"If you're looking for an excellent, full-frame DSLR, the 5D Mk2 is very, very good. It's at least 1 full F-stop more sensitive to light than my Canon 1DS Mk2. A setting of ASA 800 or 1000 yields about the same noise level as my older camera at ASA 400. It's autofocus system is very fast and accurate on single shot mode. (I don't think EF-L series lenses are capable of faster focus action.)



The new LCD screen is gorgeous. 3" diagonal with 900,000+ pixels. It's possibly the best quality LCD screen ever put on a DSLR. The menus are easier to understand and navigate than the 1DS Mk2's menus. "Live View" is an excellent way to do critical focusing. If you've never used a DSLR with live view, you'll love it. The only negative of live-view is that it really drains your battery and it can only be used for a certain length of time before the CMOS imager circuitry heats up, adding noise to the image. (In real-life typical shooting, overheating is not a problem and besides the camera will auto cancel live-view if it senses an over temperature condition.)



The huge 21 mega-pixel RAW images are excellent. The camera uses an updated variant on Canon's .CR2 RAW format so if you use an older version of Adobe's Lightroom or Photoshop for image processing, you'll need the latest Lightroom 2.2 or Photoshop CS4 to get the proper RAW converter. I've personally never liked the included software for RAW image processing, but many people are happy with it.



The auto-exposure system seems very accurate... more accurate than my 1DS Mk2.



I never experienced any "black dot" phenomenon. But I've only shot RAW images at less than 1200 ASA.



I ordered the camera with the optional BG-E6 battery grip. This grip makes the camera taller and easier to hold. It allows simultaneous use of 2 Canon lithium batteries or 6- AA alkaline or rechargeables. It's a very valuable accessory to consider.



Now the bad...



I primarily purchased the camera for its ability to shoot great looking 1080P HD video for commercial TV projects. I thought it would be a great source for "B-Roll" cutaways and inserts.



The biggest single problem in the video mode is that you have no control over iris, ISO setting, or shutter speed. There's an exposure lock button that will lock the exposure variables to whatever the LCD displays at the time you press the button. There are no on-screen indicators that show the settings that the camera has chosen for you. The only control you have is the color temperature setting. Basically, you pan the camera around in the scene and let the brightness float up and down. When you see what you think is a good exposure on the rear LCD screen, you press the lock button. Since the exposure lock resets after each scene or take, chances are you won't have consistent exposures over multiple takes of a particular scene.



Working with the auto exposure system can sometimes be difficult. I was shooting with my 85mm F1.2 lens. By looking at the iris, it appeared the camera had decided to only open the lens to about an F2.8 and use a much higher ISO setting than necessary to achieve proper exposure. By pointing the camera to some very dark shadows, the iris fully opened. I then panned back to my original scene which appeared to be much cleaner and free of noise. You really need to be able to manually set the ISO & F-stop when shooting video.



I adjusted the camera's custom settings to lower the detail enhancement and contrast. These controls effect the quality of jpeg stills but seem to have no effect on a video recording.



The camera only records at 30.00fps, not 29.97fps. This tiny .03fps difference means that you have to alter each file's header, using a program such as Apple Cinema Tools, before you can edit 5D footage into a normal, broadcast 1080P/1080i, 29.97fps timeline. Failure to do this header alteration requires setting up a 30.00fps timeline or rendering every 5D scene on your 29.97fps timeline which yields periodic skipped frames.



There is no 24P (23.98) setting. As far as I'm concerned, there is no logical reason that Canon chose 30.00fps instead of 29.97fps. No broadcast TV or film standard operates at 30.00fps. Maybe Canon will correct this with a future firmware update. Please note that if you're only shooting high quality videos for web release, the 30.00fps speed won't present a problem.



To simulate the film-like cadence of a movie camera's 180 degree shutter at 30.00fps, the 5D Mk2's shutter should be set to 1/60 of a second exposure time. There is no way to tell what shutter setting the camera is using during a scene. My gut feeling from looking at camera video is that the 5D Mk2 often uses 1/30 of a second.



The camera's LCD screen is blanked whenever an HDMI monitor is plugged in. If you're doing a commercial shoot with clients, this means that either the cameraman or the clients can see what's being shot, but not both at the same time... You could add an external HDMI active splitter, but this would also require adding and using an external monitor at the camera. If you only plan to shoot by yourself, this shouldn't present a problem.



To do manual follow-focusing using the rear LCD screen, consider purchasing Hoodman's 3" LCD viewer. It's available from B&H and other retailers and it works very well. Of course, you'll have to figure a custom way to attach it to the back of the 5D Mk2 using rubber bands or Velcro.



The 5D Mk2 records what I would call "memo quality" audio with it's internal, mono microphone. You really notice the AGC raising and lowering the recording volume. If someone claps their hands, coughs, or makes a loud sound, the audio level and background sound dives down, then very noticeably fades back up. There is no headphone output or on-screen audio display so there's no way to confirm the level of your audio. If you plug an external mic into the camera, there is no indication to confirm even the presence of an audio signal. The only thing you can do is record a scene, then playback and carefully listen to the recorded file. If you plan to use this camera on a professional sync-sound project, you'd really have to consider double system sound recording. Recoding the audio on a separate recorder adds a major level of increased hassle but it's the only way to insure excellent audio. The audio from the camera's recording can be used as a post-production sync reference.



