Digital Camera World » Canon 5D Mark II

Lioness turns the tables on wildlife photography

samanthacliffe — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 15:00:16 +0000

When photographer Ed Hetherington set up his Canon 5D Mark II to capture wildlife in Zimbabwe from an ‘on the ground’ perspective, he didn’t expect to get quite so up close and personal with the local wildlife….

When he heard news that a lioness had brought down a buffalo near his camp, he rushed out to make the most of the great photo opportunity. After the lioness moved out of sight to drink from a nearby stream, Ed placed his camera near to the carcass to capture the lion when she walked past, confident that she wouldn’t pay any attention to the new object. But his confidence was misplaced, and the lioness decided that she was more interested in trying her paw at photography than in finishing her meal.

Ed describes that the big cat picked up the camera rather as she would pick up a cub and carried it off. So at least, for a lion, she was careful! Unwilling to let his camera go so easily, Ed drove after the lioness. Fortunately for him and his camera, she quickly lost interest in it and put it down.

Ed has stated that he would not attempt to do this again, if not for the camera, but for the sake of the lions. He says, “The intent was for this to unobtrusively allow for a unique image but ironically it ended up being a distraction.”

Some damage was sustained by the camera and lens; some plastic covering on the front of the lens was loosened and the lens itself needed a good clean, but apart from that Ed says that ‘you would never know that a lion had carried it’. However, it wasn’t all plain sailing as the camera will currently not switch on!

As well as making herself into an internet celebrity, the lioness is also unknowingly helping the National Geographic Big Cats Initiative as Ed is using the images he captured to raise funds and publicity for the cause.

View more images from the incident.

Canon 5D Mark II meets 1908 cinema camera lens

samanthacliffe — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 06:00:11 +0000

To achieve a vintage look for an upcoming photography project, Timur Civan attached a Wollensak 35mm F5.0 Cine-Velostigmat hand-cranked cinema camera lens from 1908 (or possibly earlier) to his Canon 5D Mark II. As expected, the results achieved the vintage/retro photographic look as we’ve seen in similar projects. However, this particular project has yielded the most beautiful images, and unlike the others has been used to create a short video to showcase what the lens and camera combination is capable of.

Civan says, “This lens is a piece of motion picture history, and at this point rare beyond words.”

Watch the video below:

102 year old lens on 5D mkII – Video Footage by Timur Civan from Timur Civan on Vimeo.

A few images from the ‘Frankencamera’:

Source: Planet 5D

Canon 5D Mark II mashup: K-24 aerial recon lens

samanthacliffe — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 14:02:05 +0000

We’ve featured the handywork of Jason Bognacki before when he combined his Canon 5D Mark II with a 1919 Piccolette Contessa-Nettel camera. Since then he’s done another Canon mashup; this time it’s a Canon 5D Mark II with a 7-inch f/2.5 Kodak Aero-Ektar lens attached to it removed from a K-24 aerial recon camera. These lenses were built by Kodak for aerial reconnaissance photography and most were made during World War II. There is even some dispute that these lenses are radioactive as they contain Thorium. Holy smokes.

The lens is heavy, and Bognacki states that he found it near impossible to focus, but has again proved that old technology combined with new can reveal gorgeous results.

What an amazing thing to not only preserve these fascinating relics of camera history, but to also prove their worth in photography today.

Follow Jason on Twitter.

Canon EOS 5D Mark III review

jmeyer — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 10:58:24 +0000

Canon’s EOS 5D Mark III has a lot to live up to. For a start, the original Canon EOS 5D was the first DSLR to really bring full-frame digital photography within the reach of enthusiast photographers. Then came its replacement, the Canon EOS 5D Mark II, which kick-started the current trend for shooting video on a DSLR.

So naturally, as the 5D Mark II clocked up its third birthday in September 2011, the rumour mill slipped into overdrive with lots of speculation about the likely specification of the 5D Mark III. By the time Canon actually announced the EOS 5D Mark III on March 2 2012, its specification seemed almost a bit of a letdown, especially priced at £2,999 in the UK and $3,499 in the US for the body only.

But while it might not have the headline-grabbing 36MP pixel count of the Nikon D800, Canon’s latest full-frame camera has lots to offer enthusiast photographers.

Specification
With 22.3 million effective pixels, the Canon 5D Mark III’s sensor only has 1.2MP more than the 21.1MP Canon 5D Mark II that it replaces, but it has 4.2MP more than the 18.1MP Canon EOS-1DX at the top of Canon’s DSLR lineup.

