Rebel T6 problems

My boss just bought a T6 to replace the Rebel XT that just died (after what I estimate to be around 200,000 images - he got his money's worth). We don't print higher that 5" x 5" so we really don't need a higher-end camera.

The old Rebel did have some issues with a slight yellow color cast, not sure if that was from new or due to the age, but other than that, the files were quite nice, easy to process, and clean at 100 ISO for product photos, even though it was only 8 MP.

The new T6, at 18 MP, however has horrible files, 'crunches' the darks and doesn't seem to have as wide a DR as the old camera, with a lot of noise even with minimal lightening, and also has an intermittent extreme yellow color cast that only appears every once in a while. Several people use this camera and do change the settings for other uses, but I check and the settings remain at 'Faithful' (we only shoot jpegs). The files actually look more like cell phone files than a DSLR. I don't shoot RAW as my colleagues don't know how to process them.

It seems to have biases with certain colors true and others (reds, for instance) coming out very dark even when exposed properly.

Quite frankly, the quality of the camera itself and the files are much worse than the old Rebel XT, and I'm wondering if others have found this to be true - I am really surprised at how bad the images are. Is this a bad unit? The kit lens that came with it also needs to be calibrated - very soft in AF mode, although manual's ok.

Cheers, all opinions welcomed.

From your description these problems sound more like the result user error and/ or settings. Especially with many different people using the same camera. Many of which may not have any idea how to use it. It's possible someone went into the menu and altered settings there.

You might try resetting everything to default and shoot some tests.

I had a 500D (T1i) and a 600D (T3i)......both were great cameras and made superb pictures. So I would think the T6 would be able to return very satisfactory results for you.

Color cast? White balance. User error.
Issues with noise when "lightening" (ie, raising exposure in post). User error.
Issues with color saturation shooting JPG with a preset. User error.
Soft in "AF mode" but sharp when manual. AF settings & point selection (probably on "all"). User error.

Overall everything described sounds like total user error. This is always going to be an issue with a group of people that really don't know what they're doing with a camera in terms of actually understanding exposure and how things work with the camera (metering, focus point selection, etc). All "green box" errors that are repeatable.

Instead of spending a bunch of money on a camera, I would suggest everyone take a 15 minute crash course in understanding the tool they're using for product photography.

Make it fun.

Very best,

I agree with the others. All of the problems being blamed on the camera are most likely user errors. I've had a bunch of Canon cameras, some for regular use, some for testing, some just to play with for a few weeks. They include:

450D, 500D, 50D, 60D, 70D, 80D, 5D, 7D, 1D, 1DII, 1DIII, 1DIV, and probably others I've forgotten about. I couldn't tell the files of one camera from the files of another without looking at EXIF, especially at normal computer monitor viewing sizes.

Cameras don't generally have the problems you are having, photographers do. Color cast, exposure, saturation, and noise are all controlled by the camera's operator. Color cast is a white balance problem, exposure is a knowledge/experience problem, saturation is a settings problem, noise is affected by ISO, but is predominantly an exposure problem.

Thanks for your replies everyone, sorry I'm so late in answering.

You guys are right, user error on the camera color cast- I did a reset and that problem disappeared. This cam isn't very intuitive IMO in it's settings menu.

On the image quality, I have to differ - the images come out exactly like cell phone sensor pics - I deal with those every day and know that look very well. The T6 files look exactly like them. The difference in MP size does not account for this, and I have owned a Rebel XT which produced beautiful files. I'm not particularly into pixel peeping either, but the differences were immediately obvious.

greyswan wrote in post #18222089

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So, is this normal? These are product photos taken under constant, unchanging light with exactly the same settings and ISO.

Thanks for your help, and to all, a very Merry Christmas!

Based on just these two images, truthfully the T6 image looks better.

Have you done an in depth comparison of the EXIF for both images? Perhaps some other setting will be evident.

Are you still shooting the Faithful picture style, and why? Faithful is noted to have low contrast and primarily reproduces colors close to that seen with the naked eye. No sharpening or contrast adjustments are accomplished in the final image. Personally, if you are doing minimal post processing and not using RAW, I suspect you might be more happy with Standard.

For more on picture styles see http://www.canon.co.jp …style/style/fai​thful.html. Toggle among the descriptions by clicking on the styles in the upper left corner.

In the description of Faithful for the T1, Canon states "This is for users who prefer to process images with their personal computer. When the subject is captured under a color temperature of 5200K, the color is adjusted colorimetrically to match the subject's color. The image is dull and subdued."

By the way, on the T5 I think the default picture style is "Auto" in which the camera analyzes the scene and determines which Picture Style is the most appropriate. Is that the case with the T6. Are you sure you are shooting with what you want?

Hi John, thanks for replying.

The XT image was sized up (stretched in PS) to match the image size of the T6 - it is a little softer for that, but the quality is a smooth, non -grainy image at 100% that is quite sharp at it's natural size. I can't agree that the T6 image looks better - it's a randomised noisy grain that doesn't process well at all. I do use Neutral settings, so that should not produce this effect. Darks are also very crunchy, with no subtle tones at all. I shoot full manual so there's no camera decision involved.

I have taken thousands of product photos with the old XT - I do realise that a smaller MP sensor is easier in many ways to process, and I've taken thousands of images from my own XS, 50d and 5DMK2. They look nothing like this. It looks like a high-ISO image rather than 100 ISO.

I haven't tested RAW on this particular camera.

Cheers, and thanks for the input.

I would suggest that if those two images were taken with the same settings that the rated ISO for the T6 is on the low side, I get the feeling that you would need to boost the exposure by about 2/3 to a stop to bring it up to match the other shots brightness. Underexposing is always a very bad idea, as it will always make the noise look bad. I also think that you seem to be trying to give the new camera a hard time, since your comparisons are poor. You should really reduce the resolution of the newer camera to match the old one, or use a subject with a much higher level of detail, so that you can benefit from the increase in resolution, assuming that your lenses are capable of making use of that added resolution. As it is with the subjects that you have chosen, you could use very heavy NR on the higher resolution image with zero detrimental effect, since you don't actually have any detail there to lose.

So I would sort out your apparent exposure mismatch, and also use identical targets and crops, since there seems to be a difference in the images too. That will give you a better comparison. Also I would look at the final image as it will be posted to make the comparison, not with 100% crops. Who cares what the pixels look like when it is the image that matters. You wouldn't make a 10×8 print from one camera and compare it to a 16×12 print from another, but that is about what you do when you compare these two cameras on screen at 100%!

Alan

Thanks for your thoughts BigAl.