Though it’s over a year old now, the 21.1-megapixel Canon 5D Mark II is still the camera most people think of when it comes HD-DSLRs, i.e. digital SLRs that shoot both photos and HD movies. And that says a lot about what an impact that 5D Mark II has had on photographers. While it set the bar for full 1080p HD video capture on a DSLR – for reference see Vincent Laforet’s “Reverie” movie and the 10,000 imitations on YouTube and Vimeo – the 5D Mark II can capture amazing low-noise/high ISO still images and is the camera of choice for most wedding photographers I know. If the 5D Mark II’s 9-point autofocus system is outdated and annoyingly slow in low light, image quality is some of the best I’ve seen, even up to ISO 6400. (Maximum ISO is 25,600 but results are hit or miss.) In good light, the 21.1MP CMOS sensor with 14-bit A/D conversion produces excellent color and true skintones, making it great for portrait photography While the 3.9 frames per second shooting speed isn’t ideal for sports, it’s fast enough for candids and most studio work. But yes, while it’s a superior still photography tool, the 5D Mark II is most known for its HD video skills. And the best part is they just got better thanks to a recent firmware update that allows the 5D II to shoot in 24p, a frame rate which mimics the look of traditional film and doesn’t need transcoding during video editing. — Dan Havlik
Product information
MSRP: $2,499 (body only)
Manufacturer data: Canon USA | Canon Europe
