Independent User Review: Canon EOS 5D MKII

My good friend and fellow professional photographer Barry Mann is the proud new owner of a Canon EOS 5D MKII and has kindly given his first impressions of the new camera.

Barry runs a commercial and low-level aerial photography business in the UK and is also an accomplished travel photographer in his spare time (check out his images of Lesotho). He’s also, for the record, a thoroughly nice bloke.

Photographers who insist upon playing “mine’s bigger than yours” blanch when they see Barry turn up in his customised Mercedes van with its 22 metre mast on the roof.

As a working photographer, quality is crucial to Barry so I was keen to see how he felt the 5D MKII performed. Read on…

---

Barry’s review of the Canon EOS 5D MKII

As the owner and user of two of the original Canon 5D cameras, I had been following the launch of the long awaited 5D Mk2 with great interest.  If Canon had the ability to improve upon the original with upgraded features, I for one was keen to get my hands on one, even more so after reading the initial pre-production model reviews.

Having decided to take the plunge and put my name on a waiting list, my new camera finally arrived last Friday.  A week later I’ve had a few opportunities to work with it and test out some of the key features.

Since I know a lot of people out there are desperate to know whether it is worth the hefty £2,300 price tag, here are my first impressions of the 5D Mk2

Look and feel

The 5D Mk2 feels more robust than the original, although size and weight are actually very similar, no doubt it’s the magnesium alloy coating which gives this feel.  One thing I have found strange though has been shooting without a battery grip.  I find with the 5D that this gives better balance and flexibility so I am looking forward to receiving this in due course.  I am not sure why this, along with spare batteries, could not have been made available at the same time the camera itself was shipped.  No doubt Canon’s desire to get their camera into the market place before Christmas played a part in this.

The 3” display on the back of camera is fantastic, providing crisp bright detailed images & an enhanced selection of information regarding the image.  An automatic light meter adjusts the brightness of the display based on the ambient lighting conditions and this is a great help in checking images in bright conditions.

Another noticeable improvement is the brightness of the viewfinder and the inclusion of the battery status and ISO speed within it is a definite plus.

Menus

Now very much like its bigger brother’s the menu system is easy to navigate and I have very quickly adjusted to the different menu screens and settings.

One addition I personally like is the ability to turn off the 1/3 increments in the ISO settings, allowing me to only use 100, 200, 400 etc, which saves time rather than scrolling through the intermediate ISO settings that I never use.

There are many other custom function enhancements and no doubt I will get a chance to test these in due course.

ISO Settings

Much has been said about the improved ISO settings of the 5D Mk2.  Having carried out some initial testing I can say that the noise levels at higher ISO settings are much improved.  Without the RAW converter in Lightroom being updated to include the 5D Mk2 Camera RAW files I have so far been limited to looking at the JPEG files but a quick comparison of these in low light conditions have been impressive.

If you look at the sample images, which incidentally have had no form of noise reduction at all, I think you are gaining around two stops.  Previously 800 would have been the limit I would use, but now I think 3200 looks like it could be acceptable.  Great for shooting without flash inside which I would imagine would be a great benefit to wedding photographers.

Would I use the higher expanded ISO settings?  Probably not, although I will have another look at them once the Camera RAW files are updated in Lightroom to include the 5D Mk2 and see what noise reduction software does to them.

Image size and quality

This was another of the big selling points for me.  A 21mp camera producing files large enough for provision straight to image libraries.  This will save the need for any upsizing of images and a quick conversion of some of those taken so far shows that it is giving 60mb tiff files well above 48-50mb required at the moment by image libraries.

As mentioned above, my initial reviews I have been of jpeg images as Canon’s Digital Photo Professional software just doesn’t do it for me.  I am quite happy to wait until Lightroom is upgraded to take a look at the RAW files.  JPEG images do appear quite contrasty even though I have been shooting in faithful mode, with no colour, sharpening or contrast adjustments in-camera.  This may of course be more down to the subjects and conditions though and as is the way with Canon DSLRs, images do appear a touch soft and require some sharpening.

A small selection of images captured with the 5D Mk2 can be seen below with additional images at http://www.barrymannphotography.com/5dmk2.html.

Automatic Sensor Cleaning

I thought this was one area that was going to be a vast improvement over the original 5D and it may yet prove to be but, having used the camera for a week, there are already dust spots which are not removed when the automatic sensor cleaning takes place.  Maybe I was expecting miracles here and I have to admit to it being rather windy when I was out shooting on a couple of days but as far as I am concerned the jury is definitely still out here.

Remote capture & Live View

I currently do a lot of remote shooting, using the Canon software to capture images directly on to my laptop, usually with the camera sat on top of a 22m mast!  Now I know this won’t be relevant to many people but the additional flexibility of the new Canon EOS Utility capture software puts it streets ahead of that provided with the original 5D.  Even with the increased file sizes, downloads from camera to computer are fast.

