Canon 50D Review

Canon EOS 50D Design

Roll-over the various controls and features with your mouse for a brief description.

Front. The front of the Canon EOS 50D has the same basic set of controls found on other models in the line, and apart from the badge, looks identical to the 40D. The grip is great, with a nice divot for the middle finger and a good rubber surface. Though there’s a textured grip surface on the left, it’s too tapered for easy holding with the left hand (see top view).

Left. Here on the left side are two rubber doors covering various ports. The 50D adds a mini HDMI out port for HD video.

Right. Here you can see the grip indent. The CF card door is pretty similar to other doors in the line, and swings freely rather than springing open.

Top. Here you can see another traditional layout that will be familiar to most anyone familiar with other prosumer Canon SLRs. Control placement is identical to the 40D, but you may notice the silver bezel on the mode dial has a new CA (Creative Auto) exposure mode, as well as only two custom modes (down from three on the 40D).

Back. The 3.0-inch LCD screen has been upgraded to a higher resolution (920K-pixel) model, and the 40D’s Jump button has been removed to make room for the new Function button. The Print/Share button now enables Live View mode when the camera is in record mode.

Bottom. Nothing new here, identical to the EOS 40D.

Canon EOS 50D Operation

Like the Canon 40D, the Canon EOS 50D has an enhanced interface, with both the traditional monochrome Status LCD and viewfinder LED display, and a rear Status display that can be brought up on the 3-inch LCD. Finally, Live View mode also has a Status display, including a live histogram.

The control layout has changed only slightly compared to the 40D. The Jump button has been removed to make room for a new Function button below the right-hand corner of the main LCD, and the Print/Share button now serves as a Live View button, freeing up the Set button for its traditional purpose of confirming selections.

Canon EOS 50D Top-Panel LCD Display

The Canon 50D features a top-panel LCD display, which reports practically all of the camera’s main exposure and menu settings. The display is black and white, and only shows the settings that are applicable during use, though the illustration below shows the full range of settings that can appear. (Illustration courtesy Canon USA.)

Note the new Highlight Tone Priority indicator, which comes up as a D+ when HTP is active. The Custom function icon was deleted.

Canon EOS 50D Record Mode Displays

When the INFOÂ button is pressed, the 50D’s rear panel LCD monitor also offers a status display, similar to ones found on models without a top status LCD. New for the 50D, though, is the ability to adjust settings directly from this display using the Multi-controller joystick. The image below shows callouts for all the information shown in this shooting display. (Illustration courtesy Canon USA.)

Canon EOS 50D Record Displays
Normal record mode display.	Pressing the INFO button turns the display into a quick menu, where the displayed settings can be selected with the Multi-controller, and adjusted directly with the Quick control dial.	You can also use the SET button, which displays the dedicated menu for a function.

Additionally, the EOS 50D’s rear-panel LCD monitor can be used as a viewfinder, via the camera’s Live View mode (see the Viewfinder tab). A sampling of exposure information appears on-screen, and if the Exposure Simulation option is enabled, the image display reflects what the expected exposure outcome will be. An optional histogram can display, but unfortunately it isn’t translucent, completely blocking that upper right quadrant.

Canon EOS 50D Playback Mode Displays

The display mode used in Record Review is the same as was last used in Playback mode, or you can hit the DISP button to cycle to a different mode. Likewise, in Playback mode, you can cycle between the available display options by pressing the DISP button repeatedly. You can also select between the normal luminance-based histogram and the new RGB histogram option via a Playback-mode menu item.

Canon EOS 50D Playback Displays
Normal playback mode display, showing shutter time, aperture, file number, and active memory card.	Pressing the INFO button cycles through several displays including a screen with one luminance histogram.	A second press brings up another display with both an RGB and a luminance histogram.
You can zoom out to thumbnail views, the standard display moving through screens with 4-up, 9-up, and 9-up with the ability to jump through images on the card 9 at a time by turning the Main command dial. The shot above shows the “jump mode” screen.	There’s the usual ability to zoom in on the subject, with the location of the current zoomed view within the full frame shown in the little navigator window in the lower right.	We like that you can step between images while maintaining the zoomed display. This makes it easy to compare focus or other fine details from one shot to the next.

Canon EOS 50D Optics

Lens Compatibility

The Canon EOS 50D will work with pretty much any EF-mount lens ever made, as well as with the special EF-S lenses designed for cameras with APS-C size sensors. Designed with a smaller image circle (the area covered by the image on the film/sensor plane), EF-S lenses tend to be smaller and lighter than full-frame models with the same focal length and maximum aperture. EF-S lenses can’t be used on full-frame Canon cameras, nor on their models with 1.3x crop factors, like the current EOS-1D Mark III, but small-sensor cameras like the 50D can use any full-frame lenses in Canon’s arsenal.

The sub-frame sensor on the Canon 50D means that it has a smaller angle of view (by a factor of 1/1.6x) than a full-frame camera with any given lens. While most properly called a “crop factor”, the 1.6x ratio is most commonly referred to as the “focal length multiplier” since that’s how it works in practice: Any lens used on the Canon 50D will have the same field of view as one with a 1.6x greater focal length will when attached to a 35mm camera. For example, a 100mm lens on the Canon 50D will show the same field of view as a 160mm lens on a camera with a 35mm frame size.

The EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens that ships as part of the Canon 50D kit in the US has better build quality than most kit lenses bundled with SLRs these days (such as the 18-55mm that shipped with the Canon Rebel XTi), and has a longer zoom range as well. It’s not as wide as the 18-55, but it performed surprisingly well in our tests on SLRgear.com, and comes with image stabilization, a very worthwhile feature to have. It’s priced at an average of $450 on its own, and reflects only about $200 difference between the kit and body-only suggested retail. To see more on this lens, visit our SLRgear.com review on the 28-135mm IS lens by clicking here. Be sure to click on the Blur Index chart for an interactive look at how the lens performs across its range of apertures and zoom settings, as well as our reports on its chromatic aberration, vignetting, and distortion characteristics.

All that said though, we found the performance of the EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS on the Canon 50D a little disappointing, particularly when shooting wide open. Our take on this is that the very small pixels of the 50D are a challenge for this somewhat older lens design. We also question the utility of a lens/camera combo with an effective focal length of almost 45mm at its maximum wide angle setting. That really isn’t very wide at all, being just shy of the traditional 50mm focal length that’s traditionally been considered “normal” (meaning neither wide-angle nor telephoto.) Unless you already own a wider-angle lens (or never intend to shoot in cramped conditions), we strongly recommend buying the Canon 50D in a different kit configuration, or as body-only; adding a lens with a more suitable focal length. Possible alternative lenses for use with the Canon 50D include the Canon EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS, (approximate street price $650), the Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM (approximate street price $950), or the Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM (approximate street price $530), or perhaps the updated 18-55mm kit lens with IS, the Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS (approximate street price $175). If your budget will support it, the best package might be to get the 28-135mm kit lens and the EF-S 18-55mm IS model as well. That would give you good image quality in the 18-55mm range (the 18-55mm IS is a surprisingly good lens for the money), as well as the longer reach of the 28-135mm for more distant subjects, all with image stabilization.

Autofocus Improvements

Sensor arrangement. These diagrams shows the basic sensor layout, first in the viewfinder, then on the AF sensor itself. In the bottom diagram, each opposite pair makes one element of the cross-type AF point. The diagonal f/2.8 sensors are further apart than the f/5.6 sensors, which is essential to their greater overall focus-measuring accuracy. The two yellow sensors in the middle are special, as they’re essentially reprogrammable on the fly, able to be considered as part of each of the three center AF points, or taken together as one large sensor for extremely out-of-focus subjects. As for their zig-zag arrangement, that just means that one sensor is slightly offset from the other, such that if you were to look at them magnified, one pixel would be slightly off from the other, zig-zagging back and forth like tires on an endurance course. Thus, horizontal lines that would have been missed by one sensor can be picked up by the other.

The 50D hasn’t changed its autofocus sensor layout or design from the previous model, the 40D. These autofocus sensors are quite sophisticated, especially the central sensor: Not only is it cross-type for f/5.6 lenses, but it also has an f/2.8 sensor that’s arrayed in a diagonal X-formation, to give it equal ability to discriminate both horizontal and vertical lines. By arranging the f/2.8 sensors in a diagonal orientation, the 50D benefits from better detection of horizontal and vertical lines and the sensors can fit on a smaller die size. Since an f/2.8 lens permits almost a 2x increase in baseline spacing, AF precision increases proportionately when using them. The f/5.6 sensor, though arrayed more traditionally, is also doubled and arranged in a zig-zag pattern for greater accuracy, according to Canon.

All other AF points are cross-type in the more traditional sense, more or less. The diagram top right shows some odd arrangements that don’t seem to agree with the diagram below, which has neat little plus symbols over each point. If the diagram at right is correct, they’re more like T shapes that interlock. That double zig-zag center sensor array, the one that runs from top to bottom down the center (marked in yellow at right), serves the top, center, and bottom AF points. It’s an unusual-looking arrangement, but then most sensor layouts are odd, caused partly by the prism/lens system that splits up the image for them.

SLR autofocus accuracy is governed in part by how far apart you can space the sensor elements for a single AF point. The wider this “baseline,” the more accurately the AF point can determine focus. What limits the AF baseline spacing in a camera system is the lens aperture. You can build sensors with wider baselines, but that also restricts the range of lenses they can be used with. Camera manufacturers generally have set f/5.6 as the minimum aperture their AF systems will work with, and most lenses comply by gathering at least that much light at telephoto (where relative apertures are smallest). Lenses with wide-open apertures smaller than f/5.6 will have much greater difficulty focusing, if at all.

The AF points on the Canon 50D cover about 60% of the frame width, and about 50% of the frame height. The illustration above shows the relative spacing between the various AF points, with the distances between them marked in millimeters, at the focal plane. (Illustrations courtesy Canon USA.)

AF-Assist Illuminator

The Canon 50D uses the built-in flash head as its AF-assist illuminator, rather than a bright light built into the camera’s body. In practice, this works well: the flash is quite bright, and probably has a longer range than an on-body illuminator bulb. You can disable the 50D’s internal flash (or external Speedlite) by going into the Flash Control menu, which still lets the AF-assist pulses to fire; but then you lose your flash capability until you turn it back on. If you attach a 550EX, 580EX or 580EX II external flash unit to the Canon 50D, its internal infrared AF-assist illuminator is used instead of the flash head itself, providing a useful working range of about 50 feet with a less obtrusive light source. For non-flash photography, Canon’s ST-E2 wireless sync transmitter can apparently also be used for AF assist. The ST-E2’s AF-assist light has a useful range of about 25 feet.

Dust Reduction Technology

First introduced on the Canon Rebel XTi, Canon’s system-wide approach to reducing the impact of dust on the image sensor is also included on the Canon 50D. From the beginning, every DSLR has offered a sensor-cleaning mode, in which the mirror is locked up and the shutter opened to permit the sensor to be cleaned with compressed air, a solvent-carrying swab or other means. As the market has matured and more DSLRs have found their way into the hands of novice users, it has become clear that some automated way of dealing with sensor cleaning is needed.

A key feature of Digital SLRs is the ability for the user to easily swap lenses. This expands creative options enormously, but every time the lens is removed, dust from the environment is free to enter the camera body. From there, it’s only a matter of time before some of it makes its way to the surface of the sensor where it casts shadows that appear as dark blobs in your images. In truth, it’s the anti-aliasing filter that collects dust, rather than the sensor itself, but common parlance refers to “sensor cleaning.” For the sake of familiarity, we’ll generally refer to sensor cleaning here, but will make mention of the anti-alias or low-pass filter as seems appropriate.

The principal approach other manufacturers have used to deal with dust has been to make the system self-cleaning, by rapidly vibrating either the anti-aliasing filter itself or a protective cover glass lying above it, to shake loose adhering dust particles. Once dislodged, a strip of sticky material at the bottom of the sensor cavity or mirror box catches and holds them. This approach was pioneered by Olympus, but has since been adopted by Canon, Nikon, Pentax, and Sony.

