http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos1dmkii/
"The original EOS-1D was a very important camera for Canon, their first home grown professional digital SLR built to EOS-1V standards and carrying that all important '1' label (indicating the best in their range). As such it was a camera which made its way into the hands of some of the most hard working professional photographers in the world and is still seen at the side of high profile sporting events and firing off in the face of celebrities and politicians alike.
As a camera to be used by such photographers it was always going to be the hardest used and closest examined. Thankfully Canon has once more demonstrated that they gather all of this feedback and drive it into the development of the next model. The Mark II is a perfect example of evolution of technology (eight megapixel, CMOS, 40 frame buffer) and also correction of function and usage. It's amazing how many small things have been fixed, things that could only have come out of experience in the hands of dedicated professional photographers.
I could go through the list of improvements, such as the vastly improved LCD monitor and up to 10x magnification in playback mode but it's more interesting to take just one example. Canon pointed out to me that they had changed the design of the media compartment release lever, it now has a raised midsection making it more of a 'U' shape. Why was this done? To make it easier to open the media compartment when wearing gloves. Small details matter.
Image quality wise there are no complaints with the EOS-1D Mark II, it's certainly no point-and-shoot camera and requires a certain amount of experimentation and learning before reaching your idea of the perfect image. That's also the camera's advantage, taking a hands-off approach to image development means that the photographer gets to decide just how the final image will look.
Is this the ultimate digital SLR? For now I have to say yes, it offers an amazing level of build quality and environmental sealing, superb eight megapixels of resolution, low noise at almost any sensitivity, over eight frames per second (with a forty frame buffer) and near instant performance. All this for $1,000 less than the EOS-1D cost when it was introduced."
"The original EOS-1D was a very important camera for Canon, their first home grown professional digital SLR built to EOS-1V standards and carrying that all important '1' label (indicating the best in their range). As such it was a camera which made its way into the hands of some of the most hard working professional photographers in the world and is still seen at the side of high profile sporting events and firing off in the face of celebrities and politicians alike.
As a camera to be used by such photographers it was always going to be the hardest used and closest examined. Thankfully Canon has once more demonstrated that they gather all of this feedback and drive it into the development of the next model. The Mark II is a perfect example of evolution of technology (eight megapixel, CMOS, 40 frame buffer) and also correction of function and usage. It's amazing how many small things have been fixed, things that could only have come out of experience in the hands of dedicated professional photographers.
I could go through the list of improvements, such as the vastly improved LCD monitor and up to 10x magnification in playback mode but it's more interesting to take just one example. Canon pointed out to me that they had changed the design of the media compartment release lever, it now has a raised midsection making it more of a 'U' shape. Why was this done? To make it easier to open the media compartment when wearing gloves. Small details matter.
Image quality wise there are no complaints with the EOS-1D Mark II, it's certainly no point-and-shoot camera and requires a certain amount of experimentation and learning before reaching your idea of the perfect image. That's also the camera's advantage, taking a hands-off approach to image development means that the photographer gets to decide just how the final image will look.
Is this the ultimate digital SLR? For now I have to say yes, it offers an amazing level of build quality and environmental sealing, superb eight megapixels of resolution, low noise at almost any sensitivity, over eight frames per second (with a forty frame buffer) and near instant performance. All this for $1,000 less than the EOS-1D cost when it was introduced."
