REVIEW: Canon 6D Mark II - Fantastic In-Camera JPEG Results

Canon 6D Mark II and 24-105mm f/4L IS II USM Kit Lens

I was a fan of the Canon 6D because its sensor performance was identical to the 1D X I owned at the time I did my review, so the idea of a second body that could get the same high quality results was very appealing to me. Yeah, it was a dated body but all could be forgiven at the time it came out.

Fast forward to 2017 and the world of photography has changed quite a bit. iPhones are capable of outstanding images, the a7R II is the undisputed king of the sensors by which other cameras are judged, and even cameras like the Fujifilm X-Pro 2 have excellent autofocus.

As a matter of disclosure, the camera I reviewed before this was the incredible Sony a9 which may have been a really bad thing for Canon because I got to see what cameras should be capable of in this day and age. As a result, when I unboxed and shot the 6D Mark II for the first time my first thought was WTF?!!!

To be fair I decided to extend my review time a little longer than normal to see if I could judge this camera fairly based on what it offers instead of comparing it a very different and far more expensive a9. I think I accomplished that goal, but that said I still found myself scratching my head at how much this camera has been forced to used outdated technology compared to what I've seen in the 7D Mark II.

Camera Body Thoughts

I love joystick controls so when I first got this camera and saw it didn't have one I almost boxed it back up and refused to review it. This body is almost identical to the 80D and I didn't review it for that same reason, but my appreciation of what the original 6D did forced me to give the 8 way multi-selector a shot. While I still much prefer a joystick, it was usable - but I still don't like it much.

The articulating touch screen was excellent and makes macros, difficult shots of children down at their level, and selfies (including group shots) all very easy to do. Honestly, I wish all cameras had this type of screen. I also like how it can be closed up so that the LCD is protected.

This camera also features a WiFi, BlueTooth, NFC, built-in GPS and the anti-flicker technology. The later helps keeps flickering lights from ruining a shot, so there's good tech in this camera. However, you only need to look at the limited AF points and the range of those AF points from the edges to feel like you've been transported back to 2007!  Why this camera has such a small cluster of AF points is unforgivable in 2017, but with that said the AF was reliable and worked well.

The construction of the body was excellent and the controls, aside from the lack of the joystick, were nicely placed and easy to use. The addition of a touch screen helped make up for some of the stupid features removed like the ability to rotate a dial to change the AF selection modes. Seriously Canon, why disable this functionality?!!!!!

Another software imposed block is for HDR that only works in JPEG only mode and doesn't allow you to keep the original shots that are captured to render the in-camera HDR (which typically looks lame). As a result, they took a handy feature from the 5D Mark IV and ruined it making it utterly useless. I'd suggest ignoring this feature and just do bracketing and external processing of your HDR shots.

Overall I was very disappointed in this body because a lot of things are made intentionally harder for marketing rather than technical reasons.

Real World Shots

The following shots are 100% unedited in-camera JPEG's that can be clicked on to view the full-size original. All images are copyright Ron Martinsen - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED and may not be used for any purpose, copied, printed, linked to or edited without written consent.

Most of these shots are taken using Aperture Priority or Manual with Auto ISO (so metering still comes into play). The shots that seem overly yellow are ones where I had Landscape Creative Style turned on along with Shade White Balance under the wrong lighting conditions, so that's user error. I always shoot RAW+JPEG, so these are all salvageable shots.

f/5 @ 50mm for 1/200 sec at ISO 200
The evaluate metering mode did a good job of taking everything in this scene into consideration and coming up with a reasonable balance between the dark and bright areas. This is one area that Canon really shines in a significant way over Nikon and Sony

f/5.6 @ 105mm for 1/1000 sec at ISO 400
While this is definitely NOT a sports camera, it didn't suck as much as I thought it might so casual photographers looking for a better sensor than 80D should be pleased

f/5.6 @ 105mm for 1/500 sec at ISO 5000
While this was just the kit lens, this sensor is capable of delighting macro photographers

f/5.6 @ 50mm for 1/100 sec at ISO 2500
Canon is famous for great in camera color especially in the warm tones and reds. The orange tones in this flower were excellent right out of the camera even with auto white balance

