Canon EOS 50D Digital SLR

Like many products, there are entry-level D-SLRs, professional-grade D-SLRs, and plenty of models in between. Canon’s 50D blurs the line between amateur and professional D-SLR cameras. This camera strikes a good balance with its price and feature set. With the 50D, you get a lot of features you wouldn’t find on entry-level models, but you won’t pay professional-grade prices, either. Users who are just making the jump to a D-SLR, for example will appreciate the 50D’s Live View mode, which lets you use the D-SLR’s LCD to frame an image, similar to the way you would frame an image using a point and shoot camera. For more advanced shooters, the 50D also has full manual controls to give you all the traditional adjustments in image staging for your photographs.

In Canon’s lineup, the 50D will serve as a sister model, not a replacement to the 40D that was released last year. With both models in Canon’s line, the manufacturer is offering consumers a choice between two solid DSLR cameras with slightly different features and prices.

As one might expect, the 50D offers a number of improvements over its predecessor, including an APS-C sized, 15.1 megapixel CMOS sensor (4,752 x 3,168). While more megapixels don’t always result in a better camera, it’s still a worthy feature to mention, and one that the average buyer is sure to notice. It’s also important to remember that the 50D is not just any 15.1 megapixel camera.  This is a high resolution Digital SLR model from a well-known and well-respected brand that has a history of excellent optics. But since brand and megapixel count alone aren’t enough of a reason to select a camera, we’ve put the 50D through a few tests to see how it fares.