Canon EOS 5D Mark II

Color (13.61)

In our extensive lab tests of five current digital SLRs, the Canon 5D Mark II produced the most accurate color results, with the Sony A900 trailing the rest of the field by a wide margin. The 5D Mark II did exceptionally well capturing the light skin color, orange and the greyscale patches from the chart, but struggled a bit with pure yellow, magenta and cyan. More on how we test color.

Canon uses Picture Styles to adjust several image parameters including color values, with Landscape mode enhancing blues and greens, for example, and Portrait favoring flesh tones.

As expected (assuming the folks who name Picture Styles at Canon think rationally), the Neutral Picture Style produced the most accurate results, with a very modest color shift of 4.85, and a slight undersaturation at 96.1. In the charts below we can see the relative color accuracy results for the Canon 5D Mark II and four other digital SLRs we tested, each at their most accurate color mode settings.

Camera Color Comparisons					Expand
	Ideal	Canon EOS 5D Mark II	Canon EOS 50D	Sony Alpha A900	Nikon D90	Nikon D700
Dark Skin
Light Skin
Blue Sky
Foliage
Blue Flower
Bluish Green
	Ideal	Canon EOS 5D Mark II	Canon EOS 50D	Sony Alpha A900	Nikon D90	Nikon D700
Orange
Purplish Blue
Moderate Red
Purple
Yellow Green
Orange Yellow
	Ideal	Canon EOS 5D Mark II	Canon EOS 50D	Sony Alpha A900	Nikon D90	Nikon D700
Blue
Green
Red
Yellow
Magenta
Cyan

NOTE: Because of the way computer monitors reproduce colors, the images above do not exactly match the originals found on the chart or in the captured images. The chart should be used to judge the relative color shift, not the absolute captured colors.

Here we compare actual pixel-size crops of the 18 colored squares of the X-Rite color chart, taken by each camera in its most accurate mode. The ideal color value is shown in the leftmost column, the cameras’ best recreations of that color are arrayed to the right.

Below you can see our final score for color performance compared across the five camera test group. Higher scores indicate superior performance.

Color Modes (4.00)

Canon’s Picture Styles system combines settings for sharpness, contrast, saturation and color tone in six presets and three user-definable groupings. In a nutshell, think of Picture Styles as different film types, with distinctive image reproduction characteristics. For a full discussion of this feature, read the Picture Effects section below.

The 5D Mark II supports both the default sRGB and Adobe RGB color spaces. Most users will stick with sRGB, but for those shooting for commercial printing and industrial uses, the Adobe option is important.

In the following chart we explore the effect of five different Picture Styles on the color captured by the Canon 5D Mark II, with actual-pixel-size crops of each color in the X-Rite chart. The sixth Picture Style, Monochrome, isn’t included.

Color Mode Comparisons						Expand
	Ideal	Standard	Portrait	Landscape	Neutral	Faithful
Dark Skin
Light Skin
Blue Sky
Foliage
Blue Flower
Bluish Green
	Ideal	Standard	Portrait	Landscape	Neutral	Faithful
Orange
Purplish Blue
Moderate Red
Purple
Yellow Green
Orange Yellow
	Ideal	Standard	Portrait	Landscape	Neutral	Faithful
Blue
Green
Red
Yellow
Magenta
Cyan

NOTE: Because of the way computer monitors reproduce colors, the images above do not exactly match the originals found on the chart or in the captured images. The chart should be used to judge the relative color shift, not the absolute captured colors.

White Balance (14.27)

For our white balance testing, we compare images shot under different lighting conditions against the actual color values of the X-Rite ColorChecker chart. We use a Macbeth Judge II lighting box to maintain precise color temperature control, shooting under daylight, tungsten and compact fluorescent illumination. We test both the performance of the automatic white balance and custom white balance systems. More on how we test color.

Automatic White Balance (13.26)

When set to automatic white balance, the Canon 5D Mark II handled daylight and fluorescent illumination with great skill and dexterity, but faltered when faced with incandescent illumination (the kind produced by common household bulbs).

Custom White Balance (15.28)

In our overall white balance scoring, combining the results for both automatic and custom white balance testing, the Canon 5D Mark II comes up in the middle of the pack, trailing its brandmate 50D and the Nikon D700 due in large part to their superior results when using the automatic setting.

Shooting in daylight with all five of our test cameras set to auto white balance mode, all produced slightly cool images, though the 5D Mark II was the furthest off the mark.Shooting in daylight with all five of our test cameras set to auto white balance mode, all produced slightly cool images, though the 5D Mark II was the furthest off the mark.Shooting in daylight with all five of our test cameras set to auto white balance mode, all produced slightly cool images, though the 5D Mark II was the furthest off the mark.

Shooting in daylight with all five of our test cameras set to auto white balance mode, all produced slightly cool images, though the 5D Mark II was the furthest off the mark.

Incandescent lighting produced problems for the auto white balance systems of all five cameras across the board, with the 5D Mark II slightly less red-tinged than the Nikon D700 and Canon 50D.

White Balance Options (8.75)

The 5D white balance system includes automatic white balance, custom white balance (set by shooting a neutral card under current lighting conditions), direct entry in degrees Kelvin and the following six manual presets: Daylight, Shade, Cloudy/Twilight/Sunset, Tungsten Light, White Fluorescent.

Canon chose to maintain its clumsy two-step custom white balance shooting procedure with the 5D Mark II. First you shoot a photo of a white or grey card, then you bring up the Custom White Balance utility from the menu system, then you select the reference photo you’ve just shot, then you press the custom white balance button on top of the camera and select it. Are we having fun yet?

Manual white balance correction, with fine adjustments along the blue-amber and green-magenta axes, is available, though there is no image preview to interactively indicate the effect of changes made. White balance bracketing is also available, along the same two axes. Rather than taking multiple exposures, the same shot is saved with three different white balance settings applied.

Long Exposure (9.87)

In this test combining color accuracy and image noise performance over long exposure times, the 5D Mark II trailed the other cameras in the comparison group. Interestingly, the primary component in the comparatively weak performance of the 5D Mark II was its color accuracy under low light conditions, which consistently trailed the other cameras. Low-light image noise performance, on the other hand, was roughly equivalent to the other cameras, and clearly superior to the Canon 50D. More on how we test long exposure.

Under low light conditions shutter speeds slow down, image noise inevitably increases and often color accuracy is affected. Above you see the results of our long exposure testing as it affects color accuracy. Below are the results for the same exposure times, detailing the impact on noise performance.

And finally you see the Canon 5D Mark II’s final score for this section versus the competition. Higher scores indicate superior performance.