f/5.6 @ 91mm for 1/200 sec at ISO 640
I forgot to reset my white balance from shade to AWB, but I was pleased with the texture and details in the beard and hands so I thought it was still worth sharing this shot

f/5.6 @ 56mm for 1/125 sec at ISO 125
Again, the textures and tones in the linen on this fair maiden and her cotton demonstrate the strength of lugging a DSLR like this around instead of relying just on a cell phone

f/5.6 @ 35mm for 1/60 sec at ISO 10000
One of my typical torture shots and the exposure and tonal range were great, but the guy who photo bombed wasn't so great

f/7.1 @ 105mm for 1/500 sec at ISO 250
Using Highlight Tone Priority (D+) with auto white balance and aperture priority,
it did a good job with the sky, bright boat and dark areas in the woods.
It doesn't have the tonal range of a a7R II but this is a great starting point for post-processing

f/4 @ 105mm for 1/640 sec at ISO 200
Again a brilliant metering of a darker foreground and a bright background with good preservation of the pink tones

f/5.6 @ 30mm for 1/640 sec at ISO 6400
HDR mode did a good job bringing detail back on the walls that was lost in a default exposure

f/5.6 @ 105mm for 1/200 sec at ISO 12800
Another excellent example of evaluate metering nailing the exposure as the bulb is exposed nicely while still preserving details in the background. The dynamic range of this sensor is quite respectable so combined with a fantastic meter, your artistic vision for a shot is easily captured. Doing this shot with any other brand of camera requires a lot of effort or full manual mode to get the exposure right.

f/6.3 @ 24mm for 1/250 sec at ISO 1600
A metering torture test that performed well but definitely shows the limits of the range on the bright side, but also the improvements Canon has made in the preserving shadow details

f/4 @ 40mm for 1/40 sec at ISO 25600
Okay quality for ISO 25,600 but the colors definitely suffer at this ISO

f/5.6 @ 50mm for 1/100 sec at ISO 10000
Colors are great at ISO 10,000, so I'd have no reservations about shooting at up to ISO 12,800

f/5.6 @ 105mm for 1/250 sec at ISO 3200
I hate to keep harping on the great metering, but this was another one where I thought it was just bang on - first try - with evaluate metering and no user intervention - anyone could get this shot. The anti-flicker technology probably played a big factor on this one too.

f/5.6 @ 31mm for 1/60 sec at ISO 6400
One problem I did notice is that starting at ISO 6400 and up the built-in noise reduction is terrible about smearing the details, so I'd disable the built-in if you aren't shooting RAW

f/5.6 @ 29mm for 1/80 sec at ISO 25600
Hand-held and aside from the high ISO smearing, I was quite pleased with the result

f/4 @ 105mm for 1/200 sec at ISO 5000
I love the new 24-105mm but my copy definitely needed an auto focus micro adjustment with this camera body. Too bad there isn't an auto feature to do this like Nikon is starting to offer!

f/7.1 @ 105mm for 1/200 sec at ISO 4000 Auto White Balance
If you are in to shooting reds, you'll enjoy this Canon a lot more than other brands

f/7.1 @ 40mm for 1/60 sec at ISO 640
The tiny range of AF points made this a tough shot to get without doing a focus and recompose

f/9 @ 55mm for 1/100 sec at ISO 1600
Again, textbook perfect metering that balances the darkness inside of the building with the outside to render perfect red tones and utilizing all of the dynamic range from the darks to the whites.
If this meter was on a a7R II, then HDR wouldn't be necessary for most shots anymore!

f/7.1 @ 55mm for 1/125 sec at ISO 200
Gorgeous details in the texture and once again excellent metering

f/7.1 @ 64mm for 1/160 sec at ISO 200
At this point you know what I'm going to say, but you have to admit that this is impressive for an in-camera JPEG with default camera settings!

f/9 @ 95mm for 1/200 sec at ISO 400
The metering is so good that it makes the most of the dynamic range that this sensor has to offer to create in-camera JPEG's that are way better than the auto exposure you get with Lightroom from a RAW image. As a result, I'd encourage shooting RAW+JPEG!

f/5.6 @ 93mm for 1/200 sec at ISO 1250
This is a camera where I'd shoot RAW for insurance, but JPEG as my starting point for most of my images as you'd be hard pressed to get results this good with Lightroom without a lot of manual effort

f/4 @ 38mm for 1/500 sec at ISO 200
The articulating touch-screen LCD was excellent for getting shots like this at odd angles while I was high and dry and not killing my knees

Click here for a gallery of more unedited images taken during my testing.

