Hello what a glorious day it is today!
Fantastic day to be buying a brand new camera - I say brand new, it's not very brand new at all,
it's very brand used - 250 pounds ($330), I got this camera in an evidence bag.
Let me show you what it is once I stop driving.
Yes, couldn't wait, I mean they put it in a see-through bag for christ's sake - what'd
you expect? I had to stop off in a random car park in the middle of nowhere and unravel this beauty -
that's probably the first time i've ever said that sentence - but yes what camera do I have?
Well let me tell you this: I saw this thing listed for 250 pounds and I knew right away that I had to
get it; I had to drive as fast as the speed limit could allow me to and pick this up before somebody
else could, but what can 250 pounds get you today? Well, Canon EOS R5 battery - two of them - or one
EOS R control ring adapter. Well I didn't get either of those but what did 250 pounds get me?
Well it got me something with a full frame sensor; it got me something with a Canon badge and it is
one of the most important digital cameras ever, it's an absolute legend: the Canon 5D Mark II.
This thing wasn't just a game changer; it got bored of the old ones, set fire
to it and created a whole new game. The 5D Mark II meant a lot to many because it was
one of the first DSLRs that opened up a world of creative video possibilities;
I say one of the first because the first digital SLR to do that was actually a D90,
but nobody remembers that - well maybe you might remember this D90. It's got a full frame sensor;
it's got 1080p HD video recording; it's got Canon colour science - that is a formidable
formula right there, so formidable they didn't really improve on that much right up until the
day that I left digital rev tv eight years later. Well these days Canon doesn't make
a world cup length wait for another new camera; they've got 8K now which would make the hHD video
from this look a little bit mushy but you know this 5D Mark II is still a scorcher of a camera.
Let's not forget that this 14 year old camera is still a fantastic stills camera
at just 250 pounds. Yes it does have a big flippy flappy mirror that makes an almighty noise but
I like them loud. It feels like something is actually happening when you press that button and
the images happen to be more than sufficiently sharp by modern day standards. It's just that
modern day trends would deem this body too bloated and big. If you're minuscule of muscle and you're
worrying about the weight of this camera, then there's nothing to worry about because it really
isn't all that heavy, especially when you put a prime lens like this on. There are some lighter
mirrorless lens options but sometimes when you compare similar lenses, the lighter weight of
the mirrorless body is balanced out with a heavier bigger lens. In my opinion it feels more stable,
better balanced when the weight and mass is more towards the body and the grip. well
it just can't be a grip like this they don't make grips like they used to a
and one thing i absolutely love are the dials not only they feel great but they sound pretty
damn awesome i mean that sound right there better than the sound on some omega bezels
a very simple pleasure but a very simple camera there really isn't much to it considering this is
a hybrid camera where it takes stills and video just check out the menu system but if you go to
the first menu what have you got you can change from raw to jpeg and back again beep on or off
look for still shooter it's got pretty much all you need in a nice simple easy to use
interface and canon were doing that ages ago sony sounds like somebody needs a pcr test anyway
these things are built like tanks just watch this so you could just whip the camera out
in and out whip it probably whipped out now it just goes to show you
properly tough
unplanned
so there you go top tips don't keep whipping something in and out
either have it in or out always that happens one day it will fall off oh dear so yeah
i like it even more now the great thing is you don't need to baby this thing it's a tool
lets you focus on doing the photo bit not worrying about scratching the damn thing
this one has taken a mere 21 000 shots which makes it practically new shut to life is 150 000 maybe
more but even the tech within this camera it's a 14 year old camera isn't all that bad sure it's
not omg but it certainly isn't oap it's got a smidgen over 20 megapixels which is plenty of
pixel power for peaks to be looking at your picks online 21 megapixels is not an inadequate amount
of megapixels 24 megapixels is quite standard even today it's still more than enough pixels to play
with so long as you don't crop much the af system however might not be enough for modern standards
which i'll get to right after this sponsored message even if photography is a hobby for you
you can make money from your photos not just your photos your video files and your vector
file as well by using wirestock all you have to do is simply upload your photo and they get
