Canon EOS 50D

On 26 August 2008, Canon New Zealand has announced the brand new Canon EOS 50D digital SLR camera locally. No surprises to hear, but still very exciting news. The EOS 50D is the replacement for EOS 40D that was announced August last year. EOS 50D is the model sitting between 450D and 5D. It’s not as expensive as 5D, but definitely has better performance than 450D. Why am I excited? Because this is the model that I’m going to upgrade to.

Let’s take a look at the highlights of the Canon EOS 50D and my comments:

• 15.1 Megapixel CMOS (APS-C sensor) – It’s the highest resolution APS-C size sensor DSLR on the market. Although I don’t really care about pixels now, still the higher the better
• DiG!C 4 Image Processor – Wow, it’s already 4th generation of the Canon’s DiG!C processor and 50D is the first model to use it. Why DiG!C4 is good? Because they always say the new version is faster processing, producing finer detail and natural colour reproduction. But who knows? It should be better though
• ISO speed 100 – 3200, expandable to 12800 – Do you hear it? Up to 12800! But don’t know how good the image quality is at this rate
• 6.3 frames per second with continuous shooting up to 60 shots in a single burst – I’m not a sports shooter, so don’t really care about shooting speed, but of course, the faster the better
• 3.0” Clear View VGA LCD with Live View Mode and Live Face Detection AF Mode – Most DSLRs now carry Live View and many compact digital cameras have Face Detection function, so no surprises here
• 9-point wide area AF
• HDMI output in full High-Definition for high quality viewing and playback on a High Definition TV
• Tough magnesium alloy body, with environmental protection
• EOS Integrated Cleaning System including the improved Self Cleaning Sensor Unit with a new fluorine coating
• New Creative Auto mode and Quick Control screen – What’s this? Well, it’s not something groundbreaking. Just for users don’t know technical terms such as aperture and exposure to adjust settings and shoot images as they visualise them. For example, you can adjust images to be a little brighter or make the background more blurry in Creative Auto mode, rather than by understanding how to change the exposure or aperture
• Automatic image correction technologies including:
• Auto Lighting Optimizer – analyzes brightness and contract automatically before making adjustments to achieve optimal images
• Auto correction of lens peripheral illumination – lens peripheral illumination fall-off is automatically corrected to suite each lens when shooting in JPEG mode
• Full compatibility with Canon EF and EF-S lenses and EX-series Speedlites
• Software – the EOS 50D should come with the following software package:
• Digital Photo Professional Software – provides processing of lossless RAW images
• EOS Utility – provides essential support for Live View remote shooting, camera configuration and image transfers
• Picture Style Editor – allows users to create individual Picture Styles that fit with their personal requirements

OK, are you ready to get one? I’m pretty much ready to sell my current camera and go to grab one when it hits retail stores late September in New Zealand. The price is still TBC at the time of writing, but I think it will be close to 40D’s price tag. It will be available in Body only, as an Enthusiast Kit with EF-S17-85mm lens, and as a Premium Kit with EF-S18-200mm Lens (this is the kit I’m going to grab!).

Nikon D90

Honestly speaking, I’m a Canon guy more than a Nikon guy. However, I have to admit that Nikon has been doing some decent jobs and have some really impressive models. My friends who bought the D300 all said it’s a brilliant camera and super happy about it. My dad is using a D3 which is sponsored by Nikon and likes it very much, although he also bought the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III for lens compatibilities. OK, what does Nikon bring us this time? It’s the D90, which is the successor to its popular D80. It’s the world’s first digital SLR with a movie mode. Let’s take a look at what it offers:

• Newly designed Nikon DX-format CMOS image sensor with 12.3 megapixels
• Wide ISO sensitivity range of ISO 200 to 3200
• D-Movie – the world’s first D-SLR movie mode allows you to shoot HD720p movies
• Scene Recognition System integrated with Face Detection System
• 3” LCD with Live View mode
• 11-point AF system
• Continuous shooting at up to 4.5 frames per second
• Compatible with HDMI output

SanDisk Extreme III 30MB/s Edition SDHC

In the digital photography age, we don’t need films anymore. But memory cards become essential. SanDisk is always the brand I trust for memory cards. Recently, it has introduced the Extreme III 30MB/s Edition line of SD High Capacity cards. As the name states, it can read and write up to 30MB/s, which is 50% speed boost from the previous fastest 20MB/s cards. This world’s fastest SDHC is helpful for complementing the new range of fast speed DSLRs.

The new cards are available in 4GB, 8GB and 16GB capacities. The RRP for the 4GB card is US$65 (NZ$100), 8GB card is US$110 (NZ$165) and the 16GB one is selling at US$180 (NZ$270).