Top-notch full-frame camera

Canon EOS 6D

Pros
Compact. Inexpensive for its class. Full-frame sensor. 4.5fps shooting. Superb image quality at high ISOs. Interchangeable focus screens. Integrated GPS and Wi-Fi. 1080p30 video capture. Battery grip available. Supported USB tethered and Wi-Fi remote control.

Cons
Not the fastest camera on the block. Viewfinder only offers 97 percent coverage. Not compatible with EF-S lenses. GPS saps battery life. No flash. Slow focus during video recording. No PC Sync socket.

Bottom Line

The Canon EOS 6D is a top-notch full-frame camera in a relatively compact body. With a relatively affordable price, enthusiast-friendly features, and spectacular image quality, it's an easy Editors' Choice.

 

Prior to the announcement of the Canon EOS 6D ($2,099 direct, body only)$1,895.00 at Amazon Marketplace and the Nikon D600 $1,749.00 at 42nd Street Photo, shooters who wanted a full-frame camera—one with an image sensor the same size as a 35mm film frame—were faced with a small number of choices at $3,000 and up. Both companies cut about $1,000 off the price of entry to full-frame with new models that sacrifice some features that pro shooters are used to, but are packaged in smaller bodies that are similar in design to the top-end APS-C cameras. The 20-megapixel 6D also adds some enthusiast-friendly features—notably an integrated GPS receiver and Wi-Fi capability—which, along with fantastic image quality, earn it an almost-perfect rating and our Editors' Choice award. The $6,000 full-frame Nikon D4$5,399.99 at BestPricePhoto.com is still a better choice for anyone who relies on photography to put food on the table, but most folks simply don't need that much camera in their bag. 

Design and Features
While it's bigger than entry-level cameras with smaller APS-C image sensors, the 6D is compact for a full-frame D-SLR. It measures 4.4 by 5.7 by 2.8 inches (HWD) and weighs just under 1.7 pounds without a lens. 


The control layout is familiar to anyone who has handled a Canon SLR before. There's a standard mode dial on top left side with an integrated On/Off lever. To the right of the viewfinder you'll find a control wheel, the shutter release, and buttons to adjust the AF Mode, Drive Mode, ISO, Metering Mode, and to activate the backlight on the monochrome information LCD, also located on the top of the camera. The rear controls are compressed when compared with the 5D Mark III, but you'll still have access to a rear control wheel with an integrated four-way controller, an Info button that controls what is displayed on the rear LCD, the Menu button, a control switch to activate Live View and movie recording, image playback controls, and buttons to engage the autofocus system, activate Exposure Lock, and select the active autofocus point. There's also a physical lock switch that prevents the rear control from adjusting settings when turned—that wheel controls exposure compensation in most shooting modes.

First seen on the Rebel series of APS-C cameras, the Q button allows you to change settings via the rear LCD. Hit it and you'll be able to adjust lens aperture, ISO, Exposure Compensation, Flash Compensation, JPG output, White Balance, and other common shooting settings—the rear control pad is used to navigate from item to item and the control wheel scrolls through the available settings.
The camera's large optical viewfinder trumps even the best APS-C models in terms of size and brightness—but it doesn't offer a full 100 percent field of view. Instead Canon opted to include a 97 percent viewfinder—the camera will capture a little bit of extra information around the edges of the frame, and the slightly smaller viewfinder makes it possible to change the focus screen—a feature that was omitted from the higher-end 5D Mark III

The resolution of the 3-inch rear LCD tops one million dots. It's extremely sharp, allowing you to confirm critical focus when reviewing shots or shooting in Live View mode. It's fixed—the Sony Alpha 99 is the only full-frame D-SLR with an articulating display—and isn't quite as large as the 3.2-inch screen on Nikon's D600, but it is sharper.

The 6D is the first SLR with integrated Wi-Fi connectivity, and overall, it's a good implementation. There are a number of ways to use the wireless features, and some are more useful than others. Canon gives you the ability to share photos directly with another Canon Wi-Fi camera and to print directly to a Wi-Fi-enabled printer. So you'll have to be out shooting with a partner who also has a Wi-Fi-equipped Canon camera to take advantage of the former, and the latter assumes that you'll be printing your photos without cropping, retouching, or other post-production work. You also have the option of viewing your photos on a DLNA device, like a Wi-Fi HDTV or set-top box.

