The New Canon EOS 5D Mark II

Professional photographers (especially professional wedding photographers) have been awaiting the successor to the Canon 5D for a couple of years now (the Canon EOS 5D came out 3 years ago…a “lifetime” in the digital photography industry). The fact that the 5D is still one of the better digital SLRs out there is a testament to how good this camera was and still is.

Well, now here it is, Mark II, the successor to the ground-breaking 5D. What changes have they wrought? Here are but a few:

• A 8.3 megapixel jump from 12.8 to a whopping 21.1 megapixels (with the option of smaller raw and jpeg image resolutions of 10/11.1mp and 5.2mp)
• An expansion of the ISO sensitivity range from 100-3200 to 50-25600
• An auto ISO range of 100-3200 (this range was only 100-400 with the 5D)
• A self-cleaning sensor
• Bigger LCD (3.0″ vs. 2.5″) with more than triple the pixels (920,000 vs. 230,000)
• Video recording capability: can record up to 12 mins of 30 fps video at 1920 x 1080
• Ability to shoot raw images in Auto mode (introduced with the 50D)

For my wedding photography, the increase of the upper ISO setting from 3200 to 25600 is a biggie, followed closely by the expansion of the auto ISO range up to 3200. This latter change signals the virtual end to blurry and over-expose images caused by–in order–suddenly going from a bright outdoor location to a dark indoor location at a low ISO setting, and/or from a dark indoor location to a bright outdoor location with a high ISO setting.

Look at this series of images from the 5D Mark II showing the same photograph at 5 different ISO settings: 1600, 3200, 6400, 12800, and 25600 (click the “next” link in the upper right to browse through the images). To my eye–having used the 5D for a couple years now–it appears that the noise in the 12800 ISO image is similar to the noise in a 3200 ISO image for the 5D. To me this means getting two more stops of existing light accessibility. So, at that those dark reception venues where the dance floor is even too dark for my 50 f/1.2 lens at 3200 ISO, I’ll be able get some of those shots that were only accessible to flash previously.

The 5D Mark II is only available for pre-order at this point, so it’s not going to help much with my weddings the rest of this year. But for next year, its extra capabilities are really something nice to look forward to…:-) .