Well, it's here...

[john clark]

<p>Received my 5D mkII body, only my second dSLR after the 10D I bought in 2003. <br>

I have to say that it's extremely early days to be posting anything at all, as by the time I got in from work, unpacked and fully charged the battery, it was 8pm and the light was going. Nevertheless, I was very impressed by hand-held photos in very dim light - ISO 6400 with my 50/1.4 at f2 seems immensely usable. Sure, low light AF isn't great, but with care it can be done and it seems to hunt less than the 10D would so it's an incremental improvement even if not a revolutionary step forward.<br>

I wanted to thank everyone who helped me make the decision, and to those who whet my appetite to make the (not inexpensive) jump. I am sure going to have fun with this one!<br>

john</p>

[carnagex_carnagex]

<p>Congrats on the camera. (As with you I thought the low light AF hunt would be a problem, but just as when I owned a 10D, I use a Canon ST-E2, and AF accuracy is now near perfect)</p>

[mike_stemberg]

<p>I use the 'original' 5D ...and I fully recommend the use of the ST-E2 too! There is a limit to what distance it remains effective, but if something is within range it works well!</p>

[hjoseph7]

I wish I could say that ! congrats

[JDMvW]

<p>Congratulations and thanks for letting us know how it turned out.</p>

<p> </p>

[ian_turek]

<p>Nice coincidence. I also just received my 5DmkII after great comments from this forum members. This is also my second DSLR; first being 10D! I am absolutely blown by the quality of the pixs taken by this camera. So far, being in a continuous Seattle area rain I have been able to only test the higher ISO settings in lower light conditions and I am amazed. Also the FF wider lens coverage is fantastic. A super happy owner so far and tons of new experiences ahead of me yet.</p>

[philip_wilson]

<p>I find that there is a big image quality drop between ISO 3200 and ISO 6400. If you are impressed at ISO 6400 wait until you see ISO 100!</p>

[john clark]

<p>First image uploaded :-)<br>

<img src="http://www.oktapod.com/uploads/sorren-played-guitar-toned.jpg" alt="" /><br>

This is ISO3200, a square crop, 17-40/4L at f4, 1/30s. I desaturated and added a slight vignette and border, plus mild toning in PS3. Oh, and I didn't take this - it was my wife (I am the owner of the larger hand!)</p>

[model mayhem gallery]

<p>Welcome to the FFF (Full Frame Family). I am surprised at how many people are impressed with the High ISO of this camera. I was much happier with the fact this is one of the few digital camera's on the market which can shoot at ISO 50. This low ISO allows me to use me really fast lenses like the 85 1.2 wide open outdoors. I find that to be more valuable to me than the high ISO as I just don't like the noise look when above ISO 3200. My friend has a Nikon which can only go as low as ISO 200, when shooting in studio with a black background at ISO 200 the background will look grey because you will get too much ambient or bounced light. At ISO 50 the fall off from your main strobe is so short and things become true black much easier. In any case that's what I like best about my 5D2.</p>

[john clark]

<p>Interesting. I'd like to update my last post - it's actually ISO1600, not 3200 as I'd thought. Still exceptionally low noise, even in the colour version - and last night I was able to take some shots in near darkness with the 85/1.8 (although had to manually focus - the 5D2's AF isn't useful at all in very low light levels).</p>