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Canon EOS 5D MkII FAQ

Last updated: Sunday, 28-September-2008

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Contents

Accessories

Will the BG-E6 grip increase the burst rate from 3.9 frames per second?
No, it will not. The burst rate is the same whether using the optional grip or not.

I know the batteries and grip are different from the 5D. What about the focusing screens?
The same assortment of screens is available but they are a different size and shape from the original model so you will need to buy new ones for the 5D MkII. The DP Review preview says they were able to fit the 5D-style Ee-* screens into the 5D MkII but Canon said metering might be affected.

  • Eg-A Standard Precision Matte
      - the supplied focusing screen, bright and with a normal matte
     
  • Eg-D Precision Matte with grid
      - a more matte finish easier manual focusing also includes a grid pattern
     
  • Eg-S Super Precision Matte
      - even more matte but obviously slightly darker, optimized for F2.8 and faster lenses

Does the BG-E6 grip take AA batteries?
Yes, it can use 6 AA batteries instead of the two LP-E6 batteries.

References
Canon Japan: High-Performance System Enhancements

Autofocus

Are all 9 points cross-type sensors?
No. Only the center focus point is cross-type. The other 8 user-selectable points are not. There has been some confusion about this since the specs on the Canon USA site said all 9 points are cross-type but we have confirmation from Andy Westlake at DPReview--who has tested himself--that only the center point is cross-type. Rob Galbraith's preview has a quotation from Chuck Westfall of Canon USA that confirms this:

Somewhat surprisingly, Canon has not adopted the 40D/50D's AF system which, on paper, is superior, given that all nine of its AF points are cross-type. Canon USA's Westfall says the reason for that is the "6 Assist AF points plus center point were deemed to provide a higher level of performance for AI Servo AF than the center point-only arrangement of the [40D and] 50D." Given that we've previously found the overall autofocus performance of the 5D to be decent, while the 40D's tracking capability has been erratic at best, Canon has likely chosen the better of the two AF systems for the 5D Mark II.

References
Rob Galbraith's Canon EOS 5D Mark II Preview

DP Review Forums: Andy Westlake's comments about testing the autofocus

Availability and price

When can I get one?
The official statement from Canon is availability in the United States by the end of November. Dealers are saying the same thing at this point. ScottyNV says his dealer in Vancouver suggested that the camera might be available as soon as early October. Ghozer's dealer (he's in San Diego, California) tells him to expect the camera in late October.

How much will it cost?
The suggested retail price is US$2699 for the body only and US$3499 for the camera with the 24-105 f4 L lens. This represents a savings of about US$200 over purchasing the lens separately.

Battery

What kind of battery does the 5D MkII use?
The 5D MkII uses a new battery: the LP-E6. The 5D MkII cannot use older batteries like the BP-511A or similar.

What are the advantages of the new battery?
The LP-E6 provides more power than the BP-511A (1800 mAh vs. 1390 mAh). The camera can do a better job estimating remaining battery life (apparently accurate to within 1% of remaining charge) plus the camera can keep track of up to 6 batteries, letting you know how much charge is left, how many shots have been taken with that battery since the last recharge, and how old the battery is based on how well it is taking a charge so that you know when it will be time to replace the batteries. Lithium Ion batteries generally have a lifetime of about 500 charge cycles but being able to track it with the camera is much easier than keeping your own notebook.

How many shots can I get per charge?
In normal usage, following the CIPA measurements, you can get 850 shots per charge, or 200 using Live View at 23C / 73F. At 0C / 32F, that number drops only to 750 / 180: so this new battery should be a great improvement when shooting outdoors in cold weather.

