If you've followed my blog much you'll probably note that I'm not much for 'equipment debate'. Lots of folks do enjoy arguing the various merits of this camera system over that and it's understandable as everyone wants the inside scoop on the best tools.

Frankly though, while I think the right equipment is important, I believe your photography skills are far more important. Anyway, any 'major brand' DSLR you can currently buy, be it Canon, Nikon, or Sony is going to be a great piece of equipment. :)

Still, once in a while a camera or lens comes along which is simply so outstanding it deserves mention.

This happened the first time when Canon released the legendary 5D, the first 'affordable' full frame DSLR and one with an almost unmatched tone curve and imaging characteristics (some argued it surpassed canon's much more expensive top of the line 1DS).

The 5D immediately became a favorite among architectural photographers (I use one and love it!).

The marketplace being competitive Canon hasn't been resting on their heels.

Please welcome the 5D MKII:

What makes this camera so special anyway? Let's look at some basic stats:

• 21.1 megapixels, (while more is not always better when it comes to resolution the 5D's wonderful image quality makes this new 21mp sensor quite exciting. It's well beyond what is needed for most images which gives good opportunioty to crop down where necessary)
• 14 bit A/D conversion per channel (this is huge...almost all current DSLR's operate on a 12 bit per channel color conversion, 14bit means much smoother gradiations - keep in mind medium format body's top out at 16bit! They better watch out...)
• 25,600 ISO! this is jaw dropping low light performance (the current 5D is a low light master yet tops out at a mere 3,200 ISO. The new 5D gives us 3 more stops of light we can shoot out without flash etc)
• 3.9 frames per second, this is almost 25% faster than the current 5D and at almost twice the resolution to boot. Impressive
• Built in dust cleaner, full frame sensors attract a lot of dust. It's a fact. The current 5D as always had dust issues, a built in cleaner will very valuable.
• Improved weather seal, This may not be a big deal for many folks but coming from a person who shot a wedding in a rain forest...I appreciate these kinds of details.
• It shoots HD video! Strictly speaking this doesn't realy apply to a work function (for me anyway) but I think it could turn into a lot of fun. It shoots at full HD @ 1920x1080px up to 30 minutes worth.
• Automatic light fall off correction, certain lens situations will cause a darkening around the edges of the image due to light fall off...the new 5D 'knows' when one of these lenses is attached and will automatically correct the darker portion if desired.
• Highlight and shadow optimization, The camera has a mode where it looks at the shot and does it's best to preserve highlight detail as well as bring out shadow information for a more well rounded image.
• Improved view finder, the view through the glass is now 98% accurate to the image dimensions getting ever closer to the holy grail 1:1

There's quite a few other improvements I won't cover in depth, high res lcd on back, improved shutter life, quiet shutter modes, new raw sizes, improved battery life etc.

I dare say this is one of the finest cameras for arch. available and certainly the best value when the price is factored in.

Did I mention it costs less than the original 5D when it was released? A mere $2,700 at release.

I plan to get two, maybe three. ;)

Cheers, -B