canon eos 6d
The veteran 6D may be showing its age, but it still has a lot to offer, and is great value for money
The only Canon full-frame camera body to be classed as an ‘enthusiast’ rather than ‘professional’ model, the 6D is certainly budget-friendly. In some regions around the world, it’s barely more than half the price of the 5D Mk III, which sits on the next rung up the price ladder. Despite this, it has the same image processor, the same sensitivity range, and nearly as many megapixels at 20.2Mp compared with its big brother’s 22.3Mp.
The 6D isn’t the oldest camera body in Canon’s full-frame stable. It was announced all the way back in September 2012, but the 5D Mk III predates it by six months.
Build and handling
The smallest and most lightweight full-frame camera in Canon’s lineup, the 6D is only about three quarters of the weight of the 5D Mk III. The weight-saving is mainly due to the use of polycarbonate for the top section, instead of using magnesium alloy throughout. Even so, the 6D feels well-built and durable.
Despite its age, the 6D boasts built-in Wi-fi and GPS, both of which are lacking on the more upmarket 5D Mk III, 5DS and 5DS R. The GPS system enables you to automatically geotag your images, whereas Wi-fi benefits include wireless remote control from a PC, Mac or smartphone, as well as mobile image transfer. The new 5D Mk IV is the only other full-frame body to feature built-in Wi-fi.
The 6D’s Achilles’ heel is its autofocus system. This has a paltry 11 AF points, of which only the central point is cross-type, able to resolve detail in both horizontal and vertical planes for increased
accuracy. Unlike other cameras on test, autofocus is unavailable when using an f/8 teleconverter and lens combination. On the plus side, low-light autofocus works all the way down to EV -3, compared with the 5D Mk III’S EV 1. Other potential drawbacks are that the viewfinder fails to give full 100 per cent frame coverage, and shutter speeds top out at 1/4000 sec instead of the more usual 1/8000.
Performance
Along with the 5D Mk III, the 6D is an early adopter of Canon’s IFCL (intelligent Focus Colour Luminance) metering system. It’s generally accurate but, in Evaluative mode, prominence is heavily weighted to a tight area or areas in the scene that correspond with active AF points. This can give rise to unpredictable results.
For optimum autofocus accuracy, it’s best to stick to the central AF point, which some photographers might find rather limiting, especially for tracking moving subjects in action shots. The maximum drive rate of 4.5fps is also a little pedestrian for action shooting, but the 6D is only half a frame per second behind the 5DS and 5DS R. For low-light shooting, the 6D produces impressively noise-free images at high-iso settings, matching the 5D Mk III.