Canon 5D Mark II master thread

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Archive 2008 · Canon 5D Mark II master thread

philber
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p.89 #1 · Canon 5D Mark II master thread

Mark Bishop wrote:
Marcus Watts wrote:

Always a small man somewhere.

Indeed.

What I am getting from this thread is this.

Anyone that thinks the camera is capable is either a 'fanboy' or suckered by marketing, any pro commenting positive is simply a shill, and the only people in all this that are correct and objective are those saying the camera is limited, its AF isnt good enough to work, its not fast enough, and it isnt weather sealed enough.

From what I've seen, it has outstanding IQ, and I will be finally replacing my film cameras for landscape imaging , especially with the newly announced 21mm distagon.

Video isnt my thing, never has been, but I can tell you this, the thought of combining this video function with the MPE65 or 180L Macro and the sheer number of possibilities has given me an enthusiasm for image making I havent had for many years.

Its not perfect, no camera is, but it certainly ticks many of the boxes Im looking for, and a few I didnt know were there.

+1

Sep 24, 2008 at 12:39 PM

RDKirk
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p.89 #2 · Canon 5D Mark II master thread

ulrikft wrote:
This might be another stupid question:

Is there a design/practical reason for canon not using af-assist lights on the camera? (other than strobist tenedencies with builtin flash :P) It just seems to me that this would solve lots of lowlight af-problems?

My old Elan had one, and I don't see a problem with it.

However, frankly I haven't found a problem with getting the camera to focus in light that was at least bright enough for me to see the subject. I've specifically tested that in extremely dim rooms--far dimmer than I'd actually attempt an image--and found the 5D able to focus.

A good part of my success is likely that I know how to focus. Focusing with AF in dim light requires the same techniques we used with split image rangefinders back in the dim, dark manual focusing days. If you know how to focus with a split-image rangefinder, you can get the 5D AF to work in any situation that you yourself can see the subject.

Sep 24, 2008 at 12:59 PM

Daan B
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p.89 #3 · Canon 5D Mark II master thread

Sep 24, 2008 at 01:18 PM

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p.89 #4 · Canon 5D Mark II master thread

I suspect you can find just as many of that camp here. Both camps are at fault, just don't forget one of them beacause it is closer to where you are.

Sep 24, 2008 at 01:27 PM

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p.89 #5 · Canon 5D Mark II master thread

Does anyone know how big a CF card the 5D2 will handle? 32GB?

Sep 24, 2008 at 01:52 PM

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p.89 #6 · Canon 5D Mark II master thread

I am curious. As a landscape photographer who is anxiously awaiting the manual-focus 21mm Distagon, I would presume you would be stopping down a lot and using the live view for critical manual focussing most of the time. Why then do you complain that the AF isn't good enough?

Mark Bishop wrote:

Anyone that thinks the camera is capable is either a 'fanboy' or suckered by marketing, any pro commenting positive is simply a shill, and the only people in all this that are correct and objective are those saying the camera is limited, its AF isnt good enough to work, its not fast enough, and it isnt weather sealed enough.

From what I've seen, it has outstanding IQ, and I will be finally replacing my film cameras for landscape imaging , especially with the newly announced 21mm distagon.

Video isnt my thing, never has been, but I can tell you this, the thought of combining this video function with the MPE65 or 180L Macro and the sheer number of possibilities has given me an enthusiasm for image making I havent had for many years.

Its not perfect, no camera is, but it certainly ticks many of the boxes Im looking for, and a few I didnt know were there.

Sep 24, 2008 at 02:36 PM

bobbytan
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p.89 #7 · Canon 5D Mark II master thread

It supports the higher speed UDMA cards and I am sure it will take the new 100GB CF cards too.

CMOS wrote:
Does anyone know how big a CF card the 5D2 will handle? 32GB?

Sep 24, 2008 at 02:37 PM

ulrikft
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p.89 #8 · Canon 5D Mark II master thread

bobbytan wrote:
I am curious. As a landscape photographer who is anxiously awaiting the manual-focus 21mm Distagon, I would presume you would be stopping down a lot and using the live view for critical manual focussing most of the time. Why then do you complain that the AF isn't good enough?

Mark Bishop wrote:

Anyone that thinks the camera is capable is either a 'fanboy' or suckered by marketing, any pro commenting positive is simply a shill, and the only people in all this that are correct and objective are those saying the camera is limited, its AF isnt good enough to work, its not fast enough, and it isnt weather sealed enough.

From what I've seen, it has outstanding IQ, and I will be finally replacing my film cameras for landscape imaging , especially with the newly announced 21mm distagon.

Video isnt my thing, never has been, but I can tell you this, the thought of combining this video function with the MPE65 or 180L Macro and the sheer number of possibilities has given me an enthusiasm for image making I havent had for many years.

Its not perfect, no camera is, but it certainly ticks many of the boxes Im looking for, and a few I didnt know were there.

Maybe he, heaven forbid, uses the camera for something else than _just_ MF landscapes? :P Who knows. I know I can't afford to have a 2700,- usd ++ camera per application

Sep 24, 2008 at 02:38 PM

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p.89 #9 · Canon 5D Mark II master thread

CMOS wrote:
Does anyone know how big a CF card the 5D2 will handle? 32GB?

