Ryan Pyle Blog: My Canon 5D Mark II's

Hello,

Well, I've bought in to the Canon 5D Mark II hype. In fact I picked up two bodies a few weeks back, in Shanghai, and I have already put them through their paces on a few assignments already. It's been a great experience. Sadly, I don't have much to add at all regarding their performance that hasn't already been mentioned.

I shoot in RAW format and haven't had any black spots or any other problems to mention. I also bought a couple of those 16 gigabyte SanDisk cards and those are working out well. The quality of the image is incredible: the light, the color, the sharpness are all improvements over my old 5D. Shooting in low light and at night seem to be where the biggest improvements are, over the previous version of the camera. I am able to focus fast and generate strong colors in very little light, which is exciting for much of my documentary work.

I know I'm a self proclaimed "film man" and don't worry, I don't plan on packing away my two workhorses (ie. My Canon EOS 1n's, or my range finders) but the digital kit is always great to have for covering breaking news or shooting a demanding corporate assignment.

As an additional note, I really am a huge fan of the Canon 5D series. The 10D, 20D, 30D's never did it for me as the lack of a full frame drove me crazy. But the 5D is just a quality improvement over the previous series that one can't help get a little excited about what's next. The 5D Mark II's are small, light and compact. They feel great in your hand and are, in my mind, perfect for documentary / journalism work. I even shot with them last week in Shenzhen and in light rain they performed wonderfully.

I'll confess here that I've never used a Nikon system, and most likely never well. But I'm glad there is a two horse race in the industry, because the competition between the two, and lesser rivals like Sony and Fuji, will keep the prices lower for photographers and hopefully the products will continue to improve in the coming years. Needless to say, I'm very pleased with my purchase.

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Cheers,

Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
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