CANON EOS 6D MARK II
Canon’s latest full-frame DSLR makes a significant upgrade on the original 6D, but can it compete in today’s market?
Almost five years after the original 6D was unveiled, Canon announced its replacement, the 6D Mark II. This new camera makes a significant upgrade on the original model with the pixel count jumping by 6 million to 26.2 million. What’s more, the full-frame sensor is a Dual Pixel CMOS AF device, which means it has phase-detection pixel embedded in it for use in video and Live View mode.
The sensor is paired with Canon’s latest processing engine, Digic 7, and together they enable a standard native sensitivity range of ISO 100-40,000 (with expansion settings taking it to ISO 50-102,400) and a maximum continuous shooting rate of 6.5fps for up to 21 RAW files or 150 JPEGs. Even at the time of its announcement, the original 6D’s AF system seemed a bit behind the curve and that has been upgraded to 45 AF points all cross-type system for the Mark II.
Canon hasn’t really pushed the boundaries on the video front, but the 6D Mark II is capable of recording Full HD footage at up to 60fps and it’s the first Canon camera to have a 4K time-lapse movie option. It’s also the first full-frame EOS model to have five-axis stabilisation available for movies.
While the Mark II is relatively lightweight and compact, it feels pretty solid and has a good, deep grip that you really appreciate when a long, heavy lens like a 70-200mm f2.8L or 100-400mm is mounted.
Canon has been swift to embrace touchcontrol but the 6D Mark II is the first fullframe DSLR from the manufacturer to have a vari-angle touchscreen. The touch-control implementation is excellent, allowing you to navigate menus and make selections as well as set AF point in Live View mode and zoom in and out or swipe through images. There’s also a healthy selection of buttons and dials on the camera body, but having the touch-control makes using the camera just that bit easier.
One feature that photographers with higher-level Canon SLRs will miss, however, is the mini-joystick control on the back of the camera – instead, you have to use the navigation pad to shift the AF point.
“The 6D Mark II’s AF system is very good and is able to get fast moving subjects sharp”
With a 26.2MP sensor the Canon 6D Mark II isn’t going to break any records for detail resolution, but at the lower sensitivity values it captures enough to produce impressive A3 or larger prints and noise is controlled well for much of the sensitivity range.
unless you really, really need to capture an image, it’s worth keeping the sensitivity to ISO 32,000 or lower as this ensures more natural-looking JPEGs and less noisy RAW files. Images shot at ISO 6,400 look good and although there’s a little noise visible when images are scrutinised at 100%, the results look great at normal viewing sizes.
As usual with Canon DSLRs, the Standard Picture Style usually produces attractive images with vibrant colours. Of the two Automatic White Balance settings, the Ambience Priority option generally produces the more attractive results in a range of conditions, but the White Priority comes in handy, especially in artificial light. In shade, however, the Daylight setting is usually the best choice as it makes images a bit warmer and more attractive.
When the viewfinder is used to compose images exposure metering is informed by a 7560-pixel RGB+IR sensor. Interestingly, in its Evaluative mode this system handles bright scenes very well, but it struggles a bit more with dark backgrounds and you need to keep an eye on the highlights.
Experimenting with exposure reveals that the 6D Mark II’s dynamic range is a little limited and it’s best to avoid the need to brighten shadows or dark images by more than 2EV post-capture. Ideally, you’d expose to the right to have as much detail as possible in the shadows without burning the highlights.
Better news is that the 6D Mark II’s main AF system is very good and is able to get fast moving subjects sharp and keep them that way as they move around the frame provided that they are covered by the active points. Canon’s low-light claims for the system also ring true and the cross-type points appear to help in low contrast.
As is often the case, if you can keep a single focus point over the subject the AF system delivers the highest hit rate. Expanding the area to Zone AF gives you a little more latitude with targeting while still keeping the camera on-track. using Large Zone AF or Automatic Selection AF reduces the hit rate with fast-moving subjects but if they are moving erratically they may be the best options.