In typical fashion, Canon’s camera engineers took a comprehensive look at the issue of sensor contamination, and came up with a multifaceted, system-wide approach to reducing the impact of dust on users’ photographs.

Canon’s approach uses a vibratory cleaning method as a primary part of the overall strategy, but they’ve introduced several refinements as well. Here’s what they’ve done:

Shooting Priority: Shutter Button Overrides Cleaning Cycle

It’s critical for a digital camera to power up and be able to capture the first shot quickly, to avoid missing the action when first starting up. Some cameras with integrated cleaning systems can take a second or two for the cleaning cycle to complete before they’re ready to capture an image. To avoid this problem, the Canon 50D aborts its normal power-on cleaning cycle as soon as the user touches the shutter button. This insures that you won’t miss a critical shot.

Special Shutter Coating/Construction

It turns out that only some of the dust that appears in DSLR images comes from outside the camera: As they age, normal wear and tear can make shutter curtains shed microscopic particles that eventually end up on the sensor. In the Canon 50D, Canon has introduced a special shutter-curtain coating designed to greatly reduce the shedding of particles.

Along with the specially treated shutter, Canon has also begun using a different plastic in their DSLR body caps, one less prone to creating shavings that can drop into the mirror box.

Split Anti-Aliasing Filter

Rather than introducing a separate cover glass into the optical chain, Canon has split the Canon 50D’S anti-aliasing filter into two parts. One element sits right above the sensor, while the other is positioned further away. It’s this outer element that’s vibrated during the cleaning cycle.

In describing the technology, Canon notes that the outer anti-aliasing element is positioned further from the sensor surface (a millimeter or so) than is normally the case. This greater distance reduces the effect of any dust that does adhere, by making the shadow cast by each dust particle larger and softer-edged.

Anti-Static Coating

Previous models in this line of Canon cameras used an anti-static coating on the anti-alias filter to make it harder for dust to gain a foothold in the first place. Canon has developed a new fluorine-based coating for the 50D, which purportedly improves this dust resistance property. Dust particles frequently carry static charges, so the anti-static coating avoids one of the key mechanisms by which dust particles adhere.

Dust Delete Image Processing

No matter how good an automatic cleaning system, there are going to be some stubborn dust particles that it can’t dislodge. To deal with these, the Canon 50D has the ability to shoot a dust reference photo, and then transfer that information to Canon’s Digital Photo Professional software, which can use it to eliminate the shadows cast by dust particles on the images.

This sort of image processing to eliminate dust isn’t an entirely new development, it’s been a feature of Nikon’s Capture software for some time. Canon’s implementation has some additional wrinkles that make it somewhat more useful, though. Primary among these is that Canon’s “Dust Delete” processing works for both JPEG and RAW format files. (Nikon’s works only with RAW images.) This really expands the utility of the anti-dust processing, and makes it more accessible to amateur users who shoot exclusively or primarily in JPEG format.

Canon’s anti-dust approach is also different in that the dust map (“Dust Delete data”) that the software uses to perform its magic is stored in the headers of the JPEG or RAW files created by the camera. There’s thus no need to keep track of a separate dust image file, the information is always available in the file headers, assuming you’ve actually performed the dust-mapping process. You can update the Dust Delete data any time you think the camera might have been exposed to dust, or after you’ve manually cleaned the sensor. The latest dust map is automatically incorporated into the EXIF headers of all JPEG images, or the headers of any RAW files. While we don’t have any technical details on how the dust map is stored, Canon claims that the encoding scheme used for it is very efficient, so the dust map information adds very little to the file size.

The screenshots above show the steps in capturing a Dust Delete reference image. Starting in the upper left from Shooting Menu Screen 2, selecting Dust Delete Data produces a screen that shows when the last Dust Delete reference image was captured. Selecting OK on this screen initiates a cleaning cycle, after which the camera prompts you to take a picture of a blank white surface. (The camera automatically defocuses the lens and sets the aperture appropriately, to produce the best possible dust image.) The camera then processes this data, and reports whether it was successful or not. If the surface you used to capture the image wasn’t sufficiently uniform, you’ll get an error message, but if the image was good, you’ll see the confirmation screen as shown above in step 6. The Dust Delete Data just generated will now be included in the headers of any JPEG or RAW images captured, until you decided to capture a new dust reference image.

We don’t have any quantitative way of evaluating dust-removal systems, but based on Canon’s description of it, their anti-dust technology does appear to go a step or two beyond anything else currently on the market, providing a more comprehensive solution to the problem of dust in DSLR images than we’ve seen to date.

Don’t count on the anti-dust system to do everything, though.

Despite the many advances in Canon’s anti-dust technology, though, we feel compelled to point out that we’ve thus far seen no anti-dust system that completely eliminates the need for sensor cleaning. Sooner or later, you’re going to need to clean your sensor, so we strongly recommend purchasing a good-quality sensor cleaning kit right along with your DSLR. Automated anti-dust systems like Canon’s will certainly help with some of the dust, typically the dust that the nylon brush-based cleaning systems can also handle. Inevitably, though, you’ll encounter dust that sticks to the sensor’s cover glass tenaciously; dust that only a wet/dry cleaning approach can remove. We ourselves use and recommend products from Copper Hill, which we’ve found to be both highly effective and among the most reasonably priced on the market. Check out their Basic Kit or Basic Kit w/SensorKlear for complete, cost-effective solutions.

The Canon EOS 50D is sold in the US as body only, or in a kit bundled with the Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM lens. The images below were shot with the 28-135mm lens.

Kit Lens Test Results

Zoom
Fair performance with the 28-135mm IS (Image Stabilized) kit lens.

28mm @ f/3.5	135mm @ f/5.6
28mm @ f/8.0	135mm @ f/8.0

The Canon 50D is offered with an 28-135mm IS kit lens, with a fairly generous optical zoom range of ~4.8x, but an odd focal range for a sub-frame camera. The 35mm equivalent range is about 45-216mm, which isn’t wide at all at the wide-angle end. Details are fairly soft across the frame at 28mm, especially wide open at f/3.5. Sharpness improves when stopping down to f/8.0, but detail is still somewhat soft. Corners are slightly softer, and some chromatic aberration is noticeable. Results at full telephoto are similar with softness across the frame and again, moderate levels of chromatic aberration. We liked this lens when we tested it for SLRgear a while back (see our Canon 28-135mm IS review for those details), but it may be that it’s just not up to the challenge of a 15MP sensor. All in all, the EF 28-135mm IS has about average performance for a kit lens, but we really think the average user will want something that starts a little wider. (Some resellers are offering a 50D kit that includes the new Canon 18-200mm IS lens, a surprisingly good optic for such a long zoom ratio. If your budget can handle the difference, we think this lens is much better suited to a sub-frame camera like the Canon 50D.)

Macro
An average area (for an SLR kit lens), with very good detail. Flash throttles down well.

Standard Macro with 28-135mm IS Kit Lens	Macro with Flash

As with zoom performance, the Canon 50D’s macro performance will depend entirely on the lens in use. However, with the 28-135mm IS kit lens set to 135mm, the 50D captured an average size minimum area measuring 3.78 x 2.52 inches (96 x 64 millimeters). Resolution and detail were high, though with moderate softening in the corners from the lens. (Most lenses have some softening in the corners at macro distances.) The Canon 50D’s flash throttled down for the macro area pretty well, and there was no detectable shadow from the lens barrel, resulting in a good exposure with the flash.

Distortion
Moderately low geometric distortion with the 28-135mm IS kit lens.

Barrel distortion at 28mm is 0.6 percent

Pincushion at 135mm is 0.2 percent

The Canon 50D’s 28-135mm IS kit lens produced about 0.6 percent barrel distortion at wide-angle, which is slightly below average among the cameras we’ve tested, but still noticeable in some of its images. At the telephoto end, the 0.2 percent pincushion distortion is quite low and not as noticeable. This is the tendency for the lens to bend straight lines outward (like a barrel — usually at wide-angle) or inward (like a pincushion — usually at telephoto).

Chromatic aberration
Moderate and bright at both wide-angle and telephoto with the 28-135mm IS kit lens.

Wide: Moderate but bright, top left @ 200 percent	Wide: Moderate but bright, top right @ 200 percent
Tele: Moderate but bright, top left @200 percent	Tele: Moderate but bright, top right @200 percent

Chromatic aberration in the corners with the Canon 50D’s 28-135mm kit lens is pretty evident (we’d call it on the high side of “moderate,” or “noticeable”) at the 28mm setting. It’s less distinguished by its width (6-9 pixels) and more by its brightness. At 135mm telephoto, this distortion is just as noticeable. (This distortion is visible as a slight colored fringe around the objects at the edges of the field of view on the resolution target.)

Corner Sharpness
Moderate blurring in the corners of the frame at both zoom settings with the kit lens.

Wide: Soft in the corners (lower left).	Wide: Sharper at center.
Tele: Soft in the corners (lower right).	Tele: Sharper at center.

The Canon 50D’s 28-135mm IS kit lens produced soft corners in a few shots. At wide angle, corners on our test targets were moderately soft compared to the center. At telephoto, corners showed about the same amount of softness. An average performance here, especially considering this is a full-frame lens where much of the captured image should be in the sweet-spot of the image circle.

The images above were taken from our standardized test shots. For a
collection of more pictorial photos, see our
Canon EOS 50D Photo Gallery
.

Canon EOS 50D Exposure

The Canon 50D provides a great deal of control functionality, leaving you the choice of going on fully automatic settings, or making fine-tuned adjustments as desired. Standard exposure modes include the usual Program, Aperture-Priority, Shutter-Priority, and full Manual modes, as well as some “Image Zone” (scene-based preset) modes, and two Custom modes, which users can program for quick access to their favorite functions. The “Image Zone” exposure modes include Portrait, Landscape, Close-up (macro), Sports, Night Portrait, and Flash Off modes. These modes preset a variety of camera parameters to make it easier for non-expert photographers to achieve good exposures in a variety of standard shooting situations. The Flash Off mode simply disables the flash and external Speedlite (if attached), and puts the camera under automatic exposure control. The full Auto mode takes over all camera functions, turning the Canon 50D into a very easy to use point-and-shoot camera, albeit a very capable one.

New to the 50D is a new “Creative Auto” mode, which attempts to make complex photographic functions like depth-of-field easier to use. The camera controls focus and general exposure, but leaves it up to the user to adjust the level to which background elements are in focus, and whether to freeze or blur motion.

The Aperture Priority and Shutter Priority modes work much the same as on any other camera, allowing you to adjust one exposure variable while the Canon 50D selects the other for the best exposure. Program mode keeps both variables under automatic control, while Manual mode gives you full control over everything. The Automatic Depth-of-Field mode (A-DEP) uses all nine autofocus zones to determine the depth of field in the active subject area. Once the Canon 50D has determined the range of focusing distances present across the nine zones, it automatically computes the combination of aperture and shutter speed needed to render the nearest and furthest points in sharp focus.

Canon 50D Metering & ISO Sensitivity Options

Here you can see the concentrations of three of the four meter settings. Center weighted is on the left, Partial in the center, and Spot on the right. Spot isn’t much different from Partial. The Canon 50D’s exposure metering specs have not changed from the 40D, so these images are from the 40D review.

Exposure metering options include Evaluative, Partial (9% of viewfinder at center), Spot (3.8% of viewfinder at center), and Center-weighted options. The Canon 50D’s Exposure Compensation setting allows the user to increase or decrease the metered exposure by up to two stops positively or negatively, in one-third or one-half EV increments.

The Canon 50D offers regular ISO equivalents of 100, 200, 400, 800, 1,600, and 3,200, with the option to use fractional settings in 1/3-EV increments (100, 125, 160…). The 50D also offers two additional high-range ISO settings: H1 is equivalent to ISO 6,400 and H2 takes the camera to 12,800.

