Canon EOS 5D Mark II

Shooting Modes

You get the basics you’d expect in a high-end SLR, including a let-the-camera-do-the-thinking full auto mode for those occasions when you want to hand the 5D to your mom and get a picture of yourself for a change. The Creative Auto mode seems like a potentially good idea poorly executed, since it’s too confusing for absolute novices and worthless for veterans. The headline feature here is three Camera User settings on the mode dial, a very valuable way to tailor settings to three of your favorite configurations without even a sidetrip through the menu system.

Focus

The autofocus system relies on nine primary focus points, including one cross-type point in the center. An additional six focus assist points near the center of the scene are available to help track moving subjects, though the points aren’t displayed on-screen.

When using one of the two automated shooting modes (Full Auto and Creative Auto), the camera chooses a focus point, which can’t be overridden. In any other mode you’re on your own, moving the focus point selection with the joystick or by rotating one of the two dials. Instinct would say that using the joystick would be the right call here, since you can point directly to the spot you want instead of running through the focus point range until you land on the right one. In practice, we found that joystick tough to use accurately. With just nine available focus points, the Quick Control Dial was much faster.

Whether you use the automated system or choose your focus point yourself, it lights up bright red in the viewfinder. We found this bold display very useful but, if you disagree, the light can be suppressed through a custom control.

There are three autofocus modes: One Shot, Servo, and Focus (which switch between Servo and One Shot depending on subject movement.

Manual focus is straightforward: flip the AF/M switch on the lens to M and turn the focus ring. There is no focus assist indicator in the viewfinder, as found on the Nikon D700.

Live View mode offers both the standard focus system used during viewfinder shooting and contrast-detection auto focus using the image sensor. The system is detailed in the Live View section above.

Recording Options

The EOS 5D Mark II offers an unusual variety of picture size options, with three RAW sizes in addition to three JPEG formats. Each JPEG file size is available at two compression settings. Each of the RAW settings can be shot as RAW + JPEG, with any of the six available JPEG size/compression combinations attached.

Other Controls (2.00)

Copyright Embedding

In a welcome pro-level feature, it’s possible to create a copyright notice using the provided EOS Utility software, transfer it to the computer via USB and have the information embedded in the EXIF data of every photo taken. Unlike the Nikon D700, you can’t create the copyright message within the camera itself, but since you’re only likely to tackle this chore once, this is a minor inconvenience.