Canon EOS 50D Review Round-Up

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Get information and user reviews for this camera at Amazon: Canon EOS 50D 15.1MP Digital SLR Camera (Body Only)

Imaging Resource

Canon’s EOS 50D sticks with the conservative pattern that the company has established for their semi-pro digital SLR in terms of physical design, but now it also includes most of Canon’s cutting-edge digital SLR technology. … The story, though, is in the Canon 50D’s standard ISO range. Images from ISO 100 to 3,200 are quite usable at a wide range of sizes. I was happy with printed ISO 800 shots up to 13×19, and shots even at 3,200 produce good quality 8×10-inch prints. That’s what Canon intermediate fans rely on: JPEG and RAW images that they can believe in, time after time. Excellent low-light performance, impressive printed output, very fast shutter lag times, solid build, superb customization, and excellent image quality all add up to make the Canon EOS 50D a great choice for all types of photographers. READ FULL REVIEW

Other Canon EOS 50D Reviews

Camera Labs

The EOS 50D is Canon’s latest semi-pro DSLR, and while it shares essentially the same body as the EOS 40D, there’s a number of key differences. First is a significant boost in resolution to 15.1 Megapixels, and an increase in the maximum sensitivity to 12800 ISO; despite the higher resolution, continuous shooting is only fractionally slower at 6.3fps. The screen remains 3in, but is a new high resolution VGA model, and there’s also now an HDMI port for HD slideshows. Completing the spec are AF micro-adjustment, in-camera vignette correction, contrast-based AF in Live View, and software which lets you remote control the camera with your PC or Mac. The 50D is now a worthy rival to the Nikon D300 and a highly recommended model at this price point. READ FULL REVIEW

Digital Photography Review

The 50D is essentially a 40D body wrapped around a newly-developed 15 megapixel sensor that finally rectifies the situation in which Canon’s XXD range trailed the company’s entry-level line, in pixel terms. … Below ISO 1600 image output is clean with well balanced contrast and colors … Having said that, in terms of per-pixel sharpness the 50D cannot quite keep up with the better 10 or 12 megapixel APS-C DSLRs in the market. At higher sensitivities the smaller photosites are clearly producing more noise and so Canon is having to apply more noise reduction to keep to acceptable noise levels, this of course means a loss of detail from ISO 1600 upwards. … We’re by no means saying the 50Ds image quality is bad but it’s simply not significantly better than the ten megapixel 40D. … The Canon EOS 50D still earns itself our highest reward but … it only does so by a whisker. READ FULL REVIEW

CNET

The meat-and-potatoes updates the EOS 50D offers over the 40D–higher resolution, one usable extra stop of sensitivity, modest single-shot performance improvements, and multiple compressed raw options–provide a compelling alternative. But it’s missing the vegetables, like an improved AF system, smaller spot meter, better viewfinder coverage, and customizable boundaries for shutter speed and aperture, which might have pushed it from compelling to must have. For better or worse, there aren’t a lot of significant design or feature changes from the 40D. … If you’re satisfied with the low-light focus performance of your 40D and don’t need the 15-megapixel resolution or extra stop of sensitivity, there’s no reason to put it up on eBay and replace it with a 50D. Similarly, if you’re in the market for a new Canon dSLR and don’t need those capabilities, you may want to buy the cheaper 40D and spend the extra cash on a really nice lens. READ FULL REVIEW

Photo.net

The EOS 50D is clearly based on the the EOS 40D and shares many features, though it adds some significant new ones. Pixel count has been increased from 10MP to 15MP, which is a substantial jump. Also new on the EOS 50D is a high resolution 3″ LCD with 920,000 pixels. You also have to consider the new features of the EOS 50D, such as microfocus adjustment, contrast detection AF in Live View, the high resolution LCD, greater autobracketing range, peripheral illumination correction, expanded ISO setting range (100-12800) and improved environmental sealing … Whether those improvements are worth the extra cost of the camera and how much the higher intrinsic noise of the sensor weighs against other improvements is something that each user has to consider. … I think it’s a better and generally more capable camera than the EOS 40D and if money was not involved, I’d rather have an EOS 50D than an EOS 40D. READ FULL REVIEW

Ken Rockwell

The 50D is Canon’s newest serious amateur camera. If you’re a serious every-weekend sports shooter and have less than $1,600 to spend on a DSLR body, you want the new 50D. For amateurs who think this is a point-and-shoot and use the LCD screen to compose, Canon has added AF to Live View. The Canon 50D has an LCD far superior to anything ever unleashed on any Canon SLR. The 50D’s LCD is probably on par with the Nikon D300, D700 and D3. The 50D is great for sports, with a fast AF system and high frame rate. For landscapes and nature, I’d save for a Canon 5D, which is relatively inexpensive today because the 5D is just about at the end of its product cycle. READ FULL REVIEW

Photo Review

Canon’s new 15.1-megapixel EOS 50D is a ‘big brother’ model to the popular EOS 40D (which remains in the company’s line-up) and a ‘little brother’ to the coming EOS 5D Mark II. Offering higher resolution than the 40D, it has a new DIGIC 4 image processor, which supports 14-bit image processing, improved noise reduction and 30% faster processing times. It also delivers continuous shooting speeds of up to 6.3 frames/second with a UDMA CompactFlash card. … As well as providing some significant improvements over the EOS 40D, the EOS 50D offers not just a better-built body but a significantly higher level of functionality than its parallel consumer model, the EOS 450D. The new camera also provides some real competition for Nikon’s recently-released D90. READ FULL REVIEW