distributed to all the major marketplaces all that is done from one single free account and
the royalty rates are higher than usual and all wire stock takes is 15 only when your photo sells
so why not give a try yeah so this is the auto focusing test i thought i was going to do outside
but it's babysitting day today so i'm doing at home with the kids toys all right here we go
now for this test the lego train therefore i'd be saying this
is going round around the circuit as soon as the train comes around the corner lines up
dead center in the middle frame because i'm using the center af point i'll hit the button to focus
and shoot to see how quick it is to react to something that suddenly just appears in the frame
it's not moving very fast to be honest but it is very close range so let's see the 5d2 has nine air
points in a diamond formation pretty much in the center of the frame i'm using just the center af
point which is what i mostly used anyway it's the only cross tight point testing the focusing going
from infinity to the subject that suddenly appears on the center airpoint the 5d2 just lags a little
behind not atrociously so but although the latest sony af system isn't completely in focus either
it is a lot closer to the mark and for continuous focus ai focus yeah nobody bothered using it
anyway is a no go with tracking the subject losing focus quite quickly whereas ai servo
puts in a decent performance of sticking to a subject again it doesn't track as accurately as
modern day sony af but this camera is ancient and is a fraction of its cost you can still take great
shots even with the most rudimentary of focusing systems if you learn how to make use of it
right so i have a slight confession to make this bit was not shot on the same day
as that bit just then because the audio messed up that day
somehow the billing video was fine but the audio on the 5d bit didn't get any so shooting again
anyway here we are again same clothes same place and the 5d mark ii
now even though it's sunnier today it is cold it's super cold and i've decided to wear the
same clothes as the other day to make the footage blended and even though i've just ruined the magic
by telling you they were shown different days but anyway i'm freezing my nips off tmi auto
focusing system if that's too old for you why not go the other way and use manual focus lenses
because the 5d mark ii is a great camera for that yes indeedy forget mirrorless if you want to mount
legacy slr glass canon is the way because the canon ef mount is one of the shorter
flange distances compared to other slrs it's got a flange distance of 44 millimeters the pentax k
and m42 mount is 45.46 contacts is 45.5 then you've got m system which is 46 millimeters
nikon 46.5 and then like our 47 millimeters so any of those that i just mentioned you can put
on the canon thanks to an adapter now you're probably thinking why not canon manual focus
lenses why other brands well pre-erased there was the fd mount but that is a shorter flange distance
so therefore we can't mount that on the eos system but another thing that makes fighting
mark two great for manual focus lenses is that if you look inside here there's a little notch here
right there it has user replaceable focusing screens so you can swap this one out
for one that's a bit better for manual focusing or you can use something like focusing screens.com
not an ad and get a split level focusing screen and then slot that right in
you can't do that with the 5d mark 3 because they took away that user replaceable focusing screen
so yes in my humble opinion this right here is probably the best dslr not only just the
best dslr probably the best digital camera for mounting old slr lenses because if you mount on
mirrorless you get this kind of long metal tube in between the lens and the body which looks
quite frankly ugly and stupid but of course one thing is you don't get peaking mode you've got
live view mode but if you want the full experience then use the viewfinder because that's kind of the
whole point of a dslr unless you're shooting video then you use live view there's really
not many settings for video now you get like loads of frame rate options loads of resolution options
because getting to a point where those high continuous burst rates are essentially
high resolution video but really if you're just looking at stills
this really is still fantastic camera this could be a great first camera your only camera perhaps
the only camera you ever need as long as all you're interested in is photography this is
perfect it's perfectly priced spend less on the body spend more on great glass but even better
spend more on having an interesting life because that is ultimately how you take interesting photos
but the thing is as consumers we get sucked into that we think that we need high resolution video
and faster frame rates because the marketing people told us we need it but really if you just
want to take some nice photos you don't need a fancy camera 250 pound camera that will do