Miles Collins

The EOS 5D Mark Two

It’s official, Canon have unveiled their latest offering, the prosumer DSLR camera the Canon EOS 5D Mark 2. After much speculation the 5D will be released at the end of November and by all acounts it is set to be a stunner.

Canon have had it rough recently, Nikon have produced some excellent camera bodies and lenses recently and many have been waiting for Canon to respond. Well, it looks like they have. The original 5D won many plaudits by pros and serious amateurs alike with its full frame sensor and stunning picture quality making it the camera of choice for many wedding and landscape photographers.

So what’s changed? Well they’ve cranked the newly designed CMOS sensor up from 12.1 million megapixels to 21.1 million with an ISO sensitivity range from 100-6400 expandable to 50, 12,800 and 25,600 combined with a new Digic 1V processor. The pixel size of 6.4 microns is smaller than the original 5D but the same as the flagship model the EOS 1DS Mark 111 which, despite the reduction in size has been redisigned to capture light and lower image noise across the ISO range.

The newly designed integrated cleaning system has been added as well as an improved weather sealed body,there is a new Creative Auto mode and the menu system has been changed to offer Quick Control settings for ease of use. An improved battery and new battery grip will be released along with a new WI-FI adaptor. The new 5D will feature Live View which will be accessed by a seperate Live View button and, more importantly house Canon’s latest technology; video recording.

Last year the Nikon D90 was released with great reviews, it was the first camera to offer video capture of up to five minutes of 720p High Definition. Canon have gone one better with the new 5D with up to twelve minutes of 1080p High Definition recording. This now makes the camera a potential serious player in the press photography and multimedia business and coupled with its ability to record sound will make it ideal for presentations where realtime sound can be added to still photographs.

I am looking forward to this, the original 5D is widely recognised as one of the best digital cameras ever made and the image quality of this latest model will be under scrutiny. At first glance I reckon Canon have come up trumps once again. Expect to pay around £2,200.00 for the body only or £3,050.00 for the 24-105mm kit lens.