You’d have to be pretty well-off to consider a $2100 tab for a body-only camera an “entry-level” price, but in the realm of full-frame-sensored DSLRs, you’d also be hard-pressed to find a better bargain. Nikon announced its first full-frame DSLR in that price range, the D600, just last week. Lo and behold, here comes Canon with a similarly priced competitor.
The Canon EOS 6D has a 20.2-megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor measuring 35.8mm by 23.9mm, which is about 2.3 times the size of the APS-C sensors found in most consumer-level DSLRs. In general, full-frame-sensored DSLRs capture better images in low-light settings, shallower depth of field effects, and more-detailed images than APS-C-sensored cameras. A full-frame DSLR also allows users to capture the entire field of view when a full-frame-format lens is attached, while APS-C-sensored cameras have a “crop factor” or a “focal length multiplier” that reduces the field of view captured by the sensor.
Until the past week, full-frame DSLRs have usually started out around $3000 for the body only. The Canon EOS 6D, along with Nikon’s similar D600, are designed as “prosumer” full-frame cameras for anyone wanting to step up from an APS-C-sensored DSLR.
Both cameras are smaller than your average full-frame DSLR, but they’re still bigger than most APS-C-sensored DSLRs. The EOS 6D has all the granular controls you’d expect in a high-end DSLR, such as RAW and RAW+JPEG shooting, manual exposure controls, an ISO range that reaches up to 25,600, an 11-point autofocus system that Canon says will work in extremely dark settings, and 1080p video recording at up to 30fps with time-code embedded in the .MOV files.
Continuous shooting maxes out at 4.5 frames per second at full resolution, and the EOS 6D also has a few features geared more toward casual shooters: Automated exposure-bracketing modes for low-light and HDR photography, an extensive menu of scene modes, a fixed 3-inch LCD viewfinder in addition to an eye-level optical viewfinder, built-in Wi-Fi sharing features, and in-camera geotagging.
The in-camera Wi-Fi functions can be used to upload images directly to sharing sites when the EOS 6D is connected to an access point. The EOS 6D is also compatible with a Canon EOS Remote app for Android and iOS devices that lets you use a mobile device as a remote shutter release and viewfinder for the camera.
Unlike Nikon’s D600, which is available right now, you’re in for a bit of a wait if you’re interested in picking up the EOS 6D. The camera is slated for December availability at $2100 for the body only or $2900 as a kit with a stabilized 24mm to 105mm f/4 zoom lens.