No known limit. The announced Pretec 100 GB cards should work as well because the next potential FAT-limit hurdle should be for cards way larger.

Sep 24, 2008 at 02:40 PM

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p.89 #10 · Canon 5D Mark II master thread

On another topic: suppose you want to jump into FF world right now, you are not interested in video, neither in 21 MP. Would you still by 5D2, or try to get one of the last 5D's (new) ?

Sep 24, 2008 at 02:53 PM

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p.89 #11 · Canon 5D Mark II master thread

ALF07 wrote:
On another topic: suppose you want to jump into FF world right now, you are not interested in video, neither in 21 MP. Would you still by 5D2, or try to get one of the last 5D's (new) ?

Given your criteria above I'd purchase a new 5D mark I. As a landscape enthusiast I'm curious to see the 21mp printed large compared to 12.

Sep 24, 2008 at 03:06 PM

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p.89 #12 · Canon 5D Mark II master thread

About the weather sealing of the 5DII. 10mm of rain in 3 minutes is about 1.56 inches of rain in 12 minutes. That's 39.6mm of rain in 12 minutes or about 200mm of rain in 1 hour.

From Wiki - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rain

When classified according to amount of precipitation, rain can be divided into:

Very light rain — when the precipitation rate is < 0.25 mm/hour
Light rain — when the precipitation rate is between 0.25 mm/hour - 1.0 mm/hour
Moderate rain — when the precipitation rate is between 1.0 mm/hour - 4.0 mm/hour
Heavy rain — when the precipitation rate is between 4.0 mm/hour - 16.0 mm/hour
Very heavy rain — when the precipitation rate is between 16.0 mm/hour - 50 mm/hour
Extreme rain — when the precipitation rate is > 50.0 mm/hour

Check the math but this would seem to indicate that the 5DII is nicely rain resistant no? Of course that depends on what all is actually sealed on the camera and it being paired with a weather resistant lens that is weather filtered. Extrapolating out like this might not be realistic if the sealing materials saturate early. But in a light or medium amount of rain fall, the camera will probably be fine for an hour or so of shooting. I shoot in light rain sometimes with my 5D and non weather resisant lenses and have had no problems to date.

Edited on Sep 24, 2008 at 03:18 PM · View previous versions

Sep 24, 2008 at 03:13 PM

Daan B
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p.89 #13 · Canon 5D Mark II master thread

Sep 24, 2008 at 03:14 PM

Marcus Watts
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p.89 #14 · Canon 5D Mark II master thread

ulrikft wrote:
Mark Bishop wrote:
Marcus Watts wrote:

Always a small man somewhere.

Indeed.

What I am getting from this thread is this.

Anyone that thinks the camera is capable is either a 'fanboy' or suckered by marketing, any pro commenting positive is simply a shill, and the only people in all this that are correct and objective are those saying the camera is limited, its AF isnt good enough to work, its not fast enough, and it isnt weather sealed enough.

From what I've seen, it has outstanding IQ, and I will be finally replacing my film cameras for landscape imaging , especially with the newly announced 21mm distagon.

Video isnt my thing, never has been, but I can tell you this, the thought of combining this video function with the MPE65 or 180L Macro and the sheer number of possibilities has given me an enthusiasm for image making I havent had for many years.

Its not perfect, no camera is, but it certainly ticks many of the boxes Im looking for, and a few I didnt know were there.

I'm seeing just as much of the opposite, if you do NOT almost religiously love this camera, you are a "whiner"..

I suspect you can find just as many of that camp here. Both camps are at fault, just don't forget one of them beacause it is closer to where you are.

I would say most of the complaints have been rather silly though.

Why would anyone complain about the frame rate when the 5d was never a sports camera?

Why talk emotively about the autofocus when we have little to no idea how good it is? Speculation isn't fact.

Why complain about the video when a large section of the 5D market would need it and you don't have to use it?

Why complain about 21 mega pixels been too much when you can still shoot at lower resolution and it's there for those who do need it?

These complaints have been overly emotive and juvenile. I cannot think of any positive comments that can be classed as such but seeing as you suspect that to be the case perhaps you could list a couple

Sep 24, 2008 at 03:15 PM

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p.89 #15 · Canon 5D Mark II master thread

Mark Bishop wrote:

What I am getting from this thread is this.

Anyone that thinks the camera is capable is either a 'fanboy' or suckered by marketing, any pro commenting positive is simply a shill, and the only people in all this that are correct and objective are those saying the camera is limited, its AF isnt good enough to work, its not fast enough, and it isnt weather sealed enough.

From what I've seen, it has outstanding IQ, and I will be finally replacing my film cameras for landscape imaging , especially with the newly announced 21mm distagon.

Video isnt my thing, never has been, but I can tell you this, the thought of combining this video function with the MPE65 or 180L Macro and the sheer number of possibilities has given me an enthusiasm for image making I havent had for many years.

Its not perfect, no camera is, but it certainly ticks many of the boxes Im looking for, and a few I didnt know were there.

