Canon 6D Does Skiing Shots

Bakewell wrote in post #16599517
Very nice shots! Hard to believe they came from a 6D and it's notorious focus system! You must have a good copy of the 6D!

I don't know what's notorious about the focus system, my 6D performs on par with the OPs. Most of the negativity is from people who have never used one.

eddieb1 wrote in post #16604425
I don't know what's notorious about the focus system, my 6D performs on par with the OPs. Most of the negativity is from people who have never used one.

I've had one for a good while. 8.5 months now.

Coming from a 7D/60D it's not the same. It's center point is pretty darn good but outer points are same from a rebel. Sure they work but not like the 7D outer points.

Mine work fine in daylight, high contrast shots. Low light eh, not so much. These shots the OP posted are probably pretty easy considering the contrast is very high against the snow.

First of all -- great shots! More than anything else I love how the colors pop. I am impressed by how the photos look but not really that shocked a 6D was used. If you can't sell at least one of those... well I don't know why.

After reading this entire thread I am convinced some of you don't even know why a cross type point is better.

As simply as possible, a focusing point works best when it sees something contrasty at a 90 degree angle to the point. Think of your focusing point located by the little boxes looking like this ---> [|]
Put that on a wrinkle in a jacket, a strap going across the chest, or pretty much anything that crosses it and it will lock on. The higher the contrast the faster it will lock. If you try to focus on something that only has contrast vertically the outer points are going to have trouble. I don't see an extreme lack of horizontal contrast in these photos.

Now what if you are trying to focus on a row of fence posts in the distance that look like this --> IIIIIII
That is where the cross type sensor that looks like this will help ---> [+]
Since it can look for contrast either horizontally or vertically it should, in theory, lock on twice as fast or twice as often.

Is the center point better? Yes, some might say twice as good. Are the outer points useless? Certainly not if you know how they work and understand their limitations.

As for AI Servo & One Shot-- Servo "expects" a moving subject & One Shot "expects" a still subject. Use them in the wrong situation and the focus may freak out a litle. The AI stands for Artificial Intelligence so the focus trys to predict where the subject will be in addition to where it currently is. AI Focus takes a little extra time and decides if the camera should use Servo or One Shot and picks the one it thinks is correct.

Sure, you can spend an extra $1000 for the 5D3 or you could get results like the OP if you understand what the 6D is really capable of.

Imagine lining up all the cameras in the history of the universe by rank of AF capability. Where's the 6D? It's about .000000010% behind the 5DIII. And about .000000011% behind the most advanced focus system ever developed.
That's one reason these ski shots came out so awesome. The extraordinary AF.

I'm going out on Saturday to shoot more skiing shots (unfortunately not in powder, thanks to a couple weeks of sunny weather coming up), but I'll make a point of using the outer focus points with AI Servo. The images won't be as exciting, but I'm happy to post my results and observations later this weekend.

Blaster6 wrote in post #16604542
First of all -- great shots! More than anything else I love how the colors pop. I am impressed by how the photos look but not really that shocked a 6D was used. If you can't sell at least one of those... well I don't know why.

After reading this entire thread I am convinced some of you don't even know why a cross type point is better.

As simply as possible, a focusing point works best when it sees something contrasty at a 90 degree angle to the point. Think of your focusing point located by the little boxes looking like this ---> [|]
Put that on a wrinkle in a jacket, a strap going across the chest, or pretty much anything that crosses it and it will lock on. The higher the contrast the faster it will lock. If you try to focus on something that only has contrast vertically the outer points are going to have trouble. I don't see an extreme lack of horizontal contrast in these photos.

Now what if you are trying to focus on a row of fence posts in the distance that look like this --> IIIIIII
That is where the cross type sensor that looks like this will help ---> [+]
Since it can look for contrast either horizontally or vertically it should, in theory, lock on twice as fast or twice as often.

Is the center point better? Yes, some might say twice as good. Are the outer points useless? Certainly not if you know how they work and understand their limitations.

As for AI Servo & AI Focus -- Servo "expects" a moving subject & Focus "expects" a still subject. Use them in the wrong situation and the focus may freak out a litle. The AI stands for Artificial Intelligence so the focus trys to predict where the subject will be in addition to where it currently is.

Sure, you can spend an extra $1000 for the 5D3 or you could get results like the OP if you understand what the 6D is really capable of.

Good post. but sometimes it's not that easy. If you have contrast in the ||||| orientation, and you wanted to focus on with the outer points, you could use the turn the camera to a vertical position, focus, and then recompose, but what if your subject was moving, or you didn't have much time, or you moved a little therefore your DOF was off. So while you understand the limitations, sometimes it's very hard to overcome them.
Not taking anything away from the OP, those are very nice shots, but they are not terribly taxing on the AF.

The 6D is a thousand bucks cheaper than the 5D3 for a reason. It does not have all the bells and whistles that the 5D3 does. Just like 1DX is more than double the price of the 5D3 for a reason - it has bells and whistles that the 5D3 doesn't. Not sure why this is such a big issue to some people.

