By Leonard Goh
23/12/2008
URL: http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/digitalcameras/0,39005881,44042539p,00.htm

Without question, the Canon EOS 5D Mark II has to be one of the most anticipated cameras for this year. This is no surprise, as it succeeds the EOS 5D, which was announced 3 years ago and due for an upgrade. While most shutterbugs had correctly expected a higher resolution sensor, most photographers were taken aback by the full HD (1080p-quality) video capture capability. This overshadowed Nikon's D90 which can manage only 720p-quality clips. In the full-frame genre, the EOS 5D Mark II's closest competitor is the Nikon D700, a sturdy camera minus the video recording function. Although there were bits which annoyed us a little, the Canon camera still wowed us and earned itself an Editors' Choice.

Design

In terms of dimensions, the EOS 5D Mark II isn't too different from its predecessor, but we could tell that the exterior is slightly different. Take the prism hump for example: The EOS 5D's top is not so defined, whereas the new shooter has a more refine hump, exuding a more professional and serious feel. There is also no change to the weight, which remains at 810g for the body only. However, couple that and the 24-105mm F4 kit lens, and the whole package is quite heavy. But compared with the Nikon D700 which weighs 995g for just the body, the Canon is definitely lighter.

Photographers who are using, or have used a Canon dSLR before should be familiar with the buttons layout. Each switch, dial and button is clearly labeled and was easy to access. Canon must have realized that shutterbugs are utilizing its Picture Style function more, which is why this feature has a dedicated button on the left side of the rear LCD. Instead of having to sift through the menus (as we did with the 5D), we could change the look of our pictures with the press of one button.

We felt that the grip for the 5D Mark II has been improved over the previous iteration. The deep, textured rubber grip offered assurance when we held the camera up. There is also a small indent on the grip for our middle finger to latch onto, and it was these small touches which made our shooting experience more enjoyable.

A complaint among 5D users was that the mirror component has a tendency to fall off, and it seems that Canon has done something to the Mark II. If you look closely at the mirror of the new camera, you will notice two metal pins holding the reflective piece down.

Our only gripe with the design of the EOS 5D Mark II is the power switch and the navigation joystick (multi-controller). The power switch is a bit out of reach for our thumbs and if we wanted to take a shot quickly, it would be difficult to power up the camera as we hold the shooter up to our eye. Instead, we had to consciously flip the switch. Nikon has built this function as a rotating collar around the shutter button. For the joystick, depending on which eye you look through the viewfinder with, you may accidentally poke yourself in the face when attempting to use it when taking pictures.

Features

It would be impossible to talk about the 5D Mark II, and not delve into its video-capture capabilities. But what really makes this feature stands out from the competition is its full-HD (1,920 x 1,080-pixel), 30 frames per second (fps) video recording. At these settings, users can capture 12 minutes of footage, which is plenty if you are considering using this shooter to make a short film.

Talking about short film, photographer Vincent Laforet's mini-movie shot using the 5D Mark II would be the best example. However, Canon told us that in order to achieve the kind of quality which Laforet got, shutterbugs would need the proper lighting equipment.

Now back to the still camera aspects of the Canon. As with other dSLRs, the 5D Mark II comes with a suite of exposure modes, ranging from manual to full auto. Settings can be changed by utilizing the two dials, or if you are in semi-auto mode (shutter/aperture priority), you can assign either of theses dials to be operational from the custom settings menu.

The ISO range has also been expanded. In default mode, the accessible ISO sensitivity is from ISO 100 to ISO 6,400. But if you explore the menus, you should be able to find the options to activate the Lo and Hi ISO, which broadens the ISO range from 50 to 25,600.

The 3-inch LCD on the rear can display 920k dots, which is similar to what other high end dSLRs on the market now, such as the Nikon D700, offer now. This high-res display makes previewing images much easier, especially when we want to zoom in to check for sharpness when we were out in the fields.

The 1,800 mAh battery (LP-E6) used in the 5D Mark II has also been reengineered, and this juice pack has more features than what a typical lithium-ion cell offers. Embedded within each battery is a microchip, and this component will communicate with the camera. This enables users to see precisely how much power is left in the camera, and how many times the shutter has been fired with this battery. We found this kind of odd because usually when we want to check the shutter count on our dSLRs, we will want to know exactly how many shots were fired instead of how many pictures were taken with a particular battery.

