Canon EOS-1D Mark IICanon doubles the resolution of their speed demon SLR, while actually increasing its speed and cutting image noise. Amazing!<<Design :(Previous) | (Next): Sensor, Noise Reduction, and Optics>> Page 5:ViewfinderReview First Posted: 01/27/2005 |
Viewfinder
A TTL (Through
The Lens) optical viewfinder is the sole mechanism for composing images on the
Canon EOS-1D Mark II, as the 2.0-inch LCD monitor is purely for image review
and menu navigation. (This is typical of most SLRs, because by nature the light
path is either through the eyepiece or onto the CCD, with no provision for a
"live" LCD viewfinder display.) Fortunately, the optical viewfinder
on the Mark II offers a true 100 percent field of view, a relative rarity, even
among high-end SLRs. The optical viewfinder has a glass pentaprism design, using
a mirror to reflect the view from the lens, just as in a traditional SLR viewfinder
design. A full information overlay along the bottom and right of the viewfinder
window reports the current exposure settings, including shutter speed, aperture,
exposure compensation, and ISO, among other information. A circular black outline
at the center of the viewfinder window indicates the central spot-metering area,
(although as I'll explain later, the Mark II is capable of spot metering at
a number of locations within the field of view). A large, black elliptical outline
marks the boundaries of the autofocus area. A total of 45 discrete autofocus
sensors are distributed within this ellipse, and may be used singly or in combination
as I'll describe later, in the "Optics" section of this review. Active
AF points are normally invisible, illuminating red when the Shutter button is
half-pressed and focus is achieved at one or more of the points.
The amount of information conveyed by the Mark II's viewfinder readout is quite impressive, all the more so because the display is actually quite uncluttered and easy to understand. The illustration below (courtesy Canon USA) shows all the internal viewfinder displays and their functions. (Readers familiar with the EOS-1v film SLR or the previous EOS-1D will immediately recognize this display as being the same one used on those cameras.)
On the left side of the viewfinder eyepiece is a diopter adjustment dial, which
corrects the viewfinder display from -3.0 to +1.0 diopter units to accommodate
eyeglass wearers. The viewfinder has a moderately high eye point, meaning that
the view should be reasonably clear, even with fairly thick eyeglasses. (In
addition to the rather wide range of diopter adjustments available on-camera,
Canon also offers dioptric correction lenses for the viewfinder ranging from
-4 to +3 diopters in 10 steps. These clip on externally, and act in addition
to the built-in diopter adjustment, for a total range of -7 to +4 diopters.
If you can see well enough to pick up the camera, you should be able to see
through the viewfinder!) Nine interchangeable focusing screens are available
for the Mark II. On the right side of the viewfinder eyepiece is a small lever
that opens and closes a shutter behind the eyepiece. This prevents any additional
light from filtering into the camera through the viewfinder eyepiece during
long exposures on a tripod. The Mark II also features a removable eyecup that
fits over the viewfinder eyepiece, handy for high ambient light environments.
The 2.0-inch,
TFT color LCD monitor is used only for image playback and menu viewing, and
is made up of approximately 230,000 pixels. A brightness control offers five
brightness levels, helpful for improving viewing in excessively dark or bright
conditions. Images can be displayed with or without the relevant image information,
and the Mark II offers four- or nine-image index display modes. A very useful
feature is the optional Highlight Alert, which flashes overexposed sections
of the image gray/white during playback. An optional histogram display is also
available, which is handy for assessing overall exposure, though I've personally
found the blinking highlight display much more useful for showing where I've
blown out highlights. (The problem with a histogram display is that blown highlights
usually represent only a small percentage of overall image area, meaning it's
hard to pick them up on the histogram readout. A blinking area on the LCD playback
display is pretty hard to miss.)
The new RGB
Histogram also displays individual histograms, stacked one atop the other, one
for each color channel.
A feature
I'm pleased to see added to the Mark II's LCD display is a zoomed playback,
via the Magnify and Reduce buttons on the camera's rear panel. This is handy
for checking fine framing details, or even for checking focus and depth of field.
The Mark II offers magnification from 1.5x to 10x. The 10x magnification level
in particular is very useful for checking focus and depth of field.
Active Mirror Technology
As I mentioned earlier, the Mark II is incredibly fast, faster than most film
cameras. (Up to 8.1 frames per second, based on our actual measurements.) It
turns out that in normal situations, even the bounce of the mirror as it settles
back into position after each shot would prevent frame rates this high. To overcome
this, Canon developed "Active Mirror" technology for the EOS-1v model,
which uses active drive electronics to damp out mirror vibrations in half the
time that would be required otherwise. The sheer shot-to-shot speed of Active
Mirror technology is only part of the equation though -- because the mirror
moves so fast, the viewfinder blackout time between exposures is reduced to
only 45 milliseconds. The viewfinder remains very usable, even when the shutter
is clattering away at the maximum frame rate. Quite impressive, especially when
you consider that the mirror is really a two piece design, with a big half-mirror
that allows light through for the smaller sub-mirror behind it that reflects
light down to the AF sensors below. Both of these mirrors must come together
and flip up out of the way as often as 8.1 times per second.
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