The first thing I noticed about the 5D Mark II once out of the box was that the camera feels a little more substantial than the original 5D. I believe it’s a little more rigid and slightly heavier. I didn’t do a crash test or weigh the cameras, but this is my observation of the build quality.
The viewfinder is nice, big, and bright. I do prefer the viewfinder on the 1Ds Mark III because it protrudes further away from the body and helps keep my nose from being smashed into the back of the camera.
In my experience thus far the battery life is impressive. I’ve been able to shoot about 650 raw files on a single charge without the battery dwindling. On the video side I operated the camera for about an hour shooting just video and the charge on a single battery went down to about 30% or so. I do not intend to get the battery grip for this camera, because I want to keep size down for this particular body. So I am impressed by the performance. As always though, you should carry at least two batteries with you at all times.
Very quickly I was able to determine that the image resolution and sharpness was deadly similar between the 5D Mark II and the 1Ds Mark III. This makes sense because they are indeed the same sensor technology. However, I am noticing something that is just very slightly different between the two images. It would appear to me that the 5D Mark II seems to be perceptually brighter than the 1Ds Mark III and for whatever reason the 1Ds Mark III, even with the same lens, holds a slightly bluer look to it. Perhaps it’s a new bayer filter tint coming into play.
