We have seen Nikon announce their smallest and lightest entry level full-frame camera, the D600, at the $2100 price point. Now, Canon has announced a rival in the form of the EOS 6D, their own smallest and lightest entry-level full-frame DSLR selling for the exact same price.

The Canon 6D uses a 36 x 24mm CMOS sensor with a resolution of 20.2 megapixels. It’s lower than the 24.3 megapixels on the D600 sensor but since the sensors are of the same size, it should theoretically give the Canon an advantage in low light situations, as the individual pixels are larger and thus will collect more light.

The autofocus system on the 6D has 11 points, way lower than the 39 points on the D600. Having said that, Canon claims their AF system on the 6D offers the strongest low-light performance of any of their AF systems till date. Canon trumps the Nikon in the max ISO department, where it can go up to ISO 25,600 whereas the Nikon can only go up to 6,400. Both offer the option to go beyond that limit using software tricks, at which point the 6D goes up to ISO 102,400 and the D600 up to ISO 25,600. It remains to be seen how good the images actually are at those sensitivities, however.

Where the Canon really shines is in having GPS and Wi-Fi built into the camera, whereas on the Nikon you would need to buy separate accessories. It’s also the first Canon EOS to include these features. The 6D also has a slightly better 3.2-inch 1024k dot display, compared to the 3.2-inch 921k dot display. Neither displays, however, swivel or have touchscreen functionalities.