Canon EOS 1D Mark II N

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EOS 1D Mark II N Prices

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Though most DSLRs are driven by functionality and not form, the EOS-1D Mark II n has more than a hint of style. There are plenty of functional justifications for the EOS-1D Mark II n's very streamlined features – nothing sharp to snag on clothes, for instance – but the camera manages to look pretty cool. It's unlikely that anyone would pick up an EOS-1D Mark II n solely because they felt it looked better than the Nikon D2Hs, but it’s something Canon probably took into consideration, and it shows.  

 

The EOS-1D Mark II n exhibits excellent craftsmanship, with strong fit and finish. The seams where parts come together match tightly and are all even. The leather-textured rubber that covers much of the camera's exterior has a subtle sheen, while the painted surface has a very slight tooth, almost like fine sandpaper. Unfortunately, the plastic battery module is a different shade of black from the camera body, so it didn't quite match.

 

Size / Portability (6.5)

At 6.1 x 6.2 x 3.1 inches and 43.2 ounces, the EOS-1D Mark II n is about as big as DSLRs get, but the competition is not much different. The Nikon D2X and Nikon D2Hs are 0.2 inches shorter but 0.3 inches deeper, and the D2X weighs about 37.7 ounces. And these figures don't include lenses; the wide aperture zooms that are made for pro cameras are big and heavy as well.

In short, going out to shoot with the EOS-1D Mark II n involves a high level of commitment, a well-padded camera bag, and a strong back.  

Handling Ability (9.25)  

Both the horizontal and vertical grips are comfortable and secure to hold, and the camera balances well in both positions. The camera's weight contributes to its stability (as long as the user's arms hold up, anyway). In addition to the vertical shutter release, the EOS-1D Mark II n has a vertical main control dial, vertical buttons for AF sensor selection, flash exposure lock, AE lock, and selection of a “custom” AF sensor. The vertical controls can be turned off as well. Though the shape of the vertical grip is different from the horizontal grip, the vertical controls are placed to fall under the user's fingers just as the horizontal ones do.

Control Button / Dial Positioning / Size (8.0)

The buttons, switches, and dials on the EOS-1D Mark II n are sturdy and well finished. They provide very good tactile feedback – they must be pressed slightly further than buttons on many entry level cameras. The minor difference doesn't make the EOS-1D Mark II n slower, but it does make deploying the controls more reliable; it's easy to tell that the button has been pushed.

The EOS-1D Mark II n’s largest control is the “Quick Control dial,” a rotatable disk that lies flat against the back of the camera. It spins easily, clicking as it turns. The Quick dial’s exact function depends on the camera mode; it can scroll through images in Playback mode, set the aperture or exposure compensation, and scroll through menus. Nikon uses a four-way controller, as well as front and back control dials, rather than Canon's Quick dial.

 

It's a disappointment that the EOS-1D Mark II n didn't get a copy of the small four-way controller found on the Canon 20D. A four-way controller is an excellent tool for navigating in two dimensions – around an image or a menu. On the EOS-1D Mark II n, there is no four-way controller. Two dimensional movement requires using both the main control dial and the Quick dial, often after pressing a button, or while holding one down. Autofocus point selection is a prime example – to select a point when all 45 are active, the user has to press the AF point button and then turn the two control dials. In contrast, the Nikon D2Hs and D2X have four-way controllers that navigate the AF points directly in shooting mode – there's no need to press an extra button or switch between dials.

 

Canon's strategy with the EOS-1D Mark II n is apparently to limit the number of buttons by giving many controls multiple functions. It's great to be able to adjust so many controls with such a clean interface, but the drawback is significant: pressing two buttons while turning a dial is a bit more trouble than pressing one button while turning a dial, or simply turning a dial, although it does provide an additional layer of protection against accidental alteration.

Switching to the registered autofocus point is an example: the default keystroke combination is the AF point button and the Assist/WB correction button. The two buttons sit about an inch apart, with the AE lock button between them, near the right thumb rest. Perhaps someone can activate both buttons with their right hand while holding the camera at eye level, but it wouldn't be easy. It's possible to reconfigure the camera so that the Assist/WB correction button does the job alone, but then, doing a white balance correction could lead you to accidentally switching the autofocus point. I imagine pros accustomed to shooting with Canon SLRs aren't losing lots of images over problems like this, but the setup is more convoluted than it could be.

Menu (8.0)

The EOS-1D Mark II n's menus are identical to those on the EOS 5D and similar to most Canon DSLRs.  The main menu is broken into four categories. They are: Shooting, Playback, Set-up (which is so long that it is split into two menus), and Custom/Personal functions. The menu shows a tab for each heading (two for Set-up) and uses the same color-coding scheme that nearly all Canon digital cameras use to differentiate the categories. The EOS-1D Mark II n menu's advantage over the Canon 20D menu is that it's easier to hop from one setting to another. Though the 20D offers a jump feature, enabling the user to skip over a large number of menu entries at the press of a button, all the controls appear in a single, scrolling list. In contrast, the EOS-1D Mark II n's tabs each reveal a single screen’s worth of settings, so there is less scrolling and cleaner organization.

The menu entries are:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ease of Use (6.0)

The EOS-1D Mark II n doesn't fight the user. Its extraordinary functions and controls are efficient and logical.  But because it has a deep feature set, new users should expect a significant learning curve. The controls that everyone will use commonly more or less naturally fall under the user's hands, but less universal features – tweaking white balance, for instance, or registering an autofocus point—will take some practice before they're easy to implement. Options such as Picture Styles will take some experimentation, not only to see what they do, but to see if they're useful in a given workflow. The EOS-1D Mark II n offers a range of interface customization, and many of the customization options are likely to improve ease of use for some photographers. Given the way controls serve multiple purposes, though, it's likely that tweaking the interface will also be a matter of trial and error.