Upgrading 6D to 5D mkIII or D750/D810 for focus

gossamer88 wrote in post #18101271
Your 24-70 mk ii needs IS All kidding aside, probably needs MA. Have you tried that?

Ya I need to up my shutter speed and get an IS lens lol. I have adjusted the lens once, but maybe I didn't do a good job of it and should try once again.

Charlie wrote in post #18101263
focus recompose, 24mm has a lot of dof. Shutter speed 1/125 would be preferable.

Will try Tv mode next time and make sure I keep my shutter at least at 1/125.

Cobaltforge wrote in post #18101228
I was using burst mode for action shots. Even though she's 90 she's quite spry for her age and was making sure to dance with everyone. However, here are 2 pictures that I took. The first solo one seems better than the group one. The cake seems to be the focus point on the group shot even though I was aiming at the people.

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While I agree that I could always improve on technique, the focus issues I was having a year ago had to do with not understanding the shallow DOF of my camera and lens combo. While I think the 6D is a great camera and a lot of my "issues" could be due to technique, at the end of the day, I'm tired of relying on focus and recompose for my shots.

how much effort have you given to using another point on the 6D? I can't get my EXIF viewer to work on POTN anymore so I am a little hampered with my efforts to provide solid advice. Were these using AI Servo with center point? They are definitely both front focused, but hard to say why. If you aren't confident in your AFMA then that should be your starting point. If you can open them in Canon DPP it will show you which focus point was selected.


when I can use ISO 100, i do, but 200 is indistinguishable from 100 and 400 is fine unless you need to crop 50 percent of the image out and blow it up to 11x14. Not that I think that is really an issue here.

I'm going out with my 8 year old twin sons today and will do my best to come back with some solid advice and evidence that the 6D focusing is not nearly as bad as the internet tells you it is.

I just recently sold my 6D in anticipation of the 5dIV or grabbing a 7dII aroudn Black Friday. I tended to focus and recompose with my f/4 lenses but found that my EF 85mm f/1.8 did just fine with the peripheral AF points. I never really tried the 50 f/1.2L.. don't push your luck

Left Handed Brisket wrote in post #18101692
If you can open them in Canon DPP it will show you which focus point was selected.

Left Handed, I realized that you replied to my sharpness thread over a year ago, thanks! I learned a lot from that first post. Here is a screen grab from DPP for both pictures showing the focus points.

Cobaltforge wrote in post #18102925
Left Handed, I realized that you replied to my sharpness thread over a year ago, thanks! I learned a lot from that first post. Here is a screen grab from DPP for both pictures showing the focus points.

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you're welcome! I like to help out, even if i may seem a little short on patience sometimes. You might want to go back to that year ago image and check your focus points on it too.

so clearly you were not in One Shot / Center point at the birthday party. Do you think you were in Servo? You can dig this info out of the EXIF data, but I don't know exactly where to find the focus info.

Hate to be that guy, but the user error you are experiencing is a great example of why/how the 6D has been tagged as a not so good focusing camera. That's not to say it doesn't have some focusing shortcomings, but unless you are really asking it to do a lot, it does a darn good job.

I really think there is just something you are missing or misunderstanding about how to set up the 6D focus system, and honestly, until you get a good understanding of how it works and in what situations to use what settings, moving on to another camera is just going to make it all that much more frustrating.

Using all focus points on any camera is a recipe for disaster, usually. Both frames above are focused on the cake. At this distance you'd need to be f/11-f/16 to have any hope of getting everything in focus.

Commentary on photos is generally more spot-on relevant and to the point if you include EXIF.

I use a 6D. It is hands-down the best focusing camera I've ever used, in One-Shot. I use some slow zooms and a handful of moderately (f/1.8) primes. The 6D is dead-on, every time, with every lens I own. Even in AI-Servo, if I stick to the center point, the 6D is better than the 7D, and maybe better than the 1DIV. Using all/peripheral points on the 6D in AI-Servo has not worked well for me, even in daylight. In the two shots above, the 6D is capable of hitting EXACTLY where you want it to focus, if you do your part. One-Shot, center-point only, and f/5.6 - f/8 focused on the birthday girl's face would have gotten everyone in focus.

all focus points will grab the nearest item (cake). Use single select point with outer points on something contrasty or center point and recompose. All points will screw up on any camera unless it has face/eye detection like the mirrorless cameras.

