Canon 5D mk II official owners/users thread, anything related to the 5D2

Laudrup said:
I've not got a 5D Mk II but was curious if anyone uses a 85mm f/1.2 II with it and what they think? Was toying with the idea of trading in some gear for both these pieces of kit.
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Hi Laudrup, I've got this combi. Shots when the focus is ok are lovely but full frame plus the f1.2 aperture make focussing tough. I also get very strong purple fringing with this lens which is putting me off a bit. If you have any specific questions let me know (PM best) and I'll do my best to answer them.

Ian
 
David, press the ISO button and scroll to A, you really are better with it turned off though.....it's sadly lacking in usefulness :(
Page 58 of the manual deals with it.

Nikon seem to understand how to make the feature worthwhile :bang:
 
This is a camera that I have been toying with buying for a long time. I have a 1ds mk2 and have been very very pleased with it and will keep it as I have done with all my past cameras. A question or two I would like to ask. When you take the camera out of the box, have many of you been happy shooting with "factory" settings? I always shoot RAW so I suppose that allows me to have more fine adjustment in post processing. Finally, although I do not intend to get heavy into video, where can I find a good intro to using the 5dmk2 for absolute beginners?

Hope to stay with you guys for many moons to come!!!
 
digitalfailure said:
David, press the ISO button and scroll to A, you really are better with it turned off though.....it's sadly lacking in usefulness :(
Page 58 of the manual deals with it.

Nikon seem to understand how to make the feature worthwhile :bang:
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in manual it sits at 400 if I do that :(

was hoping to be able to control DoF and shutter while the cam makes decisions :(
 
The auto ISO works ok in Av and Tv modes (which are the ones I use 90% of the time) but in M it sadly defaults to 400. It'd be nice if you could set upper and lower limits to the Auto ISO in all shooting modes. It must be an easy firmware fix but for some reason Canon ignores it.
 
Told you it was crap David

Glayva, I've done nothing but turn off a few functions, Highlight priority and auto ISO are the main 2 I nuked, I've not even bothered using the micro adjust for the lenses as it's been "right" out of the box.

Not tried video yet, tried live view once and messed up my shots :D never bothered again.
 
glayva said:
This is a camera that I have been toying with buying for a long time. I have a 1ds mk2 and have been very very pleased with it and will keep it as I have done with all my past cameras. A question or two I would like to ask. When you take the camera out of the box, have many of you been happy shooting with "factory" settings? I always shoot RAW so I suppose that allows me to have more fine adjustment in post processing. Finally, although I do not intend to get heavy into video, where can I find a good intro to using the 5dmk2 for absolute beginners?

Hope to stay with you guys for many moons to come!!!
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I would question if a 5DII is the right camera for you if you are an absolute beginner to be honest. ;)
 
Trixster said:
The auto ISO works ok in Av and Tv modes (which are the ones I use 90% of the time) but in M it sadly defaults to 400. It'd be nice if you could set upper and lower limits to the Auto ISO in all shooting modes. It must be an easy firmware fix but for some reason Canon ignores it.
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Surely the whole point of Manual is that you make the settings yourself. And then they are locked.
 
chilliz said:
I would question if a 5DII is the right camera for you if you are an absolute beginner to be honest. ;)
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I don't agree, it's better to have the camera you can grow into rather than spending 000's of extra pounds on upgrading bodies as your competence grows.
 
HoppyUK said:
Surely the whole point of Manual is that you make the settings yourself. And then they are locked.
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Quite, however I can see benefit from being able to set aperture and shutter speed and let the camera work out the iso within a given range. Ok, it's not Manual but it could have it's uses.
 
chilliz said:
How can you control anything if you let the camera make decisions. :shake:
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HoppyUK said:
Surely the whole point of Manual is that you make the settings yourself. And then they are locked.
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I use it that way a lot when lighting is constant, but indoors in changing light sometimes it'd be handy to have the camera always use f2 and keep the shutter at 1/125 to stop any motion blur then let it cover the exposure. Neither Av or Tv give me the results I want but that mode might (if it existed)
 
Trixster said:
Quite, however I can see benefit from being able to set aperture and shutter speed and let the camera work out the iso within a given range. Ok, it's not Manual but it could have it's uses.
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david1701 said:
I use it that way a lot when lighting is constant, but indoors in changing light sometimes it'd be handy to have the camera always use f2 and keep the shutter at 1/125 to stop any motion blur then let it cover the exposure. Neither Av or Tv give me the results I want but that mode might (if it existed)
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Yes I can see that, some kind of ISO Priority mode, but it's not Manual, by definition.