The more useful functions involve sharing your photos online, and taking control of the 6D via your smartphone. You can send photos and videos directly to Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube via the Canon Image Gateway service. To set this up you'll need to install the EOS Utility application on your PC or Mac and create an account on the Canon Image Gateway service. From there you can link your social networking accounts. Connecting the 6D to your computer pairs it with your Canon account, and will let you send JPG images and videos directly to the service of your choice. You'll need to be connected to a Wi-Fi network, and the EOS 6D can store the SSID and login information for up to three networks at a time.

Photos and videos can also be directly sent to your iOS or Android device. You can connect to a phone when it, and the 6D, are on the same Wi-Fi network. Or the 6D can act as a hotspot for direct connection—and you can save presets for either configuration in one of the five slots dedicated to this mode. Once connected, you can transfer images and videos directly to your phone via the EOS Remote app; it's available for free in both the Apple and Android app stores. Raw transfer is supported—because photos are sized down to 2-megapixel JPG images in order to speed up transfers. You can also use your phone to control the camera wirelessly. A live feed of the camera's Live View mode shows up on your phone's screen, and you can select a focus point via touch, change shooting settings, and fire the shutter. There's noticeable lag in the video feed—it's not as speedy as the USB tethered computer connection that is possible via the included EOS Utility software for Mac or Windows—but it's useable in the field, whereas traditional tethered shooting is more useful in a studio setting.

You also get integrated GPS. It's a powerful receiver—it only took about 40 seconds to lock on to my location on initial setup—and you can adjust how often it polls for a new location. By default it checks for your location every 15 seconds, but you can go as fast as once a second or as slow as every five minutes. Using the GPS definitely puts a strain on the camera's battery. I was out shooting on a cold morning and went from a full charge to two battery bars in only a few hours. And the GPS will continue to check for your location even when the camera is turned off. The photos I took were, without exception, accurately geotagged, appearing on Lightroom's map at the exact locations from which I shot them. If you want to add location data to your photos, you'll likely want to set the camera to check with the GPS satellites less often to extend the battery life, and disable the GPS before you turn the camera off. If that's an unacceptable compromise, tote an extra battery. There is an optional battery grip available—it plugs into the bottom of the camera and holds two cells, doubling the operation time.

Original post is in pcmag.com
Top-notch full-frame camera

Canon EOS 6D: Wi-Fi, GPS and Full-Frame

If you’re thinking about stepping up to a serious DSLR camera and had your eye on Canon’s EOS 5D Mark III, wait just a second. Canon has unveiled a new model, the EOS 6D, which has many of the Mark III’s features in a more compact package — plus a couple of extra tricks, including built-in Wi-Fi.

Like the 5D Mark III (and its predecessor, the popular Mark II), the EOS 6 is a full-frame camera (meaning the CMOS image sensor is as large as a frame of 35mm film). The megapixel count is slightly less (20.2 MP instead of 22.3), though it’ll be tough to tell the difference. The 6D also packs the relatively recent DIGIC 5+ image processor, which gives it a speedy continuous shooting rate, at 4.5 frames per second.

The 6D has the distinction of being the very first Canon EOS camera with built-in Wi-Fi and GPS. The Wi-Fi (802.11n) enables instant sharing of photos to other devices, cloud storage or social networks, but the real magic comes when you download the Remote app for Android and iOS. Once it’s running on your phone, you can now control your 6D from afar, instantly obsoleting any and all tethered shutter-release accessories.

The 1.7-pound 6D will feel a bit lighter in hand than the 1.9-pound 5D, and that’s partly due to 6D only being able to save to SD card (no CompactFlash here). The viewfinder measures 3 inches diagonal, but there’s no fold-out arm. There’s also no built-in flash.

Canon says the 6D is the EOS camera that’s the most sensitive in low light that the company’s ever made. The ISO ranges from 100-25,600, though you can crank that up to 102,400 when you need to see in the dark.
Of course, the 6D also records video at up to 1080p resolution at 30 frames per second. That’s not 4K like Canon’s EOS-1D X camera can do, but who needs that anyway? The 6D also does 720p at up to 60 fps. This still isn’t a dedicated video camera, though, and can only capture about a half hour of footage from continuous shooting.

For still pics, the 6D has an HDR (High Dynamic Range) mode, which captures three different exposures of the same shot and combines them for better detail and color. There’s also a Multiple Exposure mode that lets you merge up to nine different pics into the same image, no Photoshop required.
Canon plans to start selling the EOS 6D in December for $2,099. That’s just for the body, but it’ll also come packaged as a kit with Canon’s EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM zoom lens for $2,899.
What do you think of the Canon EOS 6D? Thinking of getting it instead of a 5D or a 7D? Let us know your take in the comments.

