Canon EOS 5D Mark II

Buttons & Dials

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.

Picture Styles

The 5D Mark II offers a Picture Style feature with six presets and three slots for user-defined styles. Each style is a combination of settings for the following four factors: Sharpness, Contrast, Saturation, and Color Tone.

In addition, specific color ranges can be shifted. We shot our still life in each of the six preset Picture Styles (shown below) to demonstrate their effects. Look closely at the blue and green jellybeans, for example, and you’ll see the way the colors are more intense in the Landscape Picture style, and far more subdued in Neutral and Faithful.

The best shorthand way we’ve found to wrap your head around the Picture Style concept: it’s like choosing a particular kind of film for its distinctive reproduction characteristics.

Picture styles are accessed through a dedicated button on the back of the camera, or via the Shooting menu. The provided styles can be customized, or user-defined styles created, in the camera or with more precision using the supplied Picture Style Editor software. Probably more useful for most of us, who may see the Picture Style editing process as a bit daunting, it’s also possible to download and install Picture Style files created by others. Several, including Studio Portrait, Nostalgia, Autumn Hues and Twilight versions, are currently available here, at a site maintained by Canon Japan. And these Picture Style files can also be applied to RAW images using the Digital Photo Professional software provided with the camera.

Picture Effect Samples
Standard Portrait Landscape Neutral Faithful Monochrome More...

In-Camera Editing

Canon lets you rotate a vertical image. Period.

Well, OK, they’ll cut you a little slack if you want to use the 5D Mark II for direct PictBridge printing. The Direct Print section allows the choice of standard, vivid or three flavors of black and white, brightness levels adjustment, backlighting correction and cropping.

Menu

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.

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.

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.

Instruction Manual

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 × 4 1/8, the manual is easily portable, even in a jacket pocket, yet still large enough to read without squinting at mouse type.

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.