I am an enthusiast photographer. I understand the relationship between aperture, shutter and ISO; I understand the basics of composition, rules of thirds and all that; watches youtube constantly and try to learn more; and I process my RAW in Lightroom because I am not a professional and just a bit lazy to learn layers and Photoshop.
I am budget conscious, not rich or anything. Therefore it is a bit hard for me to justify buying over 3000 dollars of equipment for mainly weekend and vacation shooting. I've used it for almost 2 weeks and I would say overall I don't regret buying it. I will list some pros and cons from my perspective.
Pros:
A lot of detail is available from the RAW files. A bit of brushing and those blown out while sky comes back to life easily. Just tweaking with LR, I can get those HDR looking photos where everywhere is exposed without doing bracketing. Its not perfect HDR of course, but pretty good and amazing in my opinion. And of course, the details in the images are very crisp, a big upgrade from my old camera.
The rate of 3.9 is pretty good in my opinion. I use a 600x card and shoot RAW only; the camera shows 13 shots continuously at that rate before clogging, which is pretty good.
The weight of the camera makes shooting at slower shutter speed easier. When I was hand holding my old camera(I rather not say model), I usually have bluish image at 1/15, but this one seems to do it pretty well. Some people probably can hand hold 1/15 easily with any camera, but this is just something I noticed. I think the extra weight gave me this extra stability or maybe there is something going on inside.
Knowing that this is a Full Frame camera with the ability to capture pretty much the best quality images is satisfying. I travel whenever my finance allow, and some of the destinations I probably will never go again or just simply change from time to time. Therefore the biggest justification for myself buying this camera is to be able to capture images without later regrets. Before, I had images with the sky fully blown out or the face of my subject poorly lit and by recovering from LR, I just loose a lot of detail and make everything look unpleasant. Professionals probably can shoot better I know, but I am not pro and the comfort of not paying so much for my mistakes and no regrets is the main reason I am happy with my decision.
now onto the Cons:
Like everyone said, the focus is the downside of 5DII. Maybe I am overshadowed by all the other reviews; but from what I feel, I just think its a bit slow, more noticeable during darker situations. I have not used a lot of cameras so maybe I am just nit-picking. When I mount the 50mm 1.4 on the 5DII, the focus is a bit slow, and also the minimal focus distance for the 50mm 1.4 is quiet long at 0.45m. I was inside a museum, and sometimes I'm just too close to the subject, or sometimes its just too dark, so the focusing seems to be confused once in awhile. I don't have anything technical to back this up, just my feeling. The lack of focus point don't bother me at all since I only use the central one and rarely shoot birds or sports. Its not a problem when I'm outside, I hardly notice it, but when I do, it bothers me.
The weight adds stability while shooting, but is definitely not good for walking. Having this magnesium alloy brick hanging on my neck without support is not pleasant.
Shutter is a bit loud and lower pitch. I think each and everyone have a different preference for shutter sound. I actually like the sound of short higher pitch, for example the Rebels.
Vignette and Light fall off. Coming from a cropped, the vignetting and light falls off at the corners is much more noticeable. I know different lens behaves differently, but this is definitely more noticeable.
Build-in Mic is nearly useless during recording. It is very noisy. Even if you want to record something simple, the quality of sound coming out of the mic makes me mute it all together.
The large megapixel makes my Lightroom 4.1 a lot slower. I have an Acer Laptop, i5-2410, 8GB Ram, Nvidia Geforce GT540M laptop. No SSD, just regular 640GB, 5400RPM Hard drive. The laptop is not something blazing fast, but I had no problem with 10 Megapixel RAW files. Now the full 21 Megapixel RAW files from 5DII are making my LR a lot slower. I already rooted my comp to clean out the bloatwares and tried to render 1:1 when importing and all the other tweaks I can find on the internet but it is still quiet slow. It is noticeably slow while editing (applying different presets and brushing) and slow when exporting. Its not anything bad for the camera, but something every buyer should consider, as I am now planning to dropping more money to buy a better desktop.
