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Technical Details
- Brand Name: EOS
- Model: 5DII
- Optical Sensor Resolution: 21.1 MP
- Optical Sensor Technology: CMOS
- Optical zoom: 25 x
Product Details
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Product Description
The integration of HD movie capability into a high-end 21.1-megapixel camera opens a multitude of new possibilities for photojournalists and news photographers. With its full-frame CMOS sensor and outstanding ISO performance, the EOS 5D Mark II will appeal to any photographer in search of the finest camera equipment available -- from studio and wedding to nature and travel photographers.Compact, lightweight with environmental protection, EOS 5D successor boasts a newly designed Canon CMOS sensor, with ISO sensitivity up to 25,600 for shooting in near dark conditions. The new DIGIC 4 processor combines with the improved CMOS sensor to deliver medium format territory image quality at 3.9 frames per second, for up to 310 frames.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 23 people found the following review helpful
If your livelihood doesn't depend on the capture of fast objects, this will give you 95% of the image quality of the 5D III or 1D X. It's a major upgrade to the original 5D, though marginally inferior to the new 6D.
I bought a 5D II to replace a 50D and a 40D. I've also used a 7D professionally. The latter three bodies have higher framerates, superior AF tracking, and a higher pixel density that benefits distant subjects. The 5D II is preferable for any other purpose if you can swing the cost of lenses that'll do justice across the frame to such enormous resolution.
HANDLING:
This is a 50D-generation camera, so the learning curve from that one (and the 40D) is essentially nil. A handful of custom functions differ. The original 5D is a bigger jump; button placement is about the same on the new model, but the menu system has been completely revised (for the better). The 40D/50D have marginally lower weight, smaller size, and a superior grip. Buttons have a positive click. The 5D II has mushy buttons that activate at some indeterminate point.
In use, the 5D II's viewfinder is massively larger than the tunnel-like crop bodies. This pulls you into the scene, though framing is actually easier with the smaller finders. Balancing that is comparatively lethargic shutter and mirror response. The 40D/50D are 40% quicker on this front; the difference between 220ms and 160ms. You can't afford a lazy reaction time with this body.
I've also detected a rare playback hesitation. I tend to a snap a shot and immediately press play if it doesn't appear on the screen. For perhaps 1 shot in 40, my 5D II has been unresponsive to that button for seconds at a time after the shot. The image appears eventually. The 40D/50D are impossible to trip up like this. This smacks of a software glitch, though I may query Canon at some point to verify.
Exposure seems less reliable in difficult lighting. Set to evaluative metering, the 5D II tends to overexpose dark scenes and underexpose backlit people. It's not that clever. I've had to rely on EC and spot metering modes more than with the 40D.
Like the 40D/50D, Auto-ISO is next to useless, so you end up fiddling with settings more than with, say, the 5D III, 7D, or 1D X. In aperture priority, Auto-ISO will set a shutter to the lens focal length or 20% less. Prone to hand-shake? Too bad. In shutter priority, it'll start dropping your chosen shutter when it reaches ISO 3200. That's the maximum ISO it'll use in any mode. And in manual mode, Auto-ISO isn't; it just fixes itself to ISO 400. So if you want to control your depth of field and shutter and the let the ISO dynamically adjust, you're SOL on this body. Major oversight.
Note that this body doesn't have a popup flash. I'm not lamenting the absence, it's always been a bone to casual shooters more than a serious tool. Max sync speed for most Canon bodies is 1/250, so it only worked for outdoor fill with narrow apertures. Indoors as a main light source, the tiny size and close proximity to the lens led to red eyes and a flat, unflattering high-contrast look. A much preferable setup for event photography pairs a 430EX or 580EX, ideally diffused or aimed to bounce off a nearby surface.
Nitpicking aside, the 5D II handles as well as any recent Canon DSLR. It's much quicker if you take the time to configure it to your preferences.
