Comments on: Canon EOS 5D Mark II: NOT WORTH IT – Save your money!

By: Ben Rockener

Ben Rockener — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 00:10:54 +0000

Ha Ha, you are a idiot. Just the best camera that was ever made, You should just stick to point and shoots, does not sound like you are good at photography….. or just part of the Nikon fanboy club (who post here).

By: mR. nONAC

mR. nONAC — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 20:10:02 +0000

THIS BLOG IS FULL OF SHIT

By: 5 aces down

5 aces down — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 15:22:03 +0000

The settings in menu C.FnIV explained above are in group ’1′ out of the 6 possible groups of settings.
Hope this fixes some of the unexplained out of focus from your 5D II.

By: 5 aces down

5 aces down — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 03:06:18 +0000

I had random issues with focus on my 5D II. It was the same story with any of my ‘L’ lenses and I couldn’t find a pattern until l looked at the instruction manual.
In the menu C.FnIV, setting was at ’1′ which means, when the back button AF-ON is pressed, it cancels the AF from the shutter button. Since my fat thumb is resting over the AF-ON button,I kept having out of focus images. Canon should think of moving that button.To make sure there won’t be other focus issues, I selected a setting ’4′ in the C.FnIV menu whichdisable the AF-ON button.
I also used the micro adjustment in the camera menu for two of my lenses (50mm 1.4, 24-105mm 4.0)
and the focus is spot on.

By: eric

eric — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 05:17:38 +0000

Are we photographers, arguing about brands? Or bitter children of automation, whinging when our investments do not magically reward us with their prompt servitude…
Complaining about autofocus? With this advanced grade of camera? These are not point-and-shoots, folks.
Manual focusing, combined with an understanding of depth-of-field are all you need, to make pictures as sharp as you want. Nikon, Canon, Olympus…Holga…Polaroid, I don’t care, doesn’t matter. The camera isn’t the one taking the pics. No matter how much one spends, this remains an immutable truth.
Learn how to use your tools, your medium, and whatever brand you choose, then try to do something with it. The giant step then will be to say something with that: art, reportage, whatever. Do yourself the favor.

By: Keith

Keith — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 17:02:08 +0000

Fully agree with the above poster. Only two cameras that I have owned have beaten it without a shadow of doubt, both film cameras: 1, the EOS 1, and 2, the Contax G2 with a fistful of CZ prime lenses.

By: Assistor

Assistor — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 14:36:02 +0000

This is laughable. Another militant Nikon fanboy who can’t handle Canon having come out with an imperfect camera that’s still better than his D700, which is an aging, pathetic thing at this point. I’m a full time assistant to commercial shooters and those that shoot with DSLRs (as opposed to using a MF digital setup) pretty much all use Canon, and a lot of them use the 5D MkII. You know how many times I’ve seen a focus or sharpness issue crop up during a shoot? None. Zero. Never. It’s got some problems, sure, but so does every camera. To claim that the 5D MkII is as bad as you have purported it to be is a clear demand to be admitted into the Nikon brandfag hall of fame. You have gone above and beyond to besmirch a quality product. You, sir, suck.

By: Nick

Nick — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 03:04:35 +0000

One word. “Nikon” lover bashing Canon. A true photographer should love camera’s not the Brand.

I sense this in this blog only. I love my 5dii. It’s very sharp with my 24-70 and 70-200 IS II.

I’ll stick with my 5Dii, thanks. Also, there’s hundreds of users that says it’s good. How come you don’t post the users that say it’s good in your blog.

By: frankie

frankie — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 16:39:13 +0000

I agree with you. I think it’s the QA of Canon. I have the 5D Mark II and yes 3/4 pictures I took are out of focus when you look at them 100%. In fact, nowhere was sharp! Believe me I know what I am doing. I even used my old Nikon D70 for comparison. You could easily see the difference in sharpness. I also don’t think micro adjustment is the answer since I have a zoom lens. I wish we could all meet and demonstrate once in for all. But hey I know what I saw, and actually it’s a good thing people don’t believe it is a problem because maybe I could get more money when I am selling it soon. I am just going to do some more tests before giving it up since I am still going to loose some money on it.

