Canon EOS 5D Mark II January 12th, 2009 | by David Elrich
Full Review - More Testing and Conclusion
Performance and Use
Not to sound jaded, but we had a pretty good idea how good the stills would be, so our first test was connecting the camera via HDMI to a 50-inch 1080p plasma. The 5D Mark II records 1080p clips rated 1920 x 1080 pixels, at 30 frames per second. Your standard high-def camcorder does 1080i clips at 60 fps. DT readers know camcorders are among our favorite CE devices, since you just turn the power on, set them to auto, zoom in on your subject and just press record. Voila! the camcorder handles the focusing while you concentrate on your work of art. Things are quite different for the 5D—some for the good others for the bad.
You can’t simply move the mode dial to movie and press the shutter button as is the case with point-and-shoot digicams. Here you have to set a special Live View mode via the menu system. Once done, you hit the Live View button, which flips the mirror up so the image hits the sensor. Now your subject appears on the 3-inch LCD, and you have to zero in the focus. At that point you hit the set button and recording begins (up to 29 minutes 59 seconds at a time, compared to 5 minutes per scene for the D90). If your subject moves or the zoom ratio changes, you have to keep focusing. Is this difficult to do? Somewhat, but it’s not like trying to understand the definition of a credit default swap. It’s just very different, compared to a camcorder’s ease of use. And we’d definitely like the ability to magnify the center of the screen to make sure things were as sharp as could be.
We shot a number of clips indoors and out during foggy and sunny days. For the most part, the video quality was very good, but not to the level of high-end ($1,000+) HD Canons and Sonys, or the 1080p output of the JVC HD40. However it was far better than the 3MOS Panasonic SD100, which was a true disappointment. One real bummer was the microphone. The quality was really poor, and it picked up the internal mechanical sounds of the camera. An external mic is really the way to go here, unless you just record raucous parties with lots of ambient noise to cover the camera’s sound! This is truly version 1.0 on the audio side, so be prepared. Also, the amount of storage is limited by your card, and is a mere fraction of any hard-drive camcorder (40 gigs and up). That said, the camera recorded accurate colors without too much noise. It’s also cool that you can snap a still while recording motion. Also on the plus side is the truly amazing variety of creative options available with a D-SLR body. Naturally, you can use any kind of lens you like, so if you want to record wide-angle clips, go right ahead. Super telephoto? No problem. This is one instance where you really can be your own cinematographer. Bottom line? We were impressed—far more than the Nikon D90.
As for the stills, what would you expect from a $2,700 21.1-megapixel full-frame D-SLR that shoots at 3.9 frames per second? Exactly. The EOS 5D Mark II captures 5616 x 3744 pixel images in JPEG, RAW as well as two lower-res versions of RAW (sRAW). We took a wide variety of images in fog and sunshine, indoors and out with the 24-105mm IS lens. We also pushed the ISO up to the ridiculous level of 25,600. Once done we proceeded to crank out full-bleed prints to check the results.
Shooting indoors in a dimly lit room at 25,600 ISO is a bad move—especially if you want an 8.5x11 print; it’s a pixilated mess. Dropping down to 12,800, the results were much better, and we’ve gotten worse prints from 10MP point-and-shoots shooting at 800, not 12,800! 6400 was surprisingly good, as was 3200, which is about the limit we’d go for a fairly noise-free image for a large print. As far as lower ISO photos were concerned, we were quite happy with the results, just as we were with the 24.6MP Sony A900. Colors were right on the money with amazing amounts of detail. The amount of cropping you can do with a 20+MP image is startling. It’s pretty evident we liked this camera.
Conclusion
Here’s a shocker: DigitalTrends.com gives this Canon EOS 5D Mark II an Editor’s Choice award, even with the drawbacks enumerated. Going to the top line: This video-recording D-SLR is a true breakthrough with quality that’s far better than the Nikon D90. We only wish Canon engineers spent some time noise dampening the mic; the poor sound detracts from an otherwise top-notch video experience. And this is ostensibly a digital camera, not a camcorder. As for its still photographic abilities, they’re winners too. We only wish the price of full-frame sensor D-SLRs would come down from their rarified levels. Since this is consumer electronics, it’s just a matter of time. Exactly when, we can’t predict, but if you’re in this price neighborhood, give the 5D a very long look.
Buyer beware: Canon and early owners of the 5D have reported issues including a “Black dot” phenomenon (the right side of point light sources becomes black) and vertical banding noise when shooting in sRAW1. We didn’t encounter them. The company states it’s working on a firmware upgrade to resolve these issues.
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