Canon EOS 50D Review

There are surprisingly more differences between the EOS 40D and the EOS 50D than just the silver command dial. The most distinguishing one is the 15.1 megapixel sensor which uses gapless microlenses over each pixel to reduce noise and boost low light sensitivity all the way up to ISO 12800. Combined with the newest incarnation of image processing in DIGIC IV, and you’d expect some improvements in resolution and maybe even noise management over the EOS 40D. Well, in a review today Bob Atkins says you might be right about that:

Of course you can’t have everything and increasing the pixel count from 10MP to 15MP means that the pixels have to be 1/3 smaller (22 sq. microns vs. 33 sq. microns), and as we all know, smaller pixels typically mean higher noise levels, especially at high ISO settings. So Canon had their work cut out in trying to make a high pixel count sensor which retained high quality. While perhaps they were limited by the laws of physics from lowering sensor noise, nevertheless I think they did a pretty good job overall. Yes, the intrinsic noise of the sensor (RAW file with no noise reduction applied) is a little higher than that of the 40D sensor, but the resolution is higher too. However, looking a the bigger picture, by applying an appropriate degree of noise reduction (which does tend to reduce detail), the EOS 50D is capable of generating images which have both more detail and the same (or lower) level of observable noise than equivalent images from the EOS 40D.

-Bob Atkins

You’re going to want to continue reading Mr. Atkins’ review of the EOS 50D, but I’m thinking the 50D may be one of the more underated cameras available right now, due to a lacking of a novelty multi-media feature. If you can get yourself past that, the 50D is fine camera.

You can get the EOS 50D from Amazon, or here at B and H Photo Video.

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