Canon EOS 1D Mark II n Digital Camera Review

Color (8.81)

The Canon 1D Mark II n contains Canon’s recently implemented Picture Style parameters, enabling a wide range of tonal adjustments, contrast control, and saturation levels to be attained within the camera. When testing the camera’s color reproduction, we utilized the camera’s Standard parameter as well as the Faithful setting, which is colormetrically adjusted for photographic tungsten lights (which we use to conduct our testing). With the strong orange cast of the studio lamps, the Faithful mode produced the best results on our color test.

 

We tested the 1D Mark II n by photographing an industry standard GretagMacbeth color chart. We uploaded the images into Imatest Imaging Software and looked at the Canon’s colors compared with the colors of the original chart. Below is a modified chart output by the software program that shows the Canon 1D Mark II n’s rendered colors in the outer square and the original color in the vertical rectangle of each tile. The inner square exhibits a variation of the ideal, corrected by the software for luminance.  

We have included another Imatest chart below to more clearly illustrate the error between the original colors and those produced by the Canon DSLR. Each square on the chart below represents one of the 24 ideal colors from the GretagMacbeth chart. Each circle represents the Mark II’s rendition of that same color tone. The two shapes are connected by a line that has a length signifying the degree of color error.

As expected, in both the Standard and Faithful modes, the Canon EOS 1D Mark II n produced its best colors from the lower end of the ISO range. The Standard mode over-saturated colors by about 10 percent, although saturation decreased as the ISO was pushed. In the Faithful mode, the camera over-saturated colors by only 0.9 percent at ISO 100. Saturation steadily declined as the ISO was increased; the Mark II n under-saturated colors by 2 percent at ISO 1600. Overall, the Canon Mark II n received an overall color score of 8.81. While many commercial photographers opting for the 1D Mk II n over the 1Ds Mk II will likely be more concerned with speed than overall image quality, in either mode RAW files will be accurate enough that just a few moments in Photoshop will be needed to finish the job.

 

Still Life Scene
Below is a candid shot of our still life scene, captured with the Canon EOS 1D Mark II n in its standard picture style.

Canon included a CMOS sensor in the Mark II n that has 8.2 effective megapixels of its 8.5 total megapixels. We tested the effectiveness of the sensor by taking several pictures of an ISO 12233 resolution chart, the same chart that is used by a majority of the imaging industry. We uploaded these images into Imatest, which determined how closely the Canon 1D Mark II n could read the picture and how sharp the image is.

In our testing we used a Canon EF 24-70 mm, f/2.8L USM lens. The results below were attained using a 31mm focal length and f/7.1 aperture setting.  The output results are expressed as line widths per picture height (LW/PH). Traditionally, resolution tests conducted on 35mm camera bodies were reported as line pairs per picture height (LP/PH), but that was for a fixed imaging medium (35mm film frame). Using LW/PH standardizes the results to apply to sensors of various sizes and dimensions. If the camera was to take a picture with tiny alternating black and white lines in the frame, this measurement would tell us how many lines the camera could read before blurring them together.

 

The Canon EOS 1D Mark II n performed well by reading 2026 LW/PH horizontally and 1990 LW/PH vertically. By way of comparison, the Canon 5D read 2281 LW/PH horizontally and 2182 LW/PH vertically. This is fairly close to the Mark II n considering the full frame 5D markets 12 megapixels and the Mark II n markets only 8 megapixels. This DSLR received an overall resolution score of 6.2 and over-sharpened images by only 0.11 percent in camera.  With the wide selection of Canon EF lenses at user’s disposal, the 1D Mk II n should be able to attain exceptional sharpness with strong definition. While it is slightly faster than Nikon’s D2Hs, the difference in resolution truly sets the cameras miles apart.  

 

The Canon EOS 1D Mark II n has 13 ISO settings that can be manually selected and range from 100-1600. There is also a High extension that is approximately equivalent to ISO 3200 as well as an ISO 50 extension on the other end of the sensitivity spectrum. Below is a chart showing the ISO settings on the horizontal axis and the noise on the vertical axis. The blue line shows the amount of noise in the Faithful color mode and the red line shows the noise in the default Standard mode.

Below ISO 400, less noise is produced using the Standard mode. The two color modes converge right at ISO 400, then the Standard mode produces more noise in the higher end of the ISO range. The best overall score was achieved by the Faithful mode; it earned the camera a 12.21 overall noise score and offered clean images across the sensitivity range. 

 

To test the low light performance of the Canon EOS 1D Mark II n, we captured a sequence of images at decreasing light levels. 60 lux is roughly equivalent to a living room after dusk lit with two soft lamps. 30 lux is the amount of light from a single 40-watt bulb. 15 and 5 lux are near darkness and indicates the sensitivity of the 1D Mark II n’s CMOS sensor and how the camera’s noise suppression mechanisms react to prolonged exposures.

 

Low Light Tests
60 Lux	30 Lux
15 Lux	5 Lux

 

 

Low Light Tests
60 Lux	30 Lux
15 Lux	5 Lux

 

Low light images are very saturated, but as light declines (and exposure duration is increased) saturation does as well. Noise definitely increases as the light wanes, which is quite normal. Below is a chart showing the exposure time on the horizontal axis and the noise levels on the vertical axis. The green dots represent noise from the ISO 1600 setting. The red dots show the noise from the extended High mode that is roughly equivalent to ISO 3200.

The ISO 1600 setting’s longest plotted exposure took 15 seconds, but its resulting noise is definitely much lower than the 3200’s equivalent 6-second shot. All around, the High ISO extension produces a lot more noise than necessary so it is better to simply leave the shutter open longer in the ISO 1600 setting if you are working off a tripod anyway. Our testing was done in the Faithful color mode with the tungsten white balance setting. We used a tripod, self-timer, and mirror lockup to capture the sharpest images.

Speed and timing tests were conducted with a SanDisk Ultra III CompactFlash card.

Start-up to First Shot (9.98)
The Canon EOS 1D Mark II n has a quick start-up time of 0.08 seconds so photographers can get the shot even if their camera is turned on just a moment before the action.

 

Shot to Shot (9.94)
Canon touts the 1D Mark II n as the fastest DSLR in the world. With a 0.1098-second average time between its 47-shot JPEG burst the 1D Mk II n is certainly competitive. After that burst, it took the camera 20 seconds to write to the memory card. When shooting in RAW mode, the Mark II n took 22 consecutive images at an average pace of 0.1133 seconds. It then took about 18 seconds to write to the card. These times are very impressive.

 

Shutter to Shot (9.99)

The shutter lag was hardly measureable because it was so instantaneous. The time we attained was 0.001 seconds.

 

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