An automatic exposure bracketing feature lets you set the total exposure variation (across three shots) at anywhere from +/- one-third or one-half EV, all the way up to +/- 2 EV. The nice part is that the automatic variation is centered around whatever level of manual exposure compensation you have dialed in. Thus, you could manually set a positive exposure compensation of 0.7 EV, and then have the camera give you a variation of +/- 2/3 EV around that point.

AE/FE Lock (&quot * &quot button)

The Canon 50D has the same simplified AE Lock button as the 40D, which unbundled the AF Lock feature from the old button on the older EOS cameras like the 20D and 30D. Marked with an asterisk (*) symbol, the AE Lock button simply holds the exposure at one setting while you recompose the image. It’s very useful when spot metering, but also when dealing with subjects where you want to draw your exposure from one place, while autofocusing on another. Pressing the button with the pop-up flash activated or with an external flash mounted activates the FE Lock (Flash Exposure) function, which fires the flash and locks the proper exposure for the following frame.

AF-ON button

The AF-ON button allows you to set focus before depressing the shutter button. With Custom Functions, you can reprogram the behavior of the AF-ON button, as well as swap functions with the AE/FE Lock button. Autofocus action can either replicate that of the standard half-press of the shutter button, or be transferred completely to the AF-ON button, making the shutter button responsible for controlling AE lock only.

The AF-ON button also controls autofocus operations in Live View mode. The Canon 50D now has two styles of autofocus operation in Live View mode: the standard phase detection method, which requires the reflex mirror to be briefly swung back into the optical path, thus disrupting the live view briefly, or a contrast detection method which does not. Both methods have their advantages and disadvantages, but the contrast-detect method offers an uninterrupted user experience. A third method incorporates a face detection into the contrast detection method, offering the face-detecting mode of autofocus now commonly seen on consumer point-and-shoot cameras.

White Balance Options

The Canon 50D offers a full range of White Balance settings, including six presets, an Auto setting, and a Custom setting. The six presets include Daylight, Shade, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent, and Flash. The Custom setting bases color balance on a previous exposure, meaning you can snap an image of a white card and then base the color temperature on that image. A White Balance bracketing option snaps only one image, then writes three successive files from that single image. Bracketing steps are from -/+ 3 stops in whole-stop increments. (Each stop corresponds to five mireds of a color conversion filter, for a total range of +/- 15 mireds. This corresponds to about a +/- 500K shift at a normal daylight color temperature of 5,500K.)

The WB Bracketing is set on the same grid as the White Balance correction grid. Fairly sophisticated, the white balance correction tool lets you shift the color balance toward more or less green, amber, magenta, or blue, using a +/-9 step grid format. You move a highlighted square through the grid to adjust the color balance. It’s a slightly more advanced interface than I’m used to seeing on digital cameras, but a useful one that greatly extends the camera’s color corrective abilities.

The Canon 50D also offers a Picture Style option through the LCD menu, which lets you select from Standard, Portrait, Landscape, Neutral, Faithful, Monochrome, or three User Defined settings. In each of the preset modes, the contrast, saturation, sharpness, and tone are set for specific conditions. The three User Defined options let you manually adjust each variable, then save it as a custom parameter. Finally, you can set the camera’s color space to sRGB or Adobe RGB.

Continuous Shooting Mode and Self-Timer

The Canon 50D’s Continuous Shooting mode is rated by Canon at 6.3 frames per second in high speed mode, for a total of 60 Large/Fine JPEG shots or 16 RAW before the buffer fills; or 3 frames per second in low speed mode. These results come when using a regular CompactFlash card; the 50D is capable of using UDMA CompactFlash cards, and doing so improves the buffer throughput of the camera. With a UDMA card, the Canon 50D can shoot up to 90 Large/Fine JPEG shots before the buffer fills; the number of RAW images is unchanged at 16. The number of consecutive shots could be limited by CompactFlash space, if your memory card is nearly full. Also, when shooting JPEGs of a very complex scene with a lot of sharp, fine detail may also compress less and result in lower buffer capacities.

The camera’s Drive setting also accesses two Self-Timer modes, which open the shutter 10 or 2 seconds after the Shutter button is pressed, giving you time to dash around in front of the camera. A Remote Control mode works with the dedicated and wireless remote units as well.

The images above were taken from our standardized test shots. For a
collection of more pictorial photos, see our
Canon EOS 50D Photo Gallery
.

Not sure which camera to buy? Let your eyes be the ultimate judge!
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Canon 50D Performance

Canon EOS 50D Image Quality

Color

Saturation & Hue Accuracy
Vibrant color with minor oversaturation of strong reds, blues and oranges.

In the diagram above, the squares show the original color, and the circles show the color that the camera captured. More saturated colors are located toward the periphery of the graph. Hue changes as you travel around the center. Thus, hue-accurate, highly saturated colors appear as lines radiating from the center.

Saturation. The Canon EOS 50D pushes reds, blues and oranges, while undersaturating some cyans and purples, but the generally slightly bright color will most likely be very appealing to many users. Most consumer digital cameras produce color that’s more highly saturated (more intense) than found in the original subjects. This is simply because most people like their color a bit brighter than life.

Skin tones. Here, the Canon 50D also did quite well, producing natural-looking skin tones. Where oversaturation is most problematic is on Caucasian skin tones, as it’s very easy for these “memory colors” to be seen as too bright, too pink, too yellow, etc.

Hue. The Canon EOS 50D showed a few small color shifts relative to the correct mathematical translation of colors in its subjects, but had really excellent accuracy overall. Most noticeable was a slight shift in reds toward orange, and slightly larger one in orange toward yellow, with some very minor shifts in greens and cyans as well. Hue is “what color” the color is.

Saturation Adjustment
The Canon EOS 50D has a total of nine saturation settings available, four above and two below the default saturation. This covers a very wide range of saturation levels, about as wide a range as you’re likely to find photographically relevant, apart from special effects that are arguably better achieved in software. The fine steps between settings mean you can program the camera to just the level of saturation you prefer. Nice. (It’s also nice that color saturation has little effect on greyscale contrast, something that’s not always the case.)

Saturation Adjustment Examples
-4	0	+4

The table above shows results with the default as well as the two extreme saturation settings. Click on any thumbnail above, then click again to see the full-sized image.

See full set of test images with explanations See thumbnails of all test and gallery images

Sensor

Exposure and White Balance

Indoors, incandescent lighting
Very warm results with Auto and Incandescent white balance settings, though good color with the 2,600 Kelvin and Manual. Average positive exposure compensation required.

Auto White Balance +0.3 EV	Incandescent White Balance +0.3 EV
Manual White Balance +0.3 EV	2,600 Kelvin +0.3 EV

Indoors, under normal incandescent lighting, color balance was very warm with the Auto white balance setting; we’d really expect better from an SLR selling at this price point. The Incandescent setting was better, but still on the warm side. (The EOS 50D’s Incandescent setting appears to be color-balanced for professional studio lighting, rather than the warmer household incandescent lights most US consumers have in their homes. This would be normal for a professional SLR, but a bit of a pain for consumers. Still, you can use the 50D’s excellent manual adjustment capabilities to tweak the incandescent setting to better match whatever lighting you’re faced with personally.) The Manual setting produced the most accurate results, though the 2,600 Kelvin setting wasn’t far off the mark either. The Canon EOS 50D required an average amount of positive exposure compensation here, at +0.3 EV. (Many digital cameras reproduce the blue flowers here with a purplish tint, so the Canon EOS 50D actually performs a little better than average here.) Our test lighting for this shot is a mixture of 60 and 100 watt household incandescent bulbs, a pretty yellow light source, but a very common one in typical home settings here in the U.S.

Outdoors, daylight
Bright colors overall, though a tendency toward a warm cast and slightly high contrast under harsh lighting. About average exposure accuracy.

Auto White Balance, +0.7 EV	Auto White Balance, Auto Exposure

Outdoors, the Canon EOS 50D tended toward a warmer color balance, though overall color was generally quite good. The EOS 50D performed about average in terms of exposure, requiring the typical amount of positive compensation we’re accustomed to seeing among digital cameras. The far-field shot of the house came out just a bit hot at the EOS 50D’s default exposure setting. The EOS 50D’s default contrast is a little high, producing some washed-out highlights and dark shadows under the deliberately harsh lighting of our “Sunlit” portrait test shown above left, but the 50D does better than most in this regard. The camera’s contrast and highlight tone priority settings do help tame the highlights quite a bit, see below for examples of this.

See full set of test images with explanations
See thumbnails of all test and gallery images

Resolution
Very high resolution, 1,700 ~ 1,800 lines of strong detail from in-camera JPEG, about the same from RAW file processed through Adobe Camera Raw.

Strong detail to 1,800 lines horizontal Camera JPEG	Strong detail to 1,700 lines vertical Camera JPEG
Strong detail to 1,800 lines horizontal 2X target, Camera JPEG	Strong detail to 1,700 lines horizontal 2X target, Camera JPEG
Strong detail to 1,800 lines horizontal ACR processed CR2	Strong detail to 1,800 lines vertical ACR processed CR2

Our laboratory resolution chart revealed sharp, distinct line patterns down to about 1,800 lines per picture height horizontally, and about 1,700 lines in the vertical direction. Extinction didn’t occur until about 2,600 lines horizontally and vertically (results from 2X target are multiplied by 2). We weren’t able to extract much more resolution by processing the EOS 50D’s CR2 files using Adobe Camera Raw, although the vertical resolution (horizontally-oriented target lines) improved slightly. Use these numbers to compare with other cameras of similar resolution, or use them to see just what higher resolution can mean in terms of potential detail.

See full set of test images with explanations
See thumbnails of all test and gallery images

Sharpness & Detail
Soft images overall, though almost no edge-enhancement artifacts on high-contrast subjects. Some minor noise suppression visible in the shadows.

Good definition of high-contrast elements with few visible sharpening artifacts, though slightly soft overall. (In this shot, that’s probably the fault of the kit lens.)	Subtle detail: Hair Noise suppression tends to blur detail in areas of subtle contrast, though detail is fairly strong in the darker parts of the model’s hair here.

Sharpness. The Canon EOS 50D captures slightly soft images overall (made worse by the soft kit lens used for the far field house shot), though very few edge enhancement artifacts are visible on high-contrast subjects such as the crop above left. This indicates default sharpening is somewhat conservative. Edge enhancement creates the illusion of sharpness by enhancing colors and tones right at the edge of a rapid transition in color or tone.

Detail. The crop above right shows some minor noise suppression artifacts in the darkest areas of the model’s hair, though quite a few individual strands are visible in the lighter shadows. The camera’s overall response here is better than average. Noise-suppression systems in digital cameras tend to flatten-out detail in areas of subtle contrast. The effects can often be seen in shots of human hair, where the individual strands are lost and an almost “watercolor” look appears.

RAW vs In-Camera JPEGs
As noted above, the Canon EOS 50D produces rather soft in-camera JPEGs using the kit lens. To show more what the camera’s capable of, all of our FAR shots except the Tele/Wide coverage examples were shot with a Canon 35mm f/2.8 prime (non-zoom) lens, stopped down to f/8 for best sharpness (as determined by our tests of that lens on SLRgear.com). As is almost always the case, more detail can be obtained from carefully processing RAW files than can be seen in the in-camera JPEGs, but the Canon 50D’s JPEGs aren’t bad. Take a look below, to see what we mean:

Camera JPEG (Fine)	RAW via Canon DPP	RAW via ACR

In the table above, mousing over a link at the bottom will load the corresponding crop in the area above. Examples include in-camera Fine JPEG, RAW file processed through Canon’s Digital Photo Professional (DPP) software, and RAW file processed through Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) version 4.6, then sharpened in Photoshop. (For the Canon EOS 50D’s images, I found best results with 320% unsharp masking with an 0.3 pixel radius.) Manufacturer software often doesn’t find as much detail as does Adobe Camera RAW, but Canon’s DPP does better than most – The image processed through ACR show a little more detail, but it looks to our eyes more as though it’s the result of tone curve differences than fundamental differences in the amount of information extracted. Regardless, the Canon 50D is clearly a camera that carries a lot of data in its RAW files.

