Anyways… Canon waited a good five years(!) to upgrade the 6D. Plenty of time to innovate, right?

Honestly, I would have been an easy sell. They just needed to cram in a better AF system, DPAF and a flippable touchscreen and they'd have my money!

And when it was announced, it DID have all these things. So they DID get my money! I was pretty excited when I finally got my hands on the 6D Mark II last summer.

End of story, right? Happy ending?

Not quite. The joy was very short-lived.

Within the first week of testing it, I realised that Canon had not only crippled the 6D Mark II, as many others felt was the case. They had actually managed to make it worse than its five year older predecessor!

At ISO 100 and 200 I was seeing visible noise on my images. In bright daylight. On a Canon full frame camera. In 2017! This alone was a totally unacceptable detriment for me and sadly confirmed reports that I had read online. Additionally, I personally found it to produce less sharp images than the Mark I, using the exact same lenses.

So I decided not to take a chance, and return it to the camera store within the return period for a refund.

It was also missing 4K video capabilities – something I could live without at the time. There was no dual card slots – also something I could accept at the time. No headphone port. No AF joystick. And an AF system from a cheaper, older Canon model.

There was no doubt that Canon wanted this to feel as entry-level full frame as possible.

They had all the technology available to make the 6D Mark II a bestseller- as its predecessor was - but instead they made it a meh camera. And not a cheap one in any way. $2,600* is not an inconsiderable amount to spend for most people.

* USD equivalent of the Danish prices (everything is noticeably more expensive here in Denmark).

In all honesty, I really, really wanted this camera to knock it out of the park. It’s by no means a bad camera – but in my opinion, Canon seemed so much more focused on limiting its specs so that more people would consider the more expensive 5D Mark IV.

This really annoyed me at the time - and as I’m writing this blog post, it annoys me all over again.

And yes, I could have bought the 5D Mark IV for an additional $1,700* - even with its shortcomings. But to be honest I was feeling so annoyed about the 6D Mark II situation that I decided to hold out. It couldn't be right, that I had to spend $4,300* to get a decent full frame camera in the year 2017.

Plus I only do photography very part time. It's by no means my day job, so spending an amount like that on a body didn't quite seem justifiable or feasible for me - and this is even coming from someone who suffers from a fair amount of G.A.S (Gear Acquisition Syndrome).

studio. café. wharf.

June 15th, 2019

switching to mirrorless from DSLR / an informal review

June 15^th, 2019