Whereas the Canon 1DX has two Digic 5+ processors, the 5D Mk II has one, which in combination with its eight-channel readout means that it has a top continuous shooting speed of 6fps. This is half the rate of Canon’s top-end camera, and it may disappoint those hoping for something in the region of 8fps or more. It’s a big jump from the 3.9fps of the Canon 5D Mk II, though, and the burst depth is an impressive 18 raw images or 16,270 JPEGs (when a UDMA 7 card is used).

Sensitivity may be set in the range of ISO 100-25600 in 1/3-stop or whole stop increments, and it can be expanded to include L: ISO 50, H1: ISO 51200, H2 ISO 102400.

Autofocus
The Canon 5D Mark III has the same 61-point wide-area autofocus system as the flagship Canon EOS-1DX. This is a big improvement on the Canon EOS 5D Mark II, which has nine user selectable AF points and six assist points, giving a total of 15.

Of these 61 points, 41 are cross-type and five are dual cross-type points, which is good news for accuracy. The customisable AF presets introduced in the Canon EOS-1D X are also available, which Canon claims helps when shooting more challenging subjects. It doesn’t offer the f/8 sensitivity of Nikon’s latest system though – it only extends to f/5.6, which restricts the use of teleconverters.

Metering
Predictably, Canon has upgraded the metering system to its iFCL metering. Existing Canon 5D Mark II users may find it takes a little getting used to as it reacts in a similar way to centre-weighted metering and puts greater emphasis on the subject under the active AF point.

In some situations this is a blessing, but with exceptionally dark or light main subjects the results may not be the same as the Canon EOS 5D Mk II would produce in its evaluative metering mode.

Video
Its video capability was one of the big successes of the Canon EOS 5D Mark II, and Canon hasn’t changed much of its specification for the Mark III version, but there are some significant improvements.

Firstly there’s the introduction of a live view/movie switch on the rear, like on the Canon EOS 7D, to speed up movie activation. There’s also a headphone socket for monitoring the stereo audio, which can be adjusted in the same way as that on the Canon EOS-1DX.

HDR
Until now Canon hasn’t had a DSLR with in-camera HDR recording, but the Canon EOS 5D Mk III is capable of recording and merging three shots to produce a high dynamic range image.

This is extremely useful, since it records all three shots as well as the processed HDR image, and if you shoot raw and JPEG images simultaneously, you’ll find you have a total of seven images, including three raw files that you can process yourself if you wish.

Another difference between the Mark 2 and 3 versions of the Canon EOS 5D is that the newer camera has two card ports, one for compact flash and the other for SD format cards. There’s no XQD card port.

The Canon 5D Mark III Verdict

Our testing team put the Canon 5D Mark III through rigorous challenges, both in the lab and out in the field. You can read all about these full scientific results over on our sister site, TechRadar. If you want some of the key points from the full test and the final verdict on the Canon 5D Mark III, here is what our head of testing had to say:

On Build & Handling…
The camera is large, but not in the same league as the Canon EOS-1DX, since it lacks the additional portrait orientation grip and controls. The finger grip is covered in a textured rubber-like coating that helps it feel secure in your grasp, and the contours of the front and rear make it comfortable to hold.

Overall there is a feeling of quality, and the magnesium alloy body doesn’t squeak or creak when squeezed tightly.

The body of the Canon 5D Mark III is largely unchanged from the Mark II’s, but there are a few key differences. The pentaprism lump on the top, for example, is a little larger and more rounded to accommodate the AF module, which is 2.5x larger than the one in the Canon EOS 5D Mk II.

The gap between the LCD display and its glass cover has been filled with an optical gel, and this helps to keep reflections at bay. We found that the screen provides a sharp, clear view even when shooting outside in bright sunlight.

Given the Canon EOS 5D’s reputation as video camera, it’s a shame that Canon wasn’t bold enough to give the Mark III version an articulating screen. Perhaps the hinge is considered too much of a weak point, or maybe Canon is saving that for the 4K-capable camera it announced was in development back in November last year.

On Performance…
Tthe Canon 5D Mark III is extremely capable, and it resolves an impressively high level of detail in both raw and JPEG files, which only really starts to dip when the sensitivity is pushed to ISO 25,600.

