Traveling to India with the Canon 6d Camera

Taj Mahal Mosque – ISO 1250, Handheld – Above Photo

I recently returned from a 10 day business trip to India where I took along the Canon 6d for photography on the weekends and evenings.  In this blog, I discuss how I liked the Canon 6d as a travel camera.  I’ll cover the size and weight of the Canon 6d as well as its performance during my international trip.

Canon 6d Size and Weight

My carry on bag for the trip was a normal (non photography) backpack as I had other business and travel essentials that I needed to carry on the plane.  I also needed a small backpack due to limitations in overhead space on some of the overseas domestic flights and the amount of walking I needed to do at the airports.   I also wanted a smaller backpack that I could take with me on photography trips once I landed in India.

 I was able to fit the Canon 6d, Canon 24-105mm, Canon 70-300mm DO, CF cards, filters, and an extra battery in the non-photo backpack that was loaded with other travel essentials without making the backpack too heavy to carry.

Airport security in India also required that all electronics be removed from your carry on bags when you go through security checkpoints.  It was nice to have a smaller DSLR to take out of the bag at each checkpoint.

Most of my photography was hand held during my trip to India due to restrictions on tripods and the crowds.  The weight of the Canon 6d wasn’t overbearing during the hours in the Indian heat visiting attractions like the Taj Mahal and Golconda Fort.

New Delhi Sunrise (ISO 640 Handheld)

Canon 6d Performance

I did a lot of debating between buying the Canon 6d or a smaller mirrorless camera such as a micro four thirds camera for international travel.  I finally decided on the Canon 6d and I’m glad I did.

The Canon 6d gives you full frame DSLR performance at about the size of the Canon 7d.  I spent a lot of time hand holding in high ISO conditions where I appreciated the high ISO performance of the Canon 6d.

There were times where I missed the higher frames per second of the Canon 7d or Canon 5d Mark iii like shooting out of a moving vehicle.   But overall, the Canon 6d performed very well for its size and convenience.

I also appreciated the new GPS feature on the Canon 6d.   The feature is easy to turn on/off and saved me a lot of time geotagging my photos when I returned from the trip.  The GPS data also automatically uploaded to Lightroom 4 in the EXIF data without any additional steps.

Parrot at the Taj Mahal (ISO 640, Handheld)

Overall, I’d rate the Canon 6d very high as a travel camera.  With a mirrorless camera, I could have fit more gear or had less weight in the in the backpack.  However, I’m not ready to sacrifice the low noise, high ISO quality of a full frame DSLR in a compact body.

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