By: Keith

Keith — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 11:05:19 +0000

I have had mine a year and shoot with two lenses: 17-40 and 70-200 F/4 IS. In many respects I found the 5d classic to be about perfect in every aspect except the constant dust bunnies and cleaning of the sensor. My upgrade to the mark 2 was to use the sensor clean mode which so far has worked brilliantly. For what I do the camera is fine and I have no issues with focus other than it being too sharp if you have in-camera sharpness turned on. My biggest issue is in grass. When I put an image up in Photoshop any highlight reflecting from grass looks as though it is pixelated from over sharpening until I bring the image up to fill the screen, and then it smoothes out. I get the same from waters reflections. From my experience the need to use a CPL filter with shots that have this kind of reflective light in them is essential (or could it be the enormous amount of mps this camera has and really doesn’t need. 18mps would have been ample and even 16.5 would have been about perfect in my view. I have all camera processing turned off as of now (not that I had any turned on in the first place apart from focus set at 2) and will be carrying out some further tests with this phenomenon. Is the camera worth the money? That depends of course. Whilst the Nikon D700 might perform better or not, Nikon do not have the range of lenses that Canon have, and the L series brand are up there with the likes of Carl Zeis and Leica in my view. You pays your money and you takes your choice as the saying goes.

By: Pedro

Pedro — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 00:42:06 +0000

I have already worked with a 5d and now with a 5d mark 2 for the past 2 years.
My main cumplaint is about the softness of the pictures. Expecially when you take the pictures in horizontal mode, there is a great amount of picture sharpness when comparing to the ones thaken vertical mode.

Another problem i allways have (and several other pro’s i work with), is the e-ttl flash/camera relationship simply does not work. We have to me constantly correcting the flash unit ev stops to compensate both under or higher exposure.

I have never worked with a d700, but i really would like to get my hands on one and try it.

Note that i have taken 10.0000…. or more pictures each with the 5d and the 5d mark 2.

By: Greg

Greg — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 11:47:04 +0000

As a profesional commercial photographer I have left my 5d Mark ii in my bad these days as a backup. It has been the most formidably disappointing purchase from Canon I have ever had. The focusing is horrendous. My 5d out performs it any day autofocus wise which is sad. I mostly use it with the 50mm1.4 and 85mm 1.8 which are sharp lenses on my 5d but a crap shoot with my 5d Mark II. I’ve sent my camera into canon for servicing on this issue twice and both times they said that there indeed was a problem and they “fixed it”. It is aggravating to find no help from them and makes me question my loyalty to the Canon brand. If you are thinking of getting one, you might get lucky and receive one that works. On the other hand your better off with the original 5d or if a new one comes out wait for it.

By: Isabel Corthier

Isabel Corthier — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 01:39:53 +0000

Hi Karel, I completely understand your frustration. I have the same problems.
Did you hear of anyone noticed problems with ETTL flash when you put on a wide angle lens on you markII?
We are four people already who are having this problem…
Please, if you do so, contact me, cause I would like to make a report and go to Canon with this issue.
thanks, isabel

By: Karel Donk

Karel Donk — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 15:59:01 +0000

What you should also check is the accuracy of the autofocus. Take a picture after focusing and view 100% on a computer monitor. Then see if the images are as sharp as the D700.

By: Norwegian

Norwegian — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 11:41:10 +0000

Karel,

I own a 5D Mk II, and have access to a D700 both at the office and through a good friend. After testing 5D Mk II vs. D700 in same light conditions, from dark to bright, my opinion is the D700 is terribly slow in focusing compared to the 5D Mk II. The 5D almost always focuses instantly, in everything from dim desktop lamp light to bright office lights, while the D700 struggles and is quite slow. Not unusable slow, but noticable slower than the 5D Mk II. So I wonder, is there something wrong with your 5D Mk II, or perhaps you haven’t even bothered testing it? Please, answer me honestly.

By: Rob Shaw

Rob Shaw — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 17:28:19 +0000

It is only today that I have become aware of the focus problem on the 5D MkII. I have two of them. This last week I have noticed the focus becoming soft. This body is 16 months old so out of warranty. I spoke with Canon CPS about a repair and they never mentioned anything when I explained the problem I had. I have tested all of my lenses on both camera bodies and they are all ok on the one body but I get soft focus images from the faulty one. If I had read this post before I would have bought Nikon. Like many others on here I had previously used the 5D and I have many L series lenses so a considerable investment to give up. I am sending the camera to Canon tomorrow in the hope they can fix it. After all it did work ok for 16 months.

By: yourt

yourt — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 10:25:58 +0000

I hope you got more than one Nikon D700 foor your bashing quest. Do you own a 5DII? I do, and I mainly use it for concerts…. yep, in the dark, on moving objects; Maybe it’s not the camera that’s lacking but its badass users that call themselves professionals and that probably don’t have the time for reading the manual and getting used to their new gear.

By: Karel Donk

Karel Donk — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 06:40:06 +0000

Yes for the most part they are but not all. I mainly own L lenses but not everyone can afford L lenses. Telling people to buy Zeiss glass should not be the solution for obvious autofocus issues on the 5D2. The issues on the 5D2 should be fixed.

