Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsSomewhat of a disappointment
Reviewed in the United States on December 20, 2012
On the plus side, it's lighter and much quieter than my previous 5D. It can focus in much dimmer conditions.
Auto ISO is lens length aware; it pushes the ISO up or massively up to achieve somewhere around 1/40 sec with a 17mm lens and 1/125 sec with 105 mm lens. I would like to alter the bias, though. Shooting sharp images with a 17mm lens can have shutters of 1/20 to 1/15 sec, while I prefer 1/180 to 1/250 for 105 and up. Auto ISO is not aware of whether image stabilization is turned on or off.
Here's where things started going down hill. WiFi problems:
The camera can join an existing WiFi network, which Canon calls, "Infrastructure Mode." It can create it's own WiFi hotspot, which Canon calls, "Camera Access Point Mode." Finally, it can participate in a peer-to-peer WiFi network which Canon calls, "Ad hoc Mode." Here's a chart of what devices can use which network systems:
Smart Phone:__ In-camera Hotspot √, WiFi Access Point √, Ad hoc X
Computer:_____ In-camera Hotspot X, WiFi Access Point √, Ad hoc √*
Printer:________ In-camera Hotspot √, WiFi Access Point √, Ad hoc X
TV Screen:_____ In-camera Hotspot X, WiFi Access Point √, Ad hoc X
Other camera:_ In-camera Hotspot ?, WiFi Access Point ?, Ad hoc ? - didn't have a second 6D to test
When it comes to wireless networking, the camera is a control freak. Rather than joining a WiFi network and peering and presenting a service, the camera requires you to create a "connection." You have to manually define the network and device parameters of the connection for each type; be it "EOS Utility" on one or more of your computers, "EOS Remote" app on a smart phone, etc. That means that if you want three devices to be able to access the camera, all on the same WiFi network, you'll need to enter the same WiFi password three times, once for each device "connection."
The "Connection" is specific to both the network and the device. You can only have a total of three "connections" for any given device type (computer, phone, etc.) Every time you encounter a new wireless network, say a change of hotels, you'll need to over-write one of your connections to re-establish it with this new network; even if it's the same laptop. Or create an ad hoc (peer-to-peer, computer-to-computer) network each time you want to wirelessly transfer files. Why the camera can act as a hotspot for the mobile device, but not the laptop is a mystery; but it sure is annoying.
Frequently when accessing "Wi-Fi function" if you've previously set up a "connection", even if that connection is not active, the default question on screen is, "Exit." It is not immediately clear to me by the context what is being asked. It means, "Exit your current connection." I'm typically trying to determine the state of the network when I make it to that screen. Kill the network isn't the button I want to be default.
I had hoped that the camera could use a VPN to access workstations while shooting remotely. It could have opened up a world of real-time creative collaboration. No, Canon hasn't figured out normal WiFi networking, let alone anything remotely advanced. The best Canon could do was a Canon-branded image bucket and gateway that allows you to upload down-rezzed JPEGs and invite people to view them with email.
Using the WFTParing.app, which is the bit of software that allows you to initialize a "connection" with a computer, requires knowing this one trick: A Growl-like notification appears in the upper-right hand corner of the screen once the WFTPairing app finds an EOS camera. That looks for all the world to be just a notification; being flat, not 3D and zero interaction affordances, but it's actually a button that you must click in order to proceed to pair the devices. The "notification" button disappears (like a typical notification) after a few seconds and in order to get it back on screen, you'll need to restart the pairing process on the camera. Without clicking on the "notification that's actually a button" you're left having no way to proceed and no feedback on what to do next or if anything went wrong.
On Mac OS X, you cannot have the system firewall turned on while initially trying to set up the WiFi connection for EOS Utility (using WFTParing.app.) However, once the camera and computer have registered a pairing, you can turn the firewall back on and still be able to pair.
It takes seventeen separate actions to enable or disable either the WiFi or the GPS functionality. This is an annoyance as I plan to use the camera primarily in an underwater housing and transfer the files over WiFi rather than crack open the housing after each dive. But this means I really need to conserve battery, so turning on and off WiFi is something I'll be doing often. I put GPS and WiFi screens on the "My Menu" screen which significantly speeds up access.
Since it's not explained in the WiFi manual, here's some terms I needed to look up:
WPS: WiFi Protected Setup, I guess it's a proprietary Canon WiFi configuration protocol.
WPS (PBC): Push Button Connection, A button, like on a printer, that you can press to pair devices.
WPS (PIN): Personal Identification Number, an 8-digit number, rather than just pressing a button, you use to facilitate WPS.
Once EOS Utility has control of the camera, you do not.
The WiFi graphic on the LCD blinks, which typically indicates a problem, whenever WiFi is working properly. It's right next to the GPS indicator, which blinks when it isn't working properly.
Canon Software (shovel-ware):
The installer wants to install nearly a gigabyte of exceedingly low-quality shovel-ware onto your computer (including the moribund Microsoft's Silverlight.) It piles on useless things like PhotoStich, which Canon marketing thinks is necessary to maintain parity with their competitors, but not strongly enough to actually budget quality development towards.
The EOS Utility and Digital Photo Professional (which, as of this writing, is the ONLY way to process Canon's new CR2 Raw files... correction, Apple Camera RAW now processes CR2.1, but still not Adobe Pre-CS6 or Dx0) can only be installed with a CD-ROM. This means if you've got a computer without a CD/DVD drive, like a MacBook Air, you've got problems. The software cannot be installed over "Remote Disk." You cannot copy the installer over to the MacBook Air and run it locally either. You cannot download the software from Canon. I was able to get EOS Utility to somewhat work by copying the files over from a previous install, but I couldn't get the copied-over version of Digital Photo Professional to read the new CR2 files.
New RAW format:
The new Canon CR2 RAW files used in the 6D (and maybe 5D MIII) are different from the old CR2 files used for the last half dozen years. When I heard they where different, I assumed Canon had improved the format; like made the color depth 16 bits or some such. Well, sadly, the difference between the old CR2 and the new one is that Canon put encrypted data into the file so they can wrestle back a little more control over the Raw codecs. Rude.
Camera functionality:
The HDR feature is a major disappointment. As is the multi-shot noise reduction. Both live only in amateur-land and only create JPEGs.
Focusing is glacially slow when using the screen rather than viewfinder (LiveView) if the camera is set to the default "FlexiZoneAF" and "Live Mode". However, although not perfect, you can switch the camera's LiveView configuration so that the parameter, "AF Control" is set to "Quick mode" which for a brief moment swings the mirror back into place so that the camera can use the much faster focusing method. This causes the screen to black out for a fraction of a second, but the difference in focusing speed more than makes up for it in my tests. (Thanks D. Alexander)
Didn't come with a card. Seriously, a $2000 camera and they couldn't throw in a $5 card?
* Creating an Ad hoc network on Mac OS X: In the AirPort status menu item, click, "Create Network" for a "Computer to Computer" network. For some reason, I could only get WEP 128-bit encryption, and that's pretty insecure; so make sure the network is only live while an actual transfer or camera control session is going on.