It has been demonstrated that the 6D has great IQ and does a pretty good job of focusing in many situations. I am sure that are very challenging situations that the 6D won't do as well but the 5D3 will. Of course! That's why it is a grand more expensive - I sure hope it is better at some things, otherwise why won't anyone buy it?

If people feel limited by a given model, then upgrade to the next higher one. Simple as that. Why come into a thread and point out the obvious - that the model in question isn't as good as the next higher one? Of course it isn't. The question is - is it good enough to get the job done for the person using it?

Scrumhalf wrote in post #16604627
The 6D is a thousand bucks cheaper than the 5D3 for a reason. It does not have all the bells and whistles that the 5D3 does. Just like 1DX is more than double the price of the 5D3 for a reason - it has bells and whistles that the 5D3 doesn't. Not sure why this is such a big issue to some people.

It has been demonstrated that the 6D has great IQ and does a pretty good job of focusing in many situations. I am sure that are very challenging situations that the 6D won't do as well but the 5D3 will. Of course! That's why it is a grand more expensive - I sure hope it is better at some things, otherwise why won't anyone buy it?

If people feel limited by a given model, then upgrade to the next higher one. Simple as that. Why come into a thread and point out the obvious - that the model in question isn't as good as the next higher one? Of course it isn't. The question is - is it good enough to get the job done for the person using it?

Amen!

tmoore99 wrote in post #16604543
That's one reason these ski shots came out so awesome. The extraordinary AF.

Of course you have to give the photographer a little credit too.

It really is a great focus system but when half the people who comment on it don't own a 6D and the other 49% are owners who don't understand how to properly use the technology. It is no wonder everyone thinks they need a 5D3 to take a picture of their dog. Imagine your disappointment if you couldn't get an in focus shot with a 5D3 either.

ilumo wrote in post #16604606
Not taking anything away from the OP, those are very nice shots, but they are not terribly taxing on the AF.

Exactly. They are not taxing on the AF at all. People think that the speed or movement is the issue but there are more than enough places to lock focus with any type of point in these photos.

It certainly isn't as difficult as an architecture shot with mostly vertical lines. At least buildings generally move slow enough for me to deal with the issue before the shot is missed.

Scrumhalf wrote in post #16604627
The 6D is a thousand bucks cheaper than the 5D3 for a reason. It does not have all the bells and whistles that the 5D3 does. Just like 1DX is more than double the price of the 5D3 for a reason - it has bells and whistles that the 5D3 doesn't. Not sure why this is such a big issue to some people.

It has been demonstrated that the 6D has great IQ and does a pretty good job of focusing in many situations. I am sure that are very challenging situations that the 6D won't do as well but the 5D3 will. Of course! That's why it is a grand more expensive - I sure hope it is better at some things, otherwise why won't anyone buy it?

If people feel limited by a given model, then upgrade to the next higher one. Simple as that. Why come into a thread and point out the obvious - that the model in question isn't as good as the next higher one? Of course it isn't. The question is - is it good enough to get the job done for the person using it?

Well, it is a gear forum, so you will always have those guys interjecting. And then you will have guys who own the mentioned "inferior" equipment who want to defend their product. It keeps things interesting
I agree with not stating the obvious. If you don't want a "debate", just ignore it.

totally awesome shots OP

i don't think the 6d/5d3/1dx has anything to do with the shots on display here, i'm sure OP can produce with a rebel in his hands :-/

Blaster6 wrote in post #16604658
Of course you have to give the photographer a little credit too.

It really is a great focus system but when half the people who comment on it don't own a 6D and the other 49% are owners who don't understand how to properly use the technology. It is no wonder everyone thinks they need a 5D3 to take a picture of their dog. Imagine your disappointment if you couldn't get an in focus shot with a 5D3 either.

well that's the difference between the 6D and the 5D3, no need to learn how the points work

it either will or it wont work, where the 6D will, or wont, or can be adjusted to work

some of us can make it work, and some cant and willing to pay the premium. I wont knock on them for making the jump, it just simplifies one segment of photography for them. My BIL did exactly that, he made huge jumps in gear, bought top notch gear. His results stayed the same, but at least he can stop blaming his gear

eddieb1 wrote in post #16604425
I don't know what's notorious about the focus system, my 6D performs on par with the OPs. Most of the negativity is from people who have never used one.

I couldn't agree more. Sorry, I was being facetious and I apologize for that not being obvious.

Bump with a few more shots... yesterday was a storm skiing day, with snow falling almost constantly throughout the morning (and crappy light as well). I didn't take as many shots but the 6D/28-135mm combo nailed focus on all the shots again, in significantly worse conditions. Here are a few from the day... 26" in 36 hours:

IMAGE LINK: http://www.stevemokanp​hotography.com …Day-wON3P-Jan/i-xV6D3NJ/A

IMAGE LINK: http://www.stevemokanp​hotography.com …Day-wON3P-Jan/i-mdcNzbx/A

IMAGE LINK: http://www.stevemokanp​hotography.com …Day-wON3P-Jan/i-Ss3Ldcm/A

IMAGE LINK: http://www.stevemokanp​hotography.com …Day-wON3P-Jan/i-Sp49DXc/A

IMAGE LINK: http://www.stevemokanp​hotography.com …Day-wON3P-Jan/i-c366Cfd/A