By: gibbygoo

gibbygoo — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 05:29:19 +0000

Donk–

I just took a gander at your last post about Zeiss glass. The price points are in line L glass, for the most part. Your note that “us mere mortals cannot afford Zeiss glass” makes me wonder more than ever–what lenses are in your kit?

By: gibbygoo

gibbygoo — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 05:21:32 +0000

I own a full suite of EOS gear, but my employer owns all Nikon. I am one of those rare birds who really does shoot both systems (FULL systems with top glass) so take my opinion with that in mind. I am a full-time shooter. (Niche magazines.)

There is a lot of fan-boy emotion here, on both sides. Kind of fun to watch.

So here’s my take:
Canon’s 5d2 and 1DsIII “beat” Nikon in color rendition, exposure accuracy and overall IQ, in our experience. Nikon’s D3 has crazy low noise, but the 5D2 and 1DsIII have crazy high resolution. (It’s a wash, with perhaps a slight edge to Nikon.) Nikon’s D700 also trumps the 5DII in autofocus across the board, especially with pro zooms wide open. That is just a plain fact. It DOESN’t trump the 1dIV, however, and neither does the D3s, but that’s another topic for another day.

Something that shocks me about this discussion is how little reference is made to the specific lenses being used. When I shoot the 5d2 with an 851.2, I understand that the AF is going to be glacially slow AND sporadically inaccurate. (Not much different than a D700 with an 85mm 1.4, BTW.) Now, replace that 85 1.2 with a 135 2.0 or 300 2.8 (especially the new one) and it’s a new ball game. Those lenses on that camera (on any eos camera) are lightning fast and accurate. HOWEVER, I’ve calibrated my 35 and 85 primes several times. They are often slow and inaccurate (esp. the 85). Is that a weakness of the 5D2′s antiquated AF system? Partly, but it is also due to how these lenses are being used–WIDE OPEN for portraits (which are in fact moving subjects) with razor thin DOF.

If a combination of accurate focus, focus speed and sharp-wide open pro-model zooms are most important to you, it’s Nikon all the way. If you are more into IQ, creative work with fast primes’ shallow DOF and/or high-end sports work with a 1DIV + long prime combo, say hello to Canon. Nikon isn’t bad at the stuff that Canon excels at, and vice versa, except for the 5D2 AF system with most zooms and fast wide-to-medium focal length primes.

Hell, I’ll catalog it for you:
14 2.8L Fine, just like the Nikon, except the Mark II version is sharper by a hair
24 1.4L Mark 1: sucks, but OK speed
35 1.4L OK after a successful calibration, still kind of slow
50 1.2L SUCKS anywhere near the MFD, and slow, but faster than the next one…
85 1.2L Totally sucks at AF. Slow as molasses. Too bad cuz IQ is superb
100 2.8L Faster than 85, AND it’s a macro! Whatever. Still sucks.
135 2.0 Kicks ass! Super fast and accurate on my 5D2 w/o calibration
70-200 2.8L II Not impressed. It’s inconsistent enough to be an issue.
300 2.8L II Fantastic. Same as 135.

I won’t do the same for Nikon here, but I’ll tell you this: A D3s mated with a 24-70G is the best all-around DSLR you could dream of. Paired with the new 70-200, it truly is the flagship of DSLRs for any working pro not caged into field sports.

….I guess if the whole point of this thread is that the OP thinks the 5D2′s AF system sucks in some particular way, well, he’s right. His concerns are valid. I share them. Unfortunately, he didn’t articulate his concerns in a rational way. He seems to lack the verbal temperament to express his frustration in a way that would actually spur rational conversation. Sorry Donk. I’m only jabbing at you for style points, not the content of what you’re saying. The juvenile response to the first followup comment (which had an obvious and quite forgivable type-o) is a good indicator of where this discussion was destined to go.

One final reason I shoot the 5D2–video. But of course that has no bearing here. It only matters to you if it matters to you. Period. It just so happens that I am tasked with providing a fair amount of multimedia content, specifically pick-up shots for subjects that are mostly captured with our dedicated camcorder rigs.

This is the longest post I have ever written. Sorry.

By: Karel Donk

Karel Donk — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 02:42:17 +0000

A lot of pulitzer prize winning pros rely every day on autofocus. If it doesn’t work well, that’s a disadvantage and a problem. And I know that Zeiss glass is awesome especially for manual focussing. But us mere mortals cannot afford Zeiss glass. So we want our autofocus to work.

