Friday, October 10, 2008

Canon 50D review




This weekend, I had an opportunity to test a production version Canon 50D. Having had experience with the previous model, the 40D, I was curious to see what changes Canon had built into its successor (for technical details, you can check out Luminous Landscape or dpreview for the specifics).

The first thing I noticed is that the basic camera and layout of the functions has not changed significantly. So for those who are upgrading, the transition should be effortless.

What I noticed immediately after shooting a couple of images, though, is that there is a huge difference in the LCD display on the back of the camera. Shooting the two models side by side, the LCD of the 50D had significant increase in color fidelity, saturation, contrast and detail. It was really astonishing. I felt like I was looking at a small thumbnail in Photoshop on a computer monitor compared to the quasi-facsimile that you'd see on the older camera.





The nice part is that when you compared the files shot with both cameras side by side on a desktop monitor, the increase in file size and the new processing engine make for much better images as well.

Take a look at these two images shot in beautiful Park City, Utah. Notice the added detail coming from the larger file, and the smoother transitions between values.







For those looking for a great prosumer camera, this is certainly worth careful consideration. And for those with a 40D, Is it worth upgrading from the previous version? I think that may be personal preference. But in my mind, if I had to choose, I'd certainly make the jump.