Review: Canon 5D Mark II

Once in a great while, a sequel comes out that is so outstanding, it not only blows the original out of the water, it stands on its own as a paragon of excellence. Cases in point: The Empire Strikes Back, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan.

Add the Canon 5D Mark II to that list. For the better part of a year, rumors abounded about an upgrade for Canon's full-frame prosumer camera, the 5D, but nobody expected the awesome bomb that the Canon eventually dropped on us. No mere upgrade, the Canon 5D Mark II is a milestone in many ways, and it's one of the best cameras we've tested yet. It features a massive 21 megapixel sensor, full high-definition video, a giant display and much more, setting a new high-water mark for digital single-lens reflex cameras.

For starters, Canon nearly doubled the resolution of the 12 megapixel 5D. Like its predecessor, the full-frame sensor in the 5D Mark II is equal in size to a 35 mm film negative, making it much larger than the sensors used in most consumer and prosumer cameras. The size confers two advantages: It gives the camera terrific low-light sensitivity, because the sensors for each pixel are larger, enabling them to collect more photons. And it allows you to use all the lenses in Canon's EF line to their full potential , without any magnification – an advantage especially useful for wide-angle shots. By contrast, smaller sensors effectively multiply the focal length of standard lenses, for instance converting a 28mm lens into the equivalent of a 56mm lens.

Canon also stuffed full-HD video recording into the 5D2, making it only the second SLR to record in HD (after Nikon's impressive D90) and the only one to record in full 1080p glory. You can tell Canon didn't think this feature would get much play by how deeply they buried it in the menu system. Fortunately the 5D2 also features a dedicated live-view button which pre-arms the camera for movie recording.

Photographers and indie filmmakers have been drooling over the 5D2's video quality ever since Vincent Laforet's demo movie hit the net in September. Most video cameras give a distinctly non-film look due to the poor depth of field produced by their small sensors and fixed lenses. Thanks to the full-frame sensor and Canon's high-quality lenses, the video from the 5D2 looks a lot more like movies shot on film.

The 5D2 is only slightly larger than the 5D and keeps roughly the same lines and look of its predecessor. Notable construction changes include weather-resistance and a tough-looking "parkerized" finish normally found on military firearms. The new 3-inch, 640x480-pixel display looks great even in bright light and is perfect for zooming in close to check out your shots.

The picture quality is terrific, even at ISO 1600 and 3200, but at 6400, 12800 and 25600 the resulting images are quite noisy. At ISO 100 the full-resolution shots are simply stunning.

There are a few problems with the 5D2, notably the mysterious appearance of black dots which appear when noise-reduction, light-optimizer and highlight-tone priority are all switched on. Switching these settings off fixes the problem. Since all of these features can be recreated later during processing on your computer, that's not a great loss.

The video mode is limited to 4GB per shot, which equates to 20-30 minutes of recording time. And unless you're planning on making a silent movie, plan on investing in some external microphones: the built in microphone is low-quality and monophonic, and it can pick up your lenses' autofocus noise, messing up the audio track. Thankfully the 5D2 has a stereo mic input for high-quality audio recording.

The 5D Mark II is a game-changing 21 megapixel 1080p photographer's dream. Its few flaws are greatly outweighed by amazing new features and huge sensor size.

But good luck getting one. Prompted in part by early teasers showing the stunning quality of video that the 5D Mark II is capable of producing, shutterbugs and pro photographers alike snapped up the camera as soon as it became available in early December. Unless you pre-ordered one a long time ago, you're out of luck until later in 2009.