By: Canon 5D Mk2

Canon 5D Mk2 — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 15:05:02 +0000

Karel, your blog post is pathetic… Do you really call yourself a photographer and able to do reviews if you rely so much on focus and autofocus?! I use Zeiss glasses on my Canon 5DMk2. Yeah, ZEISS glasses, have you ever used those? They are leagues above your Canon/Nikon AF lenses but i think you wont be able to use them since NONE ZEISS LENSES HAVE AUTOFOCUS! They’re all manual focus. So my question is, do you really think that professionals who use Arri-PL, Zeiss and Leica manual focus only glasses on their 5DMk2 would be pissed at the focus performance of the 5DMk2? Hah! Time to go learn about professional photography and the pro techniques. My point is, if you’re a noob, you shouldnt do reviews… And my message to those who were mislead by this review, go check other review sites, look at the signal-to-ratio noise of the 5DMk2, and then decide. Dont base your purchase decision on this… blog…

By: Juan Dela Cruz

Juan Dela Cruz — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 21:48:23 +0000

@ adams – how much is the package?

By: Russell Spencer

Russell Spencer — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 20:36:33 +0000

My 5DMK II has been sent to Canon 5 times from 2009 till today when it came back every time it goes back to being soft. They will not replace it after 30 years of Canon Cameras
(F-1, EF, AE1 x2, AT1, AE1 Program, T80, T90 x2, EOS 650, EOS 620, EOS 10D, EOS 20D and EOS 5D Mark II) My next camera will be a Nikon.

By: al

al — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 21:47:54 +0000

What a relief its been to find this site, I’ve been losing my mind for the last 4 months since upgrading from a 550D to a 5Dmii. My 550 was tack shap, unbelieveably so. Im not a pro but not a noob either, over 10 years with slr’s going back to old Pentax film models.

The images arent back or front focusing, they’re just soft, with L lenses? The same lenses that blew my mind on the 550D, it just didnt make sense.

I was torn between this and a 7D, Im sick I didnt get the 7D.
I can get sharper shots with an old ixus than with a 3 grand setup, no excuses Canon, unaceptable.

I’ll be onto Canon to get this sorted in the morning,

By: Bombelicious

Bombelicious — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 18:37:51 +0000

lolzzz!

By: adams

adams — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 19:22:22 +0000

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1 (LC-E6) Battery Charger
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By: Karel Donk's Blog » Blog Archive » Canon EOS 5D Mark II – A Piece of Shit

Sat, 11 Jun 2011 00:24:03 +0000

[...] Canon EOS 5D Mark II: NOT WORTH IT - Save your money! [...]

By: shannon daly

shannon daly — Mon, 23 May 2011 00:15:10 +0000

I really am seeing what you are saying.. I actually feel like my 5d classic has much better focus, and seems to be a much sharper camera.

Realizing that I am not as deep into the technology aspect.. I really love a sharp image.. And I find that a lot of my images are really soft.. And yeah 3500 for the kit two months ago is a lot of loot..

However, I will say. When my camera has the perfect focus, and everything is spot on… I love that image.. I love that clarity. I love everything about.. If I can just get it to do it all the time.. I would be stoked.

I understand some of it is probably user error or my eyes not be as sharp as they once were. But a lot of the times there is no excuse for a soft camera at all.

So I might get flamed.. I might not.. This is just a very non technical opinion. Just an opinion of someone who has put a lot of money into this, and expect something better than soft.

By: Mark

Mark — Sun, 22 May 2011 03:45:36 +0000

I’m a colorist then used a Canon 5D MKII for video after watching so many youtube clips claiming the camera is great in video mode. I guess if there are other colorists reading, they will feel the same frustrations as me.

Dear God it sucks VERY VERY at video mode. It’s not capable to record colors in their proper hue values. You’d expect the camera to record yellow as yellow and green as green right? Wrong, almost 4 years after it went to production, it never managed until the Technicolor Cinestyle Profile which came out recently.

All other cameras I used, include cheap mobile phone cameras were able to record yellow as yellow and green as green, of course the cheapest cell phone cameras also had a certain degree of hue shifts, but any $50 cell phone were able to record colors more accurately than the Canon 5D MKII.

Of course I thought it was incorrect WB or just me, being a colorist, had a unreasonable demand on the colors. Then Technicolor Cinestyle Profile finally fixed it … a bit too late …

So the Canon 5D MKII is not capable to record yellow as yellow and green as green out of the factory, which defeats the purpose serving as a “camera”.

It’s a utter piece of junk.

I switch to Panasonic GH1 / GH2, and yes, these cameras are able to record colors very accurately.