I used to be on the Pro forum there all the time. I had fear and was in awe of some of the guys there at the time. If I ever posted a pic it had to be stellar. Then one day on the forum one guy bragged about how he shot 2100 jpegs in 1 day with a Canikon whatever. He posted a pic and said “here’s the best” and it was some out of focus dog chasing a ball or some shit. Yeah, that’s something to really to be proud of.

Being banned from DPreview should in your case should be considered a badge of honor. Because now it’s chock full of fan boys and press release regurgitators. The pros I respected have left.

I still go there, but usually only on the Kodak SLR forum. Because my aging Kodak with no AA filter can still whip the snot of any Canon 5D or 5D MkII in terms of true sharpness.

Back to Canon – yeah people are touchy. Serious shooters spent good money on a camera and basically got fucked. People are kind of touchy that way.

Well a friend sent me to your blog to read about he Canon fun. I’ll have to cruise around and see what else you have or what other hornet’s nest you have prodded.

I can’t speak to the Canon 5DMII yet, but to Nikon, I can speak loads. For the last 25 years I have only ever used Nikon products. Having begun with film and then DSLR, I have never had problems with Nikon image quality. The problems are with Nikon. I have owned at least a dozen Nikons plus the various high end lenses. Fabulous images. I take very good are of my equipment. Individually cased equipment in larger pro-case. In the last 5 years, my Nikon D was in service 4 times. I don’t mind that they keep it for about 2 months but I do mind that a camera that should be a Bugatti is acting like a Hyundai. I’ve paid too much for repairs to justify continued faith in Nikon. At least I have the blessing to be in the LA area where I can just drive my equipment in and pick up. Feel sorry for mail repairs. This last & 5th time in as many years was too much. I felt a bit ripped-off.

It is a tremendous expense in this crap economy but I decided to take the plunge and try Canon. I had to be completely frustrated since it means building my equipment from almost scratch. Took the plunge and just bought the 5DMII Friday. Now I have to save for the Canon 200mm F/2 IS L lens followed by additions one by one.

What I’m trying to say is that NIKON SUCKS. Admittedly, I am very frustrated, having invested a fortune. I’m not at the point of putting all things Nikon on Ebay yet. In fact, I’ve never sold my old equipment because I have such sentimental attachments. I don’t know what to expect from my Canon so I’m cautiously optimistic. I did talk to many pro’s before my selection and everyone recommended the same Canon for my $$.

I am deeply disappointed, I should have bought a nikon d700.

I paid nearly 5000 euros to the 5d2 and lenses, but, surely I will continue to shoot with the Pentax k20d more often then with canon 5d2.

I should have read this post before buying… Now I do not know what to do …

I’ve laughed a lot reading your review about 5D2.

You are not right, and I’m not losing my time explaining why.

If you want to compare noise, compare like for like. Don’t blow up the 5D Mark II picture to 100% and then compare it with a Nikon D700, do it fairly. Remember the D700 is only 12 mega pixels so compare it with the 5D Mark II at 50% resolution and then eat your words – there is absolutely no competition; the Canon blows the cheaper Nikon out of the water.

Frankly I am getting completely fed up with this continual sour grapes from the Nikon camp and they ought to move on. Oh yes – that comparison with the old 5D. If anyone has any doubts about how much better the picture quality of the 5D Mark II is than the original 5D, I am about to trade my old spare 5D in for a second mark two as the difference in a low lit church is so obvious I am afraid my customers will notice if I mix the two. Admittedly I don’t shoot above 2500 ISO, but the original 5D can’t get close to that anyway.

Do you want a prize? We all have the internet. We all use it for finding information. We all realize there are shortcomings to the 5D MkII. Why do you write in such a self-serving, pig-headed manner? I don’t care WHEN you discovered the weaknesses, the readers are just here for the facts.

Sorry for contesting your writing style, but it really puts me off and I needed to voice my frustration.

Good luck and have fun!

I wish I could slam just this blog for being anti-Canon, buy a 5DmrkII and be happy. BELIEVE me, I do.

I’m one of those wackos who swears Canons produce images with a “certain something” Nikon’s just lack. I would love to use a Canon, but everything I shoot moves so *reliable* AF performance is 100% non-negotiable. I don’t shoot from the stands with a giant tele lens, so the crop factor on the 1D’s capable of handling action keeps me from going that route.

Basically, as much as I’d rather be shooting with a Canon, I’m “stuck” with Nikon because they offer a FF camera that can actually focus. Anyone who says otherwise has never tried to capture an fast moving, erratically tracking subject with a Canon. Talk about an exercise in frustration (and futility)!

I’ve been waiting (and waiting) for Canon’s AF to evolve for awhile now. Finally got so desperate that I decided to simply ignore the “hype” about the 5DmrkII’s poor performance in this area. Today I sent my new Canon back, thoroughly disappointed.

It is worth noting that the images I shot of static subjects are stunning. It almost hurts to look at them compared to what comes out of my Nikon (D700). But it’s the shots of moving subjects (even slow-moving, easy to track ones) that really hurt. So many great shots completely ruined by soft or complete lack of focus. Believe what you read: when it comes to moving targets, the 5DmrkII’s hit rate truly is abysmal. Even for Canon lovers.

Can you honestly say which is better than the other?
Never mind the resolving power, etc, etc.

