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Canon EOS 5D Mark II 21.1MP Full Frame CMOS Digital SLR Camera with EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM Lens | 
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| Brand: Canon
Category: Photography
Buy New: $3,499.95
New (6) from $3,499.95
Rating:  38 reviews
Sales Rank: 175
Media: Electronics
Display Size: 3
Maximum Resolution: 21.1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.8
Dimensions (in): 6 x 4.5 x 3
MPN: EOS 5D Mark II 24-105 IS
Model: EOS 5D Mark II 24-105 IS
UPC: 013803105384
EAN: 0013803105391
ASIN: B001G5ZTMM
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: In stock soon. Order now to get in line. First come, first served.
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| Features:
| • | 21.1-megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor, 14-bit A/D conversion, wide range ISO setting 100-6400 | | • | Includes Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM lens | | • | DIGIC 4 Image Processor; high-performance 3.9 fps continuous shooting; Live View Function for stills | | • | Full HD video capture at 1920x1080 resolution for up to 4GB per clip ; HDMI output | | • | Updated EOS Integrated Cleaning System specifically designed to work with a full-frame sensor |
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| Accessories:
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
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.
Triggered from Live View Mode, HD video capture allows users to shoot uninterrupted at full 1080 resolution at 30fps -- for amazing quality footage with outstanding levels of detail and realism.
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.
Other improvements to the EOS 5D include: - Addition of Canon's EOS Integrated Cleaning System, with a new Fluorine coating on the low-pass filter
- Larger 3.0-inch Clear View LCD with VGA resolution, a 170-degree angle of view and anti-reflective coatings
- Improved menu system including Quick Control Screen for more direct access to common settings
- Automatic peripheral illumination correction, utilizing detailed EF lens information to optimize JPEG images straight out of the camera
- Magnesium alloy construction with additional environmental protection
- UDMA memory card compatibility
EOS 5D Mark II Highlights
New CMOS sensor
The EOS 5D Mark II's newly designed full-frame 21.1-megapixel CMOS sensor features ISO sensitivity from 100-6400, expandable to 50, 12,800 and 25,600. Large 6.4 m2 pixels have been redesigned to capture more light and yield a better signal to noise ratio to ensure lower noise images throughout the ISO range. The full frame sensor has the same dimensions as a frame of 35mm film. This means that wide-angle lenses stay wide, without the change in angle of view associated with smaller sensor cameras. As well as benefiting from finer control over depth of field, photographers moving up to the EOS 5D Mark II's full frame format will find the newly designed wide, bright 98 percent coverage viewfinder on a joy to work with.
New DIGIC 4 processor
A new DIGIC 4 processor combined with 14-bit analogue to digital conversion provides smooth gradations in mono-tonal areas such as skies, and highly accurate color rendition. As well as HD movie shooting, DIGIC 4's high speed provides for long uninterrupted continuous bursts of large JPEGs, near-instant start-up times and immediate and fast review after shooting. DIGIC 4 also provides for improved noise reduction algorithms, complementing the already low-noise images from the EOS 5D Mark II's CMOS sensor.
HD video capture
The EOS 5D Mark II is Canon's first DSLR to incorporate full HD 1920x1080 video capture. Once filming is started from Live View mode, photographers can fire off either single of continuous stills, with video capture continuing after the final frame is captured.
See everything
A new 3.0-inch VGA resolution LCD provides a wide 170 degree angle-of-view, providing plenty of clarity for accurate focus checks in playback. The screen brightness can automatically adjust to suit viewing conditions, extending battery life in low light and improving viewing in bright conditions. A new dedicated Live View button switches modes to display a real-time image on the LCD. This allows EOS 5D Mark II photographers to enjoy simplified shooting from awkward angles. Simple connection to a PC provides easy remote shooting.
Precision focus and metering
A 9-point auto focus system is supported by 6 additional invisible Assist AF points, located inside the spot-metering circle to optimise subject tracking performance in AI SERVO AF mode. For accurate exposure readings in tricky lighting conditions, the spot metering circle covers just 3.5 percent of the frame.
Control
The EOS 5D Mark II's redesigned menu system includes a new Quick Control screen, for instant access to the most commonly changed settings. A new Creative Auto mode allows photographers to cede control of key settings to the camera, while retaining control over creative variables such background blur, drive mode and image brightness. Custom user settings allow photographers to switch between two completely different camera setups. This is ideal for changing quickly between two different environments, such as switching from working inside a church without flash to outdoors with fill-flash at a wedding.
Optional Accessories
Shooting flexibility is enhanced with a range of new accessories. Shooting capacity can be extended with either the high-capacity 1800mAh lithium-ion Battery Pack LP-E6, or Battery Grip BG-E6.