Recommendations:
I think for those non-professionals, this is probably the best pick for the money. The new 5DIII is obviously better, but the price is a big factor for me. For people who have the money, buy it; but I don't, so I rather save that extra dollars and spend it on a vacation. The focus is good enough in my opinion, probably because I don't shoot sports or things that are moving like crazy. All the other nitpicks such as power switch position, dop preview position, slow rate are completely irrelevant in my opinion. 5DII is a solid camera, and I think its best buy for the money since the ability to produce good image is the most important factor.
For those who wants to buy a full frame, I would say make sure you know why you want to buy it. The desire of getting better gear is always with us, and I recommend for anyone buying anything really, make sure you justify your purchase. Please don't buy a good camera like this and simply put it away in your closet after the first few month. It pains budget conscious people like me who have invested so much time to find the best pick. If you have the extra cash, knows that photography requires lots of hard work, and want to advance in photography, I would say its worth it.
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This Item  Canon EOS 5D Mark II Full Frame DSLR Camera (Body Only) (Old Model) |  |  |  |  |  | |
| Price | $1,094.95 | $1,659.00 | -33% $989.00 New Price: $1,479.95 | $2,979.00 | $1,974.95 | -17% $1,499.95 List: $1,799.00 |
| Delivery | Get it as soon as Tomorrow, Apr 26 | — | Get it as soon as Tomorrow, Apr 26 | Get it May 1 - 3 | Get it as soon as Tomorrow, Apr 26 | Get it as soon as Tomorrow, Apr 26 |
| Customer Ratings | ||||||
| Picture quality | ||||||
| Auto focus | ||||||
| Sold By | Electronics Basket | BH 52 Innovations | Minty Gadgets (we track serial numbers) | Digital Village | 6ave | Web Offers |
| display type | LCD | LCD | LCD | LCD | LCD | LCD touch screen |
| display size | 3.2 inches | 4.6 inches | 3.2 inches | 3.2 inches | 3.2 inches | 3 inches |
| lens type | interchangeable | Telephoto | — | Standard | Fixed | Wide Angle |
| zoom type | Optical Zoom | — | — | Optical Zoom | Optical Zoom | Optical Zoom |
| shooting modes | Landscape, Neutral, Faithful, Portrait, Monochrome | Landscape | High dynamic rang | Easy | Movie | Scene; Intelligent Auto; Shutter-priority; Aperture-priority; Manual exposure; Bulb; Custom shootings |
| connectivity tech | HDMI, USB | Wi-Fi, NFC | USB | NFC, Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi, USB, NFC | HDMI, USB |
| video resolution | FHD 1080p | 2160p | FHD 1080p | 1080p, 2160p | 2160p | FHD 1080p |
| optical zoom | 1 multiplier x | 2 multiplier x | 2 multiplier x | — | 8 multiplier x | 7.5 multiplier x |
| magnification | 0.71x | — | Optical | 0.71x | 0.71x | 1.0x |
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A Closer Look At The Canon EOS 5D Mark II Camera
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Canon EOS 5D Mark II: Highly Recommended by dpreview.com
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A very nice upgrade and I am not going back
For the record, some of the reviews posted on Amazon are not associated with the camera Canon 5D Mark II at all. The majority of them were about price gouging from third parties that are selling through Amazon. On the other hand, I did purchase the camera along with the 24-105mm lens through Amazon at the price of MSRP and the purchase was delivered on time. So, I believe people should step back and look at the whole picture first before posting reviews that are NOT associated with the products at all. Such action does not do justice to the product and waste lots of readers' time.Now, let's get down to the main issue. I have been using the digital rebel for a few years and I was looking for all sorts of reasons to upgrade to a full frame body. The Canon 5D Mark II arrived at just the right time. I placed the order along with the battery grip and I can honestly tell you that I am both happy and also disappointed at the same time. Since I am only an amateur weekend photographer, my review is only from the novice user's perspective. If you are looking for a detail feedback specs and comparisons, I believe you will be better off if you read the feedbacks from the pros.Starting with what I like first. The resolution of 21.1 MP is a huge leap from what I had before. The first thing to notice is that the raw image files