FOCUS:
Better than expected. The 40D/50D have 9 cross-points. The 5D II has one center cross-point, 8 outer single-axis points, and 6 invisible AF assist points near the center point. In practice, the 5D II is a center-point camera unless you're shooting at wide apertures (f/2 or lower).
Center-point AF is very accurate and hits in almost any lighting. Better than the 40D/50D (and even the 1D IV, I've heard) when the lights dim. The only environment where I've had trouble grabbing focus had an exposure of ISO 25600, f/2, 1/50.
Surround-point accuracy is questionable. This is the major weakness of the 5D II. You'll want to use wide-aperture lenses like the 85/1.8 and 50/1.4 to take advantage of the thinner depth-of-field and superior foreground/background blur that full-frame offers. These apertures punish focus-recompose, so you need to use the outer points for off-center compositions. They're fast enough, but not consistent or accurate. If your results are critical, take a lot of refocused safety shots.
Focus tracking is surprisingly decent with a high-contrast subject that you can hold exactly in the center of the viewfinder, provided you've enabled the invisible assist points with CF III.7. Once your object starts straying to the outer points, all bets are off; the 40D/50D excel here. Still, contrary to expectation, the 5D II can follow moving objects. The outer point accuracy was a greater letdown.
STILLS IMAGE QUALITY:
Excellent. Per-pixel sharpness is very high and superior to crop bodies-- par for the course for a full-frame sensor near this pixel density. It's not a subtle difference. Load the comparison tool at The Digital Picture for this body and any crop body on the same lens. Pixel for pixel, the crop bodies always look blurry by comparison.
Noise is better with some caveats. The 5D II is not a magical darkness camera. You're not going to be able to shoot by candlelight with high fidelity. My 40D went to ISO 3200. This camera goes to ISO 25600, but the actual difference in raw is more like 1.5 stops on the outside. Unlike the 40D, boosting the shadows multiple stops reveals color banding that's difficult to remove in post. Blue channel noise is also more severe than expected. Still, I don't have qualms about running it to ISO 6400 for professional gigs. The 40D and 50D, I wouldn't push past 1600. The 5D III gets you an extra stop in raw and less shadow banding for a usable ISO 12800.
Dynamic range is somewhat better on the 40D than the others, interestingly. The 5D II's performance is typical for most DSLRs. You'll be blending exposures or pulling the shadows way up in scenes with high contrast.
LENSES:
I want to segue into this section because it's entwined with image quality. Comparing full-frame and crop isn't quite apples to apples. It's much easier to find crop lenses with good edge performance. This 5D II makes hash of almost all the mid-range variable-aperture zooms Canon has released over the years. I was pleased with my 28-135/3.5-5.6 IS on my 40D. Very consistent sharpness across the frame, even wide open. On a 5D II, the same lens falls down. Poor edge performance, lots of aberrations.
Expect to pay 30-50% more on glass to feed this camera relative to EF-S lenses. Full-frame L glass costs a mint, but most of the third-party wide to mid-focal lenses don't emphasize edge performance. I've used a 14/2.8, 24-105/4, 100/2, and 200/2.8 among others. The latter two are stellar across the frame, as is the Samyang ultrawide. The 24-105/4 and a 17-40/4L I once had are merely adequate. Neither perform that well in the corners at f/4. Even older L zooms like the 17-35/2.8 are subpar on the 5D II.
What should your kit be? Some considerations:
* Primes are lighter, smaller, cheaper, often available in wider apertures, often optically better, and have less manufacturing variation. They're less convenient, less versatile, updated with new technologies (e.g., stabilization, better lens coatings, weight reductions, faster or more accurate AF) less often, and can cause you to miss shots in fast-paced shooting environments.
* There are different requirements for movie lenses and still lenses. No Canon full-frame zooms are optimal for movies. Some are more optimal than others (e.g., less focus breathing, more parfocal, less distortion, smoother operation, distance scale). Primes often fare better.
* An f/2.8 lens on this body is just fast enough for most indoor use without flash. You'll want a flash for anything slower. A flash can provide more even, pleasing pictures, at the expense of a bulkier, attention-attracting rig.
