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Education

Is the Canon 5D Mk II Still Great in 2025?

Chris Gampat
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Last updated on 04/22/2025
06/04/2025
3 Mins read
A Canon camera with three lenses and a remote control, arranged on a black leather surface.
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With the world being what it is, we’ve been looking at older and retro cameras for inspiration in the same way that people have searched for it before. Many modern cameras make photography very easy, so much so that we don’t often need to think all that much anymore. And if we don’t need to think anymore, then why have us at all? Well, that’s the concern of so many photographers. Thankfully, DSLRs like the older Canon 5D Mk II are still very capable. Many years ago, I called it the perfect DSLR that Canon made. I even chose it over the third and fourth iterations. And here’s what you should know about it.

Summary

  • Files from the Canon 5D Mk II are still very easy to edit in Lightroom
  • Canon’s metering from back then makes a photographer want to overexpose because it, by nature, underexposes the image
  • The autofocus of the camera is awful compared to what we have today
  • There aren’t a lot of details from the RAW files when you try to zoom in 100% in Lightroom
  • The color versatility is still very good
  • The Raw file versatility isn’t all that bad
  • It’s a pretty affordable camera.

Why Get a Canon 5D Mk II in 2025?

So, what are the reasons why you’d get the Canon 5D Mk II in 2025? Well, here are a bunch:

  • It completely removes things like subject and face detection
  • You often have to use just the middle focusing point and then recompose unless somehow or another you’ve nailed the focus with the out-of-focus points.
  • The lower resolution of the lenses and the sensor gives you much better-looking skin compared to today’s cameras
  • Looking through an optical viewfinder is a great way to escape looking at screens the way that we do all the time now — providing that you’ve got the eyesight and the right diopter adjustments
  • It will force you to shoot fewer frames, especially if you’re shooting only one frame a second

On top of all this, the Canon 5D Mk II comes from an era where we put a lot more emphasis on stills over video. And specifically, it only shot 1080P HD video at 24p and 30p.

But perhaps best of all, it makes you work for your photographs in a way that modern mirrorless cameras don’t make you do. For example, there’s the removal of the exposure preview mode — which can be disabled in mirrorless cameras, but most people don’t do it. On top of that, you’re much more inclined to shoot a single frame a second because the shutters tend to be much more loud compared to mirrorless cameras. So in every single way, you have to be a lot more intentional about shooting with this camera than you do with even some of the earliest mirrorless full-frame cameras.

I can say from experience that when I started using the earliest Sony a7 series cameras, I was in love with the eye-detection autofocus that made composition and focus so much better. DSLRs didn’t have that — and so subjects shot with DSLRs often tended to be gravitating more towards the center of the frame.

As much as that breaks many traditional photography rules, there’s something about how beautiful those images looked from back in the day.

Sample Images

Panasonic S9 sample images. Credit: Chris Gampat
Woman in a white tank top lights a drink on fire, with a bottle and glass of water on the table.
Panasonic S9 sample images. Credit: Chris Gampat
A woman lights a flame over a glass on a table with a bottle, a glass of water, and a plate.
Panasonic S9 sample images. Credit: Chris Gampat
Woman lighting a drink on fire in a glass, with a bottle and glass of water on the table in front of her.
Panasonic S9 sample images. Credit: Chris Gampat
Young woman with long brown hair sits on a black couch, smiling with her hands under her chin.
Panasonic S9 sample images. Credit: Chris Gampat
Panasonic S9 sample images. Credit: Chris Gampat
A woman in gray lingerie leans against a doorframe in a softly lit room with wooden cabinets.
Panasonic S9 sample images. Credit: Chris Gampat
Pro Tip: We recommend that you communicate with the person that you’re photographing first to get insight as to what they want. Some headshots are more corporate oriented while others are for comp cards, actor profiles, and dating websites.
Person lying on grass in a park, surrounded by soft sunlight, with a dreamy expression and blurred background.
camera canon Canon 5D Mk II image quality lightroom
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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