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As I had some emails asking me about more information concerning my hands-on on the Canon 5D Mark II, I will give you more details about my first impressions here.

As I already said I couldn’t put a CF card on my own in the body itself so I cannot comment on the image quality itself or ISO sensibility. However I can give you an overview of the overall ergonomy and my first impressions of how video feels like (for my impressions about the AF, please refer to my previous post.)

The body felt good in my hand, if you are used to the current 5D you won’t sense a difference at all. The body still feels robust and solid, the hand grip area feels really good and the button layout is pretty much the same with some slight modifications. I didn’t take the time to fumble in all the OSD menus but they pretty much look like what you can find on the 40D for example.

What really is different on the 5D Mark II is the LCD screen. As I am used to the current 5D rather poor LCD, it felt huge! The screen is really big and the resolution seems at least on par with the 40D. The information displayed are really clear, so the screen might become more usable than it is on the current 5D (I am only checking the histogram on the current 5D model). I still have to see the results in bright daylight though.

Now concerning the big addition in terms of feature: HD video.

In order to access the video mode, you have to press the instant print button (for once this button comes in handy), you automatically switch to live view then. All the focusing and video shooting is done with the live view. And that’s where that big LCD screen comes to play. As expected when switching to video, you lose the capability to autofocus. You have to select your focus point using live view and do a mirror lockup in order to set your focus area. When I tried the feature, I could confirm one of my concern: it is very difficult if not impossible to track accuretaly a moving subject. From the video sample I could see on the internet, I had already noticed that most of the shots where static shots where the camera didn’t move. It feels very awkward to handhold the 5D Mark II for shooting video. I had the 85mm f/1.2 mounted and it was really heavy.

While shooting video, you still have the capability to capture still frames. By doing that, the video is split into two video files and you lose one second of shooting. The frame is captured at full camera resolution and not video resolution.

I still have to see if and how I will use this video feature in my current workflow. I saw still frames extracted from actual videos and they look impressive enough, but one thing is sure, I will not be using video in a wedding to extract frames afterwards. As I said the setup is too heavy and awkward to manipulate without a tripod and focusing on a moving subject is extremely difficult (at least to me), and I am still and foremost a photographer. But I still think that this is a nice addition,and it’s good to have the option to use it or not.

I am more and more psyched about this camera, I will call my supplier today to see if he has some more information about its availability. I have a good position on the waiting list so I am confident I will have one on release day. I will keep you posted when I receive it with actual tests shots.