I would say, if the autofocus is almost as good as my old 40, 5dII is just worth it.
The canon has great line up of lenses, the holy trinity for example, 85 1.2, 135 2.0, 50 1.2.
Nikon’s mount doesn’t appear to be able to do the 85 1.2 due to physical limitation (size of the mount).

I see the 5d as a good bargain, compared to camera d3x (almost 3 times the cost).

I bought the Mk II, expecting it to be the camera of my dreams. I’ve been using it for a couple of months, and noticed that there were a lot of out-of-focus shots, but I blamed a lot of it on shallow DOF with my f/1.4 lens or on subject motion; I even thought it might have been the lens. It NEVER occurred to me that it might be the camera body.

But last week I did a major portrait shoot with the works: pro studio, hair, makeup, the lot. I did *everything* I could to minimise blur from all sources – stopped-down aperture, great studio light, fast shutter speed, etc. etc… and the results were very disappointing.

Of the 800+ 21MP RAW images I took, less than 50 were perfectly sharp; and three quarters of the images are so soft they’re almost useless. The sharp images are incredible – zooming in on a head-and-shoulders shot I can make out the pores on the subjects’ flawless skin, and even flecks of makeup. But the focus was too hit-and-miss to get this result with any consistency.

Canon, honestly: WTF?

- you don’t know how to use your equipment.

- error 99′s are a normal feature.

- you got an error 99 as you didn’t use your camera properly.

- Nikon have errors as well, so it’s normal for Canon to have them.

- there is nothing wrong with the auto focusing system, it’s your fault.

- quality control costs money.

- you’re a loser.

- it’s normal to recalibrate your lenses, even from a “L” range lens.

- lens hood are additional accessory and should be sold separately.

you wrote:

“My Nikon has so many focus points it doesn’t know what to do. So while all cameras have there problems I personally feel you miss the point of Canons job of doing everything good and nothing perfect except taking stellar images in the right hands. One has only to do a search for images taken with the 5DM2 to see! Rest assured the Canon 5D Mark ll is backordered in allot of places.”

you can’t be serious, the reason the d300, d700. d3x and d3 has 51 focus points is that you get more areas in focus, this is why journalists and sport photographers are joining Nikon. The Nikon 51 point focusing is anything but a retarded piece of crap as you describe it to be, if anything Canon’s focusing system is. You say “the 5D Mark II is backordered in allot of places”, i wonder how many returns they received and are sent back to canon.

@ ADR

you wrote:

“1d Mark III, PLUS there was a design problem with the mirrorbox which caused the cameras to

Error 99 in cold weather”Canon’s have error 99′s no matter the weather or situation, it’s a “normal” feature for Canon users. I feel your sorrow.

I own a 1d Mark III and after suffering through all the problems with that camera I thought Canon would have learned something when they released the 5d Mark II. Boy was I ever wrong. I purchased one and am appalled at what they are shipping out.

If you are upgrading from an xxxD series body you’ll probably be in seventh heaven. But if you are coming from any of the higher end bodies to the 5d Mark II, you’ll find that you really aren’t getting a lot for the nearly 3 grand price tag. Canon very clearly stated that the 5d Mark II sensor and processor were going to be better than what is in the 1ds Mark III, which was the basis for many people buying the camera. Their claim simply does not stand up to real-world testing. The damn thing is overly NOISY at ISO 100 and 200 – I’ve seen this myself. There have been many reports of hot pixels right out of the box, banding, excessive noise, creaky CF doors, soft photos, error 30′s and 72′s, parts falling off or missing from inside the mirrorboxes, purple blotching, and we already know about the black dot problem that they already had to deal with.

The people that are in denial about the 5d2 problems either don’t own one, or if they do they haven’t used it much, or they are Canon apologist. We went through the same thing with the 1d Mark III’s when everyone told us that the camera was fine and it was all our faults because we were too dumb to figure out how to work the camera. Even Canon wouldn’t admit anything until Rob Galbraith stepped up and blew the whistle on them. Funny thing how now, a year and a half later, Canon has admitted that there were not one but TWO AF design problems with the 1d Mark III, PLUS there was a design problem with the mirrorbox which caused the cameras to Error 99 in cold weather. As more 5d Mark II’s are shipped and more photos are inspected, more people will begin to see what we are talking about.

If Nikon comes out with a d700-type body with a 20+ mp sensor, there will be a giant sucking sound as they slurp up a ton more of Canon’s market share.

thank u all

the most important factors are performance and image quality. The 40d and 50d is nothing compared to the d300, d700 or d90, 50d still uses out of date focusing technology, and the high iso’s of the 50d and 40d don’t even compare to the d90 and d300, so keep dreaming

you’re a typical Canon apologist, you always blame the user for Canon’s own failings. I doubt the 40d or 50d can compare to the d700, d300 or even the d90, i know you’re going to say that “Canon are going to release the 500d which can HD shoot videos at 1080p”, so what!! true camera enthusiasts don’t even care about videos in dslr’s, only gadget freaks who don’t know any better.

what attracted me to the d90 is the fact it borrows many features from the d300 and d3 for less money, and the most import factors are performance and image quality. The 40d and 50d is nothing compared to the d300, d700 or d90, 50d still uses out of date focusing technology, and the high iso’s of the 50d and 40d don’t even compare to the d90 and d300, so keep dreaming.

From what I have seen, the 5D Mark II autofocus is as bad, and probably worse compared to the original 5D. Please read the reviews discussed on this link:
http://blog.kareldonk.com/canon-eos-5d-mark-ii-not-worth-it-save-your-money/

Also check the comments there.

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