Canon 50D

[Metonymy]

This will be my ongoing thread about my 50D and the experiences with it.

8/4/2009

Unboxing
- Nothing too fancy. Booklets, cables, and the camera.
- Wasn't expecting anything crazy and wasn't let down.

Intial Impressions
- Solid camera. May get a bit heavy during a long day of shooting.
- Will take a little bit of adjustment to get used used to the more robust controls as compared to my old XTi.
- Love the grip. Slightly textured, very comfortable in my hand.
- Feels good in both portrait and landscape positions.
- LCD screen is extremely large, bright, and clear. Very nice for viewing images.
- Info screen on top of camera is very handy.

First Images
- Playing with settings is not too difficult. Helps that I've done this before. If a person is new to the Canon SLR family, it will take some adjustment to get used to the controls and settings.
- Couple quick adjustments and the images are fantastic. Very crisp, clear, and I can already see how much of an improvement this will be over my last body.
- LDC screen has a wonderful noseprint on it. Seems like my nose rubs the same spot each time I hold the camera up to take a pic. Doesn't affect the images, but it seems like it will be a bit of a pain to keep this big screen clean. I guess that's a trade-off of having so much viewable real estate back there.

Software Update
- Came home and was reading online about the camera. Turns out Canon has released a firmware update.
- Mine came with 1.0.6 and 1.0.7 is available via Canon's website.
- Downloaded the file from their website. It came as an .exe, but when run, extracts itself to the actual .fir file. Why not allow it to download as a .fir in the first place? Loses a point for that one.
- Requires the user to install the Canon software on the disc in the box. There's some good utilities on it for non-advanced imaging software users, so no negative points here.
- Without the steps on Canon's website, the actual installation to the camera isn't very intuitive. You have to extract the file, connect the camera to the computer, launch the EOS software, navigate to the appropriate sub-menu in the EOS software, and then the rest happens on the camera itself. A couple "are you sure" questions displayed via the LCD screen and it's off and running. The 9.1MB file took about a minute to install.
- Overall experience gets a 7/10. -1 point for having to extract the .exe (seems needless), and -2 points for the non-intuitive navigation through the EOS software. Having done it once, I can do it with my eyes closed next time. Just seems like they could have made it a little easier. (I'm a tough critic, so YMMV.)

More to come as I get some face time behind the lens. I can't wait to put this workhorse to use.

[ciao998]

I want one!!!

Nice writing Jason, keep it up!!

Hope to see some images very soon!!! Like tomarrow.

What glass will you be shooting with?

[JayT]

blah blah blah... Did you buy it to tell people you have a DSLR or to shoot? I want to see pics.