* Kits with more than three primary lenses can become unwieldy in use. Two is preferable. My walkaround kit is a 16-35/2.8 and a 100/2, or a 24-105/4 alone if I expect to shoot movies. Professional event shooters tend to rely on the 16-35/2.8, 24-70/2.8, 70-200/2.8, and faster primes like the 85/1.2 as necessary.
* Third-party lenses tend to have less upfront cost, better warranties, and more aggressive designs. AF and optical performance is often (but not always) inferior to OEM lenses, quality control is less consistent, and resale values are lower. Value varies by lens model. Some are better than the OEM equivalents (e.g., Tamron 70-300 VC). Some fill holes in the OEM lineup (e.g., Sigma 120-300/2.8 OS). And some are near-substitutes for less cost (e.g., Sigma 70-200/2.8 OS). Where a third-party lens duplicates the OEM and has similar performance, I tend to choose a used copy of the OEM model.
VIDEO:
Out of the box, 5D II video has four characteristics: lovely depth-of-field-control with the right lenses, clipped colors, high contrast, and about 720p worth of actual detail at the 1080p setting.
There's no autofocus worth using. It's possible to gauge focus from the bare LCD screen, though you're still liable to overshoot and undershoot constantly. Video here is very much a professional feature, despite the shortsighted exclusion of manual exposure and audio control in the original 5D II firmware. The latest firmware provides both, but if you're at all serious about video, install Magic Lantern. It's a third-party piggyback firmware with dozens of new controls. Read more ›
I bought a 5D II to replace a 50D and a 40D. I've also used a 7D professionally. The latter three bodies have higher framerates, superior AF tracking, and a higher pixel density that benefits distant subjects. The 5D II is preferable for any other purpose if you can swing the cost of lenses that'll do justice across the frame to such enormous resolution.
HANDLING:
This is a 50D-generation camera, so the learning curve from that one (and the 40D) is essentially nil. A handful of custom functions differ. The original 5D is a bigger jump; button placement is about the same on the new model, but the menu system has been completely revised (for the better). The 40D/50D have marginally lower weight, smaller size, and a superior grip. Buttons have a positive click. The 5D II has mushy buttons that activate at some indeterminate point.
In use, the 5D II's viewfinder is massively larger than the tunnel-like crop bodies. This pulls you into the scene, though framing is actually easier with the smaller finders. Balancing that is comparatively lethargic shutter and mirror response. The 40D/50D are 40% quicker on this front; the difference between 220ms and 160ms. You can't afford a lazy reaction time with this body.
I've also detected a rare playback hesitation. I tend to a snap a shot and immediately press play if it doesn't appear on the screen. For perhaps 1 shot in 40, my 5D II has been unresponsive to that button for seconds at a time after the shot. The image appears eventually. The 40D/50D are impossible to trip up like this. This smacks of a software glitch, though I may query Canon at some point to verify.
Exposure seems less reliable in difficult lighting. Set to evaluative metering, the 5D II tends to overexpose dark scenes and underexpose backlit people. It's not that clever. I've had to rely on EC and spot metering modes more than with the 40D.
Like the 40D/50D, Auto-ISO is next to useless, so you end up fiddling with settings more than with, say, the 5D III, 7D, or 1D X. In aperture priority, Auto-ISO will set a shutter to the lens focal length or 20% less. Prone to hand-shake? Too bad. In shutter priority, it'll start dropping your chosen shutter when it reaches ISO 3200. That's the maximum ISO it'll use in any mode. And in manual mode, Auto-ISO isn't; it just fixes itself to ISO 400. So if you want to control your depth of field and shutter and the let the ISO dynamically adjust, you're SOL on this body. Major oversight.
Note that this body doesn't have a popup flash. I'm not lamenting the absence, it's always been a bone to casual shooters more than a serious tool. Max sync speed for most Canon bodies is 1/250, so it only worked for outdoor fill with narrow apertures. Indoors as a main light source, the tiny size and close proximity to the lens led to red eyes and a flat, unflattering high-contrast look. A much preferable setup for event photography pairs a 430EX or 580EX, ideally diffused or aimed to bounce off a nearby surface.
