What's your opinion on the Canon EOS 6D?
What's your opinion on the Canon EOS 6D?
It’s a nice and well-respected camera. But it isn’t as nice as a dedicated Astro camera.
A dedicated Astro camera has controlled sensor cooling to reduce noise.
A dedicated Astro camera can be bought in Mono or color RGGB.
A dedicated Astro camera has no moving parts. (very important)
Early on when I was researching my first equipment for AP I considered using my DSLR. But there were so many reasons to just get a regular Astro Camera I went that way.
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I am a grab and go shooter, so I don't want to bring with me big batteries for cooling. The 6D has earned its reputation for a reason. To me, it doesn't make sense to compare DSLRs to cooled dedicated cameras.
That said, it has been the queen of astro for many years, and, even if now there are better back-illuminated sensors such as the one in my Nikon Z6, I still find myself using the 6D for deep sky astrophotography because of its near infinite battery life and amazing ergonomics.
The sensor is on par with cameras like the Nikon D610 or D750, among the best in its category.
I have shot for years with a 6D and I believe that given you can find one for $250 in good condition it is a must have camera. Even for landscapes, a lot of the top nightscapers out there use it regularly.
Clear skies
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I started out with DSLRs (Sony A6×00 with star eater problems, Canon 2000D, Canon 6D) and paired with a Askar modular refractor that supports full frame sensors it was really fun shooting wide field objects.
You can achieve good results if you invest more time in your object. That’s what I did with my Orion and Andromeda back then.
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Hello,
I am working with two EQ6-R Pro lines in may garden, one with a Mono Touptek 2600MM Kamera, one with the Canon 6 D (see my galery).
In comparison, I find the full format Canon 6D in combination with a 480 mm Apo or 600 mm Newton very good and I do not see so much advantage for the cooled mono camera. With the 480 mm William Megrez Apo, the full formate can be used almost completely. With higher focal length (800-1000 mm), about 10 % of the long frame side is sometimes lost due to a partial vignating. The seems to be caused by a construction error of the Canon tube inside.
I had other Canons before (1000D, 550 D). This one is much better, realy great. If you can by one for a good price, I would advide to take one.
Greetings Peter
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I still enjoy using my two Canon 6D’s one stock and the other Ha modified. Those large 6.5 micron pixels contributes to the camera's excellent low-light performance and high dynamic range.
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I have a (now old) modified Canon 6D. I started imaging with DSLRs and I think that the old 6D is still a good choice for certain types of imaging. It’s a good choice for sky-scapes and maybe for getting started in AP with a telescope, but beyond that, I’d recommend going for a dedicated, cooled astro-camera. The prices on cooled cameras has come down to a point where they are a better choice for long exposure imaging through a telescope. Still, if you are really set on using a DSLR, the 6D is not a bad choice.
John
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The primary benefit of the 6D is that it is one of the few Canon sensors that does not have banding. It is a very dated sensor with dynamic range that is not competitive with today’s sensors and frankly, lagged behind the contemporary Sony sensors even at the time it was released. And of course, it is not cooled and hence would not give repeatable calibration frames. I bought an Astro modded 6D a few years ago and ended up selling it. There are much better options today.
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Just bought a used 6D mark II and love it. I bought is as an addition to my dedicated deepsky and planetary cameras (585MC pro and 678MC). I use it for normale landscape photography and night sky photography. As I have it only for a few weeks, I am already impressed. We visited Iceland and the camera did very well. Also in low light situations it performs well. Last night I shot my first night sky and the detail is great.
I bought it second hand at CameraNu.nl for just under 700 euros.
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It’s definitely a 'legend' for a reason. Even with all the new mirrorless and dedicated cooled cameras out there, the 6D still holds up surprisingly well because of those huge pixels and low noise floor. If you're on a budget and can find one for a few hundred bucks, it’s arguably the best bang-for-your-buck full-frame entry into the hobby. Just watch out for that internal mirror box vignetting on faster scopes!
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Mark Sansom · Mar 4, 2026 at 03:04 AM
Those large 6.5 micron pixels contributes to the camera's excellent low-light performance and high dynamic range.
The dynamic range of the 6D lagged behind even its contemporary cameras. See the below comparison versus the D810:
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This was because Canon sensors did their ADC off chip which introduced a large amount of noise. The DR becomes equivalent at high ISOs because you’ve amplified the signal above the ADC noise floor hence reducing the influence of this noise, but at the cost of clipping the highlights.
The big advantage of the 6D, versus other Canon cameras, was its lack of banding. Since different rows of pixels in Canon cameras went to different amplifiers, small differences in electronic noise would show up as bands. This was impossible to calibrate out. The 6D is perhaps unique among Canon cameras of that generation to where Canon was able to eliminate banding.
The 6D even lags behind its contemporary Nikon cameras in full well capacity. It has a full well capacity per pixel of 79,000. This is greater than that of the D850 at 62,000 - until you realize that the D810 is achieving this with 4.37 micron pixels versus 6.5 microns of the 6D. The 6D’s pixels will saturate more quickly than those of the 850 for equivalent exposures.
I think the major benefit of the 6D is that it gives decent performance and full frame at very low cost. I’d use the 6D at a B1/2 site over an astro cam at my B6 site any day, but an astro cam at a B1 or 2 site would crush the 6D in capable hands.
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Arun H · Mar 6, 2026, 12:27 PM
The big advantage of the 6D, versus other Canon cameras, was its lack of banding. Since different rows of pixels in Canon cameras went to different amplifiers, small differences in electronic noise would show up as bands. This was impossible to calibrate out. The 6D is perhaps unique among Canon cameras of that generation to where Canon was able to eliminate banding.
I can vouch for that. As a result I think the 6D has a very clean-looking noise pattern even if it was not the lowest noise camera out there. I appreciate the clean look not only due to lack of banding, but, also due to the inexistent AMP glow. Bodies like the Nikon D750 have better DR but present noticeable AMP glow compared to the 6D. (if you expose correctly not an issue, I know).
AMP glow however is not an issue in most modern cameras.
I still prefer the Nikon sensors from that era, as the D600 was comparable to the 6D but always presented less color noise. I still use the 6D for the good performance and ergonomics, but, I made my second body the Nikon Z6, as the mirrorless competition from Canon is much inferior in my opinion (considering price too).
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