Yesterday Canon announced the 6D Mark II, the long awaited update to the almost five year old original 6D. Although a massive update from the original, some of the features (or lack thereof) are leaving many scratching their heads. Chief among them is the omission of 4K video. The internet has noticed.
The 6D Mark II is a curious beast. While I have no doubt that it will be a great performer, it's lagging behind other manufacturers in a big way as far as innovations go. Check out the videos by Kai Wong and Jared Polin for other perspectives, but in my opinion, including a fully articulating screen gives the appearance of wanting to compete with other manufacturers in the realm of video. In short, it's suffering from an identity crisis. For video, it's woefully lacking in features when compared to the equally priced Panasonic GH5. If it's a stills camera the Nikon D750 is clocking in at $200 cheaper with similar features plus dual card slots. In short, who is this thing for?
Canon needs to realize that we live in a world where the quality of almost every new camera out there is incredible and innovation is everything. It's not enough to come out with a "good" camera anymore. Being full-frame isn't enough to make you special, especially at such a high price point. 4K should have been a no-brainer. Nikon's D500 does it for $100 cheaper. Yes, it's a smaller sensor, but it's also a far more robust camera. Essentially this is an 80D with a full frame sensor at almost double the price. What?
The 6D Mark II is the very definition of a missed opportunity. Even doing a 5D Mark III "light" with 4K video, flippy screen, and a single card slot at $1599 would have been better than this. That could have been a gamechanger. But this? I don't know. What do you all think?
I wonder if the hardware on the 6D Mark II is capable of 4k or is it simply a question of firmware?
I like the Canon system. I am heavily invested in it. I shoot video and stills all the time, and I like to use my 5D Mark III to do it. I am confused as to why Canon refuses to put a higher grade of video resolution and codec into their newest DSLR bodies. I don't want to spend the money on a C-level camera. To be honest, leaving 4K out, feels like an insult. I want a hand-held 4K capable walk-around full-frame DSLR from Canon. And forget the Mark IV. The video format is ridiculous.
I switched to SONY from Canon a couple of years ago. However, if Canon "Threw" in 4k, people would then knock the quality of the feature. I agree the 6Dii is about $400-$500 too expensive. I have been using the A7Rii exclusively for the past two years and I have never used the video function.
In the near future, we will be expecting our cameras to have VR on top of all the other features we currently have.