Dec 31 2008
Canon 5D MkII First Impressions
About 10 minutes after leaving Samy's Camera
I know many LADiG members who shoot with the Canon 5D and are very interested in the Mark II which started shipping this month, especially after all the excitement whipped up by Vincent Laforet. I placed a deposit at Samy’s in September, and picked up my unit last night!
A little background… I shoot many things but primarily landscapes which are sold at art shows and online as large prints. For the past few years therefore, I have been obsessed with pixel count to make images that will print well at 24″ x 36″ and larger. I coveted the 1DS, but neither my arms nor my wallet were large enough for such a beast. I thought, ”if Canon would put the 1DS sensor in a 20D body and sell it for less than $5000, I would buy it…” In 2005 Canon did exactly that with the 5D, and since they did as I asked I felt obligated to buy it 
And as most of you know, it’s quite a camera! I have been in love with my 5D for the past three years, but as time passed I looked enviously at the larger sensors coming out in the 1Ds — and dropping prices of medium format cameras also started to make them look attractive… “If Canon would put a 20+ Megapixel sensor, live view and a larger screen in the MkII, I would buy it…” I was actually disappointed that the 1Ds MkIII came out at only 21Mpx because this implied that the replacement for the 5D would be smaller…
But my fears were unfounded, the 5D MkII is indeed 21 Megapixels, creating images that are 5616 x 3744 pixels — at 300 dpi that is 18.72″ x 12.48″; at 150 dpi which is the limit for sharp ink jet prints, the MkII images are 37.5″ x 25″ — PERFECT for my needs. Laforet says it looks at least as good as the 1Ds MkIII, and the specs imply that the MkII is a little better than the most expensive model.
There are many incremental improvements to the 5D, but when I took it out of the box and turned it on I immediately felt right at home. A couple of Custom Function tweaks and everything was just where I was expecting it – with one exception. The new hi-res screen is beautiful and Canon finally has a decent font for the menus. The new menu system is the same as the 40D/50D/MkIII and much faster to get around on. The functions on the top panel buttons have been rearranged, but the new arrangement makes more sense to me and so while it is different, it’s better.
The only big user experience issue is the Delete Button — it is exactly where I expect the Play button to be at the bottom left corner of the rear panel. I am frequently confronted with “Cancel … Erase” when I just want to look at an image. Fortunately the Delete button has no function when the camera is not already displaying an image so I haven’t deleted anything yet and my thumb seems to have already learned to grip the camera a little higher than before.
Hard to make grand pronouncements about image quality after only 12 hours, but I can say this: the images are beautiful! I’m not sure I will go as far as the Canon people and say the noise is two stops better, but it’s easily one stop better. The standard speeds go up to ISO 6400 and I wouldn’t have any hesitation to use any of them if necessary, just as I would use 3200 on the 5D to shoot concerts, events and on the street. ISO 800 is the new 400, definitely.
As far as the extended speeds of ISO 12800 and 25600, I would regard them as emergency only (funny that 800 used to be for emergencies only, eh?) Lots of chroma noise that doesn’t clean up well even with Noise Ninja. But Jupiter and a crescent moon, handheld at 1/100@f/4? Just writing that is exciting — but after the intoxication wears out, 1/20@f/4 at ISO 6400 (with IS) is a much saner choice. And didn’t we used to worry about noise at ISO 3200? These links are all processed with Lightroom –> Photoshop and Noise Ninja, so they represent a best-case noise scenario.
I loved the Live View feature of the 40D, but the autofocus was so convoluted that it wasn’t worth much off of a tripod. Now at least you get contrast-detection autofocus, so the 5D MkII autofocuses like your point-and-shoot. In other words, slowly. But definitely an improvement when the camera is over your head in a crowd.
Which brings me to the most buzz-worthy feature: VIDEO!
To me this is big, not for what it is but for what it represents. This is video unlike anything your DVCAM or HDV camera can produce: cinematic in scope, fabulous in no light (see previous paragraphs), with all the narrow-focus creative possibilities that the lenses in your bag bring to the table. If you’re already shooting video you need this camera.
But remember that just like in big-time movies, you or your assistant need to be a focus-puller — super thin depth of field on a moving subject (that’s what makes the 5DII “cinematic”) requires extraordinary care with focus. Manual focus. The Live View contrast detect auto focus does work - when you press the focus button – but the image jumps while it’s focusing so you don’t really want to do this in the middle of a shot. I’m gonna get me some high powered reading glasses to get my eye an inch off that LCD screen, or else run a larger monitor off the built-in HDMI port to focus on.
But as a photographer, all this video buzz is missing the point:
The 5D MkII is an exemplary still camera, a wonderful evolutionary step from the original 5D that does the same thing bigger and better. With the same autofocus system as the original 5D and only a slightly improved frame rate (3.9 fps), the Mk II is not responsive enough for serious sports shooters, although more casual sports shooters like myself will be happy with the performance. But for almost anyone else, this is a great camera: fairly small and affordable from a Pro standpoint; great performance in most any situation that doesn’t include race cars or hockey pucks; big, sharp and clean images. And video is the icing on the cake.
(Check out my blog for more posts about my experience with Canon’s new 5D Mark II )
Comments Off