Conclusion

If you are a JPEG only shooter who wants good in-camera results, but you aren't satisfied with the beauties you can get from Fujifilm cameras, then this is definitely a great camera choice. This a good camera for photojournalists or people who shoot a lot of images that need to be ready to go clients straight out of the camera as that's the strength you get out of this body.

With that said, if you are a "I only shoot RAW" type then go with a Nikon D750 instead. Canon has artificially neutered this camera, whereas the D750 is an excellent example of an affordable camera body where Nikon threw a ton of technology into it. It's one of the best cameras on the market, BUT the metering leaves a lot to be desired and you won't get in-camera JPEG's like this so you'll commit yourself to a lot more time doing post-processing.

Where to Buy?

CLICK HERE to learn more or buy today.

Other articles you may enjoy

If you enjoyed this article, you may also enjoy these:

• Canon 5D Mark IV
• Canon 5D Mark IV vs 1D X II - an unscientific comparison
• Canon 5Ds
• Canon 5DsR
• Canon 7D Mark II
• Canon Rebel T6s/760D
• Canon 600EX-RT Flash First Look (ST-E3 RT)
• Canon 11-24mm f/4L
• Canon 16-35mm f/2.8L III (NEW)
• Canon 24-70 f/2.8L II (vs 24-70 f/4L IS Comparison)
• Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS II USM (NEW)
• Canon 100-400m f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM
• Canon 200-400mm f/4L IS with 1.4X Extender
• Canon 300mm f/2.8L IS II at the Zoo
• Canon PRO-1000 17" Professional Printer
• Canon PRO-2000 Large Format Printer
• Fujifilm X-Pro 2 & 16-55mm f/2.8
• Nikon D500 with 24-70mm f/2.8 VR & SB-5000
• Nikon D610 (D600 vs Canon)
• Nikon D7200 (and older model links)
• Nikon D750 - Yeah, you want this one!
• Nikon D810 (includes SIGMA 50mm Art & Otus 55mm)
• Sony a6500
• Sony a7 (includes Samyang lens)
• Sony a7R Mark II with 24-70mm
• Sony a9 with 24-70mm GM
• Sony RX100 IV
• Ron's Recommendations
• Discount Coupon Codes 

Disclosure

If you make a purchase using links found in this article, I may make a commission. It doesn’t cost you a penny more, but it does help to support future articles like this.

Hahnemühle Matt Fine Art Photo Rag, German Etching and William Turner Review & Usage Tutorial for Mac & Windows

German paper maker Hahnemühle is well-known for making some of the best papers in the business since 1584 with the highest paper quality parameters for its Digital FineArt papers.

In this article, I share my thoughts on the three excellent Hahnemühle Matt Fine Art papers of which two are textured:

• German Etching 310 gsm - 100% Cotton mould-made white (data sheet)
• William Turner 310 gsm - 100% Cotton mould-made white (data sheet)

and one is smooth:

• Photo Rag®  308 gsm - 100% Cotton white (data sheet)

I also give some basic pointers on how to use these papers on Mac and Windows computers using my Epson SureColor P800 and Canon PRO-2000 printers.

ICC Profile / Color Gamut Analysis

In the following animation, what you see is that all three of these Matt Fine Art papers have roughly the same size color gamut using the ICC profiles from the Hahnemühle Download Center. The animation starts off with William Turner then Photo Rag and finally German Etching:

While there are some subtle differences, in practice all three papers performed equally well. I did find that it is possible to get a lot more out of these papers with a finely tuned custom ICC profile so some users may look to building their own or leveraging ColorByte ImagePrint for the best results.

Despite the fact that matte papers traditionally have a smaller color gamut and a lower d-max (maximum density of blacks in a printed image) than glossy fine art papers, I found all three of these papers to be extremely good and delightful in use. In fact, for the prints I put on display I frequently found that viewers didn't realize it was a matte paper until I told them or they touched these papers.

In the hand

While some people swear off matte papers like the plague, I personally love them for one significant reason and that's how they feel in your hand. I'm a very tactile person so I love wood, leather, linen, cotton, etc... because of their textures and how it feels in my hands.

