p.1 #1 · A week witht the 5D mark II in Quebec. Thoughts and Photos
I have been using the 5d Mark II for a week now and I was able to take it on holidays to Quebec this past week.
It has been a very nice experience. Coming from a 350D it clearly is superior as indeed it should be. I do not have any extensive with models other than the ones that I have mentioned and will therefore refrain from commenting.
I will say that I have been comfortable using ISO6400. I did use ISOs 12800 and 25600 in the bar photos when otherwise I could not get the photo. The light was so low that using the kit lens at f4 with image stabilisation and at ISO25600 I was getting 1/5th of a second. Of what I have seen, converting to black and white and using DPP's noise reduction makes them usable. I apply 20 (out of the 20) for chroma noise reduction and about 3 (out of 20) luminance noise reduction. This leaves a grainy photo which when converter to monotone does not look bad at all.
I have also used it with the 85L. It goes without saying that it was an absolute please. Some of the shots of the bar that I took I used ISO5000 at f1.2 and about 1/100th of a second to get sharp enough shots. I must say that the results wowed me. It just opens up so much more for me. I'm used to not going above ISO800 with the 350D.
I also found the liveview very useful. I find that my friends are more comfortable i.e. they do not to note of the fact that I am taking pictures of them when I use liveview than when looking through the viewfinder. It also helps for candid photography as you can act as though you are reviewing images rather than taking photos. This certainly is an area that I will explore more in future.
I also used the 5D mark II in light snow without any difficulty. I was obviously not allowing snow to collect on the camera but it inspires enough confidence in light snow.
I have not played around with video too much. Yet.
