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I'm a Canon user. I've been hearing a lot of good things (as well as a few bad things) about the upcoming release of the 50D, their new DSLR. Does anyone else use Canon, and if so, what do you think are the pros and cons of this new model?

You're majoring in photography, you know more about it than the rest of us put together I'd have thought.

The things I'd want in a digital camera tend not to appear on the spec sheet, I've no idea why.

Assume two cameras with the same optical zoom, same degree of wide angle and telephoto, same flash options and pixel count and video modes and image stabilizing and macro, there are underlying aspects which would help me select the one to use. I like the Canon's ability to work with RAW format rather than JPG all the way through to creating my file for the printer, for example.

Some CCD arrays are physically smaller than others because they pack the cells in closer together. That reduces the weight of the entire camera and especially the lens. It does mean the lens quality has to be far higher to achieve the same separation of detail between neighbouring CCD cells. It also means the CCD cell itself has, I'd have thought, a tendency to more noise the smaller it's made and I'd particularly like every cell to register the actual monochrome intensity accurately rather than speckling the raw image and forcing the camera software to smooth out the photo.

So I suspect I'd go for the camera with the larger array and the best hardware noise reduction. Whether that means I'd want to at least try out the EOS 1D:II alongside the 50D I'm not sure, I'd need a small fortune to do either I suspect. Comparing the noise on, say, a 100x100 pixel area of a RAW image from both cameras at maximum resolution might be instructive. If you can physically get your hands on both cameras for an hour, try that. If you're lucky it'll tell you that the 50D is indistinguishable. I think I'd want to know before I spent money.

spot;990216 wrote: You're majoring in photography, you know more about it than the rest of us put together I'd have thought.


I haven't yet begun my major. I know enough, but not as much as some of my peers. I'm just looking for opinions outside the classroom and the deviantART community.