This is the Canon EOS 50D. It
was released in October 2008. It weighs 730 grams without the
battery and 822 grams with the battery. It is 14.6 centimeters by 10.8
centimeters by 7.4 centimeters. It has a magnesium alloy body which feels solid
and well built and it is weather-sealed. It has a built-in flash which can be configured through
the menu and there is a physical button on the front left side of the camera that will open
the flash. Alternatively in the automatic modes it can be set to pop-up when needed based
on the camera's evaluation of the scene. If you are using the built-in flash make sure
you don't have a lens hood attached to your lens otherwise the lens hood will cast a big
shadow on the bottom half of your picture. This might not be apparent when taking a photo
since the shadow will only become visible once the flash fires. It has a BP-511A Lithium-Ion
battery but it also works with other Canon batteries such as the BP-508, BP-512 and BP-514.
You can purchase the BG-E2N battery grip separately if you wish to extend the operating
time of the camera without having to change batteries. Also the BG-E2N battery grip lets
you use AA batteries for operating the camera. The camera comes with a CB-5L battery charger
which lets you charge the battery externally. You have to take the battery out of the
camera to charge it using the charger. So you cannot charge the battery while
it is in the camera using its USB port. It has a single memory card slot which takes
Compact Flash cards. Compact Flash cards are faster and more reliable than SD cards
particularly when operating in extreme temperatures, but they're also more expensive.
CF cards are good if you're shooting pictures at high frame rates or if you are shooting video
to ensure the camera doesn't slow down because of the slow write speed to the memory card with
a limited buffer. In terms of connectivity the camera has PC sync, remote terminal,
video out, USB-2 mini B, and a mini HDMI port. The camera doesn't have wireless connectivity
but you can purchase a wireless grip such as the WFT-E3 which provides Wi-Fi, an Ethernet port, a
USB-A port, and a vertical grip. This grip will allow you to connect to a GPS device and record
location data using the USB port. The USB port can also be used to connect storage devices such
as USB sticks. The WFT-E3 grip needs an additional battery to operate its own features, so it doesn't
contribute to the battery life of the camera. You can also get the BG-E2N battery
grip which lets you have two batteries for running the camera but doesn't provide any
of the additional features such as Ethernet or Wi-Fi. Comparing the two grips the WFT-E3 seems
to be the better choice for everything apart from extending the battery life of the camera. As not
only does it provide Wi-Fi, Ethernet connectivity, and a USB-A port but it also has the additional
auto focus button in the vertical position which is typically used for back button focusing.
This button is missing on the BG-E2N which makes the WFT-E3 a closer experience to
operating the camera in vertical orientation. Canon 50D is a DSLR camera so its viewfinder is
not electronic but it has an electronic overlay which lets you see all the key information
that is required for photographing. Such as focus points, shutter speed, aperture,
ISO and metering. It also shows a dot on the bottom right hand corner for when focusing has
been obtained. It has a three inch LCD screen which is clear and bright for use even in bright
environments. The LCD is not a touch screen so all menu navigation and usage has to be done with
the physical buttons and dials on the camera. On top of the camera there is an additional
LCD screen which lets you see the basic camera settings quickly from the top
of the camera. The LCD control panel is also very good for viewing the camera
settings in very bright environments or direct sunlight. It also has a light button which
helps you see the settings in dark environments. So there are three places where the basic camera
settings can be viewed: the viewfinder, the color LCD screen on the back of the camera, and the
LCD control panel on the top of the camera. The camera has the Digic-4 image processor. It
has a 15.1 megapixel APS-C cmos sensor. It has a self-cleaning sensor unit which automatically
shakes off dust on the front of the sensor. It supports Canon EF and EF-S lenses. So you can
use any Canon full frame EF lenses on this camera but with a narrow angle of view. At the same
time you get a higher quality since only the central part of the image from the lens will
be captured and the edges of the picture which typically have flaws will be discarded due to
the smaller sensor size. So the combination of an EF lens on a camera with an APS-C sensor
will produce high quality results and it's particularly good for microphotography. If you are
attaching an EF-S lens then you need to line up the white dot on the lens with the white dot on
the lens mount. If you're attaching an EF mount lens then you need to line up the red dot on the
lens with the red dot on the camera's lens mount. The camera doesn't have sensor
stabilization but you can use lenses to have stabilization with this
camera. When using image stabilization the camera consumes more electricity which
means the battery will run out quicker. So if you are using the camera on a tripod then you can
switch off image stabilization to save battery. There are three auto-focus modes on the camera:
one shot auto-focus which obtains focus only once when the shutter button is pressed halfway down,
AI servo auto-focus which will continue to obtain focus as long as the shutter button is pressed
halfway down, and AI focus which allows the camera to actively choose between the other two
modes based on how much movement is detected in the scene. When choosing an auto-focus mode
it is worth considering that AI focus and AI servo auto-focus will consume more battery
power than the one shot auto-focus option. The camera has 9 focus points for auto-focus
which are accurate even in low light conditions. You can change the focus points using the
main dial the joystick or the quick dial. I prefer to use the quick dial because I find
