Shadowplay Photography

Last week (actually I’ve been sitting on this post for about a month now), I was lucky enough to snag one of the few Canon 5D Mark II’s floating around. Even three months after its initial release the supply is still quite scarce. Even spare batteries are out of stock everywhere (those that do show it being in-stock are marking up the price as much as double the list).

DPReview recently posted their extensive review of all the camera’s functions and features. So if you’re looking for a feature run down, check that out (if you haven’t already). These are my first impressions after playing with it this week.

Feel

After using the 5D Mark I for three years, the Mark II feels very familiar in hand. While no where near as heavy and bulky as the 1 Series, the Mark II definitely feels more solid than the 50D and lower end cameras. Canon advertised improved weather sealing over the Mark I, but as has been reported over at Luminous-Landscape and other places, there seems to have been an alarming number of cameras failing due to moisture exposure. This is a bit disappointing, as I will now take fewer risks with my camera in dubious weather.

I was able to buy a BG-E6 battery grip, but I’ve only got the one battery that came with the camera in it. For now that’s okay, I wanted the grip more for handling purposes anyway. I like to shoot in portrait orientation a lot so the additional controls are very handy for me.

I did need to order a new L bracket for this camera, since they changed the shape ever so slightly. I ordered the Really Right Stuff, BGE6-L. I’ve used both RRS and Kirk plates and both deliver quality products, but the RRS plates feature the really nice addition of a fiducial mark on the back of the plate that helps to center the camera on the ball head in either horizontal or portrait mode.

New Features That I Like

There are quite a few new items to explore even though they are subtle additions. The first, that is anything but subtle, is the gorgeous 3″ LCD on the back. Not only is the LCD 1/2″ bigger, it sports a much higher resolution than the Mark I. Normally I ignore manufacturers when they push spec upgrades like this, but in this case, the difference is like night and day. All of the menus and playback are much smoother, crisper.

Another feature, that has been seen recently in the lower end cameras, that I find very useful is the Quick Control Screen. This feature displays the current shooting settings on the rear LCD, and allows them to be changed from there. You say, “when is that ever going to be useful”. Well when I’m out shooting landscapes, or night scenes, or macro, I’ve usually got the camera mounted on a tripod. While on a tripod the top LCD is many times not very convenient. Being able to see and manipulate the shooting settings from the rear LCD is very useful.

Live View is another feature first seen on Canon Point-and-Shoots and lower end dSLR’s. This mode flips the mirror up, and displays on the rear screen a live preview image through the lens. Previously, when new photographers recently upgrading from digital P&S cameras complained about needing to use a view finder I wrote these complaints off as coming from newbies. I felt that this functionality was primitive and unneeded. However, after having now used it, I can say that this feature does infact become useful, especially when working on a tripod. Part of the Live View preview can display a live Histogram. With that there’s no need to ever blow an exposure again. Another handy function is that you can zoom into the scene and check your focus.

Canon has added two additional custom shooting mode settings to the dial. With the Mark I there was only one and that limited its usefulness. these modes allow you to save all your current settings and quickly switch between them. For instance I can set the camera to enable mirror lock-up, and auto exposure bracketing for when I’m shooting HDR’s etc. These modes allow easier access to some of the cameras more buried functionality. Now granted, I wish Canon would stop being stubborn, and give us a dedicated button for mirror lock-up (like everyone else), but at least this is better than nothing.

Video

Up till now I’ve never gotten into shooting video, concentrating exclusively in still photography. When I heard that the Mark II would be able to shoot 1080p HD video, I thought “that’ll be cool to play with”. Before the release of the camera I went to the launch event at B&H. At the event the camera’s new features, image quality, etc. were gone over. WHen we got to the video discussion we learned that the camera’s video capabilities, while impressive from a quality standpoint, were crippled by the lack of control over the apeture. Everybody who was so interested in the camera for the video use two minutes earlier imediately deflated.

Well, several months later (June ’09) Canon did something that I would have bet large sums of money against, they released a firmware update to allow full manual control of exposure during video capture. At this point I became interested again. I loaded the new firmware (quite an easy operation) and started playing. Based on suggestions from experienced video folks I purchased an external microphone, a Sennheiser MKE400. This mic conveiniently slips into the hotshoe on top of the camera and plugs into the external mic socket on the side of the camera. It makes a huge difference in sound quality over the on-board mic.

Closing Thoughts

Due to work and personnel constraints I’ve not yet been able to shoot with this camera as much as I would like. From what little I have done so far this is a worthy successor to the original 5D. When I’m able to shoot more, I will update this post with additional comments as they hit me.