If you are this type of person then you are in for a sensory delight with these papers. Here's my thoughts on each:

• Photo Rag - this is the paper you want if you want a hearty substantial feel, yet a smooth surface that draws the light in a positive way for a brighter natural white tone. I found it to have a light surface texture that when viewed at a harsh angle is visually delightful as it has the appearance of a centuries old handmade paper. This is the go to paper for portraits of models with smooth skin that you want to touch.
• German Etching - this paper takes the texture that is visible in Photo Rag and brings it to the surface for a noticeable texture that feels like a very high quality hand made paper that is a joy to hold in the hand. It's almost orange peel like, but in a good and more aesthetically pleasing way. This is the perfect paper for images with leather, clothes, fruit, flowers, etc...
• William Turner - this paper has a significant "tooth" to it and I love it! It's almost like 600+ grit sandpaper which might sound weird, but when you hold it you think "wow, this is good stuff". Surprisingly it prints beautifully too so the texture vanishes unless held at an angle in indirect soft light. I love this paper for landscapes and images that look so real that you want to touch them (I.e., rock, wood, bark, etc...).

Scans of Prints

WARNING: Scanning a print to a JPEG means you end up with details from one color space being lost in another color space and a much lower fidelity image than what you hold in your hand. As a result DO NOT JUDGE the print color based on these images.

Instead, the value of this section is so you can do relative comparisons against the other scans of the same image for different paper types (in this article only - not other articles on this blog). This can be useful to see how these papers compare against each other with identical images.

It should also be noted that if you look carefully at the intentional white border of these scans of each of these papers that you can get a hint of the texture pattern for that given paper.

Click any print to see a full-size JPEG scan, but remember it's color fidelity is MUCH lower in the photo than in real life. All images are copyright Ron Martinsen and may not be used for any other purpose but viewing while this article is open in your web browser.

The Outback Printer image is courtesy of the late but great Uwe Steinmueller and used by permission of Bettina Steinmueller. It should be noted that in real life all three papers show visible squares up to 6 in the blacks and 252 in the whites, even though that detail is lost in the scans. The color is virtually identical even under a light box for all three which means you can mix papers and get color matching for gallery exhibitions.

Photo Rag

Outback Print Printer Evaluation Image - Photo Rag

Treehouse - Photo Rag

Gary - Photo Rag

Gary Parker is a Pulitzer prize winning photographer who has done magazine covers for the who's who of high tech including Bill Gates and Steve Jobs as well as amazing commercial pet images. He's also my friend and mentor, so I have this photo I took of him in hanging by desk that is printed on ILFORD GALERIE Prestige Smooth Pearl Photo Paper.

In my experience a glossy will always beat a matte paper when compared side by side, but what struck me about this print (in real life - vs the washed out looking scan) was how close it was in quality to the glossy - on a matte paper!

As a result, this was my paper of choice for this image because it felt smooth with a very subtle texture - much like Gary's vest. It was a perfect match for this photo, so I sent a copy of this print to Hahnemühle for review.

German Etching

German Etching is a long-time favorite of mine as Canon had sent it to me at the start of my printing series when I reviewed the iPF6300. I never got around to reviewing this paper and I loved it so much that I ended up hoarding the rolls to save this paper for only very special images. Years later, I had the freedom to try it out again and I loved pretty much everything I printed on it.

Outback Print Printer Evaluation Image - German Etching

Treehouse - German Etching

Gary - German Etching

While the colors from the scan are very washed out from a source image that is intentionally aged (using Texture Effects), the combination of this paper and its texture reminded me of what my hand felt when I touched this chair. I immediately knew it was the perfect paper for this print and immediately printed a copy to send to Hahnemühle for review.

Now this is a favorite image of mine done with Simplify that people either love or hate with every fiber of their being. I'm okay with that though because any image that evokes strong emotions is a successful image in my opinion.

With that said, I never imagined ever printing this image as it's obviously meant for the digital realm. However, the feel of German Etching reminded me of the feel and texture of these stones so I had to print it out. The net result is something that turned out better than expected and one that I actually enjoyed holding in my hand for the first time.