I think instead of switching cameras, you would be better served reading the parts of the 6D camera manual on focusing and also watching a few youtube videos on focusing a 6D. There doesn't appear to be anything wrong with the camera focus a proper setting wouldn't fix. I shoot models all the time with a Canon 600D and have no problems using the single outer points, and the 6D focus system is much better.

troehr wrote in post #18103108
I think instead of switching cameras, you would be better served reading the parts of the 6D camera manual on focusing and also watching a few youtube videos on focusing a 6D. There doesn't appear to be anything wrong with the camera focus a proper setting wouldn't fix. I shoot models all the time with a Canon 600D and have no problems using the single outer points, and the 6D focus system is much better.

600D is all cross points, isn't it? The 6D's peripheral points are linear. My 60D did AI-Servo better than the 6D does.

No, only the center point is a crosspoint on the Canon 600D. Also, AI Servo is not needed for the samples posted. I can track five people standing behind a cake just fine with a single point.

Left Handed Brisket wrote in post #18102981
so clearly you were not in One Shot / Center point at the birthday party. Do you think you were in Servo? You can dig this info out of the EXIF data, but I don't know exactly where to find the focus info.

Definitely not one shot/center point. Possibly AI Servo, but more likely AI Focus, unfortunately couldn't find it in EXIF data.

Bassat wrote in post #18103068
Using all focus points on any camera is a recipe for disaster, usually. Both frames above are focused on the cake. At this distance you'd need to be f/11-f/16 to have any hope of getting everything in focus.

Commentary on photos is generally more spot-on relevant and to the point if you include EXIF.

I use a 6D. It is hands-down the best focusing camera I've ever used, in One-Shot. I use some slow zooms and a handful of moderately (f/1.8) primes. The 6D is dead-on, every time, with every lens I own. Even in AI-Servo, if I stick to the center point, the 6D is better than the 7D, and maybe better than the 1DIV. Using all/peripheral points on the 6D in AI-Servo has not worked well for me, even in daylight. In the two shots above, the 6D is capable of hitting EXACTLY where you want it to focus, if you do your part. One-Shot, center-point only, and f/5.6 - f/8 focused on the birthday girl's face would have gotten everyone in focus.

I agree that I probably shouldn't have been at f/2.8. What EXIF data I could include is on page 1. I usually stick with one-shot center focus point only. I messed up the settings on these shots as I had a flash attached and changed the dial out of Av.

Charlie wrote in post #18103073
all focus points will grab the nearest item (cake). Use single select point with outer points on something contrasty or center point and recompose. All points will screw up on any camera unless it has face/eye detection like the mirrorless cameras.

Make sense as it's clear that it's the cake that's in focus.

Left Handed Brisket wrote in post #18102981
I really think there is just something you are missing or misunderstanding about how to set up the 6D focus system, and honestly, until you get a good understanding of how it works and in what situations to use what settings, moving on to another camera is just going to make it all that much more frustrating.

I think if I stick to One-Shot, center point, I tend to nail focus. I must have turned the dial to a setting outside of Av (where I usually shoot at) and it must have led to this. Also, I had a flash on to bounce off the ceiling.

And I understand the point you're making about moving to another camera. Especially to the point that Charlie makes below in that the camera is trying to grab the nearest focus point, in this case, the cake. I think that in the rush of making sure that I was capturing all of the action, I didn't take the time to check if my shots were in focus, which certainly is my mistake. I think most of my frustrations came in post when I found that I didn't have many pictures in focus during the cake cutting. Again, I acknowledge that it's not the camera but user error.

However, my question to everyone that has been so kind to respond to this post is, say I upgrade to a camera with more cross-type focus points. Even with say the 5D3 and using the center focus point with the outside surrounding focus points assisting the center, would that not help in situations where I want to make sure that I get focus on faces during action? Most of my subjects (my kids) are somewhat stationary now, but as they get into sports, I'm thinking about having the extra flexibility of additional cross type focus points. Thoughts?

Also, going to back to one-shot and center focus point only. These two photos were taken with the 85L that I rented. I think focus is pretty good considering they were both taken at f/1.2. So I agree that it's not a camera issue, rather more of a user issue in the previously attached photos. I think what's leaving me wanting for more focus points is thinking that having them would equal more freedom in moving shots. Dunno, probably disillusioned about this, but would love to hear everyone's thoughts.

Amazing info being shared in this thread, made me pick up my 6D and go shoot again.