ISO & Noise Performance
Pretty low noise except at the highest sensitivity settings, good preservation of subtle detail relative to ISO level.

Default High ISOÃ Noise Reduction
ISO 100	ISO 200	ISO 400
ISO 800	ISO 1600	ISO 3200
ISO 6400	ISO 12800

The Canon EOS 50D produced pretty low image noise overall. Images are quite clean at ISOs 100 and 200. We start to see a very fine, tight “grain” pattern at ISO 400, but detail is still excellent, with no signs of chroma noise. The grain is slightly more evident at ISO 800, but detail continues to remain strong. At ISO 1,600, we begin to see some minor detail loss as noise reduction blurs subtly contrasting detail, however results are still quite good. At ISO 3,200, noise grain is courser and blurring stronger, resulting in a noticeable drop in detail. We also start to see some chroma noise, a few bright pixels as well as some minor horizontal banding in shadow areas. Noise and the effects of noise reduction really become a problem at ISO 6,400 and especially at ISO 12,800, with brighter noise pixels, increased chroma noise, heavier banding and a shift in overall color balance. Still, an excellent performance, especially for a camera with a 15-megapixel APS-C size sensor. As always, see the Print Quality section below, to find out what we recommend for maximum print sizes at eachà ISO setting.

Extremes: Sunlit and low light tests
Very high resolution with strong overall detail, but slightly high default contrast. Excellent low-light performance, great exposure to the lowest limits of our test, and the autofocus worked that low, even without the AF-assist light.

+0.3 EV	+0.7 EV	+1.0 EV

Sunlight. The Canon EOS 50D produced slightly high contrast with some washed-out highlights and deep shadows under the harsh lighting of the test above. However, highlight and shadow detail is actually pretty good. The model’s face was a little dim at the +0.3 EV setting, so we preferred the image with +0.7 EV of exposure compensation, which actually resulted in good detail in her shirt as well: It looks blown out on-screen, but if you play with the image in Photoshop, you’ll see that there’s almost no clipping in the shirt; the blue channel just nudges 255 here and there. Compensation of +1.0 EV resulted in a too many clipped highlights for our tastes, though some shooters may prefer the brighter image for its better skin tones. (In real life, be sure to use fill flash in situations like the one shown above; it’s better to shoot in the shade when possible.)

Because digital cameras are more like slide film than negative film (in that they tend to have a more limited tonal range), we test them in the harshest situations to see how they handle scenes with bright highlights and dark shadows, as well as what kind of sensitivity they have in low light. The shot above is designed to mimic the very harsh, contrasty effect of direct noonday sunlight, a very tough challenge for most digital cameras. (You can read details of this test here.)

Contrast Adjustment
We really like it when a camera gives us the ability to adjust contrast and saturation to our liking. It’s even better when those adjustments cover a useful range, in steps small enough to allow for precise tweaks. As was the case with its saturation adjustment, the Canon EOS 50D’s contrast setting meets both challenges very well.

Minimum Contrast
Contrast set to lowest, +0.7 EV	Contrast set to lowest, Auto Exposure

At its lowest contrast setting, the Canon EOS 50D did an excellent job of preserving highlight detail, maintaining fairly natural-looking skin tones, and holding nice detail in the shadows. The EOS 50D captures good color outdoors, though again, just slightly on the warm side. Overall, very good results here, especially when the contrast setting is tweaked.

Contrast Adjustment Examples
-4	0	+4

The table above shows results with the default as well as the two extreme contrast settings. While you can see the extremes, it’s hard to really evaluate contrast on small thumbnails like these, click on any thumbnail to go to the full-size image. The Canon EOS 50D’s contrast adjustment worked well, with little effect on color saturation. Contrast and saturation are actually fairly closely coupled adjustments, it’s a good trick to be able to vary one with out the other changing as well. Canon did a good job here.

Highlight Tone Priority Examples
Off (default)	On
Highlight Retention
Shadow Detail
Shadow Detail, Brightened in Photoshop (Levels control, highlight slider down to 75)

Canon’s Highlight Tone Priority

The two shots above show the results with Highlight Tone Priority “Off “and “On”. As you can see from the crops, fewer highlights in the model’s white shirt are clipped, while shadow detail remains roughly the same when Highlight Tone Priority is enabled. Noise is a bit higher in the shadows, though, due to the increase in sensitivity to ISO 200 and the fact that the camera is using more of the available output tonal range in the highlights. (Note that these are really deep shadows that we’re looking at above. Lighter shadows and quarter tones show very little noise increase.)

More Highlight Tone Priority Examples
Off	On

The 50D’s Highlight Tone Priority can however result in undesired results (even with firmware v1.0.2, which is supposed to address the HTP overexposure problem), as can be seen with the washed-out Still Life image above right. Canon was wise to keep the default “Off”. (You need to make sure you have a significant area of strong highlights before enabling HTP.)

Automatic Lighting Optimization Examples
Low	Standard	High
	Off

Automatic Lighting Optimization

The Canon 50D offers three levels of ALO, plus “Off” (the 40D didn’t offer ALO and the Rebel XSi has only “On” or “Off”). All four shots above were taken with same exposure settings. With the Canon XSi, we found relatively little effect from Canon’s Automatic Lighting Optimization feature on this shot, however the 50D’s adjustable settings do make a noticeable difference. ALO has the effect of shifting shadows and mid-tones in the histograms to the right, lightening the overall image without clipping additional highlights.

Interestingly, scrutinizing the ALO Off and ALO High images above in Photoshop, when used the levels control to adjust two images to bring the shadows to the same brightness level, we were surprised to see that the image noise in the ALO Off image was more prominent than that in the ALO High version. This might be because the boosted shadows in the ALO High image had lower, more natural color saturation than those in the Off version. When we played with Photoshop’s Shadow/Highlight controls, we found we could pretty well match what ALO High was doing by setting the amount of shadow fill to about 25 or so, while reducing the tonal width a little from its default of 50. This came close to what ALO was doing, but there was still a bit more noise in the shadows of the Photoshop-adjusted image. This is an example where automatic in-camera processing is doing a better job than unsophisticated use of even fairly advanced tools in an image editor. Pretty impressive.

Ã	1 fc 11 lux	1/2 fc 5.5 lux	1/4 fc 2.7 lux	1/8 fc 1.3 lux	1/16 fc 0.67 lux	1/16fc No NR
ISO 100	1.7 sec f2.8	3.2 sec f2.8	6.7 sec f2.8	12.7 sec f2.8	20.2 sec f2.8	20.2 sec f2.8
ISO 200	0.8 sec f2.8	1.6 sec f2.8	3.4 sec f2.8	6.3 sec f2.8	10.1 sec f2.8	10.1 sec f2.8
ISO 400	0.4 sec f2.8	0.8 sec f2.8	1.6 sec f2.8	3.2 sec f2.8	5 sec f2.8	5 sec f2.8
ISO 800	1/5 sec f2.8	0.4 sec f2.8	0.8 sec f2.8	1.6 sec f2.8	2.5 sec f2.8	2.5 sec f2.8
ISO 1600	1/10 sec f2.8	1/5 sec f2.8	0.4 sec f2.8	0.7 sec f2.8	1.3 sec f2.8	1.3 sec f2.8
ISO 3200	1/19 sec f2.8	1/10 sec f2.8	1/5 sec f2.8	0.4 sec f2.8	0.6 sec f2.8	0.6 sec f2.8
ISO 6400	1/38 sec f2.8	1/19 sec f2.8	1/10 sec f2.8	1/5 sec f2.8	0.3 sec f2.8	0.3 sec f2.8
ISO 12800	1/76 sec f2.8	1/45 sec f2.8	1/25 sec f2.8	1/10 sec f2.8	1/6 sec f2.8	1/6 sec f2.8

Low light. The Canon EOS 50D performed quite well on the low-light test, capturing usable images at the lowest light level (1/16 foot-candle), even with the lowest sensitivity setting (ISO 100). Noise increases as ISO goes up and light levels go down, but remains very low up to ISOà 800. At ISOà 1,600, we start to see a few bright pixels, but noise is still fairly low. At ISO 3,200 and above, bright pixels appear more frequently, and horizontal banding increases, becoming quite evident at ISOsà 6,400 and 12,800. Color balance looked a bit warm with the Auto white balance setting, resulting in a reddish cast at lower light levels.

Many readers will doubtless immediately compare the Canon 50D with the Nikon D90, as the two cameras were announced within a day of each other, and are somewhat competitive in the marketplace. The 50D has more pixels than the D90 and sells for a higher price, but the two are pretty comparable in many dimensions. Given Canon’s long history of superb noise performance with their CMOS sensor technology, we were somewhat surprised to find that the D90 beat the 50D pretty handily in terms of noise at high ISOs and low light levels. The D90’s images were softer, due in part to its lower resolution, but perhaps also to heavier noise suppression, but in terms of overall visceral impact, we much preferred the D90’s noise characteristics to those of the 50D.

The camera’s autofocus system was able to focus on the subject at less than the 1/16 foot-candle light level unassisted, and in complete darkness with the AF assist enabled. Keep in mind that the longer shutter speeds here demand the use of a tripod to prevent any blurring from camera movement. (A useful trick is to just prop the camera on a convenient surface, and use its self-timer to release the shutter. This avoids any jiggling from your finger pressing the shutter button, and can work quite well when you don’t have a tripod handy.)

How bright is this? The one foot-candle light level that this test begins at roughly corresponds to the brightness of typical city street-lighting at night. Cameras performing well at that level should be able to snap good-looking photos of street-lit scenes.

NOTE: This low light test is conducted with a stationary subject, and the camera mounted on a sturdy tripod. Most digital cameras will fail miserably when faced with a moving subject in dim lighting. (For example, a child’s ballet recital or a holiday pageant in a gymnasium.) Digital SLRs like the Canon EOS 50D do much better than point & shoots, but you still shouldn’t expect a quick autofocus lock with moving subjects.

Output Quality

Print Quality
Great print quality, good color, sharp 13×19 inch prints from camera JPEGs, 16×20 inch ones from RAW files. (Even 20×30 prints from RAW are very usable for wall display.)

The Canon EOS 50D’s printed output is really impressive, but to get the best results, you really need to work from its CR2 RAW files. In-camera JPEGs are a little soft looking, due in part to conservative in-camera sharpening, but likely also in part to noise-reduction processing, even at low ISO settings. Adobe Camera Raw (our default RAW converter, due to its wide availability and very broad support for different camera models) reveals significantly more fine detail, particularly in areas of subtle subject contrast. Sharpening the in-camera JPEGs helps a fair bit, but never brings out the detail in lower-contrast regions that ACR finds in the CR2 files.

Working from RAW files, we thought that 20×30 inch prints would be very acceptable for viewing at any sort of normal distance: We could see softness in them when we looked close and squinted (well, maybe just looked close), but normal viewing distances of anything greater than a foot or so, they looked crisp and highly detailed. The in-camera JPEGs looked OK printed at 13×19, but were still a little soft there. Some fine/tight unsharp masking in Photoshop (0.3 pixel radius, perhaps 200-250% sharpening) helped the camera JPEGs somewhat, but the comparison with files processed from RAW was still pretty stark.

At higher ISOs, the 50D’s images held together quite well. For 13×19 inch prints, ISO 1,600 was about the limit, as ISO 3,200 ones got soft and grainy at that size. Even viewed at a distance of a foot or more, the ISO 3,200 shots just showed too much fuzzy grain for our tastes at 13×19 inches, but the ISO 1,600 shots looked great.

Dropping to 11×14 inches, ISO 1,600 shots looked great, and ISO 3,200 looked good, although there was still a little chroma noise present. (Which went away in shots taken with high-ISO noise reduction set to its High setting.)

ISO 3,200 looked good at 8.5×11 and great at 5×7 inches. ISO 6,400 shots looked decent at 8×11, but how you feel about them will depend on how you feel about image noise vs detail.

