You may or may not know Vincent Laforet. You have seen his work. He is an accomplished photojournalist. I've written about his work on our sister blog AppScout.com. His Katrina images are breathtaking.

Being a top-notch photographer has its benefits, including having the ear of and testing cameras for Canon. That's how Vincent ended up spending 72 hours with Canon's not quite production ready EOS 5D MKII and how he got the opportunity to blog about it! It is, to say the least, quite a camera.

"1. The 5D MKII camera produces the best stills in low light that I've ever seen - what you can see with you eye in the worst light (such as sodium-vapor street lights at 3 a.m. in Brooklyn) - this camera can capture it with ease.

2. It produces the best video in low light that I've ever seen - at 1080p. A top commercial film editor who who regularly edits RED camera footage - and has seen the raw footage from the 5D MKII - says the 5D MKII is "far superior to the RED camera" in terms of low light performance...

3. You can use your prime and zoom lenses from your Canon still cameras with it - and shoot wide open... so you can shoot films with fisheye lenses, 50mm 1.2 as well as the 200mm f2 or 400mm 2.8 that you may already own...

4. This camera is so easy to use - that you can work incredibly quickly, mostly handheld - without a huge production - and using natural light - ergo you don't need a huge budget and tons of preparation anymore... forget the lighting trucks and generators that take up entire city blocks...

5. This camera will sell for approx. $2,700 - and perform better than many $100K plus video cameras out there...

6. Photojournalists in particular - will be able to take full advantage of this camera's strengths - because they are used to walking into any room, and finding the best natural "available light" in the room - or knowing how to add a single light source to make it pop... they are used to working quickly and with small or no budgets... which is something this camera is begging you to do.

The 5D Mark II is a 21 Megapixel full-frame DSLR which shoots 1080p at 30 fps. If that sounds kinda sorta like Nikon's recent D90 you're right. But the complaints about the D90s "wavy" video started right away. That's the opposite of what Vincent found with this Canon.

"I was amazed at the video quality. I knew right away that this camera would be a success - and that this was something big - I felt that this was something that had the potential to change this industry."

His story of a weekend with this new camera is compelling reading--made better when he answers many of the comments posted to his blog and shows some stills pulled from video. This is no schlemiel who thinks he can shoot (aka - me). This is a hands on report from a major player who has seen the future. His life's work will now change because of one piece of hardware!

"I shot one still with a 400mm 2.8 of a silhouette of a woman.... a beautiful woman - a model - and you could literally count the hairs on her face in a full head profile... at 3200 ASA -with close to ZERO noise... this camera is STUNNING - I'm not throwing around expletives needlessly here"