Canon EOS 50D
- This topic has 17 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated Apr 21, 2009 at 4:27 pm by
.
-
Posts
-
This may not be a direct answer to your questions, but heres my experience…
I am shooting with a 30D, my brother is shooting with a 40D that i have done some test driving with, and i got to play with a 50D.
Do what i did when i couldn’t decide on my last lens… order both from a decent place with a return policy, play with them for a week, and send one back!
I have the 40D and love it. I do not see the color cast that Eric is refering to. Without upgrading to one of the XD bodies, which I cannot afford, I cannot think of a single reason for me to consider upgrading to the 50D.
That being said, whenver I have upgraded, I buy the latest technology in the class I am buying, it has been the XXD so far, knowing that I will be keeping the body for 4-5 years.
I can’t help with this much because I’ve used none of the cameras – but I will make the point that every time Canon make an upgrade you get much faster processing speed in the camera, much better menus and better battery life.
In my last upgrade from 1DsII’s to III’s for example, battery life has gone from 400 frames to 3000 – 4000 frames.
And the batteries are lighter.
The menu is MUCH better and the camera writes bigger files to the cards at twice the speed.
In image quality there’s no contest – the new camera romps the older one in every respect.
Mind you, that’s not too say the older model is bad, it’s just not as good as the new – time moves on in digital.The noise issues with the 50D vs the 40D is a lot to do with pixel density – in reality the 50D is very good for it’s resolution, but maybe not a huge leap over the 40, like all this stuff, I wouldn’t get too bogged down in what the pixel nerds say and have a look for yourself.
😉www.dsaphoto.com
A picture is thousand words that takes less than a second while a thousand words is a picture that takes a month.
A big thank you to everyone who responded. I decided on Wednesday to pull the trigger and order a 50D. I got it yesterday (amazing shipping time from Amazon.com since I only paid for regular shipping) and so far I’m very impressed. The biggest improvements I’ve seen are as follows.
1. Much faster shutter speed over my 300D. I can take pictures of my daughters almost faster than they can move (a huge improvement). Couple this with the burst capacity and I can shoot enough images to have my choice of the best rather than settling for what I got with my 300D.
2. Faster AF over my 300D. It focuses much faster and is much more responsive if the subject moves.
3. Better metering. I always had trouble with the meter in my 300D. This may be a unit specific problem or a general body problem as I know others who have had similar issues. My shots were always way overexposed or under exposed and getting a happy medium was a real challenge. My daughters were playing outside yesterday (88 here in Ft. Worth) and I was able to get excellent shots in both bright sunlight and shade.
4. Better flash exposures. I was amazed at how well the on camera flash worked compared to the flash on my 300D. I think this is a product of the better meter, but I was getting better exposures with the on camera flash than I had ever gotten with the on camera flash or my external 430EX flash on the 300D. I put the 430EX on the unit and continued to be impressed by the flash exposures.All of these are items I expected to be impressed by but here are a few that I didn’t expect.
1. The Quick Control Screen activated via the multi-controller. You can still use the normal buttons, but it is much easier to push the multi-controller, switch to what you want to change and spin the quick control wheel to change it. I found myself using this constantly to quickly change picture styles, metering mode, etc.
2. Image review. The amount of data you can display about the picture when reviewing images is impressive. Also an improvement is that my setting is retained unlike on my 300D where I had to reset it every time I reviewed an image.
3. Auto ISO. Seemed to do a good job at choosing the proper ISO for a shot. A vast improvement for someone who just really doesn’t fully understand the whole ISO thing and can’t seem to set it properly manually (as many of my 300D shots will attest!).So far I haven’t really found anything I don’t like about the unit, but I’m sure over time I will. As to my original issue of pixel noise I shot @ large/fine jpg and the amount of noise in the images even at “actual pixel” size was minimal compared to my 300D. Some of the shots I got were at ISO 1600 and the visible noise was less than on my 300D at ISO 200; a huge improvement.
John had asked some really good questions, so based on limited experience I’ll try and answer them. The LCD screen is certainly worth the upgrade price IMHO but it may not be for you. Even outside in bright sunlight it was easy to see and review images with the brightness set to 50%. As to file size the images are about 3 times larger than with my old 300D (to be expected). As I was not shooting RAW I can’t compare to the 15MB image file size, but so far it is acceptable. As to upgrading your system that comes down to personal preference I think. I’m an IT guy so I have a pretty beefy desktop and my laptop is overkill for what most people do with them (though a little underpowered for how I use it). I keep most of my images on a RAID array on my desktop and also archive them to DVD (store offsite) and on a portable HD for extra protection. I’m sure as I shoot more large images I’m going to have to upgrade my HD, but with 1 TB HDs running as low as $100 it isn’t much of a stretch to get a lot of storage very easily. Just my .02.
Again a big thank you to all who responded. Once I get some time I’ll post some images from the camera.
Brian
Brian .. Glad you are liking your new camera!
Thanks for your review. I am in pretty much the same boat as you and had decided to go ahead with the 50d, for many of the same reasons as you stated. The big selling point for me is the 15mp, which means I will have a little more cropping area to work with in the future. I’m waiting on the tax return to place my order.
Did you order the body only? What lens are you using?
Corey,
I bought the D50 w/ the EF 28-135 IS USM (http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelInfoAct&fcategoryid=149&modelid=7337 kit.
Got my 50D and have been able to take some photos with it over the last month or so. Thought I’d post up a few samples and some opinions.
Really .. I dont see any ‘cons’ with my upgrade from the xti. Bigger solid body, burst is better, larger LCD is nice, what I really like is the cropping power. I’ll update this post with my crop stats on a couple of these pics when I get home.
Like the burst! The fish in the air shot was a tough shot to snag with my xti.
Mr. Church with the action shot!
Thanks Brian .. Looking forward to seeing some of your pics. I went with the kit. My wife gets the xti and the EF 28-135 IS USM. that way I get to keep all my lenses and my wife is happy with a good all round lens.
Lee: No the 50D isnt full frame. Its a crop sensor body, compatible with the EF-S lenses (10-22). I think the big debate the people have is if the advantages of going from a 40D to a 50D are worth it. I think most people are saying no. In my case .. I was going to the 50D from a much more consumer oriented body (xti) and it was a fantastic upgrade. I prob could have saved a couple bucks and picked up a 40D (maybe even used), but IMO it seemed like an ‘ok’ $$$ ratio for me to go up to the 50D.
Brian: I’ll keep an eye on this thread for your pics!
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.