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canon eos 500d what hot what not

Sunday, February 14, 2010

The new Canon EOS Rebel T1i aka EOS 500D is a relatively small digital SLR camera with 15 megapixels, a nice and large 3 inch LCD (which is as sharp as tacks), 3.4 FPS burst mode and it delivers good image quality. Perhaps someone got too focused on “keeping things small” and forgot about ergonomics – the Rebel T1i’s grip is too narrow and cramped for most people; this, of course, is subjective but don’t say I didn’t warn you.

As you’d expect from a digital SLR camera, the Rebel T1i can be souped up with an array of lenses, flashes and accessories (including wired and wireless remote control support). The bundled software is good too – Digital Photo Professional has an intuitive RAW image development interface and there’s even a piece of software which allows you to control the camera from your computer.

Though the Canon Rebel T1i doesn’t provide as many stepping stones as its competitors (the Rebel T1i doesn’t have as many scene modes and has a very simple playback mode) for compact camera users to step up to the digital SLR world, it still is an easy-to-use camera with clearly labeled buttons, 5 preset scene modes and a Creative Auto mode which allows you to test the waters of manual exposure/depth of field control.

Battery life here is about average – the camera can take up to 500 shots per charge, or double that if you’re using a battery grip. The Rebel T1i performed well in terms of speed with responsive operation, quick focusing (especially with USM drive lenses) and very good shot-to-shot times with low viewfinder blackout times. What can be improved here? RAW burst buffer depth – while you can take a whole lot of JPEG photos in a row at 3.4 FPS, you’re limited to just 9 RAW photos (roughly 2.6 seconds of action) in a single burst before things slow down and frame rate becomes erratic.

The Rebel T1i has LCD live view functionality, which allows you to compose shots via the LCD like you would on a compact camera. Face detection, compositional gridlines and a live histogram are all available on-screen as you shoot. Do note, however, that the competition (Nikon D5000, Olympus E620, Sony A380) are more flexible in a way, since they have either tilt-able or flip-out and rotate LCD screens for high/low angle shots. Autofocus in live-view mode was very sluggish too, making live view shooting suited mostly for studio and still life picture taking, NOT action shots. This issue isn’t specific to the Rebel T1i though – slow live view AF is a problem that currently plagues all digital SLRs except Panasonic’s mirror-less G1/GH1 interchangeable lens cameras.

The Rebel T1i features a movie mode too, which allows you to shoot high-definition (Your choice of 1080p, 720p or regular VGA) movies with sound and start/stop recording via a dedicated button. For those thinking “wow this is the best thing since sliced bread!”, I hate to break it to you but… the 1080p setting has a crippled frame rate of just 20 FPS (The norm is 24 or 30 FPS), and you can’t attach an external microphone to the camera for better sound recording. On the positive note, you can operate zoom and manual/auto focus while recording (albeit in a clumsy manner), video quality is impressive (but not the frame rate at the highest setting) and you can take a still photo in the middle of a recording session (the catch being there’ll be a brief pause in video). Hopefully Canon will up the 1080p setting frame rate to 24 or 30 FPS via a firmware update, please?

Low noise has always been Canon’s advantage in the digital SLR arena and the Rebel T1i carries forward this heritage. Image quality produced by the Canon Rebel T1i aka EOS 500D was very good with low noise and very usable pictures up till ISO 3200. And those who know their way or have the time to make use of post-processing and noise reduction software can scavenge ISO 6400 and 12800 shots for small to midsize prints/display too. A particular problem that seems to be growing as digital SLR image sensors increase in resolution is lens flaws and sharpness. The Rebel T1i performs best when you stop down lens aperture (bigger F-numbers) and/or use higher grade (and thus, pricier) lenses. As demonstrated in my foliage test shot, using the kit lens versus a higher-end lens (and stopping down) can make a big difference.

If you’re looking to step up from using compacts, the Canon EOS Rebel T1i aka EOS 500D is worth a look (though it isn’t heads and shoulders above other brands’ offerings in terms of feature set). The entry-level digital SLR arena is pretty competitive, so be sure to consider and compare various brands and their options too. For current Canon digital SLR owners, the Rebel T1i/500D is a decent choice if you want a smaller/lighter backup camera body to carry around.

What’s hot:

* Very good image quality with low noise till upper ISO speeds
* Very sharp 3 inch high-res LCD with good visibility
* Compact design for a digital SLR
* Compatible with many accessories (unsurprising for a digital SLR)
* Decent automatic shooting with scene modes and Creative Auto mode
* Full manual controls; flash hotshoe, RAW image mode and white balance tuning
* Customizable “My Menu” and center SET button
* Good battery life; can be prolonged by using optional battery grip
* Great performance with good continuous shooting speed
* Movie mode records at 720p at 30 FPS or 1080p at 20 FPS; you can take a still photo while recording
* Nice software bundle with RAW editor and remote control with live view

What’s not:

* Noisy images at ISO 6400 and 12800; camera’s high-resolution sensor is taxing on lenses
* No ‘out of the box’ wireless flash support
* Small grip; worse ergonomics than some other SLRs
* Crippled movie frame rate (20 FPS) at 1080p resolution, no continuous autofocus
* Limited RAW buffer in burst mode
* Slow autofocus in live view mode
* ”Shake off the dust” method not effective



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