6d2 review timing?

[peety3]

Rent one. You're 1-3 days away from LensRentals.com as FedEx goes. But me personally, I rarely find that the next model is all that worthwhile of an upgrade, and it usually takes two revisions before I'm jumping to buy up. If anything, I'd be looking at a 5D4 or 5DsR if I were in your shoes, and the only reason I'd be looking at a 1Dx2 is if you needed the responsiveness that the 5DsR just barely lacks or the ISO that the 5D4 can't give you.

If it's any perspective, my wife and I both shoot. We have a 5DsR, two 1Dx, and a 5D3. Normally, I get the 5DsR and a 1Dx, as she's not good at managing her exposure and will often spend a day either at ISO 6400 or f/18 (or both), and the 5DsR doesn't do well at max ISO or at long shutter speeds, so I just don't let her use it. She therefore gets the 5D3 and a 1Dx. However, I get twitchy whenever I think about some random failure in the 5DsR, so I ponder the right choice for a backup camera. The 5D4 seems to fit the bill perfectly: 30mp feels like a better 50mp backup than 22 or 18mp, dual CPU seems like a better backup than single (in the 5D3), and yet "reasonable" high ISO performance makes it "safe" for my wife to use. I do suspect there's another 5DsR in our future after the 5D4, but I'm just not seeing myself reach for the 1Dx often enough to create a case to get a 1Dx2. Does that perspective help at all?

[neuroanatomist]

...I rarely find that the next model is all that worthwhile of an upgrade, and it usually takes two revisions before I'm jumping to buy up.

+1

I don't find the 1D X II sufficiently tempting for me to upgrade. The lower lines cycle faster, and I do think it's time for me to pick up an M6 to replace my M2.

[Kayaker72]

+1

I don't find the 1D X II sufficiently tempting for me to upgrade. The lower lines cycle faster, and I do think it's time for me to pick up an M6 to replace my M2.

I hear what you guys are saying. I consider the 5DIV to be all around better than the 5DIII (except for battery life, I keep seeing references to lessor battery life), but even when I borrowed it and looked for some reason to upgrade, it wasn't "sufficiently tempting" as you say.

But, just to throw this out there, as long as you are going to sell you current body used, at certain price points it makes sense to me to upgrade even if the upgrades are incremental. Looking at owning bodies over 3 generations of camera:

Scenario 1: Buy at release, skip generation, buy at release.
In this scenario, you are the early adopter, but you bought two new bodies, just to use 5D numbers, say at $3,500 each. Say you get $500 for your 2 generation old body. So outlay of $6,500.

Scenario 2: Buy after 1 yr, skip generation, buy after 1 yr.
This can save you some money, say $3,000 for a new body, same $500 value returned for your 2 gen old body, total outlay of $5,500

Scenario 3: Buy at release, buy at release, buy at release
You are an early adopter for each generation. You just spent $3,500 x 3 or $10,500 on camera bodies that should last you ~12 yrs. However, if you sold two of those bodies (trade-in) the going rate on a 1 gen old body seems to be ~$1,500, so you recovered $3,000 of that.

Total outlay for scenario 3 is $7,500.

Scenario 4: Buy after 1 yr, buy after 1 year, buy after 1 yr.
So, here, you buy each generation, but you wait a year so you are not the early adopter. New camera cost is $9,000. However, you were also able to sell two bodies that were only 1 generation old, not two. Those seem to go for ~$1,500 each, or $3k.

So, total outlay for scenario 3 is actually ~$6,000.


So, comparing Scenario 2 and 4, just by waiting a year and not being an early adopter, for $500 more you can have each new generation. Run that out over 40 yrs, $5,000 extra to always have the latest body, or $125/yr.

This is why I am tempted by the 5DIV. I'll look at the numbers later this year and decide if I am upgrading or not.