A new optional Wireless File Transmitter
The WFT-E4 offers external HDD and GPS compatibility along with ability to transmit images direct to computer or FTP server, or operate the camera wirelessly. Both the BG-E6 and WFT-E4 feature a vertical orientation shutter release and other key controls for comfortable portraiture work, with a substantial grip to help balance the camera when used with long lenses.
What's in the Box - EOS 5D Mark II Body
- Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM lens
- Eyecup Eb
- Wide Neck Strap EW-EOS5DMKII
- Stereo Video Cable STV-250N
- USB Interface Cable IFC-200U
- Battery Charger LC-E6
- Battery Pack LP-E6
- EOS Digital Solution Disk
- Software Instruction Manual
Product Description
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. Triggered from Live View Mode, HD video capture allows users to shoot uninterrupted at full 1080 resolution at 30fps -- for amazing quality footage with outstanding levels of detail and realism. 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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 33 more reviews...
 A very nice update to an already awesome camera line December 11, 2008
Dan Kim (Ellicott City, MD)
41 out of 51 found this review helpful
Like many 5D Classic owners, I was looking forward to the release of the 5D Mark II, which was finally announced September 2008.
There was a lot of hype, but also a lot of unjustified hate for it from the beginning.
When the original 5D was released, it was the only DSLR under $4000 that was full frame. There are now three full-frame DSLRs under $3000 (current
generation): Canon 5D Mark II, Nikon D700, Sony a900. There are pros and cons for each system, which I will briefly go over.
Canon 5D Mark II
Pros:
-Has 1080p/FullHD video recording - Google examples. They will prove the FullHD video is not a gimmick.
-21.1MP
-Has the most selection of lenses (both for consumer and pro grade)
-Very good high-ISO noise handling even with such a large resolution - nearly as good at 100% as the D700/D3, but with 75% more pixels
-Lowest MSRP, which may translate to the lowest street price in a few months
Cons:
-Least amount of AF points - but they appear to be more than adequate for nearly any situation
-Only shoots 3.9fps - the slowest of the three
Nikon D700
Pros:
-Cheapest street price as of 12/2008
-51 AF points and fast AF
-5fps
-Very good noise handling in large part because it has the lowest resolution
-8fps (with battery grip) - fastest continuous shooting
Cons:
-"Only" 12MP - However, 12MP is more than adequate for nearly everything, so I am only listing it as a con purely based on specs. But it is
somewhat of a limitation if you want to make really big prints.
-Smallest viewfinder
Sony a900
Pros:
-Highest resolution at 24MP
-Image Stabilization built into the body
-Zeiss lenses
-100% viewfinder
-5fps
Cons:
-Least amount of lens selection
-Bad noise control by far compared to other two - by several stpos
-Highest street price
Basically it'd be hard to go wrong with any of the systems, and things are only looking up for consumers as technology gets better and better.
This is an excellent camera, and I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who is looking to upgrade or get into the hobby. You won't be
disappointed...
I still need to play around with my camera more before I can give a more in-depth review, but I am very impressed. Noise handling is really great,
and even shots at ISO 12800 and 25600 are easily usable, especially at normal print sizes. The bigger, higher resolution LCD is a welcome
improvement.
Search Google for examples of the 5D Mark II's HD video capabilities. The results are amazing! I look forward to the work of some talented
videographers in the near future.
 Mostly positive, but mixed feelings January 1, 2009
Glenn Przyborski (Pittsburgh, PA USA)
38 out of 39 found this review helpful
First the good...
If you're looking for an excellent, full-frame DSLR, the 5D Mk2 is very, very good. It's at least 1 full F-stop more sensitive to light than my Canon 1DS Mk2. A setting of ASA 800 or 1000 yields about the same noise level as my older camera at ASA 400. It's autofocus system is very fast and accurate on single shot mode. (I don't think EF-L series lenses are capable of faster focus action.)
The new LCD screen is gorgeous. 3" diagonal with 900,000+ pixels. It's possibly the best quality LCD screen ever put on a DSLR. The menus are easier to understand and navigate than the 1DS Mk2's menus. "Live View" is an excellent way to do critical focusing. If you've never used a DSLR with live view, you'll love it. The only negative of live-view is that it really drains your battery and it can only be used for a certain length of time before the CMOS imager circuitry heats up, adding noise to the image. (In real-life typical shooting, overheating is not a problem and besides the camera will auto cancel live-view if it senses an over temperature condition.)
The huge 21 mega-pixel RAW images are excellent. The camera uses an updated variant on Canon's .CR2 RAW format so if you use an older version of Adobe's Lightroom or Photoshop for image processing, you'll need the latest Lightroom 2.2 or Photoshop CS4 to get the proper RAW converter. I've personally never liked the included software for RAW image processing, but many people are happy with it.
