The British summer is as to be expected with a 3 day heat wave followed by torrential downpours, so I thought I’d spend this rainy Sunday afternoon writing a short review of the new Canon EOS 1DMkII N.
Last month I was fortunate to get a place on the the Canon Pro Experience at Kew Gardens and used the opportunity to try out all their pro dSLRs and more. I was completely smitten with the 1D series and came away wanting one.
I currently own the EOS 10D & 20D models and spent months deliberating between the 5D or 1DN. I opted for the EOS 1DMkII N and ordered it from AJPurdys. It arrived the next day and the minute I opened the shiny black box I knew it would be great camera, but needed convincing on whether it was worth the extra shekels.
The 1DMkII N comes with all the usual accessories plus some. You get a couple of CDs, power leads (UK and Euro), firewire lead, USB lead, AV lead, strap, manual, mega battery, AC adapter and charger. Incidentally, The charger gives you the ability to connect two batteries at once, although they charge contiguously.
The 1DMkII N is quite heavy beast, it weighs in at almost 1.6kg with battery, although its about the same physical size as the 20D with BG-E2 fitted. Add to the mix an EF 70-200 f2.8L IS and you walking round with over 3kg of dSLR before you start pointing it at things, however it does seem very well balanced and I’ve carried this combo around for 8 hours without problems. It must be the spinach!
By comparison (and not having owned but used) its predecessor (1DMkII), the 1DMkII N has a few significant changes. By far the most noticeable is the larger (2.5″) and brighter (adjustable) LCD screen. The screen boasts 230,00 pixels and displays individual RGB histograms along with the usual image, multi image and myriad of menus. There’s also a smaller LCD panel below the screen to compliment the top plate LCD and this can be configured to show various settings e.g. no. of shots remaining, ISO etc
Canon have also added dual card write capability, slightly improved the capture buffer and tweaked the firmware to include picture styles. Theses styles now correspond with those in DPP 2.1, the OEM RAW converter.
The 1DMkII N is a rugged and weatherproof dSLR made of solid magnesium alloy. I shoot 90% of my images outdoors and the number of times I’ve been caught out in a downpour is unbelievable, so the extensive weather sealing was a deciding factor over the 5D. I can also say that it works. I spent last Friday at Goodwood and when the heavens opened, I just carried on shooting with total confidence, although I did get wet.
The 1DMkII N is a 8.2 mega pixel (effective) dSLR and from a picture quality point of view it doesn’t seem much better than my 20D. However, I have noticed slightly less noise at higher ISOs (>400) and the RAW images do come off the camera a little sharper. Both are probably attributed to the lower pixel density.
The viewfinder is both larger and brighter than the 20D, which surprised me given the marginal increase to a 1.3 FOV. Likewise, I haven’t really noticed much of a reduction in focal length, but I suppose it’s there!
The 1DMkII N provides 1/3rd ISO increments. This really does make subjects and scenes more workable when the light starts to fade. Being able to up the ISO by 2/3rd of a stop gives you a degree of flexibility without the overhead of adding too much noise. As a consequence, ISO now plays a more significant role in my exposure evaluation.
Where the 1DMkII N really shines is in its focus, exposure and frame rate functionality.
The 1DMkII N is equipped with no less than 45 AF points which are configurable beyond belief. One can choose single point, clusters, link them to exposure, adjust their sensitivity and swap which buttons operate them.
The speed of AF is incredible when used with an f2.8 or f4 lens. Even better, it retains AF on lenses with apertures below and including f8. So I now get to use AF on my EF300 with 2x converter in good light.
The 1DMkII N’s AF easily locks onto small subjects (birds in flight) and tracks them via AIServo with incredible accuracy and precision, although it does take some getting use to and I can say that the number of out of focus images has significantly dropped in comparison to my 20D.
The continuous capture capability of the 1DMkII N is what you are really paying for. It effortlessly achieves 8.5fps in high speed mode and 3fps in Low speed mode. The shutter release is quite sensitive and the slightest touch will have you inadvertently firing off 2-3 frames. So unless you really need to use the high speed mode its better left in low speed mode.