Nitpicking aside, the 5D II handles as well as any recent Canon DSLR. It's much quicker if you take the time to configure it to your preferences.
FOCUS:
Better than expected. The 40D/50D have 9 cross-points. The 5D II has one center cross-point, 8 outer single-axis points, and 6 invisible AF assist points near the center point. In practice, the 5D II is a center-point camera unless you're shooting at wide apertures (f/2 or lower).
Center-point AF is very accurate and hits in almost any lighting. Better than the 40D/50D (and even the 1D IV, I've heard) when the lights dim. The only environment where I've had trouble grabbing focus had an exposure of ISO 25600, f/2, 1/50.
Surround-point accuracy is questionable. This is the major weakness of the 5D II. You'll want to use wide-aperture lenses like the 85/1.8 and 50/1.4 to take advantage of the thinner depth-of-field and superior foreground/background blur that full-frame offers. These apertures punish focus-recompose, so you need to use the outer points for off-center compositions. They're fast enough, but not consistent or accurate. If your results are critical, take a lot of refocused safety shots.
Focus tracking is surprisingly decent with a high-contrast subject that you can hold exactly in the center of the viewfinder, provided you've enabled the invisible assist points with CF III.7. Once your object starts straying to the outer points, all bets are off; the 40D/50D excel here. Still, contrary to expectation, the 5D II can follow moving objects. The outer point accuracy was a greater letdown.
STILLS IMAGE QUALITY:
Excellent. Per-pixel sharpness is very high and superior to crop bodies-- par for the course for a full-frame sensor near this pixel density. It's not a subtle difference. Load the comparison tool at The Digital Picture for this body and any crop body on the same lens. Pixel for pixel, the crop bodies always look blurry by comparison.
Noise is better with some caveats. The 5D II is not a magical darkness camera. You're not going to be able to shoot by candlelight with high fidelity. My 40D went to ISO 3200. This camera goes to ISO 25600, but the actual difference in raw is more like 1.5 stops on the outside. Unlike the 40D, boosting the shadows multiple stops reveals color banding that's difficult to remove in post. Blue channel noise is also more severe than expected. Still, I don't have qualms about running it to ISO 6400 for professional gigs. The 40D and 50D, I wouldn't push past 1600. The 5D III gets you an extra stop in raw and less shadow banding for a usable ISO 12800.
Dynamic range is somewhat better on the 40D than the others, interestingly. The 5D II's performance is typical for most DSLRs. You'll be blending exposures or pulling the shadows way up in scenes with high contrast.
LENSES:
I want to segue into this section because it's entwined with image quality. Comparing full-frame and crop isn't quite apples to apples. It's much easier to find crop lenses with good edge performance. This 5D II makes hash of almost all the mid-range variable-aperture zooms Canon has released over the years. I was pleased with my 28-135/3.5-5.6 IS on my 40D. Very consistent sharpness across the frame, even wide open. On a 5D II, the same lens falls down. Poor edge performance, lots of aberrations.
Expect to pay 30-50% more on glass to feed this camera relative to EF-S lenses. Full-frame L glass costs a mint, but most of the third-party wide to mid-focal lenses don't emphasize edge performance. I've used a 14/2.8, 24-105/4, 100/2, and 200/2.8 among others. The latter two are stellar across the frame, as is the Samyang ultrawide. The 24-105/4 and a 17-40/4L I once had are merely adequate. Neither perform that well in the corners at f/4. Even older L zooms like the 17-35/2.8 are subpar on the 5D II.
What should your kit be? Some considerations:
* Primes are lighter, smaller, cheaper, often available in wider apertures, often optically better, and have less manufacturing variation. They're less convenient, less versatile, updated with new technologies (e.g., stabilization, better lens coatings, weight reductions, faster or more accurate AF) less often, and can cause you to miss shots in fast-paced shooting environments.