The auto-exposure system seems very accurate... more accurate than my 1DS Mk2.
I never experienced any "black dot" phenomenon. But I've only shot RAW images at less than 1200 ASA. The "black dot" sample images that I've seen on the internet look like simple, in-camera, over-enhancement of highlights. Besides, unless you're shooting sports at night or are part of a CSI team, who shoots at 3200+ ASA anyway? If you're doing a night shot of a city use a tripod, a longer exposure, and a lower ASA. This will yield rich, clean blacks and much higher detail in highlights. Also, although JPEG's are much smaller, every professional photographer that I know shoots only RAW images.
I ordered the camera with the optional BG-E6 battery grip. This grip makes the camera taller and easier to hold. It allows simultaneous use of 2 Canon lithium batteries or 6- AA alkaline or rechargeables. It's a very valuable accessory to consider.
Now the bad...
I primarily purchased the camera for its ability to shoot great looking 1080P HD video for commercial TV projects. I thought it would be a great source for "B-Roll" cutaways and inserts.
The biggest single problem in the video mode is that you have no control over iris, ISO setting, or shutter speed. There's an exposure lock button that will lock the exposure variables to whatever the LCD displays at the time you press the button. There are no on-screen indicators that show the settings that the camera has chosen for you. The only control you have is the color temperature setting. Basically, you pan the camera around in the scene and let the brightness float up and down. When you see what you think is a good exposure on the rear LCD screen, you press the lock button. Since the exposure lock resets after each scene or take, chances are you won't have consistent exposures over multiple takes of a particular scene.
Working with the auto exposure system can sometimes be difficult. I was shooting with my 85mm F1.2 lens. By looking at the iris, it appeared the camera had decided to only open the lens to about an F2.8 and use a much higher ISO setting than necessary to achieve proper exposure. By pointing the camera to some very dark shadows, the iris fully opened. I then panned back to my original scene which appeared to be much cleaner and free of noise. You really need to be able to manually set the ISO & F-stop when shooting video.
I adjusted the camera's custom settings to lower the detail enhancement and contrast. These controls effect the quality of jpeg stills but seem to have no effect on a video recording.
The camera only records at 30.00fps, not 29.97fps. This tiny .03fps difference means that you have to alter each file's header, using a program such as Apple Cinema Tools, before you can edit 5D footage into a normal, broadcast 1080P/1080i, 29.97fps timeline. Failure to do this header alteration requires setting up a 30.00fps timeline or rendering every 5D scene on your 29.97fps timeline which yields periodic skipped frames.
There is no 24P (23.98) setting. As far as I'm concerned, there is no logical reason that Canon chose 30.00fps instead of 29.97fps. No broadcast TV or film standard operates at 30.00fps. Maybe Canon will correct this with a future firmware update. Please note that if you're only shooting high quality videos for web release, the 30.00fps speed won't present a problem.
To simulate the film-like cadence of a movie camera's 180 degree shutter at 30.00fps, the 5D Mk2's shutter should be set to 1/60 of a second exposure time. There is no way to tell what shutter setting the camera is using during a scene. My gut feeling from looking at camera video is that the 5D Mk2 often uses 1/30 of a second.
The camera's LCD screen is blanked whenever an HDMI monitor is plugged in. If you're doing a commercial shoot with clients, this means that either the cameraman or the clients can see what's being shot, but not both at the same time... You could add an external HDMI active splitter, but this would also require adding and using an external monitor at the camera. If you only plan to shoot by yourself, this shouldn't present a problem.
To do manual follow-focusing using the rear LCD screen, consider purchasing Hoodman's 3" LCD viewer. It's available from B&H and other retailers and it works very well. Of course, you'll have to figure a custom way to attach it to the back of the 5D Mk2 using rubber bands or Velcro.
The 5D Mk2 records what I would call "memo quality" audio with it's internal, mono microphone. You really notice the AGC raising and lowering the recording volume. If someone claps their hands, coughs, or makes a loud sound, the audio level and background sound dives down, then very noticeably fades back up. There is no headphone output or on-screen audio display so there's no way to confirm the level of your audio. If you plug an external mic into the camera, there is no indication to confirm even the presence of an audio signal. The only thing you can do is record a scene, then playback and carefully listen to the recorded file. If you plan to use this camera on a professional sync-sound project, you'd really have to consider double system sound recording. Recoding the audio on a separate recorder adds a major level of increased hassle but it's the only way to insure excellent audio. The audio from the camera's recording can be used as a post-production sync reference.
