Customer reviews from usa.canon.com
Canon - EOS 5D Mark II Digital SLR Camera (Body Only) - Black
Average customer rating
4.5
(383 Reviews)
Rating breakdown 383 reviews
5 Stars
253
4 Stars
87
3 Stars
24
2 Stars
8
1 Star
11
90%of customers recommend this product.
(
340 out of
377)
Customer Reviews for Canon - EOS 5D Mark II Digital SLR Camera (Body Only) - Black
Customer Rating
5
A tool that exceeds matches my Vision
on February 14, 2009
Posted by: CR
from Tampa, FL
The 5D MKII is a technological leap forward at a great price. It allows quality imaging in light conditions not possible before and this is advantagous for me.
For Example I am now using 800 ISO and available light for Portraits with no grain. I am using 3200 ISO with a flash for events.
There are issues: Processing of RAW files is greatly incresed now it is 45 seconds each in DPP. Selecting and viewing a larger image in DDP is excessive.
When using high ISO to let the background show divergent color balances are magnified
For Example I am now using 800 ISO and available light for Portraits with no grain. I am using 3200 ISO with a flash for events.
There are issues: Processing of RAW files is greatly incresed now it is 45 seconds each in DPP. Selecting and viewing a larger image in DDP is excessive.
When using high ISO to let the background show divergent color balances are magnified
Pros: Superior build quality, excellent image quality, Bright LCD, Simple controls/menu, Quick Start-up time, Solid Operation, easy to use, Lightweight/Portable, good battery life
Cons: noisy, the manual needs to be application oriented
I would recommend this to a friend!
Written by a customer while visiting usa.canon.com
Customer Rating
5
Best camera I have ever owned and used.
on March 4, 2010
Posted by: Steve
from Johnson City, Tennessee
I bought my Canon 5D Mark II about a month ago. I shot a wedding two weeks ago at 21 mp RAW. The pictures are awesome with incredible resolution, rich colors, and wonderful skin tones. I have shot a lot of snow and ice pictures recently also and am amazed by the great exposures I can get with the adjustments availabe in this camera. I switched to Canon from another brand and it is the best move I have ever made in photography.
Pros: good battery life, Nice features/settings, Quick Start-up time, excellent image quality, Superior build quality, Bright LCD, Simple controls/menu
I would recommend this to a friend!
Written by a customer while visiting usa.canon.com
Customer Rating
5
Superior machine
on March 18, 2011
Posted by: Larry
from Sedro Woolley, WA
Absolutley satisfied with the cameras superior build, overall quality, photographic results, ease of use, and controls. Use for still photography, rarely use the video capability. At first the battery life seemed short, but has improved as of late, unsure why, but quite happy with end results. Would like to have update of focusing system, a bit slow, but knew that when purchasing camera. Manual states the LCD will lighten/darken according to lighting condidtions, does this when viewing, a small incovienance. Thank you Canon for creating the best camera I have yet to own and utilize.
Pros: good battery life, excellent image quality, Superior build quality, Bright LCD, Solid Operation, Simple controls/menu, easy to use
I would recommend this to a friend!
Written by a customer while visiting usa.canon.com
Customer Rating
5
Best Investment
on June 3, 2011
Posted by: Bcary
from Trenton,Tn.
Excellant Investment, wonderful quality pictures.. Would definately purchase again..
Pros: good battery life, Nice features/settings, excellent image quality, Bright LCD
I would recommend this to a friend!
Written by a customer while visiting usa.canon.com
Customer Rating
5
Beautiful
on September 12, 2012
Posted by: Director
from California
We bought the 5D Mk2 for cinematography and it's awesome Period.
Pros: quiet, Quick Start-up time, Lightweight/Portable, easy to use, good battery life, Nice features/settings, excellent image quality, Superior build quality, Bright LCD, Solid Operation, Simple controls/menu, great price
Cons: i want more of them!
I would recommend this to a friend!
Written by a customer while visiting usa.canon.com
Customer Rating
5
Superb image quality, average image capture
on June 3, 2009
Posted by: Full_Framer
from Indiana
The 5D mark II is an incredible tool that has some slightly frustrating limitations.
The image quality is very very good, and it's incredible how quickly one gets accustomed to using 21mp files. The FF sensor is the heart of the 5DII and pairs beautifully with Canon's fast primes and excellent L lenses. High ISO performance is a notch above the 5D and is among the best in the industry...no complaints in that department. The new LCD hi-res is also incredibly addictive to look at, and the improved menu is well organized. It's probably also worth noting that I'm a big fan of the Canon XXD/5Dx style ergonomics and controls.
