# Just bought a 6D



## CTJohn (Apr 4, 2013)

I've been using my 7D for a couple years, but have been dying to get a full frame for a while. I debated selling the 7D and getting a 5DIII, but decided to keep the 7D and pick up a 6D. I can use them both with my 24-105L and 70-300L lenses. I love the reach and speed of the 7D for birds/sports.

On my 7D I've used auto ISO with a maximum of 800. What would you suggest is a comparable maximum ISO for the 6D?

Thanks.


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## cocopop05 (Apr 4, 2013)

I have a 5D Mark III (similar image quality to the 6D) and have no issues with photos taken at ISO 6400. ISO 12800 is a little noisy but still very usable.


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## Mantanuska (Apr 4, 2013)

The 6D not only has less noise as the same ISOs as the 7D but it also has less banding, so the noise that does show up isn't as ugly in my opinion. just mess with it and see what you think looks good... personally I just got back from a trip where I didn't use a tripod the whole time and I was doing plenty of night shots, and I am pretty happy with the results. Even 10,000 ISO is pretty clean, esp if you do a little cleaning up in LR


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## Dylan777 (Apr 4, 2013)

800ISO on 7D = 6400ish ISO on my 5D III or more. I wouldn't go over 6400ISO on 5D III in lower light/night photo.


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## BruinBear (Apr 4, 2013)

I have a 60D and a 6D so in mostly the same situation as you. From my experience, I would say in terms of noise 12800 on the 6D is comparable to 1600/3200 on the 60D except that there is much more usable detail still left after NR unlike the 60D which just becomes a blob. So a comparison for iso800 on the 7D would probably be around 6400 on the 6D.

But outside of comparing the two, i try to stay under 6400 for shots that will be printed (up to 12800 if absolutely needed), under 3200 for larger prints, 25600 for web only images (under 2MP final image size).

Hope this helps!


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## aroo (Apr 4, 2013)

I too like using auto ISO with manual shutter and aperture, and I agree about 7D maxing out at 800, _maybe_ 1600 ISO for any prints. On 6D, 6400 and higher still look good. In really low light, you can get truly nice web-sized photos at the highest possible ISO.

6D and 7D get along together well. I'm still using 7D for macro with EF-S 60mm and fast continuous shutter. 6D lets me hand hold long lenses, and I like the GPS logger.


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## hsbn (Apr 4, 2013)

CTJohn said:


> I've been using my 7D for a couple years, but have been dying to get a full frame for a while. I debated selling the 7D and getting a 5DIII, but decided to keep the 7D and pick up a 6D. I can use them both with my 24-105L and 70-300L lenses. I love the reach and speed of the 7D for birds/sports.
> 
> On my 7D I've used auto ISO with a maximum of 800. What would you suggest is a comparable maximum ISO for the 6D?
> 
> Thanks.


Everyone has his/her own standard. So why not judge it for yourself. Shoot a series of photograph from ISO3200 and up. Load everything in your favorite software then see at which ISO you cannot tolerate the noise anymore. It's easy to do and you will not regret later "oh, I should have not listen to xxx." It's a great camera, congratulation and enjoy.


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## funkboy (Apr 5, 2013)

I'll take as much ISO as I can get.

Noisy photos might look pretty bad, but if you had to go to ISO ten gazillion to get the shot at least you got the shot. If you've got the right tools noise can be disguised as grain, at least to a certain degree. 

On the other hand, blurry photos due to lack of shutter speed are pretty much useless. This is why "boost" mode for the last stop of ISO exists even though it's just a simple linear amp that has the same effect on the sensitivity as setting +1EV in the raw converter. It might be ugly but it keeps your shutter speed up so that you can get a stable shot.

Impromptu portrait, 19th century Polish Hussar's costume. Most light was from what was probably a 35 watt applique.

85mm f/1.8 USM @ f/2.0, EOS 6D MRAW, ISO 25600, 1/100th sec, cleaned up a bit in LR4.

Without using "boost" mode, I would have been at 1/50th and probably would have had a near-useless image due to camera shake. The 6D continues to blow me away with its performance at stratospheric ISO levels.


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## bholliman (Apr 5, 2013)

I have a 7D and purchased a 6D in December. To me ISO 6400 has roughly equivalent noise levels as ISO 800 on the 7D. I try to keep the ISO at 3200 or below, but go higher on occasion.

The high ISO capabilities of the 6D have opened up a whole new realm of low, natural light photography that just was not possible with the 7D.


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## Dylan777 (Apr 5, 2013)

funkboy said:


> I'll take as much ISO as I can get.
> 
> Noisy photos might look pretty bad, but if you had to go to ISO ten gazillion to get the shot at least you got the shot. If you've got the right tools noise can be disguised as grain, at least to a certain degree.
> 
> ...



This picture reminded me why I jumped into FF world. Let get one thing straight - high ISO noise should not be considered or used as film grain effects.


