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June 9, 2009
Canon EOS-50D
I got my new camera today. Woohoo!
I went out and did some test shots to compare the EOS-50D to the EOS-40D. Basically, what I wanted to do was shoot through the long lens (400mm) and see if the additional pixels of the 50D would allow me to zoom in and see better resolution on long-range shots taken through the long lens.
I decided to use the back of the English version of the Canon EOS-50D manual. I walked across the front yard and stood it up at the bottom of one of the bluebird house poles.
Then I set up a tripod on the front sidewalk and mounted the Canon L-series 100-400mm IS USM telescopic zoom lens on the tripod. I turned off the Image Stabilization of the lens, turned the Auto Focus on, set it to mode 1, set the focal length to > 6.5 meters. Then, I attached the Canon EOS-40D to the back of the lens, and connected the remote shutter release. I put the camera into Manual mode, and set the ISO to 100, the Aperture to f/5.6, and the shutter speed to 1/25th of a second. I selected the center auto-focus point, and zoomed in all the way, centering the frame on the Canon manual leaning against the pole in the front yard. I set the camera to take the highest resolution .jpg possible. ( I hate RAW images. There - I said it. So sue me.)
I pressed the remote shutter release once. This autofocuses on the subject, and also locks up the mirror. Then, I pressed it again, and this takes an image, in theory, with less vibration since the mirror was already locked up.
Then, I brought the images into Photoshop and compared them. The EOS-50D is more clear, but it's not like night-and-day difference. It's not like you're thinking "OMG Why Did I Not Buy This in August When It Came Out?" It's better, but only marginally so IMHO. I'd like to do some comparison shots with a full-frame Canon sensor.
This shot shows a comparison in Photoshop where I zoomed to "Actual Pixels". (The 50D image is above the 40D image.) So, you can see that the image size of the 50D is significantly larger than the 40D. But I dunno. I'm not overly thrilled with the improvement. Better, but still not good enough, of course.
Posted by Rob Kiser on June 9, 2009 at 10:07 PM
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