Canon EOS 5D Mark II 21.1 MP Digital SLR Camera - Black (Body Only)

It delivers good picture quality, good autofocus and light metering.

Canon changed its format raw a little bit, so much so my existing software cs3 can not read, I had to buy an update of cs4 in order to accomodate the new raw format. That adds up to increased cost of using the camera.

The extra "original" battery costs too much, luckily there are substitutes that are more reasonable, but then they require a different charger and is not recognized by the camera on the screen.

This is by far the best camera I have ever owned. Not only does it feel great in your hand when taking pictures, it takes just awesome pictures. You can take pictures with a high ISO and still get beautiful pictures.

Now the best part.... It also takes great video. Canon just released a firmware upgrade that fixed one of my only complaints about the video. Prior to the firmware upgrade, when you shot video you had no manual control over shutter speed, aperture, etc. The latest release of firmware solves that problem.

With this camera, you can get the "look" of a film camera. Something you can not easily get with a regular video camera.

Bottom line. This camera Rocks!

This is an outstanding camera. High resolution, great ISO range, HD video and many other features. I am using it w/ the 24-70 and 70-200mm canon lenses. Unfortunately for me, I am having focus problems with this particular unit. Very soft images at best. I am having the lenses calibrated to the body. Frankly I don't think one should have to do this with an expensive prosumer camera NIB ! I am very disappointed. What good are 21 megapixels that are out of focus ! The AF system is archaic compared to Canon's other models and esp. compared to Nikon D3 and D700 full frame cameras. I would probably not buy this camera. I know many owners of the original Canon 5D who are keeping their old cameras when buying the new MarkII, because they prefer the old 5D for portrait work. I was planning to use the 5dMkII primarily for landscape work with the large sensor, so I hope I can resolve the problems I am having.
Canon should be ashamed of their QC compared to their competition.

rg rawlins

It's a great camera, new, exactly what is specified, but it is a grey market camera not a USA waranteed version, they say this in the listing in more or less words but I somehow missed that, so the software is for asia not USA. I happen to already have the software so I wasn't worried, but it was a little annoying and I Can see it being frustrating for others. The instruction booklet is a different size than the standard usa Canon booklets, but it's still got all the info you need. The other stuff that came with it is of course of lesser quality, but hey it's free stuff that comes with a nice camera, so keep it or sell it back to ebay LOL. All in all a fine product from Canon and a worthwhile price when you can't even get one from the stores you can get one from these guys.

A lot of sales hype to push this camera has turned out to be only Hype.
Positives:
full frame sensor is the main feature that excels this body above the 10D
Ability to use wide angle lens full capacity is very helpful.
Extra bright and large viewing screen is very nice especially when checking for focus after the exposure.
Histogram showing both exposure and color balance is really nice.
Negatives: shutter noise is noticeably 3 times louder than the 10D. A critical disadvantage to wildlife photographers who need absolute quiet or wedding photographers who want to take some photos during the ceremony without being noticed. It sounds like my old Nikon F2AS.
Live view is basically useless. Auto focus in this mode might as well be non existent better to focus by hand. Do not rely on live view to check your focus. It's ok for checking composition or camera position with the grid lines but these errors are easily corrected in photoshop so its not critical to get it perfect just leave yourself enough room to crop and turn the image.
If you accidentally depress the focus button (af-on) when taking a photo it will lock you out and will not allow you to release the shutter. This button is placed right under your thumb and it's an easy mistake to make. Suddenly you camera doesn't work and you don't know why.
If you want to attach an external flash (not hot shoe) you will have a big hunk of rubber (the cover) flapping around while you shoot.
Auto focus has a mind of its own making the only reliable usable setting dead center. This is especially true with longer lens applications of 200mm and up.
simply focus your subject hold the shutter and then compose the shot.
Image sharpness drastically falls off when shooting in lower quality settings M1 M2 S1 S2
Only "Canon" batteries are allowed to communicate with the camera to show remaining battery life. Off market brands that cost 1/10th the price can be used in the camera but you have to guess how much battery life you have left.
Movie mode uses an unbelievable amount of memory and will fill a 1 gig card in just a few minutes of shooting time. Quality is no better than point and shoot cameras with video capability and auto focus just doesn't happen in video mode.
Count on extremely blurry video if you use this camera for that.
PRICE of this NON professional toy camera is extremely over the top.
Side by side photos with the 10D body and the 5D Mark II of the same subject blown up to 8x10 using the same lens, memory card, camera settings, lighting etc showed little detectable difference in sharpness, color quality and detail. While the 5D does produce a sharper image with greater detail in the shadows and fewer over exposed blowout images the difference could only be detected by the absolute purest.
All in all....the above being said I like the camera and even though I think it's overpriced Im going to keep it and work around the disadvantages and enjoy the full use of my wide angle lenses.
Im a photographer, I can use any camera and take a great shot.