With normal noise reduction, the prints from ISO 6,400 shots held good detail, but chroma noise was fairly visible in some of the darker fabric swatches on our Still Life target. Turning the noise reduction up to High eliminated most of the chroma noise but at the cost of some detail. At ISO 6,400, there was also some banding in the chroma noise in the shadows, that persisted even with High noise reduction, and that was visible even in somewhat smaller prints.

ISO 12,800 from camera JPEGs was pretty rough (lots of chroma noise with noticeable horizontal banding) no matter what size we printed at; plan on using it only as a last resort, or if you’re using good third-party noise reduction software in your post-processing. (ISO 12,800 might also be usable for subjects with lots of texture, which would tend to mask the noise pattern.)

Detail throughout the ISO range stayed pretty strong. To their credit, Canon isn’t turning the 50D’s images into undifferentiated mush just for the sake of getting rid of noise. At the risk of sounding like a broken record though, look to a good third-party RAW converter to get the most from the 50D’s images.

In terms of color, we certainly found nothing to complain about. Colors were vibrant without seeming overdone, and hues were very true to the originals.

Remember that we’re holding digital SLRs like the Canon 50D to a slightly higher standard with these printed results than we do a point-and-shoot digital camera.

Testing hundreds of digital cameras, we’ve found that you can only tell just so much about a camera’s image quality by viewing its images on-screen. Ultimately, there’s no substitute for printing a lot of images and examining them closely. For this reason, we now routinely print sample images from the cameras we test on our Canon Pro9000 studio printer, and on the Canon iP5200 here in the office. (See the Canon Pixma Pro9000 review for details on that model.)

Canon EOS 50D Optical Viewfinder

The Canon EOS 50D offers a reasonably accurate optical viewfinder, which Canon says will provide about 95% frame accuracy, the same as the 40D. Other specifications also remain the same as the 40D: a pentaprism design with 0.95x magnification (-1m^-1 with 50mm lens at infinity), an eyepoint of approximately 22mm (measured from eyepiece lens center), and a diopter adjustment range of -3.0 to +1.0m^-1.

Within the viewfinder display is an array of available AF points, as well as a lower information readout reporting basics such as exposure compensation, exposure settings, flash mode, focus status, etc. See below illustration (courtesy of Canon USA) for details.

Compared to the Canon 40D, the 50D’s viewfinder display adds a Highlight Tone Priority mode indicator below the ISO indicator, and moves the Black & White mode indicator to below the White Balance correction indicator to make room. Otherwise, the optical viewfinder information is identical.

Focusing Screens. As with the 40D, the EOS 50D has two optional screens available. The first screen shown below is the standard screen that comes with every 50D. The second offers a grid for setting alignment, and the third is what Canon calls Super Precision Matte, which is meant for lenses with maximum apertures under f/2.8. This latter screen will allow for more precise focusing when used with these faster lenses, but it will darken if used with slower lenses. The two optional screens are priced at $45 each.

Ef-A: the standard screen	Ef-D: the grid	Ef-S: Super Precision Matte

Viewfinder Test Results

Accuracy
Good accuracy from the optical viewfinder, excellent accuracy from the LCD in Live View mode.

70mm, Optical	70mm, LCD Live View

The Canon 50D’s optical viewfinder proved fairly accurate, showing about 95% coverage. This is about average coverage for a non-professional digital SLR, and matches Canon’s specification. Live View mode using the LCD was very accurate, at about 100% coverage.

Canon EOS 50D Live View

In addition to the EOS 50D’s optical viewfinder, the camera features a Live View mode for its rear-panel LCD monitor. Becoming more popular among digital SLRs these days, the Live View mode lets you use the LCD monitor as a larger viewfinder, and offers an exposure simulation option which displays the expected outcome of your chosen exposure settings.

Compared to the 40D, the Canon 50D Live View display adds quite a bit more information in terms of settings displayed (see below), and offers a new contrast-detect autofocus mode along with a face detection option.

Like a larger version of the optical viewfinder display, the Live View display reports the exposure information along the bottom of the screen, with additional settings overlaid to the left and right, as well as the selected focus area(s).

Canon EOS 50D Live View options
Live View mode includes both a display with no information (sorry, no screen shot), and a display with minimal information across the bottom. (The grid can be disabled.)	Pressing the INFO button cycles through the two additional available displays, including a live RGB histogram.
Another grid option (Grid 2) is also available via the Live View function setting in the Setup menu.	Setting options are overlaid when adjusted, and resulting changes are simulated (here, the effect of various white balance options is simulated).
When using phase-detect AF mode, an overlay of the available focus points normally seen in the optical viewfinder is shown when selecting an area.	The active points are highlighted in red after a brief delay for focusing.
With contrast-detect AF, the focus area can be moved around freely on the screen.	The focus area is highlighted in green when focused, just like a Canon digicam.
The Canon 50D’s face detection AF at work. Turning the Quick Control dial switches between faces if more than one is detected (note small arrows in photo at right indicating that another face is available).
Pressing the zoom button zooms in to display what’s in the center box.	Pressing the zoom button again zooms into 10x magnification, great for fine focusing. You can move the zoomed area around in the box, using the legend as a guide.

Most useful in Live View mode is the ability to zoom, as shown above. You can move the zoomed area around the screen to verify focus wherever you need it most.

Canon EOS 50D Flash

The Canon 50D’s built-in flash has a guide number rating of 43 feet (13 meters) at ISO 100, translating to a range of about 15 feet at ISO 100 with an f/2.8 lens. (Reasonably powerful, but not dramatically so.) The Canon 50D gives you a great deal of control over flash exposure, allowing you to adjust flash and ambient exposure independently of each other, in one-half or one-third EV increments. This makes it very easy to balance flash and ambient lighting for more natural-looking pictures. The Canon 50D also uses E-TTL II control for both the built-in and compatible external flashes. E-TTL II is only available with the built-in flash or when the camera is paired with more recent Canon EX-series strobes.

Another nice touch is the Flash Exposure Lock button, which fires the flash under manual control before the actual exposure, to determine the proper exposure setting. This struck me as very handy, akin to the more conventional autoexposure lock function for handling difficult ambient lighting conditions. A Flash Exposure Compensation feature controls the flash exposure +/- 2 stops in 1/2 or 1/3-stop increments.

Several of the more impressive features of the Canon flash system depend on the dedicated EX-series speedlights. Among these are true FP (focal plane) flash sync, flash exposure bracketing with external flash units, flash modeling, and E-TTL II exposure control. FP sync requires a flash unit to provide uniform light output for a relatively long period of time, which the flash achieves by pulsing its high speed strobe multiple times as the two shutter curtains travel across the sensor plane, revealing only a small section of the sensor at a time. Uniform, long-duration flash pulses like this permit use of shutter speeds as high as the 1/8,000-second maximum that the Canon 50D is capable of. This can be invaluable when you want to exclude ambient light from the exposure. (FP sync mode is referred to as “high speed” mode on the Canon 550EX, 580EX and 580EX II flash units.)

Here’s the rundown on Canon Speedlights and their compatibility with the Canon 50D:

You’ll note the references to “E-TTL remote” capabilities in the table above. Canon’s Speedlight system permits TTL flash metering with multiple remote units, and even allows you to set differential power ratios between the slaved units, over a six-stop flash exposure range.

The “Flash Modeling” feature of the 550EX, 580EX, and 580EX II speedlights is quite useful. With a 550EX or 580EX connected to the Canon 50D, pressing the camera’s Depth of Field Preview button causes the speedlight to fire at 70 flashes per second for about one second. This creates the illusion of a constant light source for your eyes, letting you preview the lighting on your subject when the flash fires. VERY handy, and likely to save lots of shoot/check/reshoot time!

The “X-sync” speed of the Canon 50D is 1/250-second. When used with higher-powered studio strobe systems, Canon recommends a maximum shutter speed of 1/60-second or slower, to accommodate the time/intensity profile of such units.

A final benefit of the dedicated Canon speedlights is that they carry powerful autofocus assist illuminators that can extend the range of the built-in AF assist light of the Canon 50D. For example, the AF assist beam on the 550EX is rated as good to about 50 feet, versus the roughly 13 feet of the pulse flash on the Canon 50D. (As mentioned above though, note that the ST-E2 wireless sync transmitter can also be used for AF assist during non-flash photography, a handy trick.)

Canon’s E-TTL II flash exposure system also works with certain lenses to include object distance data into its calculations so it can adjust the flash power accordingly. A preflash is fired and the resulting readings compared to the ambient light reading for each of the camera’s 35 metering zones from just prior to the flash, to identify and compensate for specular objects (that is, very reflective surfaces). In instances where most cameras would underexpose an image because of a reflective object in the frame, the Canon 50D will ignore the brighter areas and expose the subject correctly in most instances. This is designed to help shooters like event photographers — especially wedding photographers, whose cameras are constantly forced to balance a bright white dress against all manner of reflective materials on the clothing of others, in addition to the usually black tuxedos of the groomsmen.

The Canon 50D can also control some aspects of an external flash from the Flash Control menu. You can set the flash to not fire when mounted and powered on, which is useful for using the flash as an AF-assist beam. You can also set Flash Exposure Compensation, and set E-TTL II to Evaluative or Average.

The Canon 50D’s hot shoe also includes a waterproof seal around the base, designed to mate with the Canon 580EX II’s seal, which is integrated into the flash’s locking mechanism. This keeps water from seeping into this important electrical connection during wet conditions.

Flash Test Results

Coverage and Range
Good flash performance, with good intensity but slightly uneven coverage at wide angle. About average positive exposure compensation required.

28mm	135mm
Normal Flash, +0.7 EV	Slow-Sync Mode, Default

Coverage and Exposure. Flash coverage was slightly uneven at wide angle, but keep in mind that a 28mm lens has the field of view of about 45mm on the 50D, so the fall-off in the corners of the frame would likely be much worse with a wider-angle lens. Coverage at telephoto is much more even. Indoors, under incandescent background lighting, the Canon 50D’s flash performed quite well, requiring about average positive exposure compensation of +0.7 EV for a bright image. The camera’s slow-sync flash mode required no compensation, though the longer shutter time results in a warmer cast from the ambient background lighting.

Flash Range: Wide Angle
6 ft	7 ft	8 ft	9 ft	10 ft	11 ft
1/64 sec f3.7 ISO 100	1/64 sec f3.7 ISO 100	1/64 sec f3.7 ISO 100	1/64 sec f3.7 ISO 100	1/64 sec f3.7 ISO 100	1/64 sec f3.7 ISO 100
12 ft	13 ft	14 ft	15 ft	16 ft
1/64 sec f3.7 ISO 100	1/64 sec f3.7 ISO 100	1/64 sec f3.7 ISO 100	1/64 sec f3.7 ISO 100	1/64 sec f3.7 ISO 100

Flash Range: Telephoto
6 ft	7 ft	8 ft	9 ft	10 ft	11 ft
1/64 sec f5.7 ISO 100	1/64 sec f5.7 ISO 100	1/64 sec f5.7 ISO 100	1/64 sec f5.7 ISO 100	1/64 sec f5.7 ISO 100	1/64 sec f5.7 ISO 100
12 ft	13 ft	14 ft	15 ft	16 ft
1/64 sec f5.7 ISO 100	1/64 sec f5.7 ISO 100	1/64 sec f5.7 ISO 100	1/64 sec f5.7 ISO 100	1/64 sec f5.7 ISO 100

ISO 100 Range. The Canon 50D’s flash was bright and powerful, and with the kit lens actually did a bit better in our tests than its guide number (13 meters at ISO 100) would indicate. Set to its maximum 28mm wide angle setting, the test shots showed no falloff in brightness all the way to the 15-foot limit of our test, even though its guide number would say it should only hold strong to 12.3 feet. At its maximum tele setting of 135mm, intensity held steady all the way to 9 feet, even though the guide number says it should only work to about 7.7 feet at f/5.6. Overall, great performance from the 50D’s flash…

Manufacturer-Specified Flash Range
70mm, f/2.8
15.4 feet ISO 100

Manufacturer-Specified Flash Test. The Canon 50D’s built-in flash has a GN (Guide Number) of 13 meters at ISO 100, which translates to about 15.4 feet at f/2.8. (Note: we used a Sigma 70mm f/2.8 lens for this test.) In the shot above, the Canon 50D seems to perform as well as Canon says it will, producing a good exposure at the rated distance with its ISO set to 100.

