Last week I discussed the possibility of making the switch from the Olympus E-30 to the Canon 6D.  Well I did it.  I purchased it through Amazon because I could not pass up the deal on the 70-300mm lens with it.  They were running a $300 off the 70-300mm promotion with the purchase of a 6D.  How convenient for me!

It was a huge jump, it reminded me of the time I switched from Adobe Photoshop CS (yeah CS 1) to CS5 in late 2010.  The cameras really are night and day, Full Frame sensor vs 4/3rds crop, but I had no idea I would see such a dramatic difference in color and clarity.  The Canon 6D really is a piece of work!

I have not had a whole lot of time to run it through the gamut yet, however, I did take her out for a spin last weekend.  I wanted to test her HDR capabilities and boy was I impressed!  2,3,5, or 7 exposures at 1/3, 2/3 or 1 whole EV stop at up to +/-8 EV’s.  Going into it I was thinking that would be a nightmare to manage, but Canon made it easy as pie!

I put the Olympus up to the challenge with the Canon by photographing the same scene from the same vantage point with both cameras.  Each camera had the same Aperture value, the same focus point, and the same amount of exposures for HDR (5 Exposures @ +/-1 EV).  I knew the Olympus wouldn’t stand a chance against it, after all it is 5 year old technology.  However, for grins I took the shots and ran them through the exact same tone mapping and  post processing actions.  Here are the results.

Olympus HDR

Canon HDR

It may be difficult to notice any extreme difference based on the pictures above.  However, when looking at a detailed view zoomed to 100% there is a striking difference in the detail.

Olympus HDR Detail

Canon HDR Detail

The detail in the sheet metal siding is phenomenal in the Canon HDR version.  I was about 50 yards away from the building and it still picked up that detail.  I am impressed!  Does this mean you should run out and buy a 6D, absolutely not, but when the time is right to upgrade your gear it may not be a bad choice!

Over the next month or so I will be conducting some extensive reviews of the Canon 6D as well as the 24-105mm and 70-300mm lens I purchased it with.

Blake Rudis

f.64 Academy and f.64 Elite are the brainchildren of Blake Rudis. While he is a landscape photographer, he is most passionate about post-processing images in Photoshop and mentoring others.

For Blake, it's all about the art and process synergy. He dives deep into complex topics and makes them easy to understand through his outside-the-box thinking so that you can use these tricks in your workflow today!