William Turner

Outback Print Printer Evaluation Image - William Turner

Treehouse - William Turner

This was my paper of choice for the Treehouse print I sent to Hahnemühle for review. The texture of the paper just reminds me of the feel of the wood of the cabin, so it just felt so right to print this image on this paper.  It's ironic too because this photo was a huge commercial success for me, but I had never printed it. As soon as I touched this paper, that immediately changed and it immediately became a favorite test print for this series as the detail of the reds on the wall behind the light really showed the characteristics of the reds for a given ICC profile.

Gary - William Turner

Usage Instructions / Tutorial

In this section, which is a bit redundant if you review the whole section, I try to get you pointed in the right direction about how to set your application (e.g., Photoshop) to use the correct ICC profile and media type so you can get the best results with these papers.

Canon PRO-2000 from Photoshop (Mac)

Printing using these papers from Photoshop is easy as long as you remember to set Color Handling to "Photoshop Manages Colors" and then set your Printer Profile to the appropriate paper as shown here (Photo Rag profile shown):

The ICC profile you use will come from the Hahnemühle Download Center for your specific printer, but in this case for the Canon PRO-2000 I had the following choices:

• German Etching paper uses HFA_CanPro2000_MK_GermEtching.icc
• Photo Rag Matt Fine Art Smooth uses HFA_CanPro2000_MK_PhotoRag.icc
• William Turner paper uses HFA_CanPro2000_MK_WTurner.icc
  

and I made sure to use my desired rendering intent and checked black point compensation.

If you click "Print Settings..." you'll see the printer settings dialog where you can specify the media type "under Quality & Media" which can be Heavyweight Fine Art Paper for all of these papers as shown here:

Epson SureColor P800 from Photoshop (Windows)

Printing using these papers from Photoshop is easy as long as you remember to set Color Handling to "Photoshop Manages Colors" and then set your Printer Profile to the appropriate paper as shown here (Photo Rag profile shown):

The ICC profile you use will come from the Hahnemühle Download Center for your specific printer, but in this case for the Epson P800 I had the following choices:

• German Etching paper uses HFA_EpsSC-P8000_MK_GermEtching.icc
• Photo Rag Matt Fine Art Smooth uses HFA_EpsSC-P800_MK_PhotoRag.icc
• William Turner paper uses HFA_EpsSC-P800_MK_WTurner.icc
  

and I made sure to use my desired rendering intent and checked black point compensation.

If you click "Print Settings..." you'll see the printer settings dialog where you can specify the media type which can be Velvet Fine Art Paper for all of these papers as shown here:

Be sure that Print Quality is set to "Max Quality" and that Mode: is set to "Off (No Color Adjustment)" to ensure that you don't get an ugly double color managed print. Epson will also force you to use the Front - Fine Art paper settings source so if that's a problem then you should use the Epson Print Layout software as shown in the Mac section (works for Windows too).

Canon PRO-2000 from Photoshop (Windows)

Printing using these papers from Photoshop is easy as long as you remember to set Color Handling to "Photoshop Manages Colors" and then set your Printer Profile to the appropriate paper as shown here (William Turner profile shown):

The ICC profile you use will come from the Hahnemühle Download Center for your specific printer, but in this case for the Canon PRO-2000 I had the following choices:

• German Etching paper uses HFA_CanPro2000_MK_GermEtching.icc
• Photo Rag Matt Fine Art Smooth uses HFA_CanPro2000_MK_PhotoRag.icc
• William Turner paper uses HFA_CanPro2000_MK_WTurner.icc
  

and I made sure to use my desired rendering intent and checked black point compensation.

If you click "Print Settings..." you'll see the printer settings dialog where you can specify the media type which can be Heavyweight Fine Art Paper for all of these papers as shown here:

Don't forget to set Print Quality to Highest and choose "Color Settings..." where you can go tot he Matching tab as shown below and set "Color Correction" to "Off" as shown here:

This step makes sure you don't accidentally do double color matching which might sound good to the uninformed but looks horrible when you print.