Note: Our standard test method for flash range uses a fixed setting of ISO 100, to provide a fair basis of comparison between cameras. With the above test, we’re also looking at whether their stated specification rings true.

Canon 50D High ISO Noise Reduction

Unlike the Canon 40D which only offered “On” and “Off” settings, the Canon 50D offers four high ISO noise reduction settings, allowing you quite a bit of flexibility in choosing how you want to make the trade-off between subject detail and noise levels. It’s not clear that the “off” setting truly eliminates the noise processing altogether, but it is true that it leaves a lot of fine/subtle subject detail there for you to work with. The combination of shooting with NR turned off and using a good noise-filtering program after the fact can produce very clean images with lots of fine detail in them. (And of course, the 50D’s RAW files have no noise-reduction processing applied to them at all, adhering to the true philosophy of RAW shooting.)

See for yourself how the noise reduction works under daylight-balanced lighting. Click on any of the crops below to see the corresponding full-sized image.

High ISO Noise Reduction Comparison Simulated Daylight
	Disable	Low	Standard	Strong
I S O 8 0 0
	Disable	Low	Standard	Strong
I S O 1 6 0 0
	Disable	Low	Standard	Strong
I S O 3 2 0 0
	Disable	Low	Standard	Strong
I S O 6 4 0 0
	Disable	Low	Standard	Strong
I S O 1 2 8 0 0

The above crops show the effects of the four levels of high ISO noise reduction available on the 50D, under our studio HMI lighting, which has a daylight white balance. As noted above, the 50D gives you a range of options for balancing image noise vs subtle detail. Compared to the Off setting for high-ISO noise reduction, the Low option appears to primarily affect chroma noise, leaving luminance noise more or less alone. Standard attacks both luminance and chroma noise, but at increased cost to fine detail in areas of subtle contrast. (See the red fabric swatches in the crops above.) Finally, Strong flattens out noise considerably, but at a heavy cost to detail in low-contrast regions of the image.

As megapixel counts have risen and the pixels thus become smaller, Canon has managed to maintain surprisingly constant high-ISO performance, through improvements in sensor cell layout and microlens design, as well as in their noise-reduction processing algorithms. So how does the 50D compare to the 40D? See the crops below:

High ISO Noise Reduction 50D vs 40DComparison Simulated Daylight
ISO 800
	Disable	Low	Standard	Strong
50D
40D		N/A: Canon 40D does not have a “Low” NR setting.		N/A: Canon 40D does not have a “Strong” NR setting.
50D
40D		N/A: Canon 40D does not have a “Low” NR setting.		N/A: Canon 40D does not have a “Strong” NR setting.
50D
40D		N/A: Canon 40D does not have a “Low” NR setting.		N/A: Canon 40D does not have a “Strong” NR setting.
ISO 1600
50D
40D		N/A: Canon 40D does not have a “Low” NR setting.		N/A: Canon 40D does not have a “Strong” NR setting.
50D
40D		N/A: Canon 40D does not have a “Low” NR setting.		N/A: Canon 40D does not have a “Strong” NR setting.
50D
40D		N/A: Canon 40D does not have a “Low” NR setting.		N/A: Canon 40D does not have a “Strong” NR setting.
ISO 3200
50D
40D		N/A: Canon 40D does not have a “Low” NR setting.		N/A: Canon 40D does not have a “Strong” NR setting.
50D
40D		N/A: Canon 40D does not have a “Low” NR setting.		N/A: Canon 40D does not have a “Strong” NR setting.
50D
40D		N/A: Canon 40D does not have a “Low” NR setting.		N/A: Canon 40D does not have a “Strong” NR setting.

The above crops compare the 50D (top row) versus the 40D (bottom row) of each set. As mentioned above, the 40D only offers “On” and Off” high ISO NR settings.

Here we see the impact of the 50D’s higher resolution sensor (with the smaller pixels that implies) on high-ISO performance. At any given ISO level, JPEG images from the two cameras contain roughly similar levels of noise, and at ISO 800, the Canon 50D’s images arguably hold a bit more detail in low-contrast regions than do those from the 40D. At ISOs higher than 800 though, while the 50D holds good detail in high-contrast objects (such as the fine lines on the round scale), it trades away progressively more subtle detail, and is considerably worse than the 40D in this regard. (Check out the red fabric swatch at ISO 3,200; the loss of detail there with standard noise reduction applied is pretty profound.)

Canon and Nikon perpetually try to top one another. Sometimes Canon has been ahead, at other times Nikon has been on top. So how does the Canon 50D compared to Nikon’s D90? The crops below compare the 50D (top row) versus the D90 (bottom row) in each set.

High ISO Noise Reduction 50D vs D90 Comparison Simulated Daylight
ISO 800
	Off	Low	Normal	High
50D
D90
50D
D90
50D
D90
ISO 1600
50D
D90
50D
D90
50D
D90
ISO 3200
50D
D90
50D
D90
50D
D90
ISO 6400
50D
D90
50D
D90
50D
D90

People tend to react to noise rather differently, but to our eyes the images above show pretty clearly that Nikon currently has the upper hand in the high-ISO derby. Of course, the D90 has about 20% fewer pixels than does the Canon 50D, but the actual difference in both linear pixel dimensions of the images and the sizes of the pixels themselves are fairly minor. (The Canon 50D has only 10.8% more pixels horizontally than does the D90, so the difference in resolution between the two cameras amounts to relatively little in actual practice.) We have little doubt that Canon will catch up (and perhaps surpass) Nikon at some point in the future, but for the moment, Nikon beats Canon on high-ISO noise performance, at least in this price bracket. Results compared to the more expensive Nikon D300 are very similar.

Canon 50D Imatest Results

We routinely use Norman Koren’s excellent “Imatest” analysis program for quantitative, thoroughly objective analysis of digicam test images. I highly recommend it to our technically-oriented readers, as it’s far and away the best, most comprehensive analysis program I’ve found to date.

My comments below are just brief observations of what we see in the Imatest results. A full discussion of all the data Imatest produces is really beyond the scope of this review: Visit the Imatest web site for a full discussion of what the program measures, how it performs its computations, and how to interpret its output.

Here’s some of the results produced by Imatest for the Canon 50D:

sRGB Accuracy Comparison
Canon 50D	Nikon D300	Pentax K20D	Sony A700

The Canon 50D showed very good color accuracy, though with saturation levels a little higher than some competing models. Hue accuracy was very good, with only minor hue shifts occurring mainly in the oranges and reds. Average saturation was 109.7% (9.7% oversaturated) and average “delta-C” color error was only 4.55 after correction for saturation, which is very good. (Delta-C is the same as the more commonly referred to delta-E, but delta-C takes into account only color differences, ignoring luminance variation.) Over much of the spectrum, the 50D’s default color rendering is quite faithful to the original, with accurate saturation levels. The only significant deviation is in warm-hued colors, most particularly reds, tapering off as you move through oranges to yellows. The color error plot has such a distinctive shape to it that we assume this must be the result of a deliberate engineering decision. Perhaps consumers judge the vibrancy of an image more by how bright the red through yellow colors are? We’re not sure of the answer to that, but we personally found the Canon 50D’s color very appealing. Overall, a very good color response for an SLR. Mouse over the links below the illustration above to compare results with other recent models.

Adobe RGB Accuracy Comparison
Canon 50D	Nikon D300	Pentax K20D	Sony A700

As is true of most SLRs, when using the Adobe RGB color space (which provides a much wider gamut, or range of colors that can be expressed), the Canon 50D delivers more highly saturated color, with an average saturation of 114.8% and average saturation-corrected hue error of 5.86 “delta-C” units. The bias toward higher saturation in the warm-hued colors is even more apparent here, but what was a slight undersaturation of the cyan swatch in sRGB color space is now a noticeable desaturation in Adobe RGB. Again, mouse over the links below the illustration above to compare results with other recent prosumer SLRs.

This image shows how the Canon 50D actually rendered the colors of the MacBeth chart, compared to a numerically ideal treatment. In each color swatch, the outer perimeter shows the color as actually captured by the camera, the inner square shows the numerically correct color after correcting for the luminance of the photographed chart (as determined by a second-order curve fit to the values of the gray swatches), and the small rectangle inside the inner square shows the numerically correct color, without the luminance correction. This image shows the very good hue accuracy, as well as a gamma curve that results in moderate overexposure of some of the highest-saturation swatches. (This increase in luminance for the highly-saturated swatches seems to be a fairly common tactic, to produce “bright” color that’s appealing to consumers, without further overdoing the saturation.)

There’s a lot in this particular graph, a lot more than we have room to go into here. (This set of plots has also changed a little in the more recent versions of Imatest. Some of the plots that were shown here previously are now shown in other Imatest output. Since we largely focus on the Noise Spectrum plot, we’ll only show the graphic above, which includes that plot.)

In comparing these graphs with those from competing cameras, I’ve found that the Noise Spectrum graph at lower right is the most important. Cameras that manage to shift their noise spectrum to higher frequencies have much finer-grained noise structures, making their noise less visually objectionable. In the graph above, this would show up as a noise spectrum curve that remained higher on the right side, representing higher noise frequencies. The champion at this was (and still is) the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II, which produced remarkably fine-grained image noise, even at very high ISOs.

The Canon 50D does a pretty good job of keeping plenty of the luminance noise energy (indicated by the black line) at high frequencies. What little low-ISO image noise that’s there is more fine-grained as a result. Chroma noise, though, is much higher, especially in the red channel. The overall noise levels are so low in low-ISO shots that the chroma noise in general and the red blotchiness in particular are only slightly visible when inspecting shadow areas of low ISO shots very closely. Canon says their High ISO Noise Reduction (the default setting is “Standard” for the 50D) is also effective at reducing shadow noise at low ISOs, which may explain why chroma noise is lower than the 40D which defaults to “Off” for its High ISO NR.

Above is the same set of noise data at ISO 3,200. Here, the Noise Spectrum graph is shifted quite a bit toward the left-hand, lower-frequency side than it was at ISO 100, coarsening the “grain” of the image noise patterns quite a bit. The red, blue and green channels still exhibit more noise at the low end of the frequency spectrum, but unlike the 40D, they track luminance noise quite nicely otherwise. Again, because the Canon 50D’s High ISO Noise Reduction is enabled by default, it eliminates much of the chroma noise we saw in the plots from the 40D.

Here’s the same set of noise data at ISO 6,400. While the spectrum graph is very similar to ISO 3,200 (just a slight shift to higher frequencies), note the increase in noise levels depicted in the top right and bottom left plots. When looking at the 50D’s ISO 6,400 shots, many bright noise pixels are quite evident, especially in darker areas.

Here’s the same set of noise data at ISO 12,800. Again, look at the dramatic increase in noise levels in the top right and bottom left plots.

This chart compares the Canon 50D’s noise performance over a range of ISOs against that of other cameras. While we continue to show noise plots of this sort because readers ask for them, we each time point out that the noise magnitude is only a small part of the story, the grain pattern being much more important. Here, we can see that the Canon 50D’s luminance noise magnitude starts out very low compared to the competition, and increases at a fairly constant rate as ISO climes to 800, where it ends up close to the level of the 40D, and slightly higher than most of its competition. Default noise reduction becomes more aggressive at ISO 1,600, resulting in slightly lower magnitude than at 800, but then rises again to levels just below the 40D at ISO 3,200. At ISO 6,400, the magnitude is higher than the Nikon D300 and Sony A700, but much lower than the Pentax K20D. The Canon 50D is the only one in the group to offer ISO 12,800, where luminance noise magnitude is quite high indeed (about the same as the K20D at ISO 6,400). Do keep in mind these measurements are taken with each camera set at default settings, so the shape or position of the curve could be influenced by the settings you choose to use. The Pentax K20D’s plot is a good example of this. Its noise magnitude is higher than the others, but that’s partly because the K20D’s default contrast and sharpness settings are a bit on the high side.

