I’ve shot about 300 frames with a 5DmkII in both daylight and at night – I felt that I need to point out 2 things that I think 95% of the 5dmkII reviews are missing.

1) Don’t pay attention to the specs or reviews from people who never owned a Canon 5D. I am here to announce that the Auto Focus on the 5DmkII is better than the original Canon 5D, especially on the outside points. Yes, the 5DmkII AF is better than the original 5D’s focus. It’s not as good as the D3 or the D700′s, but it works and it is good enough for me for sure.

The outside AF points are much more usable on the 5DmkII than the original 5D – there’s definitely a lot less hunting for a good focus. In bright light, the outside points lock on very quickly with no problem at all, and even in dark scenes with decent contrast the outside points work nicely as well.

I’ve seen some tests say that the AF is the speed same as the original 5D, but in real world scenarios, the focus on the 5DmkII is slightly faster to lock on than the original 5D on all points.

2) In real world scenarios, the higher ISOs are extremely usable despite pixel peepers pointing out flaw that don’t really matter. Here’s a sample at ISO 3200, 1/160th sec, f2.2. I’m even including a full resolution image that’s pretty much a straight Lightroom conversion from RAW apart from a crop. Here is the full res pixel peepable version – please do not use without permission.

A blacksmith works with iron at Stone Mountain Park in Atlanta, Georgia. It was literally freezing that night… the fast 1/160th shutter speed @ ISO 3200 really helped me avoid camera shake.

My impressions vs the original 5D (after having shot with an original 5D for more than a year):

1) The build quality and the ergonomics are a little bit better. The quality of the plastic and rubber grips just feels better for some reason. I really like that the AF button on the back of the camera has moved further in so that it’s much easier to support the camera and use the AF button on the back at the same time

2) Layout has changed a little bit, will take some slight getting used to… the back light button for the camera settings has moved to the opposite side, there are now 3 custom functions, the on and off switch feels a lot stiffer.

3) AF works better! The outside AF points are actually useful on the 5dmkII, while on the old model, I avoided using them completely. I think the focus is a bit faster as well, with less “hunting” for the right focus.

4) Shutter is a bit quieter… it has a slightly more machine-like noise though.

5) High ISO performance is awesome! I would feel confident using ISO6400 quite often. The first portrait posted below of my friend Ben was shot at f2.8 and a shutter speed of 1/15th in street light in a dark alley. The photo (with a little bit of camera shake) is posted below. The noise characteristics are decent – the D700 has less color noise but the luminance noise on the 5D is relatively low. If the image is well lit, then noise is not bad, however if the image is underexposed, you will see color noise in the shadows above ISO 6400 (in the extended ISOs). I would only use the extended ISOs if I was going to shoot black and white or if I wanted to stylistically degrade an image.

Also, because the camera resolves in 21mp… when viewed at 100% any imperfections are going to be magnified b/c they are twice as obvious as usual. Translation, pixel peepers might be disappointed w/ this camera but prints will come out just fine.

6) I’m not a video guy, but the video mode is pretty awesome, simply because you can use existing lenses and a single system for both stills and relatively short videos. The control over depth of field is impressive, especially when using my 70-200 2.8 IS or 100mm macro lens.

7) Metering seems to be better than on the original 5D.

8) Live view is awesome! You can set white balance real time using live view – very useful… Also the screen resolution on the newer, larger LCD really helps out. Being able to focus in live view is a plus too.

9) The new battery seems to last a long time.

Conclusion – The extra low light performance and video is the real draw for me here – everything else is just icing on the cake. Canon made a ton of improvements on this model. While it’s still not the perfect camera, I am definitely going to get one. A camera to me is a tool, and this new tool allows me to change my shooting style a lot and take previously unattainable photos and videos! ISO 6400 is the new ISO 1600!

I think this camera is worth the money and I can’t wait to try new, creative things with it.

Sample images.

ISO 6400 @ f2.8, 1/15th – some camera shake on this photo

ISO 2000 @ f2.8, 1/160th sec w/ flash – For a full sized photo, click here: http://www.petertsaiphotography.com/samples/peter_tsai_5DmkII_peep_peep_1.jpg

ISO 6400 @ f2.8, 1/60th sec w/ flash – some movement on this photo – For a full sized photo, click here: http://www.petertsaiphotography.com/samples/peter_tsai_5DmkII_peep_peep_2.jpg

Speaking of great gear, I’ve owned the 100mm Macro Lens for a long time and I’m just now starting to fully appreciate it. I haven’t used it too much, because It’s hard to get really sharp macro photos hand holding. However, after getting into Strobist stuff, it’s taken my Macro images to a new level of clarity. Here are a few Macro + Strobist shots I took a few months ago. I know it’s been a while. See if you can guess what they are.

I believe that I only had one strobe up and to the left on all of these shots.

Overall the lens can be summed up as being able to focus very close, producing very sharp images, and having extremely shallow depth of field unless stopped down to F16. I didn’t stop down that much on the following photos because of some dust spots on my sensor :) Camera shake is also an issue when focusing very close with this lens and a tripod is recommended.

here are some examples of GOOD photos.

This is pretty close to minimum focal distance, which is 1.02 ft \ 0.31 m. This photo was taken with a Canon Digital rebel, which has a 1.6x crop on the sensor.

When all went well, I was able to prodce extremely sharp images with the 100mm macro. Below are the images posted next to a 100% crop.
  
Notice the extreme falloff on the corners and edges of this image, but see how sharp the focal point can be.

Again, extremely sharp detail with this image.

I’m happy with this image but note the extremely shallow depth of field even at F9.0. This can be used for a very dramatic effect especially on portraits but I can see it being frustrating when trying to have the whole scene in focus, especially since I usually shoot at F8 on my other lenses.

Another example of a pretty sharp image

And now for some of the challenges with this lens:

I’m quite happy with the results above but truth be told I had to really bracket the focus to get these images. I think the main reason being it’s hard to get the subject in focus because the focal plane is razor thin unless you are shooting at a rediculously high F-stop – which requres a lot of light. Below you will see an example of how the smallest change in position will throw off the focus.

This spider was extremely small – maybe just 1-2 centimeters across. This photo appears sharp on the spider’s head but notice the quick falloff on the legs. This photo was taken at F8.

I probably moved the camera a couple of centimeters here and it threw the whole image out of focus except for the top corner.

I would recommend shooting at 1/200s at F16 with an external flash and either a very sturdy tripod or a monopod when doing macro work with this lens to minimize camera shake and maximize depth of field.

  
Here’s a very average photo – I got a lot like this. The focus on this image was just a little bit off on the crop. The resulting image is no as sharp as the examples above. This was pretty typical.

  
This photo was taken at 1/125s and the spider wasn’t moving that much. I didn’t have a good tripod or monopod at the time so you can see the shake, especially on the crop.

100mm is a pretty long focal distance and since the lens does not have image stabilization, the potential for camera shake is pretty great – especially if you are taking photos of objects that are close to the lens. Even the tiniest movement of the camera will result in a blurry images.

Overall I like this lens. I really like being able to focus very close with it, but am just not used to the challenges. I don’t like having to use a tripod, but if I can consistently get images like these above, it will be worth it. I just got a got a monopod for xmas so I’ll be testing it out over the next few weeks. I also want to get a sturdy tripod. I think it’s pretty much a requirement with any macro work like this.

I’ll probably post a followup review in a few months. UPDATE: 8-10-07 – part 2 of my Canon 100mm 2.8 Macro Review is located here.