Epson Print Layout Software (Mac & Windows)

Epson Print Layout Software is handy software that works on both Mac and Windows that helps you to get great prints without having to use Photoshop. While I won't give a tutorial on how to use this product, I will point out that you simply need to set the Media Type to "Velvet Fine Art Paper" and specify the correct ICC profile in the Color Settings section as shown below (for German Etching):

The ICC profile you use will come from the Hahnemühle Download Center for your specific printer, but in this case for the Epson P800 I had the following choices:

• German Etching paper uses HFA_EpsSC-P8000_MK_GermEtching.icc
• Photo Rag Matt Fine Art Smooth uses HFA_EpsSC-P800_MK_PhotoRag.icc
• William Turner paper uses HFA_EpsSC-P800_MK_WTurner.icc
  

and I made sure to use my desired rendering intent and checked black point compensation.

That's it - super simple and it works great, so this is an easy way to get great print results from your Epson SureColor printer.

Conclusion

Overall, I was extremely satisfied with these papers. You can see, and more importantly feel, the hundreds of years of experience Hahnemühle has in making truly special fine art paper.

These are papers for the print master who wishes to add the third dimension of a sensory experience to their prints and/or leverage papers that complement the texture of their image.

I highly recommend these Hahnemühle papers as the top premium papers on the market.

Where to Buy?

At B&H you can get these papers using these links:

• German Etching 310 gsm
• Photo Rag®  308 gsm 
• William Turner 310 gsm
• Sample Pack

At Amazon you use these:

• German Etching 310 gsm
• Photo Rag®  308 gsm 
• William Turner 310 gsm
• Sample Pack

Other articles you may enjoy

If you enjoyed this article, you may also enjoy these:

• Printing Series - tons of great info!
• Canon PRO-2000 Review
• Epson SureColor P800 Review
• Epson SureColor P600 Review
• ColorByte ImagePrint 10 Review
• Ron's Recommendations 

Disclosure

If you make a purchase using links found in this article, I may make a commission. It doesn’t cost you a penny more, but it does help to support future articles like this.

REVIEW: Sony a9 - The Best All Purpose Camera? (Part II of II)

In Part I of my review I asked Sony a9 - The Ultimate Action Camera By Which All Others Will Be Judged?, and I think the answer has to be yes. It's a very impressive AF system that almost guarantees you'll get the decisive moment for an action scene. However, this is a big investment and most of us aren't paid sports photographers, yet this camera has a lot of reasons why you might want to buy. As a result, I thought I'd spend the second half of this review discussing its value as an all-purpose camera to see how it does with typical shots that the average person might take.

Would this be a case of yet another expensive camera that's really just a one trick pony, or did Sony really make one camera to rule them all? Read on to find out and see my final conclusion.

Real World Shots

Real world shots is my way of saying examples of photos that an ordinary person might take as compared to ones that a paid professional being hired to photograph something would take. I like to include these types of shots in my reviews because it reflects exactly what you can expect to see if you buy this camera and examine the results on your computer.

All of the photos are 100% unedited (not even cropping unless noted) and you can click the photos to see the exact unedited JPEG that came out of the camera.

While I might use white balance (shade) and creative style (vivid) adjustments to enhance the in-camera image, the rest of what you see is what you'd see at home yourself if you took this same shot yourself.

All images are copyright, Ron Martinsen - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, but you may examine the originals to your hearts content while viewing this article in your web browser. After closing the article, you agree to delete any local copies and you also agree not to print, re-post, re-distribute, link to or otherwise use these photos in any way without written consent.

With that said, please enjoy my thoughts on these and all of the photos found in part 1 of my review and in the galleries associated with this review.

f/2.8 @ 70mm for 1/160 sec at ISO 250
Using full resolution (6000x4000) you can't get a good shot of this subject from the fixed viewpoint

f/2.8 @ 70mm for 1/250 sec at ISO 400
However, if you switch to the APS-C mode, then you get some extra optical zoom without sacrificing quality - but you do get a smaller 3936x2624 file so you've essentially just done an in camera crop. That said, I still liked this mode and it will still print and look gorgeous on a 4k TV.

