I don’t like spending MONEY unnecessarily and I tried really hard not to buy a Canon EOS 5D MkII. I told myself the resolution wasn’t significantly higher than my EOS-1Ds MkII, I could easily live without Live View, I didn’t need video and as for the 3in review screen – well, I could read a histogram perfectly well on the 2in monitor on my 
EOS-1Ds MkII, so what was all the fuss about?
But ultimately, I cracked: after having a closer look at one while on a ‘casual’ visit to a photo dealer in Poole, I found myself reaching for my credit card. So, how do I feel about my purchase three months on? Well, quite simply, using the EOS 5D MkII has been a joy.
It offers a number of significant upgrades to the original EOS 5D and even some improvements on Canon’s top-of-the line EOS-1Ds MkIII. Most obviously, there’s the 21-megapixel sensor (a big step up from the original 5D's 12-megapixels), 14-bit processing and the addition of HD video; but there is also a number of smaller, but important upgrades – the larger, higher resolution review screen, 
a more refined menu system, improved battery life, some tweaking of the controls on the top plate, better moisture and dust sealing, and improved shutter life.
In practice, I’ve found that the camera has easily lived up to my expectations and has proved to be an extremely capable tool for my purposes. Starting with the most important point, image quality is superb. Loads of detail is clearly visible in large prints, correctly-exposed images at low ISO are extremely clean, and colour and tone are also excellent. I’ve had no trouble in producing excellent A2 prints, and am confident that much larger prints could be produced without any significant loss of quality.
I haven’t used any of the higher ISO settings available, as this isn’t appropriate to my work as a landscape photographer, but I can say that up to ISO 800 noise is insignificant. A lot of my pictures are taken with quite long exposures – often upwards of five minutes – and I did get off to a bit of a false start with 
the EOS 5D MkII in this regard, as the first 
one that I had suffered terribly from hot pixels 
(I counted over 2,000). However, I’ve had no such problems with its replacement, which produces results with remarkably low noise during long exposures, provided the images are correctly exposed.
I’ve been just as impressed with the handling changes. Some are immediately obvious, such as the much-improved rear LCD monitor, which means it’s now possible to accurately assess sharpness in the field, as well as being able to view the image and histograms simultaneously without any problems. Information about shooting settings can also be displayed on the rear LCD, which makes checking and adjusting settings much easier when your camera is set high on a tripod (a very important point for those of us who are not overly-tall).
Others are less obvious, though in use just as welcome. ISO is now permanently displayed on the LCD and in the viewfinder, and the ISO button has been moved so that it’s now possible to change the ISO rating quickly and instinctively. One of my main niggles about the original EOS 5D was the awkward nature of the rubber cover on the remote release socket and other ports. This has been improved on the EOS 5D MkII, but it is still not perfect and the remote release socket is harder to access than it is on, say, the EOS-1D-series cameras.
Handling has also been improved via the menu system, which is now more logically organised and makes it much easier to access certain functions. I’ve found the ‘My Menu’ tab a very useful addition – here you can group together any six menu items under a single tab, so you don’t have to keep flicking through the different menus for the settings you change most often. Enabling and disabling mirror lock-up, for example, is now a much simpler process than it used to be, though I would still like to see a dedicated button, which Canon users have been clamouring for a number of years now.
There is a vast array of custom functions, so it’s possible to tweak the handling of the camera to a way that really suits you – for example, I find that being able to assign autofocus to the AF button and remove it from the shutter button is a really handy way of being able to lock focus and recompose.
I was initially dismissive of Live View, but have found it to be a useful addition to the feature set. Composing shots low to the ground is so much simpler if you don’t have to contort yourself to get a look through the viewfinder, and Live View also makes it possible to compose shots with the Canon on a tripod above head height. An articulated screen, like those on Olympus SLRs, would take this a step further. I’ve also found another situation in which Live View has proved extremely helpful: like many other photographers at the moment, I’m having great fun experimenting with extremely heavy Neutral Density filters. The problem with them is that they are impossible to see through once fitted, so if you decide you need to tweak your composition, they have to be removed and then refitted. Not with Live View though, which I’ve found can see through my B+W ten-stop ND well enough for me to be able to frame a shot and position grads.
Performance-wise, the Canon has more than met my needs. I must admit that I didn’t carry out a direct comparison with my original EOS 5D before I sold it, but my impression is that the metering is more accurate. I don’t use AF much, and when I do, it’s generally single-shot, using the central AF point, and used this way, it is fast and accurate. However, I haven’t really put it through its paces in terms of tracking action, as this isn’t relevant to my work. The continuous frame rate of 3.9 frames-per-second isn't exactly blisteringly fast, but then neither are landscapes, so it’s certainly not hindered my photography. For some shooters, the option of shooting in 12-bit mode at a faster frame rate (as some Nikons can) would have been nice.
The camera has a nice solid feel, though the memory card door is a little ‘creaky’. It fits well enough though and doesn’t let in dust or moisture, but it does slightly affect the feel of the camera. As regards weather sealing, while I don’t take risks with my kit, it has survived light showers and splashes with no problems. In more extreme conditions, I just put it in an Optek Rain Sleeve. This is just common sense, though, and I do the same with my EOS-1Ds MkII, which has full weather sealing