What I really like about the 1DMkII N is the “reserve feel”, its buffer is capable of holding ~20 RAWs, so shooting in short bursts means you always have something in reserve, unlike the 20D whereby after a couple of shorts burst your frustratingly waiting for the buffer to empty.
The 1DMkII N controls took a bit of getting used to. I know the 20D inside out and never expected such a change when it came to setting adjustments. On the 20D its simply a case of pushing a button and rotating a dial. The 1DMkII N on the other hand uses button combinations e.g. keeping one or two buttons pressed while selecting/changing settings with another. The image review feature is actually more akin to the 10D than the 20D.
I suppose this deliberate mode of working stops accidental changes being made and after a few weeks of use I now struggle with the 20D (sticky button fingers). Its also worth noting that the 1DMkII has no rotary dials on the top plate and the viewfinder displays pretty much everything that you change. So once you get use to the button patterns, you’ll never need to take you eye away from the viewfinder – brilliant, the way it should be!
One thing I surely missed on my 10D & 20D, was spot metering. Being a ex Olympus OM4 user it became second nature for exposure adjustment. The 1DMkII N not only offers spot metering, but it has multi spot, AF linked spot, evaluative, partial and traditional centre weighted.
The multispot allows up to 8 readings to be taken, but alas it doesn’t have the old highlight and shadow controls found on the OM4. This was invaluable function for maximising the dynamic range of slide film (which I also consider very similar to digital medium). Oh well, it may resurrect itself in the future generations.
I mentioned earlier the that the 1DMkII N has a mega NmH battery. It provides 12v to the camera and even after the initial charge, it powered the camera for >1000 frames whilst using IS lenses, reviewing images and learning all the camera functions. So one battery is all you need for an afternoon’s photo shoot, which given its size means you haven’t got to carry another 1/3 kg around as a spare!
The 1DMkII N also has two media slots, one for CF and the other for SD cards. I decided to buy some SD cards and the performance increase over CF is quite noticeable. I really do like the ability to put 2 x 2Gb card in the camera and then shoot in excess of 400 RAWs without changing cards, although you do have to select the 2nd card when the 1st is full. This is quite surprising, as the 1DMkII N does provide dual write (RAW and jpg) and mirror write but not automatic switch over. Maybe we’ll see it it in a firmware upgrade.
The only minor niggle I have found is the lack of high shutter speed in Av mode. The 20D allows the use of a 1/250 sec shutter speed in aperture priority, so you get slightly better control over ambient light, whereas now I have to resort to manual and get creative.
The 1DMkII N also has numerous custom and personal parameter sets which are writeable to media, so once you have the camera set up the way you like it, e.g picture styles, AF sensitivity or a complete set of parameters for a specific type of photography, you can simply store and recall them. This is a godsend if you move to another 1DMkII N or share / hire your gear. The only downside is that the personal parameters are only accesible and adjustable via a pc/mac!
I’ve only really scrapped the surface with this short review. There really is a lot of flexibility and functionality that makes this a very rewarding photographic tool. So rather than ramble on with tech specs, here’s my initial conclusions:
Conclusions
Given that the price of the 1DMkII N is nearly 3x that of a 20/30D, I’d say its expensive, but its overwhelming functionality, responsiveness, rugged / weatherproof construction and 200,000 shutter life, IMO makes up for the price difference.
I’m hoping to get about 5-7 years out of this camera. So the ROI and longer depreciation period, makes the purchase a little more viable when compared to say my 20D, which after two years is looking closer to five years old.
The 8 mega pixel sensor may seem a tad dated in comparison to the 5D or any potential new model, but 8 mega pixels will yield a quality A3 print and that’s all I really need from it.
Some may say that I should have waited until the new year, as no doubt Canon will up the spec, but I look at it like this, most products are obsolete the day you buy them. So as a standalone product, I have the all benefits as outlined above and the ability to use it “now”. So the 1DMkII N easily exceeds my expectations and therefore I have to give it full marks!
Has it improved my photography?, I believe it has!
