I have the 5D Mk II and I don\'t think it\'s super-clean, but I am not expecting a 21mp camera to be cleaner than the 12mp camera .... nor do I expect it to match the $8,000 D3X. There is a trade-off. Yes, there is noise in the shadow areas even at low ISOs but you have to under-exposed these images and open up the shadow areas by a couple of stops or so before you see the noise.
On the whole, I am very happy with the 5D II, and the noise issue is easily mitigated with a good NR software, so it\'s not a big deal to me. I would still rather have a 21mp than a 12mp body any day. I couldn\'t have got these pictures with my 5D and using the same 200/1.8 lens as the 5D wouldn\'t allow me to do any heavy cropping:
