Review based on a production Canon EOS 550D, firmware version 1.0.6
Canon EOS 550D: Features
Not being a company to rest on their laurels, Canon's successor to the popular EOS 500D, which was only released just under a year ago, shares many features with the recently released EOS7D, but at a much lower price point.
The 18Mp CMOS sensor gives a wider range of true ISO sensitivities than its predecessor, without having to enable the ISO expansion option in the menu. ISO6,400 now comes as a standard option, providing a little more headroom for low-light shooting than its predecessor. An equivalent of ISO12,800 can also be enabled through the ISO expansion option. The Auto ISO option has also been tweaked, with the ability to specify a maximum ISO being added. This is a welcome addition, as it will allow the user to prevent the camera from hiking the ISO too high to prevent camera shake.
A higher resolution screen has been fitted to this new model, increasing from 920,000dots as found on the EOS 500D, to 1040,000dots. The screen is bright, contrasty and sharp enough to check focus accurately. Although I feel the resolution increase is only a slight improvement over the previous unit, this new screen appears easier to see use out in broad daylight. This really helps when it comes to using the enhanced video features.
The metering system has been upgraded, with the new iFCL 63-zone dual-layer sensor found on the EOS 7D being squeezed into the camera's diminutive chassis. iFCL is an acronym for intelligent Focus, Colour and Luminance, which means the system uses distance, colour and luminance (brightness) information to work out the correct exposure when using Evaluative metering, rather than just luminance readings as found on previous Canon metering systems. This isn't that new a concept, Nikon have employed 3D Colour Matrix metering in many of their cameras since the F5 released in 1996.
HD movie has become pretty-much a standard feature on new SLR releases of late and this camera improves on its predecessor by upping the frame rate to 30fps at 1080p. Slower frame rates of 25 and 24fps can also be selected to help save memory when the frame rate isn't your primary concern. Faster frame rates of up to 60fps can also be selected at 720p resolution, which should play back smoothly at almost a third of the speed making it possible to use slow motion creatively. Exposure values for video recoding can also be set manually and an external microphone jack is included, adding to the creative scope this camera provides for movie shooters.
Not being a company to rest on their laurels, Canon's successor to the popular EOS 500D, which was only released just under a year ago, shares many features with the recently released EOS7D, but at a much lower price point.
The 18Mp CMOS sensor gives a wider range of true ISO sensitivities than its predecessor, without having to enable the ISO expansion option in the menu. ISO6,400 now comes as a standard option, providing a little more headroom for low-light shooting than its predecessor. An equivalent of ISO12,800 