Canon 5D MK II Review
Growing up on a dairy farm as the oldest of 5 children created in me a strong work ethic combined with a love for young children and a fascination with the things they did as they grew up. Not wanting to forget these cute and endearing images led me to want a camera to capture those moments. As a result my love of photographing young children came about very early in my life.
The Kodak Starmite Brownie Camera
Over the years I have worked with a lot of different cameras, beginning with the Kodak Starmite Brownie which I bought with money I saved from baby sitting. I am older now (a grandmother in fact!) and throughout my lifetime have used cameras of all kinds from many different manufacturers.
As a child photographer one of the most important things I have learned is that to get those really special photographs of small children you need to be quick and, at the same time, deliberate in your actions. This means the camera I use has to be easy to use, have intuitive controls and be extremely durable and reliable.
Of all the different camera makers, Canon seems to understand photographers best, and I love using Canon cameras. For several years now I have wanted to purchase a Canon 5D MK II, and now that I have one I would like to share my experiences in using it with you. The best way for me to do this is through a product review, so here goes.
The Canon 5D Mark II is a digital single lens reflex camera. This means that all of Canon’s EF lenses can be interchanged on this camera body for the different applications that would be the best to serve your needs as the user. The Canon 5D Mark II is also a full frame camera which means that what you see through the lens will not be cropped down to a smaller image as it would be in a non-full frame camera. This is accomplished by a much larger sensor than is in most digital cameras.
Canon 5D MK II Front View
I really like the weight and quality of this camera. Of all the cameras I have used from different manufacturers, Canon cameras are the easiest and most intuitive to use. I know that if you use any camera all of the time, you can get really good at understanding how to manipulate the controls. However, if you don’t use your camera every day, and then try to pick it up and use it for an important event, you can get really frustrated trying to make your camera do what you want it to.
The Canon 5D Mark II is extremely easy to get “back up to speed” on, so you won’t miss those important pictures of your children. It also feels really solid and good in your hands, but not too heavy. This helps to overcome “camera shake” which I find many people have a problem with in taking good pictures.
The Cameras Of Most Manufacturers Today Are Not Really Very User Friendly
5D MK II 3" LCD Screen
Another major benefit that I really enjoy is the 3 inch LCD screen which gives you the ability to see your images extremely well. And, it is very easy to switch the screen image to the histogram graph. The histogram information is critical in knowing if your image is easily correctable in your computer. With this information, you can easily and quickly make an exposure adjustment, and take another picture.
Many cameras have a very small LCD screen which makes it difficult to see exactly what your image will look like when you print it. In addition, with all of the control you have with modern digital cameras the ability to see the menu and quickly make changes is much easier with the larger LCD screen you find on the Canon 5D MK II camera.
The Importance Of Pixels And The C-MOS Sensor
Comparison Of C-MOS Sensor Sizes
One of main features of the Canon 5D Mark II is the 21 megapixel C-mos sensor, which I like, because you can still have a great image of your child, even if you have to crop it in your computer. This is because there are sufficient pixels left in the center or remaining image to yield a picture that still has very good resolution. Most people don’t realize that 8 megapixels is really the maximum that is required for a great print, that is unless you want to enlarge your image to the size of a wall mural.
If you pair your Canon 5D Mark II up with a Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS lens and a Canon 580 EX II Speedlite, you will have an absolutely wonderful combination with which to obtain dynamic, beautiful pictures of your child, especially if you use fill flash outdoors, and bounce the flash off a white surface inside.
Does this camera have a downside in the application of child photography? Yes, everything has a down side; nothing’s perfect. When photographing children, focus is critical. I always focus on the face, and even the eyes, if possible. The Canon 5D Mark II has nine auto focusing selection points. Almost, without exception, when I let the camera choose my focusing point for me, it does not choose the point that I would have chosen. When I try to switch manually between the nine points, I can’t do it fast enough to keep up with the child’s movements to get critical focus. However, when I used my Canon D60, it had only three focusing points, and I learned to move between these three points and re frame the image very quickly. So I have studied the camera and manual further for the Canon 5D Mark II and found a way to use a unique control button on this camera called the multi-controller. I have learned to manipulate it to easily deliver me those three focusing points that work so very well for me.
The other major downside is that the large files that can be generated by the Canon 5D Mark II require you to have a substantial computer to manipulate your images. The large files will slow or freeze a computer that does not have sufficient RAM memory to work with. Right now, I have an old HP media PC which did pretty well with the files from my trusty old Canon D60 which generated image sizes between 6 and 7 megapixels. However, the Canon 5D Mark II causes my computer to be really slow with some applications of the images. I could remedy this situation by taking my pictures in a low resolution, but that would defeat my purposes in using this camera. I take all of my pictures in the RAW, because I like to have all of the information in the image that I can possibly get, and to be able to work on them in Photoshop CS5, and have the end product be of the highest quality possible. Right now, I have my eye on an Apple iMac computer that I hope to get and use someday!
What’s the price? Well you may think that $2799.00 is pricey for this camera with a lens, but I am here to say that I paid $2600.00 for a Canon D60, body only, in 2002, and I loved using that camera! And, it didn’t have all of the features and benefits that the Canon 5D Mark II does. And the Canon 5D Mark II price is really competitive when you compare it to the Canon 1Ds series, top of the line, cameras. Yes, I had one of those too, and they get very heavy to carry around and heavy to use. If you feel you don’t want to spend the money for the Canon 5D Mark II, then I would recommend either the Canon 7D, or the Canon 50D both with the EF-S 18-135 f/3.5-5.6 IS standard zoom lens as alternate choices. The Canon 7D and the Canon 50D is about the same size as the Canon 5D Mark II. If price is a big factor for you, then I would choose the Rebel T2i which is smaller and lighter in weight. Probably, the greatest major difference between these other three choices and the Canon 5D Mark II is that they are not full-frame cameras, and contain much smaller sensors.
I hope that you have enjoyed this review of the Canon 5D Mark II. If you have some questions, you can call me at 866-440-2461, and I will be happy to try to help you.
Here’s where you can purchase the Canon 5D Mark II camera including any accessories that you may wish. And, you can even find an apple iMac computer here, too!
Link to this page
