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Thursday, January 6, 2011

5 Reasons the Canon EOS 550D May be the Only DSLR You'd Ever Need

Canon announced their new entry-level DSLR earlier this year and after going through the features, it has become very apparent that the Canon EOS 550D is not a low end product but a high performance camera with easy to use features for novices and enthusiasts alike. Here are five reasons why the Canon EOS 550D may be the only DSLR you'll ever need.

1) 18 Megapixels APS-C CMOS sensor

Let's be honest? 18 megapixels resolution is plenty by any account especially when the Nikon crowd seems to be happy with 12 megapixels. At this resolution, you will have enough resolution to crop into even for larger size prints. This is 5 Reasons the Canon EOS 550D May be the Only DSLR You’d Ever Need especially useful as the further away from the centre of the photo the lower the image quality. So you can crop away the edges to make the most of the best parts of the image without ending up with a tiny image. Noise should not be an issue unless under gruelling conditions with support up to a maximum extended sensitivity of ISO 12800. Sure, it's not the monstrous ISO 102400 you see on the higher end models but most novices or enthusiasts probably won't even stay over ISO 1600 or ISO 3200 at the most.

2) Full HD movie recording with External Microphone socket and Movie Crop

There has been a lot of hype for movie recording on DSLR and it's great to see that Canon is making their latest technology available on the EOS 550D. With the 550D, you not only get user selectable frame rates but also full manual control. Couple with that the External Microphone Socket and you are set to produce your own pro-like quality footage with both excellent video and sound quality. Full HD (1080p) comes as standard and a shooting time of just under 30 minutes means that you don't have to worry about your recording being cut off every 5 minutes. What's more, not only can you capture high speed action with the 50/60fps shooting at 720p, you can also benefit from the Movie Crop mode when shooting VGA quality movie. The concept should be familiar to those who use the advanced zoom features available in some of the newer camcorders in the market. The quality is better than digital zoom as the “ZOOM"? is in fact sensor cropping rather than digital magnification. The 7x crop is terrific when you consider the possibility of turning an 18-135mm lens into a 945mm without changing lenses when you need to zoom into the action.

3) Canon EOS 550D 3) 3.0-inch 3:2 Clear View LCD with 1,040k dots resolution
Face it, we can't put up with dingy 230,000 dots LCD anymore. With Live View and Movie modes going on, we want an LCD which does more than give passable quality when we review our shots. The Canon EOS 550D's movie mode is superb and coupling with a high resolution (highest in any DSLR announced at this time) LCD, you won't have to worry about being showed up for quite a while.

4) iFCL metering system

While the AF system may not cause any eyebrows to rise, the 63-zone dual layer metering sensor is the latest tech which is also featured on the Canon EOS 7D, the top of the line APS-C sized DSLR from Canon. The best thing about an excellent metering system in an entry level camera is that you can expect better results from the auto modes. The Canon EOS 550D will analyze Focus, Color and Luminance information and provide accurate and consistent metering so that your results will be more consistent with what you are trying to capture. This frees you to focus on the creativity of the shot rather than fussing over settings to compensate for inaccurate metering.

5) Light in Size, Weight and Price


While the Canon EOS 550D is no competition for its bigger brethren such as the Canon EOS 7D, EOS 5D Mark II or the EOS 1-series, it is none the less a great option as a second camera for those who may already have one of them. The compact size and weight (Approx. 530g including battery and memory card) makes it an attractive alternative when you need to travel light. What's more, if you need to travel to places where expensive equipment may be a problem, the lower priced, compact yet powerful Canon EOS 550D would be the perfect choice.

Not convinced? Or think there are other reasons to love/hate the Canon EOS 550D? Drop us a comment below.

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