Refurbished Mark III OR new 6D

[ryan_kieft]

Good morning. I am fairly new to photography but I am learning fast (2nd year of living & breathing photography)

 

My intentions are to become a wedding/boudoir photographer.

 

I currently have a 60D but I would like to upgrade to either a refurbished Mark III OR a new 6D.

 

Does anyone have experience with buying a refurbished camera?

 

Which cam should I get??? Refurb Mark III OR NEW 6D???

 

Please help me. I'm stuck!

 

Thank you for taking the time to assist.

[john_deerfield]

<p>What about the 60D is holding you back? How do you use the AF system on the 60D (there is a difference between the 5DMIII and the 6D in terms of the AF system). For weddings, if I have to choose between a cropped sensor camera and a full frame, I would choose cropped sensor. For boudoir, full frame. And between a used 5DMIII vs a new 6D, a lot would depend on how I used the AF system of the 60D. If all you use is the center focus, then the 6D might be the camera. Otherwise, I might lean towards the MIII.</p>

[mark_pierlot]

<p>Apart from perhaps slightly better high ISO performance, the 5DIII is superior to the 6D in every way. It has higher resolution, a much more sophisticated AF system, better build quality, etc.</p>

<p>If I were making your decision, Ryan, there's no question I'd get a refurbished 5DIII.</p>

[matttonkin]

<p>For Weddings I would personally like being able to write to two cards with the 5DIII, just some added security if one fails.</p>

[Stock-Photos]

<p>Matt, do I understand that the 5DIII will duplicate images files as they are created and write each to the separate cards?</p>

[Stock-Photos]

<p>Matt, do I understand that the 5DIII will duplicate images files as they are created and write each to the separate cards?</p>

[ruben leal]

Ryan, when making the actual purchase, be sure to confirm you are buying a Canon EOS 5D Mark III, and not another

Canon Mark III camera (in other words, Mk III may mean multiple cameras, and here everyone is referring to the newest

one, assuming is the one you are referring to, but I ever heard of people selling the old film Canon EOS 5 -without the D- as a digital camera).

[john_deerfield]

<p>Yes, you could record the same image to each card. I am not sure if the image is actually rendered twice, once for each card, or rendered once and then copied. Although I suspect the later. I imagine for most professional situations (save maybe sports or some photojournalism), that ideally you would record Raw to one card and JPEG to the other. </p>

<p>That said, I believe the 6D has a slightly superior center AF focus in terms of focusing in low-light. But yes, overall the 5DMIII is a better camera. </p>

[roy_s4]

<p>5D Mark III...</p>

 

[Andrew Garrard]

So long as nothing nasty has happened to the refurb unit (and we're talking 5D III and not, say, 1Ds III), another vote for the

5D. I believe in the Nikon world there's a genuine question about whether the D600 might be a better camera for some

users than the D800, but, for Canon, the 5D3 is better in pretty much every way than the 6D (this comes from the 5D3 being

a great general-purpose camera, whereas the D800 is a bit of a specialist - and I speak as a D800 owner). Unless you

actually find a 5D3 too large for you (the 6D is lighter) or want the 6D's integrated WiFi (accessory on the 5D3), the bigger

camera wins. Not that the 6D is in any way a bad camera, and I'm sure either would do you very well.

[keith reeder]

<p>Huge fan of the 5D Mk III here (it's the first full frame camera this <em>wildlife/sport</em> photographer has ever been really interested in, because it excels for that kind of work, loss of effective reach notwithstanding), but isn't it overkill for wedding/boudoir photography? </p>

<p>Not really genres that require the 5D Mk III's strengths, I'd suggest.</p>

<p>Why not <em>a couple</em> of 5D Mk IIs? </p>

[matttonkin]

<p>J. Harrington - John beat me to the response but yes the 5D markIII will record to both a CF and SD card. I don't actually own one so I can't tell you the exact function of it but being able to record simultaneously to two cards is defiantly going to be a motivation when and if I upgrade soon.</p>

[kirigoi]

<p>Only warning about recording to both cards is that it severely reduces buffer size and increases write times as the camera is limited to the slower card (and choosing jpg for the slower card does not seem to help). Not a problem if you don't intend on shooting bursts, for example in boudoir, but I'd worry about doing so for wedding photography as you could be left with a full buffer as a critical moment passes you by. The buffer is much better if you're only shooting jpgs, but there's no way I'd not shoot raw at a wedding...</p>

<p>I don't tend to do too much critical photography though, so generally I leave my 5D Mark III recording to only the CF, with the SD card there as a useful backup if I run out of space.</p>