Canon 50D Dynamic Range Analysis

A key parameter in a digital camera is its Dynamic Range, the range of brightness that can be faithfully recorded. At the upper end of the tonal scale, dynamic range is dictated by the point at which the RGB data “saturates” at values of 255, 255, 255. At the lower end of the tonal scale, dynamic range is determined by the point at which there ceases to be any useful difference between adjacent tonal steps. Note the use of the qualifier “useful” in there: While it’s tempting to evaluate dynamic range as the maximum number of tonal steps that can be discerned at all, that measure of dynamic range has very little relevance to real-world photography. What we care about as photographers is how much detail we can pull out of the shadows before image noise becomes too objectionable. This, of course, is a very subjective matter, and will vary with the application and even the subject matter in question. (Noise will be much more visible in subjects with large areas of flat tints and subtle shading than it would in subjects with strong, highly contrasting surface texture.)

What makes most sense then, is to specify useful dynamic range in terms of the point at which image noise reaches some agreed-upon threshold. To this end, Imatest computes a number of different dynamic range measurements, based on a variety of image noise thresholds. The noise thresholds are specified in terms of f-stops of equivalent luminance variation in the final image file, and dynamic range is computed for noise thresholds of 1.0 (low image quality), 0.5 (medium image quality), 0.25 (medium-high image quality) and 0.1 (high image quality). For most photographers and most applications, the noise thresholds of 0.5 and 0.25 f-stops are probably the most relevant to the production of acceptable-quality finished images, but many noise-sensitive shooters will insist on the 0.1 f-stop limit for their most critical work.

The image below shows the test results from Imatest for an in-camera JPEG file from the Canon 50D with a nominally-exposed density step target (Stouffer 4110), and the 50D’s Contrast (0), Auto Lighting Optimization (Standard) and Highlight Tone Priority (Off) settings at their default positions.

Here, we can see that he tone curve shows excellent gradation in highlights, but the shadow end trails off more abruptly. Still, these are pretty good numbers compared to other current-model DSLRs. As you will see from the next plot, though, we got better results when we turned the 50D’s Auto Lighting Optimizer “Off”, ironically.

Here, we see the results with the 50D’s Auto Light Optimization feature turned “Off”. (In case you’re wondering, the “Low” and “High” ALO settings did not yield better results.) The tone curve doesn’t end quite as abruptly on the shadow end as it did with ALO set to “Standard”. Dynamic range at the high quality level increased slightly from 7.68 to 7.83 EV, while total dynamic range also rose slightly from 9.89 to 10.2 EV.

Processing the Canon 50D’s RAW (.CR2) files through Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) version 4.6 increased the dynamic range score by about 1/3 EV at the highest quality level, compared to the in-camera JPEG with Auto Light Optimization (ALO) set to Standard (the default), but only by about 1/4 EV compared to the JPEG with no ALO applied. Total dynamic range increased more dramatically from 10.2 to 12.7 EV. These results were obtained by using ACR’s automatic settings, then tweaking the sliders manually. It’s also worth noting here that ACR’s default noise reduction settings further reduced the chroma noise somewhat in lighter areas (see the plot in the lower left-hand corner) relative to the levels in the in-camera JPEG. But because the levels in the darker steps of the Stouffer chart were boosted to make the gamma curve trail-off more gradually, shadow noise was amplified as well, limiting the Imatest DR scores at higher quality levels.

Dynamic Range, the bottom line:

The net result was that the 50D performed well when compared against most current DSLR models, positioned near the top of the current crop of such cameras for in-camera JPEG dynamic range results. Results from processed RAW files were good, but lag behind much of the competition.

To get some perspective, here’s a summary of the Canon 50D’s dynamic range performance, and how it compares to other digital SLRs that we also have Imatest dynamic range data for. (Results are arranged in order of decreasing dynamic range at the “High” quality level.):

The results shown in the table are interesting. One of the first things that struck me when I initially looked at test data for a wide range of DSLRs, was that here again, purely analytical measurements don’t necessarily correlate all that well with actual photographic experience. There’s no question that the Fuji S3 Pro deserved its place atop the list, as its unique “SR” technology did indeed deliver a very obvious improvement in tonal range in the highlight portion of the tonal scale relative to competing models of its day. (Amazing that it’s now surpassed by even consumer-level models using today’s technology.) I was also surprised to see the analytical results place the original Olympus E-300 as highly as they did, given that our sense of that camera’s images was that they were in fact noisier than those of many other DSLRs that we looked at. In the other direction, I was quite surprised to see the Nikon D2x place as low on the listings as it did, given that we found that camera’s shadow detail to be little short of amazing.

One thing that’s going on here though, is that we tested each camera at its base ISO setting, which should produce best-case noise levels. This is in fact what many photographers will be most interested in, but it does perhaps place some of the Nikons (like the D40) at a disadvantage, as their lowest ISO setting is 200, as compared to the ISO 100 settings available on most other models.

Canon 50D Resolution Chart Test Results

The chart above shows consolidated results from spatial frequency response measurements in both the horizontal and vertical axes. The “MTF 50” numbers tend to correlate best with visual perceptions of sharpness, so those are what we focus on here. The uncorrected resolution figures are 2,095 line widths per picture height in the horizontal direction (corresponding to the vertically-oriented edge), and 2,070 lines along the vertical axis (corresponding to the horizontally-oriented edge), for a combined average of 2,082 LW/PH. Correcting to a “standardized” sharpening with a one-pixel radius increased vertical resolution by quite a bit, but horizontal resolution increased only slightly, resulting in an average of 2,315 LW/PH.

To see what’s going on, refer to the plots below, which show the actual edge profiles for both horizontal and vertical edges, in both their original and corrected forms. Here, you can see that a nearly ideal amount of in-camera sharpening is applied in the horizontal direction (undersharpened by only 4.22%, explaining why standardized sharpening wasn’t able to improve on the MTF 50 numbers much), while in-camera sharpening is not as aggressive in the vertical direction (13 % undersharpened). Despite the “undersharpening” reported by Imatest though, there is a noticeable “bump” visible in the horizontal edge profile. (A very slight one in the vertical edge profile, but probably negligible.) You should thus turn the camera’s sharpening down a little for optimal results when sharpening in-camera JPEGs post-exposure in Adobe Photoshop or other image editing software.

Canon EOS 50D Modes and Menus

The Mode dial on the left side of the Canon EOS 50D’s top panel lets you select various exposure modes, with the same range of options presented as on the EOS 40D, with the exception that a custom mode (C3) has been removed to make room for the new Creative Auto (CA) mode (see description below). Canon divides the dial into “Basic” and “Creative” zones, the Basic range encompassing the Full Auto setting and the six scene modes in what Canon refers to as the “Image” zone. The Creative zone includes settings for Creative Auto, Programmed exposure, Shutter priority, Aperture priority, full Manual control, and the Automatic Depth of Field mode. There are also two Camera User settings, for registering up to two banks of settings for quick recall.

Here’s a description of each of the shooting modes:

Flash Off
Mode: The first mode in the Image Zone, Flash Off mode disables both the
internal flash head and any external flash unit connected. Focus is set to AI
Focus mode, drive mode is set to Single, and metering is set to Evaluative.
The camera controls ISO and Auto white balance as well.

Night Portrait
Mode: This mode is for taking pictures of people at sunset or at night,
letting the flash illuminate the subject, while the longer exposure provides
a brighter view of the surroundings. The autofocus mode is automatically set
to One Shot. Drive mode is set to Single Shot, and metering mode is set to Evaluative.
Since slower shutter speeds will be used, a tripod is recommended to prevent
movement from the camera. The built-in flash is automatically enabled and synched
with the slower shutter speed, so subjects will need to remain still for a few
moments after the flash fires to avoid ghost-like after-images. ISO is automatically
adjusted by the camera. (For night exposures without the flash, Canon recommends
shooting in Landscape mode.)

Sports Mode:
This mode uses a faster shutter speed to capture fast-moving subjects. The autofocus
mode is automatically set to AI Servo. Drive mode is set to High-Speed Continuous
Shooting, ISO is set to Auto, and metering mode is set to Evaluative. The onboard
flash isn’t available in this mode (since it can’t cycle fast enough to keep
up with the continuous exposure mode).

Close-up Mode
(Macro Mode): Turning the Mode dial to the macro flower symbol sets the camera for capturing smaller subjects such as flowers, jewelry, and other small details. The autofocus mode is automatically adjusted to One Shot, the drive mode is set to Single Shot, and the metering mode is set to Evaluative. ISO is set to Auto. Close-up mode takes advantage of the current lens’ minimum focal distance. However, an EOS-dedicated macro lens and the Macro Ring Lite MR-14EX are recommended for better close-up photography. Note that unlike the macro mode on most consumer digital cameras, Macro mode on the Canon 50D has no effect on lens focusing range, as that parameter is entirely determined by the lens being used.

Landscape
Mode: Landscape mode combines slower shutter speeds with smaller aperture settings to increase the depth of field when shooting broad vistas and sweeping landscapes. This mode is also good for night scenes without people in them. The Canon 50D’s built-in flash is automatically disabled, even if it’s already raised. Because this mode uses slower shutter speeds, a tripod may be needed in less-bright lighting conditions. Metering is again set to Evaluative and ISO to Auto.

Portrait
Mode: This mode uses a large aperture setting to decrease the depth of field,
which blurs the background to emphasize the subject. ISO is set to Auto, metering
to Evaluative, and AF mode to One Shot. Drive mode is set to Low-Speed Continuous
Shooting.

Full Automatic
Mode: The final mode in the Canon 50D’s Basic Zone, Full Automatic is indicated on the Mode dial by a green rectangular outline. In this mode, the camera makes all exposure decisions with the exception of image quality. Autofocus mode is set to AI Focus. (AI Focus evaluates subject movement, automatically sets either one-shot AF or AI Servo AF automatically.) Drive mode is set to Single Shot, ISO is set to Auto, and the metering mode is set to Evaluative.

Creative Auto Mode: Canon has added a new exposure mode called Creative Auto (or “CA”). The CA mode is a cross between the green zone and program mode.

When set to CA mode, the 50D allows the user to adjust the flash mode, picture style, motor drive, and exposure compensation, as well as to use the program shift function and select between RAW or JPEG file formats, but the rest of the more complex features remain under automatic control. The 50D’s rear-panel LCD display offers text help for each setting while in CA mode, for example prompting the user as to whether they want to blur the background with program shift, or make the picture brighter / darker with exposure compensation, etc.

Program AE: This is the first mode in the Creative Zone of the Mode dial. Program AE works similarly to the Full Automatic exposure mode, but allows more control over the exposure variables. Aperture and shutter speed are automatically selected by the camera, but you can bias the exposure to larger or smaller apertures by turning the Main dial, which will change the combination of aperture and shutter speed so as to maintain the same exposure value, but with a different combination of aperture/shutter speed.

Shutter-Priority
AE: This mode allows you to manually set the shutter speed anywhere from
1/8,000 to 30 seconds, while the camera chooses the best corresponding aperture
setting. You have control over all other exposure variables, including exposure
compensation.

Aperture-Priority
AE: The opposite of Shutter-Priority mode, Aperture-Priority AE allows you
to set the lens aperture (with available apertures depending on the lens in
use), while the camera selects the most appropriate shutter speed. Again, you
have control over all other exposure variables, including exposure compensation.

Manual Exposure:
This mode provides the same range of exposure control as the other Creative
Zone exposure modes (except for exposure compensation), but lets you control
both shutter speed and lens aperture independently. The shutter speed range
is extended to include a Bulb setting, allowing long exposures for as long as
you hold the Shutter button down. (The rear display reports the elapsed time,
from one to 999 seconds, as the exposure progresses.) A display in the viewfinder
reports whether the camera thinks your settings will result in under, over,
or correctly exposed photos.

