After spending a day with the 5D Mark II, I can share a few initial comments. The camera handles very similarly to the original 5D. A few of the controls have been rearranged…changing ISO with the top control dial will take a little getting used to. I’d like to see a custom function that would move it back to the quick control dial. The build quality feels very good overall, although the power switch is a new design and seems to have some extra play that makes it feel a bit less robust.



I’m glad that Canon added a dedicated AF-On button. This is my preferred method of focusing, and now I can keep my AE lock button as well. As expected, the new high resolution LCD screen is great for checking focus. However, my initial impression is that has a bit too much contrast and saturation compared to the actual images. Maybe it’s displaying the embedded preview from the RAW file…I need to do some more tests to see exactly what’s going on.



Image quality looks to be very good so far, including some impressive results at high ISOs. For now I’m stuck using a different RAW converter, so it’s hard for me to make comparisons to the 1Ds Mark III and original 5D. Once Lightroom 2.2 is released later this month, I should be able to get a better handle on it.



Finally, I’ve spent some time playing with the video mode. I’ve already found some tricks for controlling exposure. In general the image quality is great, without obvious compression artifacts. However, I’ve already seen some instances of the moire that was reported on the RED user forums. I’m working on a separate post with some frame grabs that show the problem.

As I mentioned in my previous post about controlling the 5D Mark II’s shutter speed for video, it seems that the auto metering likes to use a shutter speed that is 1/focal length. It turns out that you can also exploit this behavior to get some control of the aperture.



If a scene is too bright, the 5D Mark II will stop down the lens before it drops the shutter speed below 1/focal length. So if you are working with a zoom lens, you can force a smaller aperture by zooming to a longer focal length until the camera picks your desired aperture. Then lock the exposure with * and zoom back to the actual focal length you want to use.

There’s been much gnashing of teeth over the fact that Canon has limited the 5D Mark II’s video mode by not providing manual controls for ISO, shutter speed and aperture. I’m new to the whole video thing, but from what I’ve read so far, controlling shutter speed is especially important to people that want a film-like look. Apparently this is because motion picture cameras normally employ a 180 degree shutter, which means that the shutter speed is double the frame rate. Since film normally runs at 24 frames per second (fps), it uses a 1/48 second shutter speed. The 5D Mark II runs at 30 fps, so we don’t want it using anything slower than 1/60 of a second.



Here’s the trick: It seems that Canon’s auto exposure algorithm prefers to use a shutter speed that is 1/focal length of the lens. So if you’re using a zoom lens like the 24-70mm, you can set the lens at 60mm to give you a 1/60 shutter speed, lock the exposure using the * button and then zoom in or out as you please.



The lighting of the scene seems to exert some influence on the shutter speed, so you’ll need to zoom in and out around the 60mm length until you find a spot that forces 1/60. You can check this by half-pressing the shutter button, which will cause the camera to display it’s chosen shutter speed, aperture and ISO at the bottom of the LCD screen.



I just received my camera today, so hopefully I’ll have more insights to post over the coming weeks.



Update: Please note that the displayed values will still change after the exposure is locked. The user manual says that these are the values that will be used if a still photo is taken, but supposedly the exposure for video will remain at the locked settings. It sure would be nice if the camera would keep the video settings displayed. Of course, manual exposure settings would be even better…

My new Canon 5D Mark II arrived today. So far I’ve only had time to unbox it and play around a little. I’m planning to post some first impressions later tonight, and then I’ll be working on some review posts as I get to know the camera. In addition to talking about how it handles as a still camera, I’m going to take a look at the new video functionality that everyone’s so excited about.



In the meantime, here’s my original post about why I decided to sell the 1Ds Mark III and switch to the 5D Mark II.