someone correct me if I am wrong.

That is a great tip, but I always just use the blinkers, in order to see how much I can shoot to the right. I prefer that one, because it lets me know exactly what is burning out.

Thanks for starting this thread. I came on here today solely for the reason of comparing the 5D2 to the new 6D, as I'm currently using a 60D but will eventually upgrade to FF.

I mainly do Real Estate photography and some portraits so I wanted to find out how well the DR is on the 6D as well as if the 1/4000th max shutter speed is sufficient. I always use Exposure Blending and I'm fairly happy with my results but would love to be able to feel even more confident in regards to DR. I'm thinking the 6D'll fit the bill just right. All I need now is for them to start dropping in price!

Canon_Lover wrote in post #15595293
........
Any other 6D owners notice this too, or am I just lucky?

I haven't handled the 6D yet, but from all comparisons I've seen, it sure seems like it has a little bit better ISO performance than the 5D3 / 5D2.

It is not much, but at least its a small step in the right direction.

Osiriz wrote in post #15597730
I haven't handled the 6D yet, but from all comparisons I've seen, it sure seems like it has a little bit better ISO performance than the 5D3 / 5D2.

It is not much, but at least its a small step in the right direction.

True. And I do hope it's the last step they'll take with the 2007 sensor tech.

Ginga wrote in post #15598078
True. And I do hope it's the last step they'll take with the 2007 sensor tech.

It is rumored that Canon is taking a long time because they must retool their entire fabrication line for sensors from a 500nm process to a 180nm (or so) process. For the volume of sensors they must make, that is a huge undertaking, and could explain Canon's so progress in trumping the competition once again. For high ISO, they are still King, but not at low ISO.

What this means is that the new fabrication process will allow for smaller parts to be designed into their sensor arrays. Right now, there probably isn't enough room to fit technology that improves various aspects of sensor performance.

Once Canon makes that switch and starts implementing some of their new secret sauce, they could very well have something that is once again dominating the market in all categories.

I don't know much about sensor tech, but that is what I have been able to gather from people who are way smarter than I am.

Wondering if you've done any more testing with this(banding). I'm leaning more and more towards the 6d to replace my mkii because of this issue. Most of the research is showing a good improvement but the more info i can gather the better before making a decision.