Our tests also show that from around ISO 100 and above, the Canon 5D Mark III has a slightly higher signal to noise ratio than the Nikon D800, so images have less noise.

However, as is usually the case, noise becomes quite noticeable when the upper sensitivity expansion settings (ISO 51,200 and ISO 102,400) are used, so these are best reserved for emergencies.

We also found that at the top settings, the camera can struggle to render tonal gradations in some red subjects, and small patches of uniform tone appear, giving parts of the image a posterised appearance. Despite these issues, the Canon EOS 5D Mk III is capable of producing some very impressive results in low light.

The Final Verdict
While the key specification changes since the 5D Mark II largely just bring the Canon EOS 5D Mark III into line with Canon’s existing DSLRs, we’re impressed with the results from the new camera.

Raw and JPEG images have plenty of detail, noise is well controlled at the higher native sensitivity settings and colour and exposure are generally very good.

Canon has also clearly put in a lot of thought about how enthusiasts use a camera, and the new HDR system is the best on the market. Images are generally well exposed, thanks to the iFCL metering, and the white balance and Picture Styles deliver the colour and tones we expect from a top-end Canon camera.

While it may not have excited the photographic world in the same way that the Nikon D800 seems to have, the Canon EOS 5D Mark III is a very capable camera.
It suffers a little from the fact that the majority of the systems have been seen elsewhere in the Canon DSLR lineup, and therefore there is nothing really groundbreaking..

Image quality throughout the native sensitivity range is excellent, noise is well controlled and there’s plenty of detail. The AF system has been given a serious upgrade on what the Canon EOS 5D Mark II version has, and it puts in an excellent performance. Costing £2,999/$3,499 for the body only, however, the price seems a little on the high side.

We liked
Provided you keep the camera reasonably still, the Canon EOS 5D Mk III’s HDR mode does a great job of aligning and merging images, plus you have the fallback of all the raw and JPEG files if you want.

We disliked
Existing Canon EOS 5D Mark II users will find the AF system more complex than they’re used to. While this is an improvement, the various AF-point selection mode options and characteristic adjustments can be a little confusing.

Canon mashup: 100-year-old lens meets 5D Mark II

samanthacliffe — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 17:08:59 +0000

Jason Bognacki combined his 1919 Piccolette Contessa-Nettel camera with his Canon 5D Mark II. The results – as you can see below for yourself – are pretty impressive.

Apart from the fantastic picture quality from a lens that is over 100 years old, it’s a great demonstration that old technology can happily find its place today – all it takes is a bit of creativity and imagination!

All images below were taken on a Zeiss Ikon 7.5cm, f/6.3 (wide open).

Find Jason on Twitter.

Nikon D4 beats Canon DSLRs, D3x, D700 in lab test

jmeyer — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 17:13:57 +0000

Our testing team has the Nikon D4 in for testing and has found that the D4 beats the Nikon D3x, Canon EOS 1D Mark IV, Nikon D700 and Canon EOS 5D Mark II in our signal to noise ratio when shooting JPEGS.

Our lab includes a specially designed chart which is shot in carefully controlled conditions, with the resulting images analysed using DXO Analyser software.
Our team tests for both signal to noise ratio – which indicates how clean an image will be, and dynamic range.

Though the Nikon D4 came tops when shooting JPEGs, with raw images the Nikon D4 beats everything aside from the Canon EOS 5D Mark II between ISO 1600 and 6400. Right up at ISO 6400, it is also beaten by the Nikon D700.

Dynamic range results are particularly impressive, with our team’s charts showing that the JPEGs have at least 1 stop higher dynamic range than comparable cameras across the majority of the sensitivity run.

Our testing team also hopes to pit the D4 against the Nikon D800, the company’s other major release this year, and also the newly announced Canon EOS 5D Mark III and Canon EOS 1DX.

Read more about the Nikon D4′s performance in the hands-on Nikon D4 review over on our sister website, TechRadar.

Canon EOS 7D video review

dcworld — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 10:43:22 +0000

We give you a detailed rundown of the camera’s new features and improved controls.

The Canon 7D, launched in 2009, sits firmly between the Canon 50D and the Canon 5D Mark II, between the pro and amateur range, but which one should you go for? At first, the 7D would seem to have more in common with the 50D, but pro features are also in abundance. We take a look at the 7D’s key features, including new features and improvements, to help you decide.

Read the full Canon EOS 7D review at TechRadar.com