Another audio question is why Canon chose to record audio at a sample rate of 44.1kz instead of the industry standard 48kz. Apple's Final Cut Pro can handle almost any sample rate but other NLE's can't. Once again, if you're only shooting video for web release, the CD sample rate of 44.1kz shouldn't present a problem.



In certain low light or low contrast scenes, the H.264 encoding block artifacts are noticeable. In my opinion, the 5D Mk2 artifacts are more noticeable than the H.264 encoding used in Canon's own HF10, 1080 video camera even though the 5D's recorded bit rate is higher.



The camera's signal-to-noise ratio is very good and very clean. It's a more noise-free video picture than my $80,000 Sony F900R HDCam... except for the color red. Red objects are noisy. Most colors in a scene seem noise free, except red. This is especially true with low brightness red objects such as those in shadow areas.



The 5D Mk2 exhibits no "rolling shutter" characteristics that are associated with Nikon's D90.



The 5D Mk2 has the characteristic of clipping to "flat-line" black very low-light or shadow details in an image. This yields a "gutsy" rich, excellent, "film-like" quality for many scenes, but you can't do any post-production recovery of lost low-light details. The camera does a pretty good job of rolling scene highlights off to a hard clip at 100 units of video.



Possibly, some of the video problems I've detailed here are related to the specific 5D Mk2 that I purchased (serial#0320105XXX) but I don't think this is the case. Hopefully, Canon will issue a firmware update to address the camera's video problems. New firmware could possibly add manual control to the video capture functions and slightly lower the frame rate to the standard 29.97fps.



All cameras at any price level have positives and negatives. I've never found or used the "perfect" camera. The Canon 5d Mk2 is an excellent still camera and in my opinion, "a not quite ready for prime time" HDTV video camera. Possibly the camera was rushed to market to compete (or cancel out) the much hyped video features of Nikon's "rolling shutter" D90. It is an excellent glimpse into the future of "hybrid" still & video DSLR cameras." "

    "I recently purchased the Canon 5D Mark 2 kit, which includes the 24-105 L f/4 lens. In terms of build quality, the new 5D is a definite improvement over the previous model. The finish is less prone to minor scuffs and nicks. The level of detail and overall image quality from this 21 mega-pixel camera system at base ISO settings is quite simply? superb. The best that I have personally seen thus far when pixel peeping. Considering the pixel density, the low noise factor is also amazing producing usable prints even up to 6400. Canon managed to pull off a piece of engineering marvel with this newly developed sensor and the Digic 4 processor. The ?black pixel? issue has never reared it ugly head and I even tried on numerous occasions to create this phenomena. But as usual, based on several blogs and websites, there are many who are already jumping all over this camera system because of the so-called ?black pixel?. If it even does occur, you would have to print billboard size images to even notice this problem. I have been shooting professionally now for over 25 years. I happen to shoot both Canon and Nikon. Like all systems, both have their strengths and weaknesses. However, in recent years, I have read an incredible amount of camera bashing that is beyond ridiculous. I?m convinced that many of these self proclaimed experts are not even photographers and if they are, I suspect that they are simply point and shooters who have too much time on their hands. Camera equipment for the most part, is simply a tool. For you self-proclaimed experts, check out the dpchallenge website. Some of the finest and award winning photos were done with either a Nikon D70 or a Canon Rebel. It still comes down to the skilled individual in the art of both photography and post processing capabilities. However, the new 5D will expand one?s creativeness and will produce beautiful color rich, highly detailed prints even beyond 30 inches. Personally, I highly recommend the Canon 5D Mark 2. It represents a tremendous value considering the 5D Mark 2?s attributes. Happy shooting! "

    ""Best bang for the buck in full frame SLR. The image quality is great. Has some glitches and idiosyncrasies that can be worked around for the most part but for the price is an incredible tool for capturing images. Deduct 1/2 to 1 star if your primary purpose is video, but remember this is the first SLR still camera with 1080P HD and the video quality is superb even if it lacks features. Manual focus or prefocus is best for video. A very worthy successor to the 5D. Better at track focusing moving cars than people (AI Servo) walking. The track focus/autofocus is at least as good as the original 5D. I am a very knowledgeable pro and for me this camera has met or exceeded almost all of the hype generated before it's release."

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    "Canon EOS 5D Mark II Digital camera is almost great. Missing a serious feature. There is NO manual control in video mode. This is a MAJOR oversight on their part. Try setting the exposure you want and you'll be ripping your hair out with frustration! Canon almost made it to the finish line with a great camera, but didn't follow through. I've been told by Canon that they have no plans to add this functionality to this camera. Buyer Beware!!!!

I hate to say it, you may want to look at other brands if you want video. :-("

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    "I use Canon EOS 5D Mark II Digital camera for Real estate photos and landscape work and I am so impressed with the photos. I tried to get the black spots around lights at night and I can't get it reproduce it. I recommend Canon EOS 5D Mark II to everybody.

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