Canon 5D Mark II

The Canon 5D Mark II is a very capable camera, combining the compact footprint and light weight of the 40D with the full-frame 21 megapixel sensor of the 1Ds Mark III.

I didn’t race right out to have a look at the very first 5D Mark II off the production line. However, the 1Ds is a somewhat bulky camera for certain field work and I decided to give the new 5D a look. Here are some initial impressions:

Sound too good to be true? Is it a 1Ds Mark III for less money that won’t put a permanent dent in your shoulder. Qualified “no.” I shot the two side-by-side and here is what I found:

• The 5D is amazingly quiet. So quiet, if fact, that it doesn’t seem you’ve made your exposure. Spooky… but cool in a way.
• Canon implemented a feature called “Live View” on the 40D and later 1-Series DSLRs. This sounds kind of dumb initially. After all, who uses an LCD plate on aDSLR? It turns out to be incredibly useful for no-shake, deliberately composed studio shots. The 5D also has this feature, but it is tangled up in the video features of the camera, so it is easier to make mistakes and clunkier to use than the same feature on the 1Ds. Clunky because if you’re a dyed-in-the-wool Canon user, you will come to expect the SET button (you know, the one in the middle of that big wheel you turn with your thumb) to control important functions. The SET button turns Live View on and off on the 40D and 1Ds MarkIII, but there is a separate button on the 5D that is overloaded to both control Live View and control the HD video capability. I’m sure that, over time, I would get used to this, but my first encounter with this particular control was not a positive one.
• As one might expect, the resolution from the 5D is amazing. The RAW images come out to about 22MB, so buy more hard disks. A subjective opinion: The images from the 5D are way better than the 40D just because of the density. The images from the 1Ds Mark III seem “creamier,” if that’s a good way to characterize image quality.
• Flash. Prosumer cameras from Canon – and I categorize the 5D at the top of that basket – have always had built in flashes. They weren’t great, but in an absolute emergency, the could provide some fill. The 1-series never has had built-in flashes, on the assumption that carrying heavy gear makes you a good photographer (I made that part up). Anyhow, if you decide on a 5D, set aside a few dollars for one of the 580EX speedlights.
• Feel. I’ve been shooting with the 1D and 1Ds bodies for the last several years and every time I pick up a camera without a vertical-release grip, I feel like someone cut a hand off. It’s just plain weird. If you have gotten used to a vertical release grip, then you might want to consider the add-on accessory for the 5D.
• Weather hardening. This is a major point Canon makes in their sales. The 1-series bodies have more weather-resistant seals at all their coupling points – lens mount, electronics attachment points, etc. But if you use your camera with some care and don’t drop it in water, then saving a few thousand dollars can go a long way toward making you feel better.
• Sensor cleaning and mapping. The new Canon cameras have these features. They are better than nothing, but you will still need to clean your sensor. Period. I don’t care what the sales pitch is, sensors attract junk and not all that junk can be shaken off. Caveat photographer when you use your sensor cleaning gizmo-du-jour. Sensor filters can be scratched and damaged easily. Now, to mapping, this seems like a non-feature to me. You have to use the Canon software to take advantage of it. Basically, the idea is that the software identifies and remembers repeated “bad spots” caused by hot pixels or persistent dust. It then edits these spots out using some kind of nearest-neighbor algorithm. This works pretty well on the large sensors because there is just so much data, but I have to come back to the fact that you have to use the Canon software. Using Adobe Camera RAW is so infinitely superior that it renders any advantage from this sensor mapping irrelevant when compared to all the ACR utility you would have to give up if you used the Canon software.
• Lens performance. Here is the bad news: The old lenses that were performing quite nicely, thank you very much, won’t anymore. Two reasons: 1) The sensor has far greater resolution; and 2) Full-frame sensors bring out chromatic aberration near the edges of images, especially an minimum or maximum apertures. This is not a new problem, nor is it a problem unique to the 5D. It just is. The CA adjustment in Adobe Camera RAW will clean up all but the worst offenders. I am able to get acceptable performance out of my 15mm fisheye and 17-35mm wide zoom. The chromatic aberration is there at f/2.8 and sometimes at f/22, but f/5.6 through f/11 are just fine.

So, bottom line: If you are wanting a full-frame (35mm aspect ratio) sensor 21 megapixel camera with (drum roll) HD video capabilities, then the 5D is a great choice at a good price (street price about $2,700). If you are very demanding of your camera and of your images, then you will want to get the 1-series body – either the 1D Mark IIIfor crop sensor or 1Ds Mark III for full-frame.

Feel free to comment, agree, disagree, or point out the “killer” feature you love about this camera.