Personally, I think we've got too many auto modes already - green square, CA, P, Tv, Av, and with +/- compensation on all of them I really don't want another bloody one.

They are all just different ways of doing the same thing anyway. None is fundamentally better than another, and you can get exactly the same combination of shutter pseed, aperture and ISO on all of them.

Simple is beautiful :)
 
aye, I reckon ditch ca for iso whatever I said earlier and jobs a good un

I spend most of my life in the c1 c2 c3 modes with each having dif manual exposures and af points ect
 
Hi All,
I do mainly gig photography, so low light and lots of extremes. Using a 5D1 and serious thinking of upgrading to a 5DII. I would like the MKII because of the better high ISO perormance and the better screen for mor accurate editing!
I do however find a lot of soft shots where the AF hasn't locked on properly, particularly annoying when I am sure I have nailed the shot. Its definitely a low light issue and the camera seems to focus on something else on the subject or nothing in particular. Sometimes it works just fine.....perhaps I am just expecting too much?
I generally use the camera in portrait, single shot, with just the upper AF point to face focus. I am using a 35mm 1.4L and tend to keep in AV mode.
Is the AF system the same in the 5DII? I wondered if any of you use the II I low light and wha your experiences were.

Ta,

Dunc
 
the af is unchanged, the sensor itself is lovely and the screen is to die for but it does miss focus a lot :(

for low light the noise control is astounding but focussing lets it down
 
Duncan.F said:
Hi All,
I do mainly gig photography, so low light and lots of extremes. Using a 5D1 and serious thinking of upgrading to a 5DII. I would like the MKII because of the better high ISO perormance and the better screen for mor accurate editing!
I do however find a lot of soft shots where the AF hasn't locked on properly, particularly annoying when I am sure I have nailed the shot. Its definitely a low light issue and the camera seems to focus on something else on the subject or nothing in particular. Sometimes it works just fine.....perhaps I am just expecting too much?
I generally use the camera in portrait, single shot, with just the upper AF point to face focus. I am using a 35mm 1.4L and tend to keep in AV mode.
Is the AF system the same in the 5DII? I wondered if any of you use the II I low light and wha your experiences were.

Ta,

Dunc
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Use the centre AF point in difficult situations.

Centre AF point is sensitive to both horizontal and vertical lines, while the other points are either one or the other.

With lenses of f/2.8 and lower, the sensitivity of the centre point is doubled.

I'm assuming that the 5D is the same. See handbook. That should sort it.
 
HoppyUK said:
Use the centre AF point in difficult situations.

Centre AF point is sensitive to both horizontal and vertical lines, while the other points are either one or the other.

With lenses of f/2.8 and lower, the sensitivity of the centre point is doubled.

I'm assuming that the 5D is the same. See handbook. That should sort it.
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Hi Hoppy,
Yes it does but I find being so close even with the 35mm I can't get the full length of the subject in, using the centre point. I try an avoid the focus and recompose method but i will give it a go on my next outing. Thanks for the reply!

Dunc
 
Centre point has never let me down yet. I tend to prefer using it anyway so I have control on what I'm focusing on - the spread of 9 points is OK if you have one central subject in the foreground or everything at about the same distance, but anything other than that and you can never be sure what the camera's going to focus on.

For landscapes, I also prefer focus/recompose so I can work out a hyperfocal point for front to back sharpness.

Multi-point AF is like auto-exposure - good in some situations, but an advanced photographer will always need more control. Reading some posts on AF, you'd think people expected modern tech to allow them to press the button and end up with a perfectly-focused shot every time. A bit like only using P mode and expecting the camera to always achieve perfect exposure.

A.
 
Now that Canon has posted firmware v2.0.4 to correct the C1, C2 and C3 issue, I may just go ahead and update my 5D II today (didn't install 2.0.3)..

