70D or 6D???

[ncrescione]

Trying to decide between the 70D or 6D.. Don't have too much to spend, but have enough for the 6D. I shoot mainly outdoor portraits and landscapes, very rarely do I shoot inside, so the flash on the 70D is not important. I need a very fast camera that produces excellent quality pictures. I do not like to shoot on continuous so by fast, I mean not on continuous. Anyone have a suggestion as to what to buy? Also any suggestions on any lenses for portraits/landscapes/everyday things?

[ScottyP]

It sounds like you could get by with the 70d, and save some money for lenses. The 6d would be better in low light, but apparently you don't really shoot indoors much.

What lenses do you have, and what lenses do you intend to buy? What is your total budget for body plus lenses?

On a 70d you could get along pretty well doing portraits with a Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 for about $350. For landscapes you may want something like a crop zoom from either Canon or Sigma. These tend to be from about 10 or 12 to 20 or 22.

I would probably buy body only- no kit lens - and apply the savings towards better glass, such as what I listed above.

[ncrescione]

Don't have any canon lens as I am switching from Nikon. I was intending on buying the 17-55mm if I were to get the 70d. But the kit lens if I got the 6d. Is it that important to go to full frame? I need the best quality shots but really fast. Thanks

[cuda719]

I would lean more to the 6D it has a Higher dynamic range and will give you a better landscape picture. For lenses it depends on our budget the 17-40 f4 L or the 16-35 f2.8 L are great lenses for landscape work. I use the 16-35 and it serves me very well.

[Skirball]

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@cuda719 wrote:

I would lean more to the 6D it has a Higher dynamic range and will give you a better landscape picture. For lenses it depends on our budget the 17-40 f4 L or the 16-35 f2.8 L are great lenses for landscape work. I use the 16-35 and it serves me very well.

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This.  Not so much for landscape pictures (with decent post processing I don't think you'll see much of a difference).  But the OP mentioned outdoor portraits, and the 6Ds superior highlight and shadow recovery will be useful.

The OP mentioned "best image quality" several times, and never mentioned anything about moving subjects.  That alone would make me pick the 6D.  The 6D put everything it had into image quality and high ISO performance; the 70D has the superior AF system (although there have been many posts recently contesting this).

[ScottyP]

Not sure if by "fast" you are referring to something quick and easy to work with, or if you are referring to wide aperture.

The 17-55 is the best crop body zoom lens and will do a good job on portraits on a crop body, particularly head and shoulders shots. I have one and loved it until going full frame.

Full frame is great for indoor shooting (or dusky or shady outdoor shooting) because you get an extra couple of stops worth of image quality when shooting at high ISO. That was very important to me and I love my 6d for that. I would not use my old crop body at higher than 400 ISO because the images were grainy and lacked detail. I feel good at ISO 800 on FF, and higher than that so long as I am not cropping the image or blowing it up to a large size. Not everyone will find that so important but I think everyone finds themselves from time to time with less light than they want. The only thing is the lenses will set you back more than crop lenses do.

If you think you might want to go full frame don't buy many EF-s crop lenses. You can shoot full frame lenses (like a 50mm prime) on both crop and FF bodies so if you start with those you will have less surplus glass if you go FF later. But many/most hobbyists stay with crop and never go full frame. And are just fine.

[hsbn]

If you have the cash, go with 6D. Once you get your hand on a full frame camera, you'll never want to go back to crop. At least it is the case for me. I love the BIG BIG BIG viewfinder (even though 6D viewfinder is only 97% coverage) compared to crop body. It's just much easier to see everything. I have an old generation of crop body (EOS 30D) so I don't know how much the 70D has been improved. But the image quality of 6D is hard to beat with a crop body. I love the -3EV middle focus point. You can focus in situation that is near dark, just amazing.

I use 6D + 24-70 F2.8 almost all of the time unless I'm shooting wedding. On a full frame body, 24mm is wide enough for landscapes, and at 70mm it's a great focal length for outdoor portrait.

But the camera does come with some issues (like every other camera, there is no perfect one). First, I don't like the GPS drawing out power even when camera is turned off. You have to navigate a bit in order to change White Balance. The placement of the DOF preview is a little weird. Focus points are a bit crowded, I wish that they spread out more. Flash sync speed is a little slow. It's a non-issue most of the time, but sometimes when I need the shutter speed to be fast (avoid shaking), I have to use HSS.