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“Extremely durable, very fast response”

written by photoman on 01/02/2012

Canon EOS 1D Mark II was the best camera at its time for sports photography.
I own EOS 1D mark II - not the N model, the main difference between the two that N was slightly updated with larger LCD screen and some additional presets for the picture.

Camera is very well built, it has extremely durable magnesium alloy body with weather seals. It has extremely durable shutter with MTBF of 200,000 clicks - very impressive for its time. Camera body is heavy, approximately 1.5KG with the battery. Camera has very impressive professional look.
Camera is based on EOS 1V film camera body with built in vertical grip.
For some camera may feel solid as rock and for some too heavy, especially with flash (additional 0.5KG) and heavy telephoto lens (+1.5KG).
There are two memory slots, one for CF and one for SD - camera is able to write simultaneously on both of them, user selectable JPEG and RAW goes to which card what.

Auto focus is amazingly fast, even with lenses that have not a ring but micro ultra sonic focus motor. Very fast shutter response and very short mirror blackout. It is able to shoot full resolution 8.2MP at 8.5fps - incredible for its time so you will never miss the moment.
Canon EOS 1D MkII was the fastest shooting high resolution digital SLR camera of its time.

Sensor has 8.2 affective pixels, provides plenty of detail and great colors. The crop factor is X1.3 (Canon APS-H), it gives some advantage over full frame for shooting far objects. Camera cannot accept EF-S lenses that were intended for X1.6 (Canon APS-C) cameras. It works will full range of Canon EF lenses.

The operation of camera controls made very robust, so user will not change any settings accidentally, most of settings are operated with combination of couple buttons. It is a little bit annoying to change some settings, especially for users who got used for lower end Canon cameras.

Summary: absolutely fantastic camera, with relatively great image quality and superior performance.
Why I wouldn't recommend one to a fried? Because if you are sports photographer, you'll need one of the next generation cameras from this series, and if you are an amateur, you can get more resolution and a full frame sensor for the same or even lower price. But I'm a camera collector, and it is very impressive camera for me. I usually take shots with my EOS 5D which is smaller but has a full frame sensor, lighter and provides higher resolution and level of detail. Also, most of these cameras used by professionals as it was very expensive (4000$+), so they done many clicks on their shutter and cameras are pretty worn by now.
This is my favorite camera in the collection.