Anyone used the extra functions yet? If so, any good?

Cheers, Mark
 
I bought my MkII at Focus last week and have had gastric flu and not used it yet.
 
used mine in anger last night for the first time (I bought it yesterday :LOL:)

I shot Daisy Dares You at a gig in a Library. Amazing results at 1600. As for focus, I came from a 40D. My method has always been one shot focus and centre point and recompose. It works for me and I have developed this method through needing to. It nailed several shots last night. I think that the auto-focus is fine. Admittedly I haven't used a 1 series or 7D, but for what do (music and Extreme sports shoots) it fits my needs. You can easily shoot anything with the 5D2 auto focus, but the more advanced cameras do make things easier. I look at it as you have to work a little harder with the 5D2 where as the 1 series does the hard work for you.
 
david1701 said:
the af is unchanged, the sensor itself is lovely and the screen is to die for but it does miss focus a lot :(

for low light the noise control is astounding but focusing lets it down
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In what way does it miss focus a lot? How does the focusing let it down? I'm sorry but I think these concepts are rubbish to be honest - the 5d mk ii has never miss focused for me and it's certainly a lot more reliable than my old 450d which perhaps only hit 70% of the time. Granted, compared to the recent rash of camera bodies the 5dii's focusing system is not cutting edge but for the camera's intended purpose it's absolutely fine. An updated AF in a new iteration would be great but the mark ii's AF is not a problem as it stands. I'd like it to have the AF system of the 7D, indeed I'd like it to have 9 cross-type AF points like the 40d but it doesn't. I'll live with that and I'm perfectly happy to do so!
 
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Duncan.F said:
Hi Hoppy,
Yes it does but I find being so close even with the 35mm I can't get the full length of the subject in, using the centre point. I try an avoid the focus and recompose method but i will give it a go on my next outing. Thanks for the reply!

Dunc
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I see your problem ;) If the outer AF points aren't working reliably for you, it's got to be worth giving the centre point focus-recompose method a go.

It has its drawbacks of course, but TBH they have never been a problem for me and I like the control and reliability it gives, so long as you are aware of the potential pitfalls. I have not had any problem using focus recompose, even in very testing circumstances, and my lenses are only f/4 (Canon L though). I tend to agree with Trixster.

Focus-recompose is a technique that needs a bit of practise. Or maybe it's just a habit I've developed. Basically, if the subject is moving a bit but I need that level of accuracy and control, I will focus-recompose maybe faster than once a second if needs be.

I know that the 5D2's AF is not state of the art but I still find it to be very good indeed. I even used it for some motorsport recently using servo tracking. The circumstances were not very testing but I fully expected it to struggle - it nailed 100%! :D
 
HoppyUK said:
I see your problem ;) If the outer AF points aren't working reliably for you, it's got to be worth giving the centre point focus-recompose method a go.

It has its drawbacks of course, but TBH they have never been a problem for me and I like the control and reliability it gives, so long as you are aware of the potential pitfalls. I have not had any problem using focus recompose, even in very testing circumstances, and my lenses are only f/4 (Canon L though). I tend to agree with Trixster.

Focus-recompose is a technique that needs a bit of practise. Or maybe it's just a habit I've developed. Basically, if the subject is moving a bit but I need that level of accuracy and control, I will focus-recompose maybe faster than once a second if needs be.

I know that the 5D2's AF is not state of the art but I still find it to be very good indeed. I even used it for some motorsport recently using servo tracking. The circumstances were not very testing but I fully expected it to struggle - it nailed 100%! :D
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I'm totally with you on this Richard! Focus-recompose works for me too. Only when you're talking very thin DOF does it seem to become an issue in real-world use for me as you're changing the focus plane to someplace that might fall outside of where you're intending the focus to be. However, for 99% of the time it works a treat!
 