References
Canon USA: Battery Management with the new LP-E6 Battery

Previews / Reviews

No reviews yet, but here are some previews

  • Vicoyski's Eye (added 28-Sep-2008): He managed to put his own CF card in a 5D MkII at an event in the Philippines. He didn't post full-sized samples and you have to log in to see the larger size still pictures, but he did show short video samples that demonstrate the jello effect happens with the 5D MkII as well. It still doesn't appear to be as bad as with the D90 but it's there. Everyone is demonstrating it by panning back and forth rapidly with vertical lines in the frame (and people are right to discount that as a valid way of shooting video) but it does mean that subjects moving quickly across the frame are likely to skew a bit.
  • BEBB | Studios (added 23-Sep-2008): A husband-and-wife wedding photography team in Vancouver, B.C. who are thrilled about the 5D MkII. They use the 5D today and they can't say enough good things about the pre-production camera they got to use for an afternoon. Includes several sample shots, although all were resized for the blog (to 950 pixels wide) and also a six-minute video where they discuss their experience and you see a bit of the camera in use, including how responsive Live View is. They also say that they have sample video but they can't show it until October 1st. That's interesting....
  • DPReview
  • Rob Galbraith
  • Imaging Resource
  • photo-i: Includes a video of a discussion with Mike Owen of Canon Photo Products UK and the claim by Damien Lovegrove (a professional photographer) that the 5D MkII has a two-stop advantage in low light over the 5D (he says he has shot nearly 150,000 frames with his 5D).
  • Canon Japan: Specifications for the camera (these seem to be more reliable than the Canon USA site which has had some obvious errors)
  • Warehouse Express: describes the same event where the photo-i video above was shot but backs up what the video shows.

Samples

Are there any samples available?
No RAW samples are available yet. For full-size JPEGs from the camera, you have a few options:

  • Vincent Laforet (added 27-Sep-2008): Some full-resolution JPEGs shot while making Reverie.
  • Novellsteel on Flickr (added 21-Sep-2008): This is a comparison with the 20D, 40D, and 50D but the noise results seem different than what we have seen from other comparisons and the full-size photos from the 5D MkII aren't quite the right size. Not sure if that is due to cropping or some small bit of resizing or what but it's a bit odd.
  • Vincent Laforet (added 20-Sep-2008): He talked Canon into letting him take a 5D MkII for the weekend and he cooked up a movie and put it together on less than US$5000 (he spent US$2000 of that on a helicopter flight). Only stills from the movie are on the blog post right now (20-Sep-2008) but we should see the video soon.
  • DP Review (added 20-Sep-2008): Samples from a pre-production camera. They don't have any RAW conversion software yet so these are just JPEGs.
  • Damien Lovegrove (added 20-Sep-2008): Wedding-style shots taken at Canon headquarters in the UK.
  • Canon Japan: two sample images at full size although, as is typical for Canon, the lens choice and technique seem suspect or to at least display the camera in as unflattering a way as possible.
  • Taken in a photo store with a 35mm f/1.4 L wide open:
  • Another set taken in a different store that include high ISO shots at full size.
  • Some samples taken at the Canon event (in Japan?), including a video that shows a lot of strange artifacts in overexposed areas. Definitely not the greatest quality and a huge download (300MB).
  • Foto.no: From a site in Norway. I don't understand the text but there are some pictures to look at.

Video

Non-full-size samples

  • Dagbladet.no (added 21-Sep-2008): Another Norwegian site with handheld video. It has still been downsampled but it's bigger than the samples from Canon. It shows some of the challenges of auto-focusing when running Live View.
  • Canon Japan: You can find a set of 6 movies that have been downsampled and converted to Flash video inside this site and a set of 4 pictures that are not full size. You will have to navigate through an intro screen and go to the "Photos & Movies" section.
  • There is this video on YouTube that seems to show that the 5D MkII does not suffer from the "rolling shutter" problem that results in the "jelly" problems with video we see from panning with the D90.

Storage

How big are the files?
We don't have a 5D MkII to look at yet, but if we use the numbers from the 1Ds MkIII (it is also a 21.1-megapixel camera), it looks like this:

  • 5616 x 3744 RAW + JPEG: 29.8MB
  • 5616 x 3744 RAW: 24.5 MB
  • 5616 x 3744 JPEG (L, q8): 6.4MB
  • 4922 x 3328 JPEG (M1, q8): 5.2MB
  • 4080 x 2720 JPEG (M2, q8): 3.5MB

What are some good UDMA cards to use with the 5D MkII?
Rob Galbraith's compact flash database doesn't have results from the 5D MkII yet but in the meantime the results from the Nikon D3 should be a pretty good guide. Remember that, in general, smaller cards from a given range will be faster than larger cards: so a SanDisk Extreme IV 4GB will be a bit faster than a SanDisk Extreme IV 8GB. If you're worried about having enough space for video, I recommend buying one set of cards that are fast for shooting still photos and getting one or more of the high-capacity, but slower, 32GB cards that are just coming on the market for video. The burst of RAW and/or JPEG files will need more speed from the card than will the HD video.

