Canon EOS-1D Mark II N

Opinion: I bought one of these on Ebay a week or so ago and having used it in anger at an event last weekend I already feel that I need to write this review to express how pleased I am with the purchase.

I've been using a 40D since 2008 with a 70-200 L lens to cover various running races. I have always been a bit disappointed with the keeper rate (50 to 60%) but thought that's the way it is. Then I bought a 5D for other purposes and found the focus to be more consistent than the 40, shocked.

Now I have the 1D2N and last weekend the keeper rate was greater than 90% - the AF is absolutely awesome so fast and so accurate, once customised to work how you like.

The image detail is fantastic too and it has true hardware support for fractional ISO values, so these are usable without having to worry about the under/over exposure trickery that the firmware is doing on lesser cams. Actual high ISO noise levels are pretty good, certainly good enough that LR 3 can remove most of it without destroying the image.

Bottom line is if you need the best AF for the money get one, good condition if you can find one.

Opinion: I bought this camera as a back up for my 5DMKII
Good lord , what a pleasant surprise , this machine has lightning fast AF and very good high iso performance .
The camera is heavy but feels very comfortable.
Also the jpeg quality is very good , detail is fantastic
Set the WB to 5600 in all outdoors conditions and it brings your beautiful warm colours.
Very happy. Fantastic piece of equipment , nowadays available for lovely prices.

Opinion: 1DII = 5D's chip (cropped), superb AF, 8fps,good LCD,bad JPEGs

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This is a review of the original 1D II (without N) copied for your convenience. JPEGs should be a little better with the N version, but I'd still use quick export from LR as advised below.
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In short: Here we are in the middle of 2010, and the 6 year old 1D Mark II is still a fantastic camera with hardly any usability drawbacks. JPEGs suck, high ISO isn't jaw dropping and it doesn't do video, but that's about it, in my opinion.

You could say the 1DII has the 5D's sensor (little cropped) with the 8.2um pixel array, but with great AF, ergonomics, short blackout time and 8fps. LCD resolution is still good (same as 1DMkIII...) - unique for a camera this old. But throw away the JPEGs!

I am a Nikon shooter (D50, shortly D80, shortly D3, now F100 & D40) but used to shoot with Canon (50E, 300D, shortly 40D). I am eyeing a Nikon D300 for its AF, but recently bought the 1DII because of the similar pro-caliber AF and because it was 60% price of a used Nikon D300 - a great deal with recently replaced shutter, no brassing and extra battery. D300 used price is still too high for my taste, and I also like to play with various cameras... I have an adapter for Nikon glass and also the Canon EF 50/1.8.

The 1D Mark II is in my opinion the oldest "old, cheap, but still great" Canon camera you can get and therefore the best bang for the buck. It's got a high resolution LCD with 230000 dots, which lets you check focus in the field. Even the Mark III's (sold new to this day) still have the same LCD resolution. The old 20D has 120000 dots only and the first prosumer Canon to get the better LCD is the 2 years newer 30D. (But then I'd maybe already get the 40D with its magnified live view etc.)

But back to the 1D Mark II. The pixel pitch is 8.2um - the same as the original 5D. I haven't seen the implications of this discussed, but I expect the pixel array to be exactly the same, and thus what you read about the 5D's image quality can be appropriated to 1DII, too. I don't think Canon did much if any tweaking to the array in the time between the two cameras' releases. If that was the case, the new tech would have gone into the 1D Mk II N in my opinion, and we all know the 1DII N's sensor is the same as the 1DII's. In the 20D to 30D transition Canon also didn't provide any sensel tweaks.

The pictures are just great. If you want to know more, read 5D reviews which there are more of than of the 1D II. That's about it for RAW image quality :) But stay away from the JPEGs! The JPG engine is doing the camera injustice. This has been reported early on e.g. by Rob Galbraith, but you have to see the difference between in-camera JPGs and Lightroom3 *automatic* rendering for yourself - then you'll understand why I'm using exclamation marks. In the light of Lightroom demosaicing, the camera JPGs are in my opinion throwaway, and if you shoot this camera in JPG, you are shooting yourself in the foot. It's astonishing how much LR3 automatic setting is better than the camera. My workflow is to shoot RAW, import into LR, apply AutoTone on everything, export into DNG with full size previews, and first then start looking and deleting non-keepers. That's extra 1 minute for 100 pictures + 3 minutes waiting for LR to finish the job to basically "get a new camera".

Couple more points:

I was worried about the user interface. I got used to it in 2 days fiddling with the camera and came to like it very much. Now I wonder how the newer 1D cameras handle and have doubts towards the new UI - similar to the doubts I had before getting the 1D II with the old UI, haha.

At the end of its life, the NiMH battery pack can be cut open and the cells replaced with off-the-shelf AA batteries, e.g. the much better Sanyo Eneloop AA's that don't self discharge.

There's a great feature called "Registered AF point", which lets you register a 'favorite' AF point somewhere in the frame. With some custom functions fiddling, you can have one button on the back of the camera initiate focus with the regularly selected point, and have another button set to tempoarily override that AF point selection and initiate focus with the "favorite" point instead. After the 2nd button is released, the AF point goes back to the regularly selected one.

The free 1Dcount utility calculates the shutter count from the EXIF codes (author's original site doesn't exist, but the 1dcount.zip can be googled). I read multiple reports that Canon service centers don't reset the shutter count when replacing shutters and that looks to be the case with my camera, too. -> Hard to tell how many actuations the camera has after shutter replacement if you buy it used. You can only estimate by invoice date or information from the seller.

Opinion: The image quality is impressive, with this high speed is the
camera with good results, as well as a strong body. Canon
Eos 1D Mark II N is still the best sister-in-class compared
with most recent.

Opinion: 8.2 mp and 8.5 frame per second in more than enough for me

Opinion: This is just a great camera! I have no real review available, there aren't really any
drawbacks with this workhorse!

With the nice high-ISO performance of the EOS-1D Mark III, one would want that into
Mark II N, but we can't get everything. :)

Opinion: This is an excellent workhorse camera. It's not for beginners. I went to this camera
for the auto-focus. I shoot primarily sports, and a lot of night high school football.
This means tough lighting conditions. It's a heavy camera, particularly with the 70-
200 lens, and a monopod is a necessity.
If you want to get a camera for point and shoot stuff, this isn't the camera. I would
also get a less expensive and complex camera if I was shooting less challenging
subject matter. However, the auto-focus, excellent image quality, and reliability make
it well worth the money.

Opinion: Great workhorse for a sports photographer. Instant AF. Ergonomics are superb, you don't feel the weight.

Opinion: I've been using a Nikon D200 with an 18-200 lens for most of my photography,
and it was time for me to invest in some quality glass. That also meant it was time
for me to decide between Nikon and Canon. The internal debate was excruciating.
The internet just has too much information that could swing a vote one way or
another. I chanced upon an opportunity to speak with someone who has used
both the D2X and the Canon professionally. What swung my vote for the 1D MKII
was the high ISO performance.

Now, after shooting over 1000 photos with the MKII, I can say that Nikon is a fond
memory. Canon is the tool I needed. I bought the 70-200 2.8 IS lens to go on
this body, and the images are astounding. Auto focus, even in low light, is supurb.
The weight of the camera is a function of the necessity for it to work in regions of
the world that are decidedly unfriendly to delicate electronics.

If you need the absolute best camera and lenses, then price is not your object. The
Mark II with the 70-200 2.8 is really just a super precision tool that does exactly
what you need it to do; take supurb pictures easily and effortlessly. If you buy any
other equipment, then it is just a compromise on price.