Want to See some Pictures of  Canon EOS 6D

Camera with the smallest lens

Canon EF 40mm f/2.8 STM

 

At just 0.9 by 2.7 inches (HD) and 4.6 ounces, the EF 40mm is one of the smallest autofocus lenses you'll find that can provide full-frame image coverage. The Pentax DA 40mm f/2.8 Limited, the kit lens for the K-01 $792.95 at Abe's of Maine mirrorless camera, is smaller, but only covers an APS-C image circle. It uses 52mm filters and has a focus-by-wire design—there's no physical connection between the focus ring and the lens barrel, so moving it when the lens is set to manual focus simply causes the STM focus motor to adjust the focus. If you usually live in autofocus mode this won't be an issue, but it doesn't have the same tactile feel as lenses where there is a physical connection for manual focus.

• Pros Extremely compact. Very sharp. Minimal distortion. Inexpensive. STM focus motor.
• Cons Focus-by-wire design. Modest f/2.8 aperture.
• Bottom Line The Canon EF 40mm f/2.8 STM barely juts out from your camera, but is capable of capturing some impressive images. 

I used Imatest to check the performance of the lens when paired with the full-frame EOS-1Ds Mark III $5,999.00 at Amazon Marketplace D-SLR. Even at its maximum aperture the sharpness is well in excess of the 1,800 lines per picture height that denote a sharp image. At f/2.8 it records 2,247 lines, and its sharpness increases incrementally as you stop

Fast autofocus camera, Canon EOS Rebel T4i

The Canon EOS Rebel T4i ($849)  is the successor to the Rebel T3i $899.95 at Journey Ed, a camera that suffered from very slow autofocus in Live View mode. The T4i does a much better job, especially when used with Canon's latest STM lenses. It's not without its flaws, the most glaring of which is the small pentamirror optical viewfinder. The 18-megapixel shooter doesn't manage to oust the Nikon D5100 as our Choice for digital SLRs under $1,000, but it may be better camera if you're more focused on video performance.

Design and Features
About standard when compared to other D-SLRs in its class, the T4i measures 3.9 by 5.2 by 3.1 inches and weighs 1.1 pounds without a lens. Even though the competing Pentax K-30 is a smidge smaller at 3.8 by 5.1 by 2.8 inches, it's heavier at 1.4 pounds. This is due in part to its solid glass pentaprism viewfinder, which is larger and brighter than the pentamirror found in the T4i. If you're used to using the rear LCD of a point-and-shoot to frame the size of the viewfinder it may not bother you, but users who are accustomed to the large finders in older 35mm SLRs will likely find it lacking.

Experienced shooters demand a camera that provides easy access to shooting settings. The camera's Mode Dial, which sits next to its power switch, gives you access to a number of scene modes, which configure the camera to shoot sports, landscapes, and macro images, among others. The dial also lets you use Automatic, Program, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, and Manual shooting modes. The T4i's control layout works, although it does feature only one control dial. You'll need to move up to the EOS 60D  to get dual dials; the Pentax K-30 is one of the few mid-range SLRs with two control dials. There are control buttons to adjust ISO, White Balance, the Drive mode, Exposure Compensation, Autofocus mode, Exposure Lock, and Autofocus Point.

There's also a Q button, which allows you to adjust many of the same settings, along with the Metering mode, from the rear LCD. You can use the physical controls to navigate, or touch the screen to change settings. The display itself is extremely sharp and bright, thanks to a 1,040k-dot resolution. It's housed on an articulating arm, so you can view it from above, behind, or face it forward for self portraits.
 

Canon PowerShot A1300IS Pocket Camera with 5x Digital Image Stabilized Zoom and HD Video Recording

This is a grab-and-go camera, it needs to be ready at a moment's notice. AA cells are great for that. And it's the camera our 10 year old will use and he's not at all good about keeping his electronic gizmoz charged, so the AA feature is a plus there. I also like the optical view finder. Holding a camera at arm's length is the norm, but heads are fairly steady, so the camera is also quite steady when used with the optical finder. It's a simple tunnel, but it is accurate and simple. I also kept in mind the fact that this is a camera in the $100 price range and there is no reason to expect lens quality, flash range, manual control or any other feature to be equal to a camera in the $200 or higher price range. So we shopped and ordered from Amazon.