Tag: canon 5d highlight tone priority
Canon 5D Mark II, Take II
by AFS on Jan.07, 2009, under cameras
After some frustration and disappointment with the first one, I got a different 5D2 body a couple days ago, and strangely, the image quality is much improved over the first one – I think it may now rival my 1Ds3 image quality in some respects – including sharpness. Though the 1Ds3 images without a doubt still have more life and punch to them. They are just better, even with the same exact lenses. I will know more once I have done another proper shoot with models (next week.) Secondly, this newer body does not introduce banding when the Highlight Tone Priority is activated, which is good because I think HTP can really make some images have a beautiful, creamy quality in the highlights. Thirdly, the auto-focus seems to be better on this new one. Today I conduced a test in a similar situation to the model shoot posted below. I had a model standing in the same location with overcast daylight coming in the window at a similar light level, and the camera did much better at finding focus using the outer focus point. The First 5D2 got around 50% in focus images, and the test I did today got around 65% in focus. [This total was edited Jan 10, 2009] (I used the 85 1.8 lens, as it performed the best in terms of AF on the original 5D2 body.) Importantly, the camera was not as likely to illuminate the in-focus indicator when the camera had not achieved focused. This is still not nearly as good was what I get with the 1Ds3 in the same conditions using outer it’s AF points, but it’s not bad, and probably better than the 5D Mark I.
In any case, so far so good with the newer body, I am much relieved. Still, I wonder how many other people are going around with sub-par $3000 Mark IIs now…
For the record, they each have the same firmware version (1.0.6) and the serial numbers are:
(the bad one – bought sometime in Nov.)
Camera Body No. 0220105xxx
(the better one – bought Jan 5)
Camera Body No. 0320212xxx
Looks like Firmware 1.0.7 was just released tonight. We’ll see if that offers further improvement…
P.S. B+H finally had the S precision focusing screens today, and I got one for the 5D2, and it really makes a big difference. Leaves you with no doubt as to exactly what is and what is not in focus.
P.P.S. Going forward I intend to get back to talking more about photography and lighting and less about busted cameras…
Addendum 1/9/09
I recently read about the 5D2’s new sensor self-cleaning unit that includes a fluorine coating on the low-pass filter for better dust resistance. Perhaps this is responsible for taking some of the life out of the images as compared to the 1Ds3…
