Canon EOS 5D Mark II

	Design & Handling Summary
• Camera is bulky at over 3 pounds with lens but well balanced and easy to grasp • Two dials speed access to features, but which dial controls what function sometimes difficult to remember • Menu system well designed with no scrolling down required to reach items, easy navigation of tabbed interface using Main Dial • User manual works well both for initial learning and as ongoing reference; good use of screen shots and illustrations
	Controls	Page 11 of 21	Video: Color & Noise

Handling (7.00)

Start out with a hefty camera body, add a 24-105mm zoom that weighs nearly as much as the body does and before you know it you're carrying around three and a quarter pounds of camera. On a practical level, that means one-handed shooting is a dicey proposition; just keeping the camera level with the weight of the lens tugging the left side down is a challenge for more than a shot or two.  On the other hand (literally), cradle the lens in your left, thumb and forefinger holding the zoom ring, the other three fingers curled to create a platform for the camera bottom,  and you have a secure, solid hold. It's still a substantial handful, but particularly with the 24-105mm kit lens, the weight is perfectly balanced. The righthand camera grip is particularly well designed. The rubber textured covering provides a reliable non-slip hold. There's plenty of depth between the front of the grip and the camera body to curl your fingers around. And the sculptured indent just below the shutter helps maintain a good vertical hold while positioning the hand with the index finger right over the shutter.

The sculpted non-slip grip provides a secure grip in any shooting position.

Controls (9.25)

The dual-dial control strategy employed here is a mixed blessing. There are two separate dials, the top-mounted semi-circular Main Dial and the round Quick Control Dial on the back. Sometimes turning either dial will have the same effect: moving the sliders in Creative Auto mode, for example, or choosing a menu language. At other times the division of labor between the two is clear and easy to learn. While navigating the menu system, for example, turning the Main Dial moves from menu tab to menu tab, while turning the Quick Control Dial moves the cursor up and down through the individual menu. Elsewhere, though, there's no rhyme or reason to the control division. For example, after pressing the leftmost button on top of the camera, the Main Control Dial changes metering mode, the Quick Control Dial adjusts ISO setting—you get used to it, but there's no underlying logic to it. And while the use of a rear dial can speed movement through a long menu, it also robs us of the dual-purpose function of a traditional four-way controller, which not only navigates through the menu system but also allows quick access to four key settings functions.

Back Controls
	Menu Access Used to bring up on-screen menus and to back out of levels when navigating within the menu system
	Picture Style Jumps to the Picture Style selection screen while shooting
	Info Toggles between available on-screen display options during recording and playback; switches between framing orientations during direct print operations
	Playback Switches from recording to playback mode. To return to shooting, depress the shutter button halfway
	Erase Opens image erase screen during playback
	Live View / Direct Print Selects Live View mode while shooting, starts PictBridge direct printing utility during playback when connected via USB to a compatible printer
	Multi-Controller Canon calls this a Multi-controller: anybody in the post-Atari generation will call it a joystick. It's used most notably to move the cursor around the Quick Control screen, though it can also be used in many cases as an alternative to the control dials. We weren't entirely joyful about this control's performance, though: it's very small and rather finicky under thumb control.
	Quick Control Dial The Quick Control Dial is used most often for scrolling rapidly through menus, with the central SET button used to choose options. SET is also employed to start and stop movie recording, and can be programmed to bring up the image quality or Picture Style settings, the menu system, playback mode or the Quick Control screen.
	Off Turns the camera off
	On Turns on all camera functions, but disables the Quick Control dial
	Quick Control Enble Turns on the camera and enables the Quick Control dial for exposure compensation setting
	Autofocus Pressing this button is required to autofocus while in Live View
	AE/AF Lock and Zoom Out While shooting, this button locks the current auto exposure value (the asterisk symbol is printed in white on top of the camera, aligned to the button). During playback, this is the zoom out control.
	Autofocus Point Selection and Zoom In While shooting, enables autofocus point selection (the cross-shaped logo is printed in white on top of the camera). During playback, this is the zoom in control.

Top Controls
	Full Auto The camera controls exposure and pegs most settings to default values; users can change image size.
	Creative Auto Similar to Full Auto with additional slider controls for aperture value
	Program Mode Camera sets exposure, program shift available via Main Dial
	Shutter Priority User sets shutter speed, camera sets aperture (TV stands for Time Value)
	Aperture Priority User sets aperture, camera sets shutter speed (AV stands for Aperture Value)
	Manual User sets both shutter speed (with Main Dial) and aperture (with Quick Control dial)
	Bulb Shutter stays open as long as the button is depressed (also works with optional remote control)
	Camera User Settings Three slots for instant access to user-defined custom settings combinations
	Metering Mode / White Balance After button press, changes metering mode by turning Main Dial, white balance by turning Quick Dial.
	Autofocus / Drive Mode After button press, changes autofocus mode by turning Main Dial, drive mode by turning Quick Dial.
	Program Mode After button press, changes ISO setting by turning Main Dial, flash exposure compensation by turning Quick Dial.
	LCD Panel Illumination Lights the monochrome LCD
	Shutter Button The shutter button is well positioned and offers distinct feedback between the half-pressed and full-pressed positions. Behind the shutter is the Main Dial.