Another audio question is why Canon chose to record audio at a sample rate of 44.1kz instead of the industry standard 48kz. Apple's Final Cut Pro can handle almost any sample rate but other NLE's can't. Once again, if you're only shooting video for web release, the CD sample rate of 44.1kz shouldn't present a problem.
In certain low light or low contrast scenes, the H.264 encoding block artifacts are noticeable. In my opinion, the 5D Mk2 artifacts are more noticeable than the H.264 encoding used in Canon's own HF10, 1080 video camera even though the 5D's recorded bit rate is higher.
The camera's signal-to-noise ratio is very good and very clean. It's a more noise-free video picture than my $80,000 Sony F900R HDCam... except for the color red. Red objects are noisy. Most colors in a scene seem noise free, except red. This is especially true with low brightness red objects such as those in shadow areas.
The 5D Mk2 exhibits no "rolling shutter" characteristics that are associated with Nikon's D90.
The 5D Mk2 has the characteristic of clipping to "flat-line" black very low-light or shadow details in an image. This yields a "gutsy" rich, excellent, "film-like" quality for many scenes, but you can't do any post-production recovery of lost low-light details. The camera does a pretty good job of rolling scene highlights off to a hard clip at 100 units of video.
Possibly, some of the problems I've detailed here are related to the specific 5D Mk2 that I purchased (serial#0320105XXX) but I don't think this is the case. Hopefully, Canon will issue a firmware update to address the camera's video problems. New firmware could possibly add manual control to the video capture functions and slightly lower the frame rate to the standard 29.97fps.
All cameras at any price level have positives and negatives. I've never found or used the "perfect" camera. The Canon 5d Mk2 is an excellent still camera and in my opinion, "a not quite ready for prime time" HDTV video camera. Possibly the camera was rushed to market to compete (or cancel out) the much hyped video features of Nikon's "rolling shutter" D90. It is an excellent glimpse into the future of "hybrid" still & video DSLR cameras.
Amazon pricing too high November 13, 2008
P. Turner (Los Angeles)
17 out of 93 found this review helpful
I've been an Amazon customer for quite a while but the price of $4k for this camera and 24-105mm lens seems excessive when ritzcamera offers the same package for $500 less.
Watch out for prices above MSRP December 12, 2008
In the Middle of the Road (Connecticut)
17 out of 29 found this review helpful
I've handled this camera and have one arriving in the morning. I've owned a 20D and a 5D classic. I was happy with both of them. The 5D in particular. There is a very detailed review that is well organized and like him, I will probably update this later.
The product improvements are right in line with what I was looking for in improvements from the superb classic 5D. Just be careful where you buy it.
As another reviewer has noted, the prices some retailers are advertising are outrageous. The Canon suggested price is the $2,695 for the body. For the Body plus the 24-105 kit lens, an L f/4, the priceis $3,495. There is an advertiser who is claiming the street price is 4,495. That does not speak well of Amazon's merchant program which can be very good.
So buy one from a good seller, enjoy it and come back and write a good review. But don't get screwed on price by this disreputable people.
A neutral comment on the 5D specs saying that it's lightweight. That's a relative question. Compared to the 1D series, it is relatively light. Compared to the classic Nikon F, the Olympus SLRs, etc. it is not light. It's more on a par with the later series of Nikon pro cameras. You won't find this a burden if you're 25 years old. You will tolerate it with some pleasure given the quality of the image. I usually use the 24-70 and 16-35 f/2.8. That's a lot more than it seems when you've got it for a full day. It is light for a full-frame DSLR. No complaints.
 "Back-lash" and a bad time for it to happen... December 19, 2008
Horace G. Lee (Delhi, New York)
16 out of 64 found this review helpful
As a rule I work with a Canon 1D and 1Ds. I've long had my eye on the 5D, though have purchased the Rebel XTi and XSi as in the field back-up cameras and for assistants to use. I remember the same rush with price gouging by Amazon and other distributers when the XTi and XSi first became available; much less noticeable because they are lower priced cameras. It is obvious to me, at least, that the presence of price gouging taking place now over the Canon 5D is in part due to the manufacturers marketing stratagem. Such stratagem, however, may under the present economic conditions seriously back-fire. I was considering purchasing a 5D Mark II to add to my arsenal of equipment, but what about the "black spot issue", surfacing reports by new owners that the 5D Mark II picture quality is not equal to that of the original 5D even with the greater megapixel count, and adding a marginally usable video capability to what purpose? I've growing doubts about the 5D Mark II besides a profound dislike for such marketing stratagems that creates superficial demand etc. and it appears others share the same concerns. The 5D is a major product line for Canon and I'd hate to see it fail but I and others no doubt, are beginning to think Nikon!
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