My main complaint with the 5DII is that (for my needs) there seems to be a bit too much emphasis on the ultimate in image quality, and not quite enough emphasis on image capture. The biggest disappointment is the AF system, which is effectively very similar to that in the original 5D. The off center AF points are barely adequate to keep up with the high ISO capabilities of the camera combined with fast primes in low light environments. Ironically, the off center points are of particular importance in this situation due to the inaccuracies of "focus and recompose" shooting. The other major deficiency is a poor implementation of Auto-ISO. It would have been nice to have the ability to set upper and lower limits to shutter speed values when using Auto-ISO in Av mode. Spot metering on off center AF points would have been nice to see as well.
In the ratings above I took performance to mean image quality, so I gave that 5 stars. I'd probably rate the AF performance specifically at about 3 stars as it is rather average. Overall, I think the 5DII is about a 4.5 out of 5 with a balance skewed towards image quality and not so much image capture and responsiveness. All in all, the 5DII is a lot of camera in a standard (non-gripped) size body.
Canon's release of the 1.1.0 firmware to add manual video control is a very welcome development. Thanks Canon!
Pros: excellent image quality, Bright LCD, Lightweight/Portable, full frame sensor, video capability, large viewfinder
Cons: off center af points, poor auto-iso, relatively slow 3.9fps, no off center spot metering
I would recommend this to a friend!
Written by a customer while visiting usa.canon.com
Customer Rating
5
Simply Fantastic
on July 14, 2009
Posted by: SRF
from Cincinnati, OH
I've had the camera for about 6 months and am still blown away by the photos I have taken. In short I can sum it up best by saying this camera has tremendous "dynamic range". The ISO sensitivity lets you capture images in a wide variety of circumstances. While I've seen professionals nit pick the AF speed and other issues there is plenty to like about this camera. It isn't cheap but the versatility is fantastic. I have two L series lenses - the 24-70 f2.8 and the 70-200 f4. These coupled with the 5d mkii have exceeded my expectations in terms of quality images.
Pros: excellent image quality, Bright LCD, Quick Start-up time, Solid Operation, good battery life
I would recommend this to a friend!
Written by a customer while visiting usa.canon.com
Customer Rating
5
Superb!
on May 19, 2010
Posted by: Wolfgang
from Grand Rapids, MI
Before purchasing the 5Dii, I read the majority of the reviews and blogs out there - both good and bad. I really cannot say anything bad about this digital SLR. The only short-coming I can think of is the lack of auto-focus for the HD video. But, I purchased the camera for still capture and not to take videos.
The first assignment for this camera was for my trip to Maui. The images are absolutely superb - color gradations are film-like, detail is razor sharp, and pixilation is just not a factor anymore with the 21MP full-frame sensor. The work I do is mainly landscape and wildlife - landscape panoramics are my specialty where at least 5 to 15 individual captures are blended together to make one wall-sized final image and this camera has expanded the level of detail ten-fold. I have read too many reviews claiming "soft-focus" - I do not have this problem. Out of the box, focus is tack sharp with all my L lenses without any micro-adjustment even with the lens wide open what I want in-focus is - but I do use a mono-pod or tri-pod most of the time, this adds to the sharpness!
Noise is not a big deal until you get above 3200 ISO and is not objectionable until you get above 6400. Auto-focus in low light is a bit slow, but is not bothersome. There have been many reviews claiming that there are not enough focus points and auto-focus is too slow. I have always been in the habit to select a specific focus point manually (usually the center) and auto-focus is not only fast with a moving subject (like a wave coming into shore) but is very accurate. Of the 10,000 plus photographs taken over the last 1 1/2 months, less than 1 percent are "soft" or out of focus because of camera error - it is usually the fault of the operator which I have taken a few of those as well.
For me, the camera is not noisy and is very well built. It feels very good in my hands and as the shutter fires it just sits rock solid in your hand - it feels better than the 10D or 40D. My wife loves using the camera too, her hands are smaller than the average adult female, but the handling of the camera body even with the 70-200mm 2.8 L lens for her was very comfortable. However, after awhile the weight of this combo gets to be too much for her, but with the 24-105mm 4.0 L lens - she can shoot all day long.
I can go on and on - the Con? Just one for me, auto-focus in video mode would be great, but after a while, I am sure I'll get used to the manual focus from the "good-old-days", but wait, I guess manual focus is not all that bad because you can zoom in on the fly with the Live-View display and get it really sharp - practice, practice, practice.
Have fun shooting, you'll love it - the Canon 5D Mark II will improve your game, it did mine!!
Pros: good battery life, quiet, Quick Start-up time, excellent image quality, Superior build quality, Bright LCD, Solid Operation, easy to use
Cons: no video auto-focus
I would recommend this to a friend!
Written by a customer while visiting usa.canon.com