Introduction:
I am posting my summary of what is important to me as a professional wedding photographer with this new camera. At the end of this review I will give you several links to sites for a more in depth analysis. Canon cameras IMHO produce beautiful images with saturated colors that our customers love. Cameras are sold to photographers. Photographs are bought by our customers. No one can tell what camera was used to take the photograph. Marketing plays a big role in camera development. A good photographer can produce good pictures with most equipment available, excepting directional light control with the point and shoot cameras. Large prints can be made from 6 MP cameras. Should you upgrade from a Canon 5D Mark II and or if you are buying a new camera, buy the 5 D Mark II or Mark III? But now you have a third option of a Canon 6D FF, 20.2 MP announced Sept 2012 with a list price of $2100 USD. Which will effectively end the 5 D Mark II, so deals may be a brewing. Note that the 6D will only use EF mount lens, no S mounts. It has always been my policy to only buy EF mount lens.
History:
Digital camera design progressed from small "c" sized cropped sensors until Canon introduced the 5 D (2005) Full Frame sensor and their top Professional Model 1DS Mark III with a 21 MP sensor (released Dec 2007). When introduced, this top camera sold for $8,000, body only. Canon had a history of new camera releases every 18 months to 2 years. Just like the computer business we were getting very small MP increased with each model change. Sony then announced that they were releasing a 24 MP sensor. Nikon were buying into Sony sensors with a few tweaks of their own. It was time for a Canon 5 D upgrade. Thank you Sony. That forced Canon to release the 5D Mark II with a 21 MP sensor and HD video (announce late 2008). The price was half of the top model which a year earlier sold for $8k. Wow. Then less than one year later came the 7D (2009),"c" sized sensor and with a lot better focusing and bells and whistles. As Canon had released the 40 D and then with a followup one year later, the 50D due to competition. They also released the 580 EX II flash gun 1 year after the original release. We all were expected that the Professional EOS 5D Mark II would be upgraded shortly with the 7D's features. Photographers that I have spoken with were quite upset (politely stated) that Canon refused for 5 years to upgrade the best wedding photography camera produced. The needs of the photographers were totally ignored. They knew that we were locked into Canon with our equipment that only worked on their Cameras. The 5 D Mark III release now has the upgrades in technology of even their top cameras.
Review of the Canon's EOS Camera Options: 5 D Mark III + 6D - Key improvements and features.
This review is a quick summary of what I feel is important to me personally. You may feel differently and you may have different needs or wants. The new camera improves the video feed; at this time I only shoot stills.
Image Quality
With only small changes in Mega Pixels between all 3 cameras, it would be impossible to determine which camera took the picture. Remember: Always shoot at the highest ISO possible (100 or 200). Many photographers are shooting indoors at 800 ISO, which is fine but 100 ISO still gives the best dynamic range, color saturation, etc. Your customers want great looking pictures.
Verdict: All three Cameras
Focusing
The Mark III supports a 61 point AF system verse the 9 point with the Mark II and 13 point for the 6D. This was owe of the complaints about the Mark II. We use center point focusing. Why? Because we always focus on the eyes of the key subject.
Verdict: Mark III and 6D. Mark II passes
Resolution:
All three camera have their resolution in the 20's MP. Excellent.
Verdict: Tie
Noise Reduction:
Canon has now caught up with Nikon here.By keeping your MP's in the sweet spot of around 18-20 MP, you reduce the amount of noise between the pixels when you crank up the amp (increase the ISO to higher level). With on chip noise reduction on the Mark II and 6D, higher ISO's can produce images with less visible noise. I have always said; give me 6400 ISO and that is all I should need for those 5% shots or less. The Mark III will give up to 8000 ISO and some say 12800. The 6D is suppose to give one more stop over the Mark III. The good news is that even the Mark II with a little help from DXO will give good 6400 ISO shots. I always believe that my Intel quad I7 will out perform any Camera's chip. The key point here is to reduce the noise at the chip level first.
Verdict: 6D, then Mark III, then Mark II
Viewing Screen
All three cameras have fixed screens. Movable would have been a good option. Resolution on all three is approximately the same.
Verdict: Mark III, 6D, Mark II- but basically a tie
Video
All three camera produce excellent video.
In Camera JPEGS
It is too early to determine for the 6D as it is not release yet. For family pictures I use JPEG on medium to small. Remember, you can customize the images with the in camera controls for sharpness, etc. This is one of the tricks that I have seen camera manufactures do over the years. Tweak the standard setting to make yourself look good. Don't be fooled. I can take all my raw images in DXO and give them the setting for ANY camera. For weddings I shoot RAW as it gives me a recovery option that JPEGS can't. After processing, I can then make my JPEGS. The customer benefits greatly here as I can add 20 or more custom adjustments to each image and then fine tune them in Lightroom and if necessary Photoshop. No verdict. Shoot RAW for critical situations always. That is the safe professional way period. Practice shooting exposures with JPEGS to force you to chip your shots to check that every thing is good.
Micro Adjustments, User Settings
These are two things you must have on your camera. It allows you to correct back and front focusing issues and gives you the quick setting option. By presetting your camera for indoors and outdoors you have two or more cameras in one. In years past, I have seen photographers use TWO cameras for speed. What a waste of money.
Summary:
As I stated before, we shoot only Canon. If I were starting today, I would seriously look at Nikon D600. It goes back and forth. Generally Nikon costs more. Every dollar that I spend is lost profits. You must have good equipment. My wish list would be the Canon EOS 5D Mark III. As the 6D is much lighter, and will do the job just as well and even better with those occasional low light shots, it is on our buy list (available in December 2012). So for us, the winner is the new 6D. After having a heavy Mark II or III around your neck for 10 straight hours, you will welcome the lighter 6D. My chief complaint with the 6D is the SD card and no Compact flash cards. Currently we only have compact flash cards. This review started out looking at the Mark III but with the latest release of the 6D, I had to modify our opinion.
Verdict: 6D, then Mark III and Mark II
Cons: Price of the Mark III is double that of the 6D with no improvement in image quality
Thanks and keep watching. I will be posting my off camera flash triggers, in the next few day.
I have made a decision to increase the number of my posts, hopefully to 5 or more per week. So stay tuned and check regularly for updates. Give me your feed back as to a topic that you might like me to talk about. Thanks for listening. Give us your G+
Kirk of KW Masters Photography.
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