+2

Edited on Sep 24, 2008 at 03:28 PM · View previous versions

Sep 24, 2008 at 03:27 PM

ulrikft
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p.89 #16 · Canon 5D Mark II master thread

Well, complains about the FPS can be quite reasonable, the data transfer rate in th 5d MKII is slower than the data transfer in the 50d, any rational reasons? Mirror box? Shutter assembly? or just intentional? When it comes to autofocus, it seems like it has gone over quite few/small improvements, that will raise voices, if it is valid or not, we'll see...

Other things like mirror blackout, shutter lag etc, seems like quite rational complaints. I have quite a few examples of childish comments towards people that MAKE these constructive points, you get flamed quite bitterly, even if you, as I, have already have ordered it and think it is great BUT has a few faults.

Sep 24, 2008 at 03:27 PM

Mark Bishop
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p.89 #17 · Canon 5D Mark II master thread

bobbytan wrote:
I am curious. As a landscape photographer who is anxiously awaiting the manual-focus 21mm Distagon, I would presume you would be stopping down a lot and using the live view for critical manual focussing most of the time. Why then do you complain that the AF isn't good enough?

You misunderstand,I think the autofocus is perfectly fine, my comment was simply the perception of reading this thread, culminating in character attacks on well respected professionals when they dared to say something positive and in contradiction to the 'it sucks' crowd..

I managed with an EOS 5 for years, and from experience with my current Eos 3 compared to my first digital camera, a 40D, despite the bigger numbers, the 40D AF is better in most situations, more accurate and faster, the Eos 3 has , in my opinion, a more forgiving tracking system, it stays locked on a bit better if you wander off the subject a little ,the 40D has a habit of instantly reaquiring on the background or whatever . I do miss eye control though, but I am sure the 5DII will be the equal of the Eos 3 AF , and as you correctly say, my main uses would be macro and landscape, both of which will be manual focus in the main (obviously so with the distagon).

Edited on Sep 24, 2008 at 03:45 PM · View previous versions

Sep 24, 2008 at 03:44 PM

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p.89 #18 · Canon 5D Mark II master thread

The 3.9FPS is about 82.2 MP/s processing. My guess is that Canon didn't want to go faster to ensure an accurate AF lock when in servo focus mode. Looking at the fellow from the Philippines, who posted images from a soccer match and table tennis match using the 5DMkII, he commented about the servo focus being very accurate and not as sluggish as the original 5D. In my opinion, I expect the AF accuracy to be improved by 50% over the 5D.

The mirror blackout and shutter lag were destined to be the same because Canon did not re-work the shutter from the 5D. All they did was place the controlling magnets in a different location to get a shutter life of 150,000 actuations.

I've changed my mind about this camera and will get it when it comes out. Its a decent upgrade, but its priced about $200 USD too high. It should be about $2500 and it should have come out last PMA.

Sep 24, 2008 at 03:45 PM

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p.89 #19 · Canon 5D Mark II master thread

Part of the problem is that Canon needs to get some photogs to comment about AF and show some examples on their blogs, do that and this thing is hit out of the ballpark.

Sep 24, 2008 at 03:46 PM

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p.89 #20 · Canon 5D Mark II master thread

Marcus Watts wrote:
ulrikft wrote:
Mark Bishop wrote:
Marcus Watts wrote:

Always a small man somewhere.

Indeed.

What I am getting from this thread is this.

Anyone that thinks the camera is capable is either a 'fanboy' or suckered by marketing, any pro commenting positive is simply a shill, and the only people in all this that are correct and objective are those saying the camera is limited, its AF isnt good enough to work, its not fast enough, and it isnt weather sealed enough.

From what I've seen, it has outstanding IQ, and I will be finally replacing my film cameras for landscape imaging , especially with the newly announced 21mm distagon.

Video isnt my thing, never has been, but I can tell you this, the thought of combining this video function with the MPE65 or 180L Macro and the sheer number of possibilities has given me an enthusiasm for image making I havent had for many years.

Its not perfect, no camera is, but it certainly ticks many of the boxes Im looking for, and a few I didnt know were there.

I'm seeing just as much of the opposite, if you do NOT almost religiously love this camera, you are a "whiner"..

My original small man comment was not aimed at the 5D2 naysayers but the poster who took a swipe at bebe studio for mentioning that they were listed as one of the top ten wedding photographers on the planet.

Sure that list may be dubious from an amateur magazine who has not done any serious research but it is perfectly reasonable for anyone on that list to milk it for it's marketing potential and it is out of line to have a go at them for doing so.

+100

Yes I would like to see one shred of evidence from all the whiners about AF and other unsupported comments.

IMO:
As mentioned above but opposite, negative nay Sayers are more less just whiners in my book and will be perceived that way no matter what they say. It is indeed interesting to watch I child in the candy store fall to the floor kicking and screaming because he did not get what he wanted.

My one opinion after 70 some odd pages of BS.

I wish I could afford to buy this right away and join the many exploring what this new tool can do for us as opposed to reading baseless comments.

Keith

Edited on Sep 24, 2008 at 03:58 PM · View previous versions

Sep 24, 2008 at 03:49 PM

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