Brian Moffitt
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Thanks for the video Zach! Found another which shows it quite well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BV8g57Fqfbk
Certainly one I’m going to try and learn.
Brian
Mike,
I started the other Canon 50D thread and while I can’t add much to my mini review over there I will say this. So far I’m loving my 50D, and I have yet to find anything about it which would make me send it back.
I purchased mine as the kit with the 28-135 lens and I think it was well worth the money. As others have noted this is an excellent lens and as an EF lens (rather than an EF-S) should Canon go to full frame sensors on all their cameras (I’m sure this is coming sooner rather than later) you’ll still be able to use it. I’m getting really sharp pictures with it without a great deal of effort and so far am quite impressed. As an aside this lens is just over $400 when purchased alone and reviews quite well.
As to your question about the flash. I currently use the 430EX (orignal version not the II) and find it a good fit for what I need to do. An upgrade to a 580EX or similiar just isn’t worthwhile to me for what I do with the camera but you may feel otherwise.
Brian
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.
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