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Trixster said:
In what way does it miss focus a lot? How does the focusing let it down? I'm sorry but I think these concepts are rubbish to be honest - the 5d mk ii has never miss focused for me and it's certainly a lot more reliable than my old 450d which perhaps only hit 70% of the time. Granted, compared to the recent rash of camera bodies the 5dii's focusing system is not cutting edge but for the camera's intended purpose it's absolutely fine. An updated AF in a new iteration would be great but the mark ii's AF is not a problem as it stands. I'd like it to have the AF system of the 7D, indeed I'd like it to have 9 cross-type AF points like the 40d but it doesn't. I'll live with that and I'm perfectly happy to do so!
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poor light, low contrast target, shallow DoF any point but center. During the day its brilliant but it starts to fall off a a long way before anything with 1series AF and theres nowt to do about it.

I wouldn't trade the body for anything else in the price range but AF does let it down sometimes.
 
david1701 said:
poor light, low contrast target, shallow DoF any point but center. During the day its brilliant but it starts to fall off a a long way before anything with 1series AF and theres nowt to do about it.

I wouldn't trade the body for anything else in the price range but AF does let it down sometimes.
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I am amazed at how good the low light focussing is, to be honest. I took a series of shots of my kids doing their homework by table lamp light and cannot think of one that was OOF except where I screwed up. 1 series is better but I am really satisfied with the 5D in low light. It is pretty awful with moving targets - trying to get shots of my daughter on the swing today was a total waste of time - but it isn't designed for this type of shooting so I am not so concerned.
 
I do not have a 5Dmk2.........yet;) but they must be good as they rarely come up for sale S/H.
 
david1701 said:
poor light, low contrast target, shallow DoF any point but center. During the day its brilliant but it starts to fall off a a long way before anything with 1series AF and theres nowt to do about it.

I wouldn't trade the body for anything else in the price range but AF does let it down sometimes.
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Low contrast, poor light, yes, the AF will struggle. But TBH I've been amazed at how good my 5D2's auto-focus actually is (not withstanding servo-tracking - not really given that much of a test).

Playing with my new camera I've pointed it at every subject conceivable and never had a problem with focus-recompose using the centre point. Maybe this is another technique thing in that no matter what subject I point it at there is always something I can find with a bit of decent contrast for it to lock on to - a highlight or some other slightly brighter area that is at the same distance as the main subject. Of course with focus-recompose, it's easy to pick out something suitable.

Focus-recompose rocks :D
 
david1701 said:
poor light, low contrast target, shallow DoF any point but center. During the day its brilliant but it starts to fall off a a long way before anything with 1series AF and theres nowt to do about it.

I wouldn't trade the body for anything else in the price range but AF does let it down sometimes.
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Are you saying don't use the centre point?!

Dunc
 
I do use the center point when either the thing I want is in the center or when I stand a better chance of shooting wide then copping to compose properly

but below f2 focussing and recomposing DOESN'T WORK, works amazingly when you hve the depth of field to take it into account but if I've got enough light to stop down like that then I don't need to use the center point.

I use center point for tracking as its the only focus point that has a hope
 
david1701 said:
I do use the center point when either the thing I want is in the center or when I stand a better chance of shooting wide then copping to compose properly

but below f2 focussing and recomposing DOESN'T WORK, works amazingly when you hve the depth of field to take it into account but if I've got enough light to stop down like that then I don't need to use the center point.

I use center point for tracking as its the only focus point that has a hope
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The focus-recompose thing is not a problem with f/number directly, it is a problem with very shallow depth of field, which is not necessarily quite the same. It also depends on the distance.

I reckon focus-recompose shifts the focusing distance by around 1cm, so you have to be pretty damn close, and working to an extremely high level of accuracy, for that to make a meaningful difference. Basically close portrait head-shots at f/1.4 - that's going to be tricky ;)
 
HoppyUK said:
The focus-recompose thing is not a problem with f/number directly, it is a problem with very shallow depth of field, which is not necessarily quite the same. It also depends on the distance.

I reckon focus-recompose shifts the focusing distance by around 1cm, so you have to be pretty damn close, and working to an extremely high level of accuracy, for that to make a meaningful difference. Basically close portrait head-shots at f/1.4 - that's going to be tricky ;)
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generally its only people I shoot under those conditions, I don't worry about focussing and recomposing on anything far away
 
One of the first shots from my 5D2. Nailed focus on most shots. Really ahppy with results so far.

picture-17.jpg
 
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