The new Canon EOS-50D is another midrange digital SLR, which is very similar to the very popular Canon EOS-40D.
Overview:
Canon EOS-50D features 15.1 effective megapixel CMOS sensor, built-in shake reduction system and hot shoe for external flash. The camera has very good ergonomics, plenty of manual settings and dedicated buttons as well as support for numerous Canon lenses. Additionally the Canon EOS-50D has a 3-inch screen with live view and very high resolution.
Canon EOS-50D pros:
+ Very good photo quality
+ Responsive performer, in terms of startup, focus, shot-to-shot times
+ Low noise levels through ISO 1600 in low light, and ISO 3200 in good light
+ Sturdy, well-designed body; easy to hold
+ Ultra-sharp 3-inch LCD display
+ Fast continuous shooting mode can take 16 RAW or an unlimited number of JPEGs at 6.1 fps
+ Live view allows you to compose photos on the
+ Two ways to connect an external flash
+ Newly enhanced dust reduction system
+ Full manual controls
+ Three RAW sizes available; capable editor included
+ Custom spots on mode dial, custom Function button, and built-it-yourself + My Menu
Canon EOS-50D cons:
- Battery life is below average, and 20% worse than on the 40D
- Live view not available in auto/scene modes
- Very slow contrast detect AF in live view mode
- Slight tendency to clip highlights and overexpose
The design:
Canon EOS-50D measures 146 x 108 x 74 mm (5.7 x 4.2 x 2.9 in) and weighs 730 g (1.6 lb) without battery so it is not the smallest of cameras. Although the Canon EOS-50D comes without a lens in the box it is very well balanced and so you should have no troubles with any lens as the Canon EOS-50D handles really well. The Canon EOS-50D has a stainless steel frame with a magnesium alloy shell on the outside. The camera has also a large rubberized grip thanks to which handling the Canon EOS-50D is a real pleasure. All the ports on Canon EOS-50D are sealed to protect them from dust and water, which does not make it waterproof, but still quite safe.
At the front of the camera you will see the lens mount with a few ways of shaking the dust off the lens you you won’t probably see any dust on the lens. Above the lens mount is the pop-up flash and behind it the camera’s hot shoe. The back of the camera houses the 3” screen and plenty of buttons. The screen is of very good quality, showing bright colors and with good direct sunlight legibility. Actually, the display is almost the same as in the Canon EOS-40D, the only difference is the resolution: the new Canon EOS-50D has the resolution of 920,000 pixels which makes it perfect for assessing the photos on the camera. Above the LCD you will see the optical viewfinder, but unlike the screen it has only 95% frame coverage. At the bottom of the Canon EOS-50D you will find the tripod mount, as well as the battery compartment.
Performance:
The battery life of Canon EOS-50D is not really its strongest side and in fact only the Pentax K20D has a shorter battery life out of all the cameras in this range. Fortunately, the battery takes only about 100 minutes to fully charge. The Canon EOS-50D comes with quite nice array of software thanks to which you may not only edit you images, but also connect the camera to your Mac or PC and control the Canon EOS-50D from your computer. Then you can use life view and the entire hard drive to store your images. The Canon EOS-50D will work with EF and EF-S lenses and there’s quite a selection of such lenses from Canon.
The Canon EOS-50D is ready to work almost at the instant you press the power button. The continuous shooting mode is also very fast. The focus is fast when you use the viewfinder, and although it is slightly slower when you use the LCD. Overall the camera is still quite fast as long as you use a fast memory card.
Image quality:
The Canon EOS-50D comes without a lens in the box and so you have to purchase one separately. Thus, the results you might get may differ, nevertheless there are some things what will not change with the use of a different lens and that is hat i will focus on. So all in all, the Canon EOS-50D grasps a lot of fine detail and produces images with little or no noise. Moreover, the photos are well exposed, the colors are accurate and bright. The Canon EOS-50D cannot record movies, so if you are looking for a digital SLR with video recording have a look at Nikon D90.
Menus / ease of use:
The menu structure in Canon EOS-50D is very similar to Canon EOS-40D and it is quite easy to use. The main difference is that the Canon EOS-50D has a better resolution and so everything looks just great. Of course, wit the abundance of features you might get overwhelmed with the amount of different options and settings, but if you spend some time with the manual you should have to troubles with it at all. If you have ever had any experience with other Canon DSLRs it is all the better.