it to be the fastest and least interfering option when shooting action sports. In order to
change the focus point when using the viewfinder you press the focus point button which
is located at the top right most position on the back of the camera. This will highlight the
focus point in red at which point you can use one of the three options to move the focus point:
the quick dial, the joystick, or the main dial on top of the camera. To expand on why I use
the quick dial for changing the focus point, the joystick requires a bit more force than the
quick dial to use. Also when I have tried to use the joystick I ended up moving the focus point in
a direction that I did not intend. I also tried using the main dial for changing focus points
but that was the worst option as it forced me to move my index finger away from the shutter
button in order to change the focus point, so I could not continue to take pictures
while simultaneously changing the focus point. The auto-focus performance is highly
dependent on the lens which is used. Lenses that have an aperture brighter than F5.6
will perform better as the camera's auto-focus system will obtain focus on both horizontal and
vertical lines. Also it is worth mentioning that the auto-focus point in the center is twice
as sensitive as the other focus points when using lenses that have an aperture larger than
F2.8. So if you're shooting fast moving objects using this focus point is better because
it is likely to obtain focus quicker. The camera can take 6.3 frames per second in high
speed continuous shooting mode and 3 frames per second in low speed continuous shooting mode. If
the noise reduction is set to the highest level which is called "strong", the maximum burst
rate for continuous shooting will decrease. If you are using continuous shooting in live
view mode the exposure is set for the first shot and will be applied to the subsequent shots.
The camera also has a single shot mode, as well as self timer options. The shutter speed ranges
from 1/8,000 of a second to 30 seconds. Beyond 30 seconds the shutter speed can also be
set to bulb mode which means that the shutter will remain open as long as the shutter button is
held down and once the shutter button is released the shutter will close. Bulb mode is used for long
exposure photography and delivers the best results when the camera is mounted on a tripod and a
remote shutter is used to avoid any camera shake during the long exposure. The camera
doesn't have a dedicated bulb mode on the mood dial but you can set the shutter
speed to bulb and store that setting in one of the custom settings such as C1 or C2. So that
you can access it quickly using the mode dial. The camera has an ISO range of 100 to
12,800 but in my opinion going beyond 1,600 introduces too much noise in the picture.
If you configure the camera to use auto ISO the camera won't go beyond 1,600 which
validates that the acceptable level of noise in pictures is at a maximum ISO setting of 1,600.
The camera can take photos both in RAW and JPEG, or both at the same time. And this is
something that you can configure on the camera. The jpeg resolution size can be set to: large,
medium, or small, and two settings for the level of compression: fine, and normal. The raw settings
has three options RAW, SRAW-1, and SRAW-2. SRAW-1 and 2 have a lower resolution
relative to the default RAW format. Based on your chosen settings and the available
free storage left in your CF memory card, the camera shows how many shots
you can take before the memory card will fill up. This number is shown in
square brackets on the LCD control panel on top of the camera as well as in the bottom
right hand corner of the LCD screen on the back of the camera - when the quick control
screen is displayed or when in live view mode. The camera has a depth of field preview button.
The depth of field preview button allows you to see a preview of the depth of field of your
framing when pressed down while looking through the viewfinder or on the LCD screen. Otherwise the
depth of field which is shown in the viewfinder is always the largest aperture of your lens which
is the lowest F-stop number. So for example on the lens that I have, the largest aperture is F2.8
and that is what is shown in the viewfinder even if I have set the aperture to F11 on the camera.
When I hold down the depth of field preview button the aperture will change to F11 on the lens to
match the settings on the camera and I will be able to see a preview of the depth of field in the
viewfinder or LCD screen to see how the resulting photo will look. Once I let go of the depth of
field preview button the camera will change the aperture back to the largest opening which in
this case is F2.8 and that's the level of depth of field that I see in the viewfinder, even though
my setting is F11. The camera will only change the aperture to F11 at the moment when the shutter
button is pressed to take a photo, but with the depth for field preview button you can temporarily
change the aperture opening of the lens to match the camera's setting. So that you can see how
your scene will look when you take the picture. The camera has a dedicated mode for
automatic depth of field on the mode dial. In this mode the camera analyzes what is
in the frame and automatically selects a number of focus points based on what the
camera algorithm identifies as subjects to ensure those subjects are in focus. It is not
entirely clear how the algorithm works in terms of identifying subjects but in my experience
the algorithm favors three types of subjects: subjects are close to the camera, subjects that
have texture and contrast, and subjects that have bright colors. The algorithm seems to ignore
items that have a uniform plain color if they don't have texture or contrast in them even if
they have a bright color such as a white wall. Once the camera automatically detects subjects
in the frame in order to ensure all subjects are in focus, it automatically sets the aperture
F-stop to make sure the right depth of field is selected so that subjects in both the
foreground and background are in focus. In this mode the camera will automatically adjust
the shutter speed so that exposure is also correct following the automatic selection of the aperture.
