As I wrote in my profile until now I only used Nikon DSLRs in the past. Therefore I don´t have any experience with Canon SLRs. I bought a 5DMarkII which is still in the box. I only will open it on christmas. But I study the manual (downloaded from the internet - see below), and I have a few questions, which I almost don´t dare to pose to you the experienced users.


1.) The camera only can take images when the AF has achieved focus although you press the shutter button straight down.and/or If you aim a subject and press the shutter button directly straight down without waitung until the camera has achieved focus the camera will not take a picture. And when you shoot continuously and the camera loses the subject, it stops even when C.FnIII-1 is set to (0) -search on. Is that right?


2.) As I like to take snapshots I like always to be prepared for. Therefore I should like to set the settings as follows most of the time: Drive Mode - continuous shooting / AF AI focus (I don´t talk about metering and ISO speed) Are there reasons why I shouldn´t do that. Can this setting be set as one the C1/C2/C3 ? That would be very conviened because I could switch to One shot or another C(2-3) setting immediately


3. The 5DMark II features 3 different levels of RAW files. RAW files can be processed lossless. But my question is: If I use RAW 2 the file is not larger than Jpeg S in terms of the printing size. Why use this compression as well as RAW 1. If bought a FF Camera and using the compressed Raw files I cut if down to APS-C. Is that right, or do I make a mistake?


I think about capturing JPEG and RAW of the same picture. The advantage of a RAW is obvious. Nevertheless I will capture JPEGs because most or the majority of the images must not be changed. But for those which have to be processed, I will use the RAW file, convert to JPEG and then throw the RAW file to the trash. What do you think about that?


4. This has nothing to do with the camera itself: What is your experience in terms of sRGB vs RGB. Until today I only used sRGB. Most of my pictures are displayed on my monitor which doesn´t cover RGB. I did test photos and printed them (Epson Stylus R2400 - I don´t know if this model is sold in the US; the color management of this printer supports RGB) Compared with the sRGB Photos of the same subject, the RGB photos were significantly more colorful, i.e. the color saturation was better. Your experiences?


So it´s enough for now. Thank you in advance for you answers.


PS: You should be glad to live in the US because the information about Digital photography is much better than in Germany.