Menu (8.75)

The menu system is well designed for navigation purposes. Unlike so many cameras with lengthy lists that scroll off the bottom of the page, requiring lengthy maneuvering and a good memory to reach unseen options, the 5D Mark II menu system is broken up into 9 tabs, each of which fits entirely on a single screen. 

Menus
	Overview The use of the Main Dial to move between tabs is fast and efficient, and the Quick Control works nicely for vertical in-menu scrolling. Beyond that, the high-res screen is instantly legible, and the color-coding of tabs by function is a nice touch.
	Shooting Menu 1 Strangely, the first shooting menu consists mostly of settings that are rarely changed: image size, beep on or off, whether or not you can shoot without a card, post-shot review time and the peripheral illumination correction feature.
	Shooting Menu 2 The second shooting menu includes settings for exposure compensation and auto exposure bracketing, white balance, color space (sRGB or Adobe RGB), Picture Style and Dust Delete data capture, to be used with the included Digital Photo Professional software. The more frequently used choices here (exposure compensation and bracketing, white balance, Picture Style) are also available directly via dedicated buttons.
	Playback Menu 1 The first playback menu handles protecting, rotating and erasing images, creating a DPOF print order, transferring images to a personal computer and using the optional WFT-EF/EFA media backup drive.
	Playback Menu 2 The second playback menu allows users to enable or disable the highlight alert and AF point displays, choose between a brightness or RGB histogram display, run a slideshow and set parameters for the playback image advance feature using the Main Control dial.
	Set-up Menu 1 The first set-up menu includes settings for auto power-off timing and automatic image rotation, the option to format a CompactFlash card, file numbering and folder selection/creation, and additional settings for the WFT-EF/EFA external media drive.
	Set-up Menu 2 The second menu offers access to several basic settings (date/time, language, video system), LCD brightness levels (manual and automatic), sensor cleaning settings and the important Live View functions, including still and movie-mode options.
	Set-up Menu 3 The third set-up menu provides battery info settings (for currently installed battery and any additional registered batteries) and controls for an external Speedlite flash. The current camera settings can be saved into one of the three available custom user settings on the Mode dial (C1, C2, C3) here. The camera can be returned to factory defaults using the Clear settings selection, and the current firmware version can be checked and, if necessary, updated.
	Custom Functions Twenty-five key camera settings are clustered here in the Custom Functions menu. For Exposure, this sets increments for exposure and ISO adjustments, enabling ISO expansion settings (L, H1 and H2), bracketing behavior, safety shift in AV and TV modes, and flash sync speed in AV mode. Image settings through the Custom Functions menu include noise reduction, enabling highlight tone priority, and setting the auto light optimizer function to three levels or off. Autofocus/Drive settings includes control of the autofocus assist lamp and on-screen autofocus point display, and mirror lock-up. The Operations/Others section includes function settings for the AF-ON, AE-LOCK, and SET buttons, dial direction, focusing screen, and the optional Original Data Security Kit.
	My Menu Users can populate this menu with up to six menu selections and/or custom functions for ready access.
	Quick Control In addition to the standard menu system, a Quick Control screen allows ready access to key features, without traveling through the hierarchical menu system. Pressing the joystick straight in brings up the Quick Control screen on the rear LCD. The joystick is also used to cursor between settings. When the cursor is positioned over a setting, most can be changed by turning the Main Control Dial or Quick Control dial. The two have the same effect with one exception: for the Exposure Compensation / Auto exposure bracketing option, the main dial changes bracketing setting, the quick dial changes exposure comp. One feature Canon would do well to copy from their friends at Sony: pivoting the Quick Control display vertically when holding the camera in portrait mode.

Manual & Learning (6.00)

Given the complexity of the camera, the instruction manual provided with the 5D Mark II does a nice job both in the initial learning phase and as a continuing reference resource. The show-and-tell balance between text and graphics works well, and the visuals themselves are nicely executed, with clean line drawings, clear screen shots and tables where appropriate. Even the size makes sense: at 5 7/8 x 4 1/8, the manual is easily portable, even in a jacket pocket, yet still large enough to read without squinting at mouse type.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II Manual

There is also a fold-out 8-panel Pocket Guide which might have some value as a carry-along reference, with its listing of custom functions and menu organization, if it were laminated to take some abuse. As it stands, you can toss it in your camera bag, but it will likely to be crumpled and torn beyond recognition quickly.

Documentation for the software applications provided comes on a single CD, separate from the programs themselves, though there is some mystery involved between installation and utilization of some programs. There are seven programs provided for Windows and six for Macintosh, but only four are apparently documented for each. That's because several applications, including the Photo Stitch panorama-building program, are accessed from within the four documented software apps. A little cheat sheet explaining that fact would have been appreciated.