October 14, 2008
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“Reviews” of the 5D mk2
Canon’s marketing department is brilliant. They get pre-production cameras into the hands of pros in the industry who always seem to rave about the new piece of equipment. So far we have 2-3 “reviews” from some professional photographers around the world:
Metro Photo:
http://www.mymetrophoto.com/2008/10/must-see-metrophotos-review-of-new.html
Steve and Jen Bebb:
http://bebbblog.com/index.php?link=94
Vincent Laforet:
http://blog.vincentlaforet.com/2008/09/20/something-very-interesting-is-comingboth-to-this-blog-and-to-our-industry/#more-1085
I say “review” in quotes because all the pros are definitely saying very clearly “we’re no technical junkies, this is not a technical review, just an initial *reaction* to the camera after shooting with it for ONE shoot…” And if you read the reviews, they are definitely just “reactions”, indeed, consisting of not much more than “we really love this camera, we really can’t wait to buy one!!!”
But anyway, SO FAR:
1.) It is unanimous that the image quality is insanely good and that the high ISO performance is again world-class. I cannot stress a couple points enough: The 100% view, at high ISO’s, is about equal to Nikon’s FX sensor in the D700 and D3. So in reality, the high ISO performance is nothing new. But also, keep in mind that you’re at 21 megapixels, not 12, so with the down-sampling of images from 21 to a comparable 12, or less, you WILL get another bit of edge in the category of low noise. It might give you as much as a 1-stop advantage over the Nikon sensors.
So to simplify- combination of *equal* noise performance at *greater* resolution can be translated to *greater* noise performance at *equal* resolution. But we’re already talking about clean ISO 6400, and seriously, I lost count when ISO 3200 got clean on my D300!
2.) No mention of the autofocus points, or any issues with autofocus. One can only hope that no news is good news, and that most pros will be able to shoot the 5D mk2 without any focusing frustrations. (Oh wait, there WAS that other link I posted with sample images, where the guy had to defend a couple blurry shots… But the Bebb review also had some super-shallow DOF shots, and their images were all pretty accurately focused, (and some subjects were off-center!) …so like I said, one can only hope! T’would be folly to think the 5D mk2 can catch the D700 for speed and accuracy, but I’m just hoping that the 5D mk2 will make a fine tool for those who need 21 megapixels…
Either way I’m done posting my opinion on this for a while. We’ve got a month or two before the 5D mk2 hits the shelves. And I’ve got a LOT of work to catch up on, and new events to shoot. (And the D700 is begging to be rented!)
So unless there are any other major announcements between now and christmas…. peace OUT Napoleon!
=Matt=
Comments (3)
When I was looking at the full size sample shots that guy posted, I got the impression that Canon is using some really aggressive noise reduction. Everything looked smoothed out at the cost of ultra fine detail. Of course, because of the huge megapixel count, this doesn’t really matter that much. It does mark an interesting departure though from what they were doing with the 1D Mark III.
@Lexybeast - Hey Alex, I kinda agree about the sensor and micro-fine image detail. There is something different about it compared to all the images I’ve seen from the original 5D, the 1D mk3, etc…
Actually there is some VERY interesting “insider” information you may be interested in here, concerning the sensor and it’s engineers:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1021&message=29377445
As you may or may not know, Jeff-C is one of the “official leaks” in the industry, at least for Nikon… I believe he (and / or Thom Hogan) spoke some months ago about how Nikon had some DRASTIC changes in their upper management in order to get FX and their current lineup of killer bodies to fruition. I remember someone saying something about literally kicking out the old traditional guys and letting some new, cutting edge “kids” take the wheel and dictate Nikon’s flagships’ direction… Perhaps it is time for Canon to clean house and fire some management, or maybe just put a stop to any strangle-hold that marketing might have on engineering…
=Matt=
Ah yes, I’ve seen that article you mentioned. It lends interesting credence to the whole ‘Canons are designed by engineers, Nikons are designed by photographers’ saying. I wonder how much the engineers are held back so much as they are held in check! That being said, Canon could probably use some management shake up, since they got a little bit too used to being on top. I don’t foresee this as likely though, at least not for a couple years.