The Live View option is also an interesting addition, not high on my wish list but when it comes to architectural photography and even remote shooting, this could provide additional help in checking the focus of images from front to back.  I am certainly looking forward to testing this out in more detail and seeing how this works with Canon’s TSE lenses.

Autofocus

I haven’t noticed any initial problems with the focusing, although a thorough technical examination hasn’t been done yet.  I did manage a quick visit to the local railway station and tested it out on a couple of trains approaching at 90mph.  The results were good, tracking the approaching train pretty well, as you can see from the examples below.

Video

I have to admit that I would have bought the 5D Mk2 with or without the HD video capability and up until now haven’t really been too bothered about the extra feature.  Yes, I have seen the fantastic quality videos produced by Vincent Laforet, amongst others, but I am not a film maker I am a photographer.

Having said that, after having had a very quick dabble using the Live View movie mode, I am actually really excited by this feature, so much so I have already been thinking of ways in which it can be used and can’t wait to get out there and test it further.

Issues

Apart from the sensor cleaning mentioned above, only a couple of things and neither relate to the camera itself.

First, the fact that Canon was so desperate to get the camera to market that they did so before any accessories were available. So if you are planning a long shoot or using the Live view mode regularly this could present problems.  I am hoping it won’t be long before these are available though.

The second is the fact that Adobe are forcing users of CS3 to upgrade to CS4 by not updating the Camera RAW files in CS3 to include the 5D Mk2 RAW files.  Not a problem for me as I process all my images through Lightroom and as I understand it the upgraded version of Lightroom, version 2.2, is due out in December which will include the new 5D Mk2 files.  The problem is more for some of my clients who take the straight RAW files and process them in Photoshop.  They will be forced into upgrading or will have to accept jpeg files instead which are less flexible.

Conclusion

So would I recommend the camera to those who can afford it?  Well the answer is unequivocally yes I would.  After my brief period of usage the 5D Mk2 looks like it will take image capture to the next level and personally, I am looking forward to working with it in new and creative ways.

I would say however that the original 5D is still a great camera and I will continue to use mine alongside the new one.  No doubt there will be some fantastic deals on new and second hand 5D cameras out there as people trade up and these may well be worth considering.

Barry Mann

(This review is also available on Barry’s web site)

All text and images contained within this article are © Copyright Barry Mann Photography 2008 and may only be reproduced with permission.

Full technical specifications for the Canon EOS 5D MKII can be found on the Canon web site.

Vincent Laforet offers first 5D MKII video

Vincent Laforet has posted a video shot exclusively with a prototype of the new Canon EOS 5D MKII.

He has nothing but praise for the camera’s video capabilities and suggests that the new 5D will be a “game changing” camera.

I don’t know, I love the idea of shooting video and Laforet gives us a glamorous offering but we all know that the 5D is more likely to be used to make wobbly recordings of new-born babies and kids’ birthday parties than it is to shoot a man in a helicopter at night wearing sunglasses and clutching a rather limp bunch of flowers.

Canon EOS 5D II and Powershot G10

In the race to be the first to bring you a picture of the new Canon EOS 5D MKII, I win. Almost. The 5D replacement specs are as follows:

21.1 Megapixel, full-frame CMOS
Full HD video at 1920 x 1080
DIGIC 4
3.9 fps
Live View
3” LCD
EOS Cleaning system

Check out the dpreview article on the new release. The EOS 5D II is expected to start shipping at the end of November and will be about £1500 in the UK I expect.

UPDATE
List price for the 5D MKII is $2699 in the US, that’s £1512 at today’s exchange rate.
List price for the 5D MKII is £2299 in the UK

Those figures again? £1512 in the US, £2299 in the UK.

Seriously? Who are they trying to kid? We are being stiffed. Stiffed, I tell you.

A United Airlines return flight from London to New York is £302 today. And when you get to NY you can do all your Christmas shopping, pick up your 5D and still have got a better deal than you’d get at home. And as you board the plane for the return flight you can shout “I DID THE MATH!”

Also, as correctly predicted by yours truly, Canon announce a 14.7 megapixel replacement to the G9 with the new G10. They didn’t call it a GX for some reason but my other predictions were eerily accurate.

That’s all the dork talk for now. There will be much said about these new models from Canon and the video function on the 5D is certainly interesting. The increase in pixels is, of course, attractive but so too are the reported improvements in noise handling and shadow detail. The sensor cleaning function in the 5D MKII is also a selling point although it’s becoming pretty standard issue these days.

So there you have it. It’s finally arrived and we can all get back to taking photographs and not suffering from any sort of gear envy at all. Can’t we?

Personally, I’m increasingly drawn to the Holga range, perhaps getting back to basics is the way to go.