are much larger. Along with it is the conversion time (from RAW to JPEG) needed is also much longer. This is just a one time thing during upgrade and I am sure most users will get used to it. The camera body is solidly made and the size is just right. Since I go hiking a lot, I don't consider the size (with battery grip) is much to carry. The majority of my shots are landscape done in Aperture priority. The burst rate of 3.9 FPS is plenty for me and it is not likely that I will need the feature at all. What I notice the new camera helped me the most is that during the low light condition, I can switch to the auto IOS option and I have been happy with the results that I have been getting. In addition to the still photography, I do consider the HD video as an added bonus. I do take short clips of film from time to time just to make my hiking trips more enjoyable.Now, let's talk about my disappointments. The 5D Mark II that was delivered to me had a HOT SPOT on the sensor. First, I did not notice this issue at all as I was too excited to have this new toy with me. But after a couple nights of testing, I noticed that there is one spot which is always shown as bright Orange Red on my still images. This HOT SPOT is hard to be seen unless one is to view the picture in 100% mode and pan through all corners. One can easily ignore this issue if one is to have just one HOT SPOT and one only takes still images. However, the newly added feature of HD Video changed that completely. The same HOT SPOT is also shown on all the films that I took. It stayed at the same coordinate and it is there on every single frame of the film. That alone did not sit too well with me. So, I made a point and brought the Canon 5D Mark II body to the service center in person to have it fix. When I talked to the service rep, I was told it would take 7-10 business days. However, the entire service transaction took more than two weeks to complete. When I called for status of my unit, I was told the sensor had to be replaced and it has been on back order. So, it appears that this HOT SPOT issue is more common than usual. In any case, I finally got the unit back and did more testing. I am happy to report that I don't have the HOP SPOT issue anymore. So, as an advice, if one is to buy the camera, I think it would be wiser to buy it in the store and have a test run at first. Perhaps take a short film clip of a dark room and see if there are any static HOT SPOT(s) on all frames of the film. This would be a good way to filter the bad from the good. Also, I have been trying to play the HD movies on my PC and I must admit, the playback is rather jerky. I was told that it is the PC QuickTime player's doing. I did not see any issue from the playback through the camera at all. In addition, I've asked a friend to play the same movie file on a MAC and it was just fine as well. In this case, I think I can only blame the Apple QuickTime software.In conclusion, I do like this camera and the features that it offers. However, I can't really give a five star on this review as I believe Canon may have a quality issue that they need to address first. Before you buy, do some tests in the store and pick the right one to take home with. Enjoy...
Top reviews from the United States
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Reviewed in the United States on July 16, 2012
Style: 5D Mark II 24-105mm LensProduct Packaging: Standard PackagingVerified Purchase
Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2009
Style: 5D Mark II 24-105mm LensProduct Packaging: Standard PackagingVerified Purchase
Top reviews from other countries
Johnny Dorrito
Great body and a fantastic price
Reviewed in Canada on February 4, 2021Style: 5D Mark II BodyProduct Packaging: Standard PackagingVerified Purchase
Leonard Jamieson
Supplied with no English manual
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 25, 2015Style: 5D Mark II BodyProduct Packaging: Standard PackagingVerified Purchase
Yanela Espinosa
Thank you For sending so fast and the great quality of the camera I bought from you
Reviewed in Canada on December 7, 2017Style: 5D Mark II BodyProduct Packaging: Standard PackagingVerified Purchase
Amazon Customer
Awesome. Thank you
Reviewed in Canada on February 7, 2017Style: 5D Mark II BodyProduct Packaging: Standard PackagingVerified Purchase
vincent J
Five Stars
Reviewed in Canada on November 10, 2016Style: 5D Mark II 24-105mm LensProduct Packaging: Standard PackagingVerified Purchase