The battery's features don't end here. As we know, rechargeable cells have a finite number of charges before its capacity to hold a full charge deteriorates. The microchip will tell the camera what is the charge performance of the battery and users can view this information on the rear LCD.

Performance

Canon has implemented its new imaging chip, DIGIC 4, in the 5D Mark II. We were told by the company that this new processor will render better image quality, less noise at higher ISO sensitivities and overall better performance for the camera.

We tested the autofocus speed with two lenses--the 24-105 F4 IS and the 50mm F1.4 USM lens. Locking on to subjects was quite a speedy affair with both optics, although we did notice that the dSLR tended to zero in on subjects faster when we attached the 50mm lens on it. However, the 24-105mm lens was not shabby, too. We could easily shoot a picture in low light situation with shutter speeds of 1/20 to 1/50 seconds on it with ease with image stabilizer activated.

We realized that when we zoomed in to images, it usually displays a pixelated view first, and took a few seconds before it rendered the zoomed-in picture properly.

There was virtually no shutterlag to speak of, and if there was, it was probably too miniscule for us to register. The same goes for the startup timing. However, each time you power the camera on, the self-cleaning sensor function will kick in and that distracted us slightly.

The writing speed of data from the camera to the Compact Flash card was fast. We expected the large video files (100MB for 20 seconds) to take some time to transfer. But even when we used a normal speed storage media, we achieved the same kind of speedy performance.

The burst-rate has not been changed much from it's predecessor's. The 5D Mark II rattles off at 3.9 fps and we think this speed is acceptable for a camera which is aimed at serious enthusiasts.

Image And Video Quality

The images that we got from the 5D Mark II are definitely top-grade, even at high ISO. We could print a decent A3-sized picture from a picture snapped at ISO 6,400, and the noise level was kept to a minimum. But what about photographs taken at ISO 25,600?

You can see a closeup from the picture on the right which we snapped at ISO 25,600. Digital artifacts were definitely present and visible, but we were still impressed because there were few signs of degradation of details.

From ISO 100 to ISO 800, it would be almost impossible to tell them apart by looking at printed photographs, though a discerning eye may be able to detect slight increments of digital artifacts as the sensitivity got bumped up. At ISO 1,600, there were faint signs of grains dotting the image but they didn't affect the details in our shots.

Overall, we have been very pleased with the images the 5D Mark II produced, and it has definitely met the benchmark which Nikon has set with the D3 and the D700. Colors from the Canon were accurate at default settings, and the white balance was spot on under the different lighting conditions we shot in. However, we did notice that our pictures tended to be slightly underexposed for most of our snaps, but this is not an issue with us as it beats having overexposed shots which have lesser details.

We headed out to the streets and recorded some clips under an overcast sky, and the results were the best we've seen from a digital still camera. Details were properly rendered and colors were accurate. There was minimal ghosting--fast moving subjects did leave a faint trail behind it, but it is almost negligible. Furthermore, there was also the option of applying Picture Style settings to the movie if we wanted to be a little bit more creative.

The microphone is located just below the Canon insignia and it records audio in stereo quality. It's nothing to shout about, but compared to the D90's monoaural capture, the Canon comes out tops. One thing to note: The microphone isn't directional-based, so when you zoom the lens or activate autofocus, it will pick up the sounds produced, too.

When we wanted to watch our recordings on a HD TV, we realized that there wasn't a HDMI cable in the package. This is odd, as we had expected this component to be part of the bundle since the HD movie capture is one of the 5D Mark II's biggest selling points. This HDMI cable is an optional purchase.

There has been a complaint with the 5D Mark II that when shutterbugs shot at high ISO settings, the overexposed areas in the pictures have black spots surrounding it. Our sister site, CNET.com has also discussed this problem and it reported that Canon is aware of and will release a firmware to fix it soon. Personally, we didn't have such a problem in our pictures, but we have seen pictures with this problem and heard about it from other photographers, so it is definitely something you'll want to look out for if you are considering this camera.