On August 26, 2008, Canon announced the EOS 50D and shook things up a bit by breaking their traditional 18-month refreshment cycle for the amateur model lineup. Every xxD model since the 10D had been released at 18-month intervals until the 50D, which came in just 12 short months after the Canon EOS 40D.
With the announcement, the Canon 50D brought two big headline features – 15.1 megapixels and an ISO equivalent of 12,800. Since the introduction of the Canon Rebel XTi a couple of years back, the xxD series has lagged behind the lower-end Rebel series in terms of the number of megapixels found on the sensor (e.g., XTi w/ 10MP vs. 30D w/ 8MP; XSi w/ 12MP vs. 40D w/ 10MP). This is no longer the case with the 50D. Instead of just matching the resolution of the latest Rebel camera, the 50D jumped out in front by a somewhat sizeable margin.
The Canon 50D is available in three different kits, all of which are available at Amazon.com and a number of other camera retailers:
Canon 50D Kit with 28-135mm IS Lens
Canon 50D Kit with 18-200mm IS Lens
While the grumblings of many photographers have grown louder and louder in the image quality vs. megapixel debate, camera manufacturers continue to put more and more pixels onto these tiny sensors. The Canon 50D is no exception to this debate and has been criticized by many since it was first announced for simply having too many pixels.
So, is the Canon 50D a worth successor to the 40D? Does Canon regain the edge over the Nikon D300 with more megapixels and greater sensitivity? Is the 50D a must-have camera? Keep reading to find out my thoughts on Canon 50D and how it stacks up against the competition. [Read more…]
Canon has released a firmware update for the new EOS 50D. This firmware update (Version 1.0.3) incorporates the following fixes.