Gear observed

Can a photog ever have enough gear? Short answer: No!

I am going to start a series of posts reviewing my gear, starting with my primary camera.

Introducing the Canon 50D(Cheers and loud hurrah's!)

I have had this for a while now, resisting the temptation to give it immediate accolades. However after putting it through its paces, I am now prepared to give it the praise it deserves.

The first thing that I do with a new Canon SLR(I have owned 2 including this one, so there is a tradition.)is remove the rubber eye piece. I wore glasses when I first started shooting and the rubber would smear my specs! So I got used to a hard eye piece and now even with contacts, I prefer it this way.

This review will cover what I like about the camera. It may have a great feature/s that I don't care about. These will not be reviewed.

The Good:
Tough magnesium alloy body. I need tough gear.
Intuitive buttons and wheels.
Nice sensor 16.something Mp.
Good quality ISO's even at 800+
Fast in two respects: Fast shutter speeds up to 1/8000 of a second. Fast frames per minute: 6.3
Good frame buffer(50 frames?) I never have filled the buffer in real life shooting.
Other stuff that I subconsciously appreciate that I can't think of right now.

The Bad:
The pop-up flash. I loath built in flashes on a camera. I don't listen to the "emergency fill flash" argument. Sorry... Not. Really. Although this pop-up is much more well behaved than my 400D, whose pop-up's button was regularly being inadvertently pressed. (I dealt with this problem in my own delicate way... I ripped it off).
The joystick. irk. Hard to control.
Battery life. What a joke. Using the live view is something I rarely do, which is fortunate, but the batteries are just sucked dry even without it.
Proprietary external control jack. This is really irritating because if you want to do loooong exposures(which I do) you need a gizmo that works with Canon's special little three pronged plugin. I got a off-brand. I have mixed results. To get the external controller that Canon has to offer would take a significant bite out of my wallet.

Overall this is a good camera for this simple reason: It is a mainstream advanced amateur camera. Lots of options. Lots of gear that can enhance its resume. And oh... the Lenses!!!(To be reviewed)



PhotHog