* There are different requirements for movie lenses and still lenses. No Canon full-frame zooms are optimal for movies. Some are more optimal than others (e.g., less focus breathing, more parfocal, less distortion, smoother operation, distance scale). Primes often fare better.
* An f/2.8 lens on this body is just fast enough for most indoor use without flash. You'll want a flash for anything slower. A flash can provide more even, pleasing pictures, at the expense of a bulkier, attention-attracting rig.
* Kits with more than three primary lenses can become unwieldy in use. Two is preferable. My walkaround kit is a 16-35/2.8 and a 100/2, or a 24-105/4 alone if I expect to shoot movies. Professional event shooters tend to rely on the 16-35/2.8, 24-70/2.8, 70-200/2.8, and faster primes like the 85/1.2 as necessary.
* Third-party lenses tend to have less upfront cost, better warranties, and more aggressive designs. AF and optical performance is often (but not always) inferior to OEM lenses, quality control is less consistent, and resale values are lower. Value varies by lens model. Some are better than the OEM equivalents (e.g., Tamron 70-300 VC). Some fill holes in the OEM lineup (e.g., Sigma 120-300/2.8 OS). And some are near-substitutes for less cost (e.g., Sigma 70-200/2.8 OS). Where a third-party lens duplicates the OEM and has similar performance, I tend to choose a used copy of the OEM model.
VIDEO:
Out of the box, 5D II video has four characteristics: lovely depth-of-field-control with the right lenses, clipped colors, high contrast, and about 720p worth of actual detail at the 1080p setting.
There's no autofocus worth using. It's possible to gauge focus from the bare LCD screen, though you're still liable to overshoot and undershoot constantly. Video here is very much a professional feature, despite the shortsighted exclusion of manual exposure and audio control in the original 5D II firmware. The latest firmware provides both, but if you're at all serious about video, install Magic Lantern. It's a third-party piggyback firmware with dozens of new controls. Read more ›
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Amazon Verified Purchase
Waited several years for the price on the Canon 5D Mark ll to come down in price. Now that the Mark lll has been on the market for some time I finally purchased the reduced price Mark ll. I previously owned a Canon EOS A2 now 22 years old and the features of the Mark ll made the transition seamless. I also had two lenses with the A2 that now fit the Mark ll and had a Compact Flash card from an Olympus C5060 WZ that will work as well. There are two serious photographer types in the world. Those who swear by Canon and those who swear by Nikon. Hands down I'd choose the Canon any day of the week. If you are looking for digital images of fine quality that can be printed @ 300 dpi to a 12 X 18 print this is the camera for you.
This is the most frustrating camera body ever - I have a lot of L-glass and find myself squeezing the trigger while it sits there trying to AF forever! I have tried all the tricks in the trade to get it to work and still miss 90% of timed shots. Even after it shoots, the images are soft - never crystal sharp. I don't recommend this camera to ANYONE!
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
More than Expected
Great body, though there's mark III, but this camera will still take stunning pictures... more than enough to me. Full Frame camera's are the best...!!!
Published 2 months ago by brentofs
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Best Canon Camera I Have Bought So Far.
I've upgraded from a well loved Canon 40D
The Camera preforms very well and image quality are some of the best I have seen. Read more
The Camera preforms very well and image quality are some of the best I have seen. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Michael J. Hatten
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Camera
i am rating this camera as it stands in today's market as far as camera gear goes.
The 5D has dropped to about $1800 for the body which is a good deal, not great but good. Read more
The 5D has dropped to about $1800 for the body which is a good deal, not great but good. Read more
Published 5 months ago by alex
5.0 out of 5 stars
Still a very good full frame camera
I would consider it is the best value full frame camera for now, although the 6D came out, 5DMKII is still a very competitive full frame camera. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Benjamin H.G
1.0 out of 5 stars
camera defective after 114 pictures
This product literally fell apart within a day of use. A plastic piece associated with the sensor came off and appears to have been defective from the start. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Robert Siegel