How big a card can the 5D MkII support?
The CompactFlash specification allows capacities up to 137GB. The early limitations on file size were due to the use of FAT16 rather than the newer FAT32 for the filesystem. FAT16 could only support cards up to about 2.2GB. FAT32 volumes can be 2TB.

Do I need a UDMA card for video?
No. According to the DP Review preview, the video is written at a rate of 4.8MB/second (38.6 Mbits/sec). Calculations that use a 4GB file that is generated in 12 minutes, though, suggest a rate of 5.7MB/second (4GB/(12*60)/1MB). Most compact flash cards made in the past few years should be able to keep up with either of these rates.

References
Rob Galbraith's Compact Flash / SD Performance Database
DP Review: Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III Review: Performance

Video and audio

Why is the video limited to 4GB or 12 minutes?
This is due to the maximum file size that the filesystem of Compact Flash cards support. They are formatted as FAT32 and single files cannot be larger than 4GB. The 12-minute limit is about how long it takes to generate a 4GB file when recording in full HD on the 5D MkII.

So what about that limit at 29 minutes, 59 seconds even with standard def video?
Turns out that's to avoid a tax in the European Union. If the camera records for 30 minutes or longer, there would be an additional 4.9% levy on the camera body. See this news article at DP Review from October 2007 for more details.

What is a "rolling shutter"?
There is a good explanation of this at http://dvxuser.com/jason/CMOS-CCD/. People are worried about wobbles and skew ("jelly video") after seeing some extreme examples of the problem with video from the Nikon D90. What we have seen so far suggests that the 5D MkII will not have this problem, or at least not with anything near the severity of the D90.

Can I control shutter speed and aperture when shooting video?
 Vincent Laforet says that you do have some control. Shutter speed is limited to either 1/125 or 1/60. Choices:

  • Program Mode: camera decides aperture, shutter speed (from the two choices), and ISO to control exposure
  • Aperture Priority: you set the aperture and the camera chooses shutter speed (from the two choices) and ISO to control exposure
  • Shutter Priority: you pick one of the two shutter speeds and camera chooses aperture and ISO to control exposure

You can use the * key to lock exposure (assuming you haven't used a custom function to change it to be the auto-focus button). You can also use the EV compensation (which gives you a range from -2 to +2 stops) while shooting to control the exposure.

Can the 5D MkII record stereo audio?
Yes. The external audio jack is a stereo jack. The built-in microphone is monoaural. I have heard this at least from Chuck Westfall in an interview with Inside Digital Photo.

Where can I look for more information about high quality audio for video?
Try some of the following:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/forumdisplay.php?f=53
http://www.hv20.com/forumdisplay.php?f=7
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/forumdisplay.php?f=29
http://taperssection.com/index.php/board,3.0.html

Any suggestions for external microphones?
There are a few suggestions in this thread on DP Review, including:

Is the HDMI port live during video shooting?
We still don't know but it would be very useful if it were.

Does Canon include video editing software in the box?
The DP Review preview says this is the software included in the box:

  • Canon EOS Solution Disk
  • EOS Utility
  • ZoomBrowser EX
  • Remote Capture
  • Digital Photo Professional

That Canon EOS Solution Disk often has things like PhotoStitch and Photoshop Elements so there's a chance they will include entry-level video editing software.

Weather sealing

How weather-proof is the camera?
More weather-proof than the original 5D but not up to the standards of the 1-series cameras. Canon has adding sealing material around the openings for the battery compartment, memory card slot, and buttons. The have also decreased the tolerances for the seams in the magnesium body and around the dials. DP Review has a picture of the "split-level alignment" and the same diagram of the improved seals available on the Canon site.

The DP Review preview (on the Introduction page), says this about the water resistance: "Water resistance: 10 mm rain in 3 minutes." If you do the math, you'll see that this is quite a downpour. It's not clear how long that level of resistance can be sustained.

References
Canon Japan: Robust Construction