Ok folks, it’s been a tad more than thirty days since I was able to get my dirty mitts on a 5D Mark II of my very own – and here are my initial impressions of the beast.
First, the good news:
- Image quality is unbelievable, while retaining that certain intangible "original 5D look and feel".
- 21mp images leave plenty of room for cropping or enlargements, if needed.
- It’s really nice to be back to the land of full-frame.
- Dust removal system is a dream come true when compared to the original 5D. Works as advertised and does a great job – no more dust. I’ve had to do one wet cleaning last week to get rid of a stubborn spot, but that’s been it so far.
- ISO sensitivity is out of this world. The ability to shoot at ISO1600 with little to no noise is simply awesome. With fast glass, this camera can literally see in the dark.
- AF is spot-on, albeit much slower than I had become accustomed to with the 1DIII. Center AF point is still my usual go-to for focus/recompose, and is *very* reliable.
- Contrast-detect autofocus during live view is slow, but surprisingly usable – very nice for hard to reach/low shots.
- LCD is bright, crisp and large. The nicest I’ve ever used on a dSLR.
- Battery life is on par with original 5D with normal use.
- I did not experience any banding or BDS (black-dot syndrome) with my camera, as others had reported. Canon did release a new firmware version that was supposed to fix any BDS/Banding issues, and I did the update with no noticeable results in either direction.
And now my gripes:
- Files are *almost* too damn big… i can fit about 288 full size RAW files on an 8GB card. I have used sRAW1 (10mp) on more than one occasion with good results that are hard to distinguish from the 1DIII’s images.
- There is a noticeable decrease in the amount of shots I take now because of the above. I am thinking much, much more carefully before firing away. I see this as both a good and a bad byproduct of the huge files.
- I simply do not use the video capabilities. Maybe down the road it’ll prove it’s worth, but for now – unused.
- Body does not seem to be as tough as the original 5D or my 1-series. I’ve been pretty gentle so far, but she already has a few small scratches/dings in strange areas.
- Spare Batteries. Where the f*ck are they Canon? I’ve been shooting for a month with a single battery in the BG-E6, using rechargeable AA’s in the tray as backup. LP-E6′s at their MSRP are nowhere to be found. Nowhere. I’ve resorted to being placed on a backorder list at Adorama for a good while now.
- Auto exposure metering seems to be just a hair off and will hit or miss occasionally… when in Av or Tv mode sometimes the camera will overexpose or underexpose just a tad, at random times. Not that big of a deal, but something to get used to.
So the good list outweighs the bad for me by almost 2x, which is always nice to affirm with something this expensive. It’s still very surprising to me how much the Mark II just feels like my old 5D from the outside, except for the LCD. I guess I was expecting something a little different – but don’t let that fool you. It’s got a whole new set of guts re-packed inside it that perform like a heavyweight champ. I will stress however, that the HD video features of the 5D Mark II are much more of a novelty for me. I’ve played around with the video a few times, but found that unless you’re setup with a smooth panning tripod, a decent mic and a lot of horsepower for post-production, it takes a great deal of time to get quality results, and doesn’t seem to be worth the effort (for me, right now – i’m sure others will love it).
That being said, the image quality and noise-free RAW files that this camera can produce will always make up for any small gripes that I could ever have about it. They are the best I’ve personally seen so far, and will undoubtedly keep me quite happy for some time. As a whole, this camera has fit my style like a glove, and really excels at portraiture, landscape and macro photography (among many others). It’s got plenty of file size to spare, and is so familiar to use if you’re coming from the original 5D. The 5D Mark II definitely gets a big thumbs up from me, even if you’re not going to be using the video capabilities. While I’m here, I’ll might as well suggest getting these two accessories that have saved my ass so far if you are thinking of picking up a 5D Mark II:
- Giottos Aegis 12-layer Schott Glass screen protector, 3" – I’ve used these for the last couple of years on all my camera bodies, and the most recent one I put on the 5DII has already saved it’s beautiful screen from a nasty impact (from something?). They’re a hair small for the 3" screen, but if you’re careful, you can get it on there so it doesn’t block anything. These screens also come (each) with a really nice white microfiber cleaning cloth that works like magic. Highly recommended.
- BG-E6 Battery grip – Essential for me – I like the added bulk and balance it gives the camera, and also the extended battery life (whenever spares become available!) Also includes the standard AA tray/cartridge that’ll get you buy in a pinch using readily available AA’s if you happen to run out of juice.
