My 50D came in today, I thought for sure it wouldn’t be here until after my trip. Ever since the 40 came out I told myself that I would pick up the 50. I’ve been a 20D shooter since I made the move from film to digital. Bought a spare 10D body and was so disappointed in the difference between the 10 and 20D that I eventually picked up another 20D when my first 20D shutter asploded and needed to be replaced. The 10D.. Well, I thought about a LifePixel Conversion to Infrared but I never could pull the trigger to get it done. Either way, if the 20D is a complete slug compared to the 50D, a second 50D body may be mine.
I’m actually a little ashamed that I really didn’t research and poke around every possible specification, read the manual and every possible review in the weeks leading up to today. I usually get very excited and can’t wait for the latest and greatest hardware, I guess being busy for the last two or so months really helped me keep my mind off things. So much so that while the 50D was sitting on my desk I actually went over to dpreview.com and familiarized myself with the camera. I was surprised with some features and disappointed in others.
First glance.. Ewwwww silver mode selector knob. Hot shoe is silver too, which is fine because the paint started coming off both of my 20D hot shoes a long time ago. The 3″ LCD is huge compared to the 1.8″ on my 20D but the same size as the 40D. 20D has a 1.8″ LCD with 118k pixels, 40D has a 3″ LCD with 230k pixels, 30D has a 2.5″ LCD with 230k pixels.. The 50D? 3″ but 920k pixels. That’s four times as many pixels as the 40D. Wow.
15 Megapixels, almost double that of my 20D’s at 8.2MP. So guess my filesizes and digital asset management will take a filesize hit ‘for the team’. Digic 4 (40D is a Digic III) Sensor. I was a little surprised that the 50D box says ‘ISO 3200′. I thought I heard that the 50D went to 12800, a little poking around and it does, and the sample images at 12800 aren’t half bad. I’ll be interested in seeing how they clean up in Noise Ninja. Sure, 12800 really isn’t ideal, but if it comes down to get the shot or get nothing, give me the (noisy) shot.
Fastest shooting speed is 6.3FPS and a buffer of 16 RAW frames which is down from 6.5FPS and a burst of 17 RAW frames of the 40D. Who needs a crummy ol’ 0.2FPS and an extra burst shot anyways? Apparently there are 25 lens profiles stored in the camera with a little over a dozen more for custom settings. I guess that’s for the edge brightness correction in-camera.
0.1 second startup time, thumbs up. Live Preview shooting modes are extra quiet, just what I need for a wedding in a few weeks. Much better than my 20D’s shutter that is as loud as someone hitting a cymbal with a dump truck. Self-cleaning sensor? Ho hum, by now I can clean sensors with my eyes closed – wet and dry. I’ve cleaned a number of XTI bodies with self-cleaning sensors, the mechanism is great for bits of dust but a sensor booger is a sensor booger and no fancy sensor dancing will shake it.
My favorite thing about the 50D so far? My 20D battery grip is supposed to fit it. How awesome is that?
I think that I am going for the 50D too! Are you disappointed? I can’t wait to see the pictures from the balloon fest!