f/2.8 @ 70mm for 1/250 sec at ISO 500
Using the Clear Image Zoom feature at its maximum 4x means you can't pick the focus point but you get impressive reach and quality using this intelligent digital zoom technique.
Again, I have a file that needs no editing to show friends on a 4k TV - impressive

f/16 @ 24mm for 1.3 sec at ISO 100
In this intentional dynamic range torture test, I was reminded that this definitely no a7R II
The highlights were pretty blown despite the cloudy conditions

f/22 @ 24mm for 2 sec at ISO 100
However, if you shoot within the dynamic range of this camera,
the landscape results are very satisfying

f/4 @ 70mm for 1/800 sec at ISO 100
I snatched a frame of the distant boat,
but I was surprised to see how much detail still remained in the power lines

f/4 @ 68mm for 1/3200 sec at ISO 100 
(cropped - click for unedited original)
As I was taking the shot above, I heard this plane overhead so I took a quick shot
Despite being underexposed, I was impressed with the detail in the shadows
and especially the wires going from the vertical stabilizer on the tail

f/5.6 @ 70mm for 1/100 sec at ISO 640
Zoom in to the original for a scary look at this spider shot done at full frame at roughly the minimum focus distance of the 24-70mm f/2.8 GM lens

f/4 @ 70mm for 1/200 sec at ISO 800
Decent bokeh and amazing detail make the kit a great deal for those getting started with Sony

f/3.2 @ 70mm for 1/1250 sec at ISO 100
Wild unpredictable boys are no problem with this camera

f/3.2 @ 70mm for 1/500 sec at ISO 100
Clear Image Zoom is excellent for hard to reach flower macro shots at the botanical garden

f/4 @ 70mm for 1/2000 sec at ISO 500
There is enough dynamic range to keep cheek highlights in check
when photographing family members in the harsh sun

Slow Motion Video Autofocus Test

I don't do much with video, but I think slow mo videos are cool so I couldn't help but play around with that feature on this camera. In this test, I was curious to see how the AF would hold up to the torture test of keeping up with my son's eyes. It failed, but honestly I thought it did better than expected given the fact that I was using eye focus mode on such a challenging scene.

Bookshelf Test

f/5.6 @ 50mm for 10 sec at ISO 100
ISO 100 quality was excellent even by today's standards
and the shadow detail above the books to the back wall was impressive

Where many special purpose cameras fail is how they perform when pushed to the extremes. In this case, I'm happy to report that the a9 did a respectable job in my bookshelf test that I use to just shadow detail, dynamic range and ISO performance. The full gallery of shots lets you examine full ISO stops from 100 (shown above) to 51,200 (shown below) where you can decide what your maximum tolerance is for sensor noise and noise reduction control. However, I found 51,200 to be usable in a pinch and 12,800 to be good enough to consider it a default top ISO for regular shooting.

f/5.6 @ 50mm for 1/50 sec at ISO 51200
As this shows, unless you are going to be viewing at large sizes, images of your vacation or kids shown a social media sizes is going to be totally fine at ISO 51,200

Conclusion

Yes, I have to say that this is the most impressive camera that I've tested this year and one of the best ones I've every shot with. While I won't be getting rid of my Canon 1D X Mark II because if its superior line up of sports lenses, better metering and excellent flash system, I did find myself looking at my camera and wondering why Canon can't do that!

I've also shot with the Nikon D5, and I'd prefer it over the Sony for the same reasons. Yes, I've seen adapters used with Canon and Nikon lenses and I'm extremely underwhelmed at AF performance when used with adapters, but manual focusing is fine. That kinda defeats the purpose of this camera and sports lenses, so I'd still say that if you are a sports shooter that this is a good second camera for close range action, but stick to Canon or Nikon for your >200mm needs.

With that said, if you are an event or wedding photographer then I think this is the camera you have to own. While you might want a a7R Mark II also around your neck or in the hands of your second shooter for its superior dynamic range, this will be the camera that helps you to get the shots that bring tears to your clients eyes. It's also got the high ISO performance to come home with concert and evening event shots that are totally usable.

Now this is an extremely expensive camera, so it's tough to suggest it for parents based on price. However, if you are a financially successful dual income household that can easily afford it then I can say without hesitation that this is the camera you want to photograph your precious little angel.

Overall, I'm extremely satisfied all around with the first Sony camera body that I didn't hate (thanks to its wealth of programmable buttons) and can easily give it MY HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION.

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Unless noted, ALL shots in this article are unedited and come straight out of the camera as shown. In-camera JPEG's were used with in-camera Creative Style (vivid) and White Balance (shade) being leveraged to give shots an improved color over the camera default.