You can control the ISO settings when in this mode or you can set the ISO settings to automatic
so that the camera controls the ISO settings in addition to aperture and shutter speed.
I think this would be a really nice feature to have on a camera for video recording but this
camera doesn't provide video recording by default. The camera allows you to set exposure compensation
and it has the auto exposure bracketing feature as well, which lets you automatically take
multiple pictures with different exposures with a single press of the shutter button.
If you press down on the joystick button, the quick control screen appears which
displays all the basic settings of the camera. The settings can be changed from this screen.
The menu system has a custom menu which you can customize to make it easier to access a
setting that is buried deep in the menu system. The camera has a number of picture styles which
can be adjusted as well as user-defined picture modes that you can create and modify to your
liking. The picture modes let you modify the level of sharpness, contrast, saturation, and
color tone. Depending on the subject that you're photographing different levels of sharpness may
be desirable for example a portrait cannot be too sharp because human faces will look unnatural
if over sharpened whereas for product photography you may want to increase the level of
sharpness. In monochrome picture style, adjustments lets you configure a
filter effect and a toning effect. You can view pictures on the camera or
connect the camera to a screen or television via HDMI and view pictures externally. The camera
has a slideshow feature for viewing pictures so you can sit back and view all the pictures without
manually selecting the next picture to view. The camera has various custom functions which
you can customize to your liking, as well as two dedicated custom modes on the mode dial. For
example you can customize the number of stops of light that the ISO or exposure compensation
should change when the main dial is rotated. The camera has a live view mode where the
mirror is locked up and the LCD screen can be used to compose pictures or alternatively
use the Canon EOS utility software to control the camera remotely from a computer. Taking
pictures remotely from a computer can be good because you can see a larger framing of the
scene as well as not handling the camera, which means there will be less camera
shake which results in sharper pictures. Before using the live view mode you have to make
sure that the menu option for live view shooting is set to "Enable". Also live view does not
work in basic modes so you need to turn the mode dial to one of the modes such as: P, Tv,
Av, M or A-DEP. Tv is the shutter priority mode, and Av is the aperture priority
mode, and M is for manual, and A-DEP is automatic depth of field, and P is
the program mode which can be semi-customized. To use live view mode you can then press
the button which has a camera icon above it on the top left hand side of the camera, above
the LCD screen and to the left of the viewfinder. To obtain focus in live view mode there is a
focus box which can be moved around using the joystick to achieve focus on the desired part of
the scene. Once the focus box is in the correct position you can press and hold the auto-focus on
button to lock focus at which point the focus box will turn green once focus is achieved. Pressing
the joystick on its axis like a button will make the focus box return to the center of the frame.
The live view mode has three auto-focus modes: quick mode which uses phase detect auto-focus,
live mode which uses contrast detect auto-focus, and live mode with face detection which uses
contrast detect auto-focus and face detection. The quick mode obtains focus accurately and
quickly but it is very clunky to use. Once you press the back button auto-focus the LCD goes
black the mirror flips which makes a distinct sound and auto-focus is obtained then the LCD
turns back on ready for the picture to be taken. Using the live mode auto-focus you can move
the focus box to the subject using the joystick and once the focus box is on your subject you
press and hold the auto-focus button until the auto-focus box turns green. The camera will
hunt back and forth until it locks focus. This process takes about two seconds
which might seem like a long time but I prefer it to the quick mode because
the LCD remains on throughout the process. The live mode face detection is able to recognize
multiple faces and the camera draws a box around one single face with arrows to indicate
that focus can be moved to a different face. You can use the joystick to move focus to a
different face and then in order to lock focus you need to press and hold the auto-focus button.
The face detection feature works best in bright conditions with faces being fully visible
and taking up a large portion of the frame. In my experience the face detection feature
doesn't make it sufficiently easier to lock focus for me to justify its use, but nevertheless
it is an impressive feature for a camera that was released in 2008. You can use the depth
of field preview button in live mode to make sure you have the right level of depth
of field prior to taking a photo, although I never use this feature because I can just take a
picture review it on the LCD and then delete it. I think the depth of field preview button would be
immensely useful prior to digital cameras where film had to be developed to see the outcome.
