Landscape Camera Buying Advice

[Jeff_Powers]

I am in the market for a Canon DSLR for shooting landscapes exclusively. My goal is to shoot photos I can professionally enlarge to use as wall hangings in my home. In the "old" days I had a passion for amateur photography with a Nikon F1 and an old automatic focus Canon EF. I've been away from the hobby, but now want to jump back in with both feet. I'm relearning the features and specs in the DSLR world. I have a budget between $1,000 to $2,000 for the body (I'll work on lenses later). I would appreciate you pointing me in the right direction so I can better focus my buying research. It appears the Canon EOS D6 is a worthy body for the serious landscape photographer within my budget, but there are so many models to chooose from. Let me know if you agree or disagree and why. Thanks!

[Limmie]

I don't know about the higher end Canon cameras but I know something that is missing on their mid to budget range cameras at least is panorama mode.  I have been on two vacations in prime panorama photo areas (e.g. Grand Canyon, USA)  and I was pretty unhappy with trying to join photos using PhotoStitch which is Canon's computer software substitute for a panorama mode.  Even after knowing all the problems I had after the first vacation I did not manage to get any better results forewarned with the experience upon returning from the second vacation.  It was one of my reasons for returning a camera to Canon and start looking at alternative brands.  It may be possiblke to fake a panorama mode using some of the newer features (I have posted about this in another topic on this site so I'll omit details here) and some effort, but I still find it ironic people can get a better panorama photo with an iPhone than I could with a mid-range camera from Canon.

[hsbn]

You should buy an Iphone then.

[hsbn]

For landscapes photography, you should get Full Frame camera. For the budget, 6D or 5DMII is both great camera. The price of both is close to each other now. I have the 6D and I enjoy it very much. I like it because it smaller and lighter and the photo quality is top notch too. It does help a lot if you hike around or carry your camera all day. GPS and Wifi are more like icing on the cake for me. Good luck and have fun.

[TCampbell]

I'd strongly nudge you in the direction of a 6D.  I own a 5D II as well as a 5D III.  The 5D III is a fabulous camera with an amazing focusing system and extremely good performance even for action photography.  The 5D II had a basic focus system -- it was actually a great camera for landscapes because landscape photography isn't "action" photography so it doesn't really call for an advanced focusing system.

The 6D basically has an imaging sensor as good as the 5D III (and in some tests it actually beats it -- particularly in it's ability to notice details in shadows) but it lacks the advanced focusing system -- which turns out not to be necessary for landscape use.

[Jeff_Powers]

Thanks for the opinions. I'm looking closely at the 6D and Nikon D600 (actually waiting for the D610 release) for the final review.

[JoeN]

I think most people will agree for landscape photography a full frame camera is the better choice.  If you buy full frame and you only shoot landscapes you won't necessarily need the focusing capabilities of the 5Diii so the 6D would suit you just fine.  However don't discount the APS-C, crop body cameras.  You can buy a 60D body for about $700 and a 70D body for about $1200.  Either body coupled with a Canon 10-22 EFS lens would work well for landscapes if you want ultra wide angle.  

Check out some Canon forums that have a landscape gallery and you will be hard pressed to tell the difference between pictures from the APS-C bodies and FF bodies.  I have a 20x30 picture I took from a helicopter with my 7D and a 24-105L that has amazing detail and I cropped that file about another 20% to get the framing I wanted and to get the horizon straight.  Any of the Canon DSLRs will make a good landscape camera but again, the FF bodies are better suited to landscape if your budget can stand the price difference.