Diffraction
With higher pixel counts and increased pixel density on sensors, diffraction (a softening of the image caused by light rays being dispersed as they go through the lens aperture) seems to be becoming more of an issue. It’s not that it doesn’t exist with earlier generations of DSLR, it just becomes more obvious with higher resolutions. In my time with the EOS 5D MkII, I’ve found that my preferred aperture is f/11. Stopping down to f/16 shows a slight softening of the image, but nothing I can’t live with, so I’m quite happy with f/16 if I need the extra depth-of-field. However, f/22 is noticeably worse, and I try to avoid it if possible.

Editor's Opinion, Daniel Lezano
It's great to get a really informed opinion of the Canon EOS 5D MkII from a real working pro like Mark Bauer, who uses it a true working tool in his photography. Mark's field test provides an excellent perfect balance to the magazine review, in which we only have around two weeks to put the camera through its paces. Mark's profession as a landscape photographer made him the ideal candidate to provide a solid test of the EOS 5D MkII, as its full-frame sensor is its biggest appeal and its main audience will be those wanting to exploit the larger sensor with wide-angle lenses. As Mark reveals, the Canon produces superb quality results, which is in keeping with our test in the February 2009 issue, where we compared it to two other full-frame DSLRs, the Sony Alpha 900 and Nikon D700, with the result that the Canon had the lightest edge in terms of image quality over its rivals. Of course, this model will appeal to all types of photographer, and its excellent range of features makes it a great choice for a wide variety of photography from landscapes through to portraits. In fact, as Mark reveals, he's found that he prefers to use this camera rather than his EOS-1D MkII, which is a pretty remarkable statement. It's one that has been echoed to me from other pro photographers, including another contributor and pro landscape photographer, Helen Dixon, who finds the compact size and lightweight (in relation to the EOS-1Ds-series models), as well as the image quality of the EOS 5D MkII, makes it an ideal choice for outdoor photography. You can't argue with those sorts of recommendations!

Verdict
Would I recommend the EOS 5D MkII? In a word, and for the type of photography I do, unequivocally yes. I haven’t used all its features, only those that are relevant to landscape photography, but since I bought it, it’s become my main camera, thanks to a combination of superb image quality, incredible feature set and well thought-out handling. The EOS-1Ds MkII has now been relegated to the role of back-up camera. Is it perfect? No, but then no camera is. I’ve used other systems and there have always been niggles. The specific (minor) annoyances I have with the EOS 5D MkII are the still-slightly fiddly ports cover, the creaky card door and the absence of an eyepiece shutter blind to block out stray light during long exposures (how difficult or costly would it be to include one?) But these really are minor points. For landscape work, and probably for travel photography and studio work as well, the EOS 5D MkII is an excellent camera that represents superb value for money and which, in many ways, seems to make the top-of-the-range EOS-1Ds MkIII, now costing almost three times as much, somewhat redundant.

Handling & ease of use 23/25
Features 24/25 
Performance 24/25
Value For Money  22/25
Overall 93/100