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## J.R. (Apr 5, 2013)

ISO 12800 cleans up quite nicely. Test shot with the 5D3 below and you can expect slightly better results with the 6D 

The last time I tried posting this, it ended up with horrible noise on CR ... doesn't show up on my screen so I can't say what the problem was originally ... trying again


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## sandymandy (Apr 5, 2013)

Dylan777 said:


> Let get one thing straight - high ISO noise should not be considered or used as film grain effects.



Depends. If you shoot black and white color noise is not color noise anymore. For color i agree.

6D is neat


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## Mantanuska (Apr 9, 2013)

After my first reply I've thought some more about how I feel about high ISO with the 6D

In my opinion, the camera handles noise well enough that the issue with high ISO is no longer noise but dynamic range. I tend to shoot in a lot of difficult lighting situations with a lot of latitude in them, so its nice to have some malleability with my RAW files. The noise even at 12800 is not that bad for a lot of the things I shoot, but there is a dramatic loss of dynamic range at such high ISOs.


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## funkboy (Apr 14, 2013)

Mantanuska said:


> After my first reply I've thought some more about how I feel about high ISO with the 6D
> <...>
> The noise even at 12800 is not that bad for a lot of the things I shoot, but there is a dramatic loss of dynamic range at such high ISOs.



Yep. This is why "exposing to the right" is especially important at higher sensitivity levels. The last couple of stops at the bottom are where most of the luminance noise is, so it's really important to make sure that no important bits of the image you capture are in those stops.

If you look at my Polish fellow you'll notice a few things:


The dark oak door behind him is beyond the field of focus, so I can smear the luminance noise pretty well & use the masking slider to preserve detail in the rest of the image.
The rest of the darkest bits of the image (gloves, fur, feathers) have enough pattern detail that you don't really notice the noise. The only element besides the door that really stands out as noisy is the gloves, which are pretty tricky as they're a polished black surface.
I messed around with the luminance noise reduction & sharpening until I got the noise looking as close to film grain as I could get it.


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## rizenphoenix (Apr 18, 2013)

Here's a shot with the 6D and 24-105L @ 6400 ISO Post Processed in Lightroom 4


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## Wildfire (Apr 18, 2013)

The 6D has fantastic high-ISO noise performance. Even at 12800, the noise that is there actually _looks good_ (almost film-like) once you apply a bit of color noise reduction in lightroom.

I don't hesitate to use 12800 when the lighting is poor.


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## niaou (Apr 18, 2013)

Hi to everyone , i am also the owner of a 7d who bought just two days a go a 6d. IMO i wouldn't say that the limit for the 7d is iso 800 , my personal limit is 3200 but exposured correctly but comparing it with the 6d it's not even a fight. 
I use Av mode with minimum speed at 1/125 and auto iso and just forget everything. Amazing performance

Here is my shot iso 25600 f4 1/20th processed in LR 4


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## Chuck Alaimo (Apr 18, 2013)

CTJohn said:


> I've been using my 7D for a couple years, but have been dying to get a full frame for a while. I debated selling the 7D and getting a 5DIII, but decided to keep the 7D and pick up a 6D. I can use them both with my 24-105L and 70-300L lenses. I love the reach and speed of the 7D for birds/sports.
> 
> On my 7D I've used auto ISO with a maximum of 800. What would you suggest is a comparable maximum ISO for the 6D?
> 
> Thanks.



I own a 5d3, and have rented a 6d. ISO on both are very close. Everyone has their own threshold for noise/usable ISO - so that really depends on what you shoot. I do know that on either a 6d or a 5d3, I don't worry if I have to use 6400 and up... (the quality of shots I see at 8000, and 10,000, even 12,800 are quite frankly outstanding).

I used a 7d for about 3 years prior to snagging the mk3 and I'd push the 7d ISO to 4000 in a pinch. More times than not though upon first look i would get worried that the focus was off, or, that I was not steady in the shot...then I'd zoom in on faces...focus was fine, it just looked like the focus was off because of the noise - also the images just looked so soft, again, due to noise. After getting the mk3, I tried using both bodies and found that I would only use the 7d if I could run below ISO 1600, which meant it was only useful for a small portion of weddings (either outdoor ceremonies or the parts of the wedding that occurred outside. So I sold the 7d and am now looking at a 6d as a very viable backup body.

I'd say play around, shoot in as many lighting conditions as you can and find your threshold for whats usable and whats not.


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## Quasimodo (Apr 18, 2013)

CTJohn said:


> I've been using my 7D for a couple years, but have been dying to get a full frame for a while. I debated selling the 7D and getting a 5DIII, but decided to keep the 7D and pick up a 6D. I can use them both with my 24-105L and 70-300L lenses. I love the reach and speed of the 7D for birds/sports.
> 
> On my 7D I've used auto ISO with a maximum of 800. What would you suggest is a comparable maximum ISO for the 6D?
> 
> Thanks.



Of course this depends on what you find acceptable. On my 1ds III I hardly go over 800, and on my 5D II I have gotten great shots on 3200. After playing with the 6D for a fem days I would be comfortable to go to 6400.


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## hugoleveille (Apr 23, 2013)

I set my auto iso to 12800. Grain management is so good on that camera.


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