When looking at today’s page in my agenda it stated “dinner with Gert & Ingeborg in Antwerp”. Unfortunately something came up, postponing our dinner, so I had nothing planned for tonight. Left & right I was hearing rumours about a Canon event in Anderlecht, a bloggers hands-on meeting where people would be able to test the brand spanking new, not yet available, Canon 5D Mark II, organised by the people of Canon & Adhese.

Too bad I didn’t receive an invitation . Being a Canon fanatic (I own a 5D, a 1D Mark IIn & a 1D Mark III) I had been looking forward to the new 5D Mark II for a long time now and I really, really, really wanted to test this amazing camera. But, no invitation … Time to contact some people from the Belgian photography underworld . Don Bert was, after paying some serious bribes ;-), willing & able to get me into the event. Event ? Sorry, I meant Canon Heaven !!!!! Besides the brand new 5D Mark II they brought a whole lot of camera’s & lenses that people could freely test & play around with.

Lately, the Canon 200mm F2L made a frequent appearance in my wildest dreams. Dreams being the key word in that sentence, since it comes with a price tag of 5600euro, making sure it won’t be in my camera bag any time soon . Much to my amazement, upon entering the studio, I noticed this beauty on the shelve & not even 5 seconds later it was already on my 5D & I was shooting portraits all around the room, sporting a huge grin on my face. This lens is tha bomb !

Ofcourse, everybody wanted to test the long awaited 5D Mark II, so people where standing in line. I almost ripped it out of Thomas Bouve’s hands, but managed to control myself and waited till he finished playing with it (it wasn’t easy though :p ).
From the moment I touched the camera, it was Love at first sight, and after a few test shots I knew this was a match made in heaven !
The 5D Mark II feels a bit more sturdy than the “old” 5D. The shutter became more silent (which is a dream for a wedding photographer like me), the high ISO images are fan-tastic & it being able to shoot high definition video is awesome !

I took a few test shots at ISO 6400 and these are, much to my amasement, GREAT !!!! The perfekt camera for a wedding photographer that loves to shoot available light : moi !

Also, a great added bonus was meeting the many bloggers that where present. I knew many of them because I read their blogs, but now I can finaly add a face & voice to their name.

Some of the bloggers that where there (I “borrowed” the following list from Pieter Baert) : Ine, Ake, Michel, Bruno, Karel, Bert, Nico, Thomas, Luc, Michaël, Serge, Pieter & Arthur
For those of you who want to read more about the event, watch some test shots or just want to visit the blogs of some great photographers : make sure to pay their blogs a visit !

Some shots from tonight : (taken with my 5D)

Thomas shooting one of the 2 models that where present

Mister Serge Shadow

Serge, Arthur, Ake & Thomas

Pieter trying to shoot with a Canon camera (+ tilt/shift lens)

Bert, giving a small Shakespeare performance

Bert holding my baby

Another one with Bert, his 450D and my dream lens

Ake, shot with my 5D and the 200mm F2L @ F2

Arthur, shot with my 5D and the 200mm F2L @ F2

Thomas, shot with my 5D and the 200mm F2L @ F2