So far, my first real impressions of the Canon 1D Mark II are that it is unbelievably and totally fantastic. The images from this camera are crisp and sharp, and the level of detail across the photo is incredible. When you open the files, the improvement over the Canon 10D’s photos is immediately noticeable. Given that there is a new and larger sensor, some improvement was expected, but this far exceeded my expectations. The sharpness of these shots is incredible—even with my less-than-ideal — AKA the super crappy — Canon EF 28-80mm kit lens (the one that has almost gone flying out the window a few times). The photos seem to be crazy sharp regardless of the lens or type of shot (as long as they are in focus, of course).
The five or six different colour profiles (Standard, Portrait, Vivid, etc) that the camera has are wonderful as well. In addition to the standard image colour profiles (sRGB and Adobe RGB), there are a couple of high-saturation profiles that bring out colours so vibrantly that they remind me of using slide film. The viewfinder is much bigger and brighter than any other camera I’ve used (similar to the other 1Ds, I’ve heard), and the smaller 0.3x frame multiplier makes an unbelievable difference compared to the 10D 1.5X. It is almost full frame!!
The higher ISOs are clear and fairly usable. While 3200 is still crazy grainy, the ISOs around 400 and 800 seem very nice and are mostly grain-free. Even when grain is present, it looks more like film grain than the easily recognizable digital grain.
All in all, this is a fantastic camera. I am very, very, very pleased.
Shutter Speed – 1/50
Aperture – 5.6
ISO Speed – 400
Lens – 28.0 – 80.0 mm
Focal Length – 69.0 mm
Shutter Speed – 1/80
Aperture – 5.6
ISO Speed – 400
Lens – 28.0 – 80.0 mm
Focal Length – 66.0 mm