Thanks for the update. Since you have been quiet lately, I figured you
were upping the shutter count on the 6D.
Jim Nichols
Tullahoma, TN USA
On 8/22/2016 11:31 AM, Ken Norton wrote:
I am very impressed by people who are able to get a new camera, shoot
25 pictures, spend 30 minutes with it and come away with a list of
reasons why it is either the cat's meow, or is the kitty litter. And
they turn around and sell the camera and move on to the next great
thing that just came on the market. While I'm pretty good at the quick
review, it does take time to get past the surface and learn the
oddities and truly get in the head of the designer.
I've shot a couple thousand pictures in the 6D now and and fully
convinced that it will take closer to 20 thousand pictures before I
really get a handle on this camera. But there are some trends emerging
that I'm learning to embrace or figure out my workarounds. This is not
a comprehensive review of the 6D, but is a rolling thought process.
Without a doubt, the 6D has a VERY good sensor. While it does have an
AA filter, it does not get in the way of "pixel-sharpness" one you hit
the sharpness slider in Lightroom. I'm not encountering any artifacts
in the real-world pictures, so that's refreshing. However, I've run
into more Chromatic Aberration than I'm used to. The filter-stack on
the sensor is contributing to it, as well as some vignetting. No
show-stoppers, but a general awareness of the presence. At this point,
I haven't seen any issues with the 28/2, but I will consider the jury
still out on that one for now. meanwhile, the 35-80 zoom has
practically been glued to the camera. What a lovely combination.
The auto-white-balance of the 6D is simply horrid. Tungsten lighting
is a total misread for this camera. While my other cameras also
struggle, at least they get in the neighborhood once in a while.
According to the various "Fora", this is a typical complaint of the 6D
and other Canons sharing the same AWB system. The one complaint I
really have about the Canon bodies, when it comes to white-balance is
the lack of a single-touch white-balance function like we do with the
Olympus and Panasonic cameras. Speaking of white-balance, the color
balance of the Canon is certainly different from the Olympus in that
the color shifting is more along the blue-red/magenta spectrum instead
of blue-red/orange spectrum of the Olympus. The Olympus will go warm
where the Canon goes industrial. My general feeling is that the Canon
doesn't know what to do with orange/yellow.
B&W conversion. The 6D is actually very good when it comes to B&W
conversions. Overall, it looks a lot like Ilford XP2. You can bend the
images to look like other films, but it seems to naturally fall to an
XP2 look because of the non-linear compression of highlights and
shadows. Not a magical camera for B&W photography, but very
respectable. The dynamic range is excellent.
Base-ISO image look/feel. One thing that I appreciate about the 6D is
that the images actually have some grit at ISO 100-400. The
Sony-sensor cameras seem to have a cell-phone look/feel when you get
right down to the pixel level, but the 6D appears to have some
dithering to break up the glassy look. Comparing ISO 100 images from
the E-1 and the 6D show similarities in this regard. In fact, once you
actually boost and bend the 6D images to match the E-1 images in
color/contrast, they look remarkably alike, with the E-1 actually
being a bit cleaner in some regards. Go figure. I'm quite pleased with
the texture of the 6D images as the on-chip noise-reduction seems
controlled.
However, crank up the ISOs and watch out. I've shot a ton of stuff at
ISO 8000-12800. Unbelievable! This camera pounds others into the
ground when it comes to high ISO indoor shooting. Event shoots are
awesome. Noise is easily addressable and the images rock.
LED stage lighting. Not pretty. I'm going to call it a "fail" when it
comes to colored LED stage lighting. Where the Olympus and Panasonic
actually come pretty close to matching what the eye sees, the 6D is on
another planet. Not even close. No amount of white-balance adjustment
will bring this back. The 6D sees the color primaries and pretty much
nothing else. And the 6D is completely clueless when it comes to
near-UV. It just goes blue and calls it a day. Unlike the Olympus,
there doesn't look to be a second spectrum bump in the red channel
down below blue.
Overall handling. Grip is good but not as good as even the E-3.
Exposure-compensation is awkward (but I understand the reason why it
is the way it is, as it prevents accidental adjustment). The
viewfinder is pretty good, but could be slightly larger. I will get a
different focus screen for mine to make the manual-focusing a bit
easier. The shutter-release feels really good. Image review and
deletion is certainly different than the Olympus. Not quite to my
liking, but that's a habit thing. The rubber-grippy material is
rougher on my skin than the Olympus material.
GPS and WiFi are fantastic features that I've been using a lot. But
with so many things on the Canon, you have to go menu diving to turn
stuff on and off. What should be a one or two button press or a
button/spin mode function, is instead buried down in the menus and
needs multiple steps to turn on/off.
While I can (and will) go on and on, this is already TL:DR. So, I'll
end this particular post with an observation on the level gauge. I
don't know how this is treated in the Olympus cameras, but the Canon
level gauge functions like the skid-ball in an airplane. You can bump
or move the camera and the gauge will swing back and forth like a
drunken sailor. I'm used to this function on my cellphones where they
don't bounce around and stay pretty true in the orientation. I did
switch the DoF button over to give the level gauge in the viewfinder,
but it's barely useful when handheld.
Live-view with zoom on the half-press for manual-focusing is excellent.
Overall, the 6D is a VERY fine camera. But as I mentioned before, it
does seem to lack "soul" and personality. What it does do, it does
extremely well. But it doesn't go out of its way to influence the
photographer.
I've been shooting stock images like they are going out of style (in a
way they are...), and this camera rocks for that. For the artistic
shot? the Olympus cameras are the choir directors for the angels.
AG Schnozz
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