Selected Canon EOS-50D features and specifications:
Sensor • 22.3 x 14.9 mm CMOS sensor
• RGB Color Filter Array
• Built-in fixed low-pass filter (with self-cleaning unit)
• 15.5 million total pixels
• 15.1 million effective pixels
• 3:2 aspect ratio
Image processor DIGIC 4
A/D conversion 14 bit
Image sizes • 4752 x 3168
• 3456 x 2304
• 2353 x 1568
File formats
• RAW (.CR2; 14-bit)
• JPEG (EXIF 2.21) – Fine / Normal
• RAW + JPEG (separate files)
• sRAW1 (7.1 MP)
• sRAW2 (3.8 MP)
Lenses • Canon EF / EF-S lens mount
• 1.6x field of view crop
Dust reduction • “EOS Integrated Cleaning System”
• Self-cleaning sensor unit (filter in front of sensor vibrates at high frequency at start-up and shutdown – can be disabled)
• Dust Delete Data – Data from a test shot is used to ‘map’ dust spots and can be later removed using Canon DPP Software
Auto focus • 9-point TTL CMOS sensor
• All points cross-type for lenses of F5.6 or faster
• Center point additionally sensitive with lenses of F2.8 or faster
• AF working range: -0.5 – 18 EV (at 23°C, ISO 100)
Focus modes • One shot AF
• AI Servo AF
• AI Focus AF
• Manual focus
AF point selection • Auto
• Manual
Predictive AF • Up to 8 m
AF assist • Stroboscopic flash
AF microadjust • +/- 20 steps
• Adjust all lenses by same amount/individually adjust up to 20 lenses
Metering • TTL 35 zone SPC
• Metering range: EV 0.0 – 20 EV
Metering modes
• Evaluative 35 zone
• Partial (9% at center)
• Spot metering (approx. 3.8% at center)
• Center-weighted average
AE lock • Auto: One Shot AF with evaluative metering
• Manual: AE lock button
Exposure compensation • +/-2.0 EV
• 0.3 or 0.5 EV increments
Exposure bracketing • +/- 2.0 EV
• 0.3 or 0.5 EV increments
Sensitivity
• Auto ISO (100-1600)
• ISO 100 – 3200
• 0.3 or 1.0 EV increments
• H1 (6400) and H2 (12800) expansion
Shutter • Focal-plane shutter
• 100,000 exposure durability
• 30 – 1/8000 sec
• 0.3 or 0.5 EV increments
• Flash X-Sync: 1/250 sec
• Bulb
Aperture values • F1.0 – F91
• 0.3 or 0.5 EV increments
• Actual aperture range depends on lens used
White balance • Auto
• Daylight
• Shade
• Cloudy
• Tungsten
• Fluorescent
• Flash
• Custom
• Kelvin (2500 – 10000 K in 100 K steps)
WB bracketing • +/-3 levels
• 3 images
• Blue / Amber or Magenta / Green bias
WB shift • Blue (-9) To Amber (+9)
• Magenta (-9) to Green (+9)
Picture style • Standard
• Portrait
• Landscape
• Neutral
• Faithful
• Monochrome
• User def. 1
• User def. 2
• User def. 3
Custom image parameters • Sharpness: 0 to 7
• Contrast: -4 to +4
• Saturation: -4 to +4
• Color tone: -4 to +4
• B&W filter: N, Ye, Or, R, G
• B&W tone: N, S, B, P, G
Image processing
• Highlight tone priority
• Auto lighting optimizer (4 settings)
• Long exposure noise reduction
• High ISO noise reduction (4 settings)
• Auto correction of lens peripheral illumination (vignetting)
Color space • sRGB
• Adobe RGB
Viewfinder • Eye-level pentaprism
• 95% frame coverage
• Magnification: 0.95x(-1 diopter with 50 mm lens at infinity)
• Eyepoint: 22 mm
• Interchangeable focusing screen Ef-A standard (2 other types optional)
• Dioptric adjustment: -3.0 to +1.0 diopter
Focusing screens
(optional) • Ef-A (Standard Precision Matte – included)
• Ef-D (Precision Matte with grid)
• Ef-S (Super Precision Matte for easier manual focus)
Mirror • Quick-return half mirror (transmission:reflection ratio 40:60)
• Mirror lock-up (once or multiple exposures)
Viewfinder info • AF points
• Focus confirmation light
• ISO sensitivity
• Shutter speed
• Aperture
• Manual exposure
• AE Lock
• Exposure compensation amount
• AEB level
• Spot metering area
• Flash ready
• Red-eye reduction lamp on
• High-speed sync
• FE Lock
• Flash compensation amount
• ISO speed (while changing)
• WB correction (while changing)
• Highlight tone priority icon *
• B&W mode icon
• Warnings
• Maximum burst for continuous shooting
• Buffer space
LCD monitor • 3.0 ” TFT LCD
• 920,000 pixels
• 7 brightness levels
• 160 ° viewing angle
• Dual anti-reflection
LCD Live view
• Live TTL display of scene from CMOS image sensor
• 100% frame coverage
• 30 fps
• Real-time evaluative metering using CMOS image sensor
• Best view or exposure simulation
• Silent mode
• Grid optional (x2)
• Magnify optional (5x or 10x at AF point)
• Three AF modes – Live mode/Quick mode/Face Detection
• Histogram
• Remote live view using EOS Utility 2.0 (via USB or WiFi/Ethernet using WFT)
Other recently reviewed digital cameras:
Nikon Coolpix P6000, Pentax K2000, Sony Cyber-Shot T500, Olympus 570UZ, Nikon Coolpix S610, Samsung TL34HD, Canon PowerShot SX10 IS, Canon PowerShot G10.