Mr.Ft Loc: Central New Jersey

I was at the camera shop today to pick up a few things. While I was deciding on a new sling strap, the guy next to me at the counter handed me the 6D m2 he was looking at. He asked me if I noticed anything different with it, I looked through the viewfinder and saw what he was talking about. It seems that all the focus points are "clustered" very tightly in the center of the viewfinder. Would this present an issue when shooting? I could not stay around long enough to hear the whole discussion and was curious on what effect if any this would have on using this camera.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

It means that if your desired focus point of the image you want is outside that area you need to lock focus and recompose before taking the picture. Some people do that all the time, some hate having to do it at all. I usually use center point only focus so I am one of those who do it regularly. I got used to it.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

The old 6D used the 11-point layout common to Canon's EOS models thru the 5DII (excluding the 45-point spread previously exclusive to the 1D series). This was viewed as "archaic", particularly for a full-frame model and following the changes in the layout introduced in the 7D and enhanced in the 5DIII release. Keep in mind the 6D (and Nikon's D6xx series) are considered entry-level full-frame models. That is, full-frame sensors with limited functionality as compared to the "bigger brothers" in the respective product lines. You can see the vendors struggle to create differentiated products with distinct features and capabilities that justify their higher or lower pricing, both relative to products from the same vendor and against similar competing products.

You'll have to scroll down to find the section, but the "middle" of the product review at The Digital Picture shows the layout with comparison to layouts in several bodies in the EOS line. We, the consumers, are benefiting from efforts to expand the AF layout in all DSLR products at all product tiers. The 6DII does appear more clustered in the center, although they cover a larger sensor than a cropped sensor. Looking at the AF points, more points are provided covering essentially the same x / y spread as the original 6D.

mrpentaxk5ii

Canot took the 80D and turned it int a full frame camera, they used the same focus array used on a 1.6 crop sensor and stuck it on a larger sensor and that is the reason you have all the focus points in the center.

crazydaddio Loc: Toronto Ontario Canada

All the blogs seem to indicate this. The 6Dmkii is simply taking the 80D crop AF array and putting it in the 6DmkII. Going from Crop to full frame means the coverage is
clustered in the crop area (ie near the middle) on the 6Dmkii

...Not a problem for general photography work but if you are doing close focusing at 1.4-2.8 aperature, then focusing using the center AF and then recompose -> you will likely be
getting soft results as you move the sensor slightly away from its focusing point as you "tip/tilt" the camera during recomposing....best to frame it where you want and use Liveview and and focus using DPAF ....(hate doing it that way but results are often better).