Automatic Depth
of Field AE: This is the final mode in the Creative Zone, and is meant for
taking pictures of large groups of people, landscapes with foreground detail,
or any subject with elements of interest at varying distances from the camera.
This mode puts the camera in control of both the shutter speed and aperture
values, but you can adjust the other exposure variables. (This mode cannot be
used if the lens focus mode is set to manual.) When shooting in Automatic Depth
of Field AE, the camera sets both the lens aperture and focus distance to achieve
a sharp focus over a wide depth of field. It uses the autofocus system to measure
the distance to the subjects covered by each of the nine autofocus zones, and
then attempts to set the focusing distance and lens aperture so as to render
all subject areas in sharp focus. (This is a really useful mode, I wish other
manufacturers would steal a page from Canon’s playbook on this one.)

, Camera User
Settings Modes: These three final settings on the Mode dial allow you to save two individual sets of camera settings for quick recall. Useful when shooting an event with multiple light sources, such as a wedding and reception, these custom modes let you register camera settings for specific conditions and easily go between modes. You can save most of the camera’s shooting mode options as well as the Custom Function settings. Settings are registered as C1 or C2 through the Camera User Setting menu.

Playback Mode:
This mode is entered by pressing the Play button on the back panel. Playback
mode lets you erase images, protect them, or set them up for printing on DPOF
compatible devices. You can also view images in an index display, enlarge images
to 10x, view a slide show of all captured images, or rotate an image. The Info
button activates an information display, which reports the exposure settings
for the image and graphs the exposure values on a small histogram.

Canon EOS 50D Menu Details

Below are 50D menu options and their descriptions. Click on the image to see a matrix of screen shots showing the full menu layout.

Record Menu 1:

Record Menu 2:

Playback Menu 1:

Playback Menu 2:

Setup Menu 1:

Setup Menu 2:

Setup Menu 3:

Custom Functions Menu:

My Menu:

EOS 40D vs Other Canon SLRs

The chart below compares the 50D with its predecessors, the 40D and 30D. What we’ve done below is presented something of a hybrid comparison between these three models. A red cell means that a given camera performs below the other two, a green cell means that it performs better than the other two, and a yellow cell means it falls between the other two. In cases where two cameras share a superior capability, both cells will be colored green.

CANON U.S.A. STIMULATES THE CREATIVITY OF EXPERIENCED PHOTOGRAPHERS WITH THE INTRODUCTION OF THE NEW EOS 50D DIGITAL SLR CAMERA

Canon’s New DIGIC 4 Image Processor Fuels the 15.1 Megapixel Resolution, Expanded ISO Range and Enhanced Noise Reduction of the New EOS 50D Digital SLR

LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y., August 26, 2008 — With the demand for digital SLR cameras reaching unprecedented levels, Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging, is answering the call with the announcement of the next evolution in advanced amateur digital SLR photography, the EOS 50D Digital SLR Camera with 15.1 megapixel resolution and Canon’s new DIGIC 4 image processor. Designed to offer extraordinary quality and image control for the advanced photographer with a passion for the art, the Canon EOS 50D Digital SLR camera includes an expanded ISO range, improved noise reduction, and in-camera photo editing features. Canon has loaded the EOS 50D camera with a number of enhancements and some trickle-down technology from Canon’s professional Digital SLR cameras, as well as a new Creative Auto Mode (CA) that gives users more creative flexibility to make image setting adjustments conveniently without the need to be a photo expert.

Canon has built upon the success of the popular EOS 40D model — which will remain in Canon’s line — with the EOS 50D Digital SLR camera. Expected to be the camera body of choice for advanced amateur photographers this holiday season, the Canon EOS 50D Digital SLR camera carries over the EOS 40D’s 14-bit Analog-to-Digital conversion process for smooth tones, and also includes enhanced noise reduction, especially at higher ISO ranges which will help bring those romantic nighttime shots into greater focus and clarity. Capable of shooting 6.3 frames per second (fps), the EOS 50D Digital SLR camera is ideal for shooting everything from beautiful night landscapes to fast-action sports.

“Advanced amateur photographers blur the line between the hobbyist and the professional, looking for professional features and capabilities in their equipment that will allow them to capture that awe-inspiring image. Canon is constantly striving to provide these shooters with the most advanced imaging technology, like the new EOS 50D Digital SLR camera, to fuel their passion for photography, and help them achieve their creative potential,” stated Yuichi Ishizuka, senior vice president and general manager, Consumer Imaging Group, Canon U.S.A.

Improved Image Quality
The EOS 50D Digital SLR camera’s 15.1-megapixel CMOS APS-C size image sensor has been improved thanks to the use of newly designed gapless microlenses over each pixel to reduce noise and expand sensitivity up to ISO 12800. The faster processing speed of the camera’s DIGIC 4 image processor contributes to the fast 6.3 frame-per-second (fps) continuous shooting capability (for bursts of up to 90 Large/Fine JPEGs or 16 RAW images on a UDMA CF card), to give shooters the tools they need to capture that perfect moment in perfect clarity.

The Canon EOS 50D camera provides ISO speeds from ISO 100 up to ISO 3200 in 1/3-stop increments, along with two high-speed settings — H1 and H2 — of ISO 6400 and ISO 12800, respectively. Along with a wide ISO range, Canon gives shooters more tools to help maximize clarity and color. The EOS 50D Digital SLR camera offers multiple levels of noise reduction during high-speed shooting. Users can choose from one of four settings– Standard/Weak/Strong/None — to help reduce digital noise that can result from poor lighting conditions.

As part of the camera’s internal image processing, the Canon EOS 50D Digital SLR camera conducts peripheral illumination correction, which automatically evens brightness across the image field, making an image of a blue sky even toned throughout, a function previously accomplished through post-processing software on a personal computer. Thanks largely to the DIGIC 4 processor, this automatic adjustment can be made in-camera during shooting with JPEG images or corrected in post-photoshoot processing with RAW images through Canon’s Digital Photo Professional (DPP) software, which is supplied at no extra charge.

Helping to ensure each picture’s subject is clearly visible, Canon’s enhanced Auto Lighting Optimizer analyzes the brightness of subjects and automatically adjusts dark images so that they appear brighter, perfect for subjects in shade or in backlit situations. The Auto Lighting Optimizer on the EOS 50D Digital SLR camera has been updated not only to optimize images while they are being taken, but can also optimize images post-capture, during playback, to help ensure the subject of each image does not appear too dark. This is especially helpful when an amateur photographer uses the camera, because post-capture enhancement can help maximize image quality without the need of a computer.

A significant upgrade to the Canon EOS 50D camera is its large, clear 3.0-inch Clear View LCD screen which features 920,000 dot/VGA resolution, four times the pixel count of the EOS 40D camera’s screen, for better clarity and color. To help show off those fantastic shots, the EOS 50D camera includes an HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) output to display crisp, clear images on a High-Definition TV. The EOS 50D recognizes the needs of today’s photographers, and the faster processing speed of the DIGIC 4 processor helps support UDMA cards for faster writing of image files.

The camera is also equipped with a high-performance viewfinder featuring 0.95x magnification and the same high-performance Autofocus (AF) system as the EOS 40D camera with nine cross-type sensors for accurate target subject acquisition with lenses possessing maximum apertures of f/5.6 or faster and a high-precision diagonal center cross-type AF point that’s effective with f/2.8 and faster lenses, helping photographers ensure better focus of their targets. The AF Microadjustment feature, originally introduced last year with the Canon EOS-1D Mark III professional digital SLR camera, has also been added to the EOS 50D for maximum control over focusing precision.

Canon Gets Creative For Advancing Amateurs
Canon is taking steps to give advanced amateurs more flexibility with a new “CA” Creative Full Auto setting on the EOS 50D Digital SLR camera’s mode dial. This new setting goes a step beyond Full Auto, by allowing users to make adjustments before shooting while still in an Automatic mode, without needing to know the meaning of technical terms such as aperture, shutter speed, etc. In this mode, the camera menu on the back screen spells out options in common language for average photo enthusiasts, allowing them to “blur the background” or “lighten or darken the image.” These easy-to-comprehend image options will help amateur photographers improve the shots they are capable of taking, while helping them learn new techniques. When in the new CA mode, users will be able to adjust flash settings, brighten or darken images, blur the background, set the camera’s drive mode, and select a picture style directly on the camera’s LCD screen.

Better Live View
For photographers who prefer to frame their shots using the camera’s 3.0-inch Clear View LCD screen, Canon has improved the Live View function of the EOS 50D Digital SLR camera to include “Quick Mode AF,” “Live Mode AF,” and “Face Detection Live Mode AF” that detects up to 35 individual forward-looking faces for better focus and clarity when taking group or portrait shots. The camera’s Quick Mode AF setting flips the mirror down and carries out regular phase-detection autofocus, while the Live Mode AF and Face Detection Live Mode AF use the camera’s CMOS image sensor for contrast detection autofocus. Two detailed grid displays have also been added to Live View shooting as optional settings for easier composition.

Two Small RAW Formats
In addition to the RAW and JPEG image capture modes that photographers are accustomed to, the EOS 50D Digital SLR camera now offers more manageable resolution settings and file sizes with two sRAW recording formats, sRAW1 and sRAW2. At the sRAW1 setting, resolution is 7.1 megapixels with a file size that is approximately 25 percent smaller than a standard 15.1 megapixel RAW image. With the sRAW2 setting, resolution is 3.8 megapixels at less than half the file size of a standard RAW image, retaining all of the flexibility and creative possibilities associated with full-size, conventional RAW images. The EOS 50D is the first Canon Digital SLR that allows the use of RAW and sRAW settings in Basic Zone as well as Creative Zone shooting modes, even further improving the camera’s flexibility.

EOS Integrated Cleaning System
The Self-Cleaning Sensor Unit for the Canon EOS 50D has also been upgraded and now includes a fluorine coating on the low-pass filter for better dust resistance. The Self-Cleaning Sensor Unit uses ultrasonic vibrations to shake dust particles off of the low-pass filter in front of the sensor each time the camera is powered up or shut down. The second part of the system includes a software component where sensor spots are mapped and saved as Dust Delete Data that is attached to the image file for removal during post processing using Canon’s DPP software.

Pricing and Availability
The EOS 50D is compatible with the full lineup of Canon EF lenses as well as the Company’s ever-growing line of affordable EF-S lenses created specifically for Canon Digital SLRs with APS-C size image sensors. The Canon EOS 50D Digital SLR camera is scheduled for October delivery and will be sold in a body-only configuration at an estimated selling price of $1,399.00*. It will additionally be offered in a kit version with Canon’s EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM zoom lens at an estimated selling price of $1,599.00*.

New EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens
Canon has answered the call from advanced amateur photographers looking for a solid all-around lens with the introduction of the new EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS zoom lens. With an incredible focal length range equivalent to 29-320mm in the 35mm format, the new EF-S 18-200mm lens will make an excellent addition to any camera bag, and it gives shooters a great lens to capture both standard as well as telephoto images. The new lens features Canon’s built in Optical Image Stabilization system which gives the equivalent effect of a shutter speed roughly 4 steps faster, for better image clarity, even in shaky shooting conditions. With a minimum focusing distance of 0.45m/1.5 ft. at all zoom settings, this new lens should prove to be ideal for those situations where swapping lenses isn’t an option. An ideal complement to the EOS 50D SLR camera and all other EF-S compatible EOS SLR cameras, the EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens is scheduled to be in stores this October at an estimated selling price of $699.00*.

About Canon U.S.A., Inc.
Canon U.S.A., Inc. delivers consumer, business-to-business, and industrial imaging solutions. Its parent company, Canon Inc. (NYSE:CAJ), a top patent holder of technology, ranked third overall in the U.S. in 2007†, with global revenues of $39.3 billion, is listed as one of Fortune’s Most Admired Companies in America and is on the 2007 BusinessWeek list of “Top 100 Brands.” To keep apprised of the latest news from Canon U.S.A., sign up for the Company’s RSS news feed by visiting www.usa.canon.com/pressroom.

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†IFI Patent Intelligence Press Release, January 2008

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Specifications and availability are subject to change without notice.

*Pricing subject to change at any time. Actual prices are determined by individual dealers and may vary.