When in live view mode you can press the info button repeatedly to view different
levels of information on the LCD screen. When using live view mode it is useful to
enable exposure simulation so that you can see the actual exposure of your photograph on
the LCD screen prior to taking it. This is very useful in a scenario when you are using flash to
take a picture. In live view mode the exposure metering will be set to evaluative metering
regardless of the current metering mode setting. When using the camera in live view mode for an
extended period of time the camera can become hot and the battery will run out relatively
quickly compared to using the viewfinder. In my opinion the camera has a high build quality
good ergonomics and is fast and responsive with an instant start up time of one millisecond.
To benefit from the packed photo sites on the sensor of this camera you require a
highly resolving lens that can provide the additional detail which the sensor is capable
of reading. I would not recommend this camera for low light situations or with old lenses
due to the packed photo sights on its sensor, but in bright conditions with a high resolving
lens it can produce really good pictures particularly for microphotography
it provides a higher level of detail and quality relative to its counterparts with
larger photo sites such as the Canon 40D. I highly recommend that you upgrade the Canon firmware on
your camera to the latest version which is 1.0.9. In particular version 1.0.8 and 1.0.9 have made
improvements to reading and writing speeds of compact flashcards as well as better support
for some UDMA 7 compact flashcards that have been manufactured since February 2012.
The camera does not have video recording capabilities but you can install a software on
your camera called Magic Lantern which will let the camera shoot video. The software is free and
will be installed on the compact flash memory card and it will also change a few settings on the
camera itself to enable the software to function correctly. The Magic Lantern software provides
additional features for taking photographs as well as providing video recording
capabilities for the Canon 50D. Canon may have intended to release this
camera with video recording and audio recording capabilities. Internally the body
has a dedicated location for a microphone which has been left unutilized. Also the camera
uses compact flash cards which are superior to SD cards for higher write speeds that would be
required for video recording. This camera even has a memory register for movie recording function
which is not shown in the Canon menu system. This has been documented on the Magic Lantern
website. If you install magic lantern on your Canon 50D you will have the choice of whether to
start the camera with the Canon firmware or with the Magic Lantern software. If you press and hold
the "set" button when switching on the camera the camera will use the Canon firmware otherwise the
Magic Lantern software will load. You can verify this by going to the menu item which displays the
firmware version to see what the camera is using. Also if you use a compact flash card which
does not have magic lantern installed then the camera's default Canon firmware will be
used. So if you want to use Magic Lantern with your camera you have to install it on all the
CF cards they intend to use with the camera, otherwise you won't be able to switch
memory cards and still use Magic Lantern. To use Magic Lantern start the camera normally
then go to the live view mode by pressing the live view mode button which has a camera icon above it
next to the viewfinder and you will notice that the live view mode looks different to when the
camera is loaded with the default Canon firmware. If you press the trash can button -
below the LCD screen - you can see the Magic Lantern menu and there you have the
choice to make changes to any of the settings. Please note this camera does not
have a microphone so even if you install Magic Lantern and record video
on it, the sound will not be recorded. Also you won't be able to play back
the recorded video clips on the camera. According to Canon the successor to the 50D
is the Canon 60D however in my opinion it appears that the successor is the Canon 7D. If
we compare the Canon 50D with the 60D and the 7D, it appears that it has more in common with the
7D than with the 60D. Both the 50D and the 7D were the highest-end Canon cameras which used the
APS-C sensor size at the time of their release. Both use compact flash cards whereas the 60D uses
SD cards, which is not only a step backward from the 50D in terms of quality but also makes it more
inconvenient to upgrade from the 50D to the 60D. The Canon 60D has a different battery to the 50D.
Which again, makes it a less likely choice for an upgrade path, from the 50D.
Both Canon 50D and 7D are constructed from metal, sporting a magnesium alloy body whereas the
60D has a plastic body on an aluminium chassis. The Canon 50D uses the same battery grip as the
20D, 30D, and the 40D, whereas the 60D uses a different battery grip which is incompatible with
the previous versions of the same camera lineup, such as the 50D. Again this makes the 60D a
less likely upgrade option for 50D owners. When shooting photos the 60D can take
less frames per second than the 50D. The release price of the Canon
60D was less than the 50D, which validates that the 60D is of a
lower quality in comparison to the 50D. However if someone was to upgrade from the
50D then the 7D would be the obvious choice despite the higher price
in comparison to the 60D, because if you consider the additional quality and features of the 7D in comparison to the 60D, as well as
sharing the same memory card storage format as the 50D, the difference in price becomes less of a barrier. Anyway that's all the details I
could think of sharing about the 50D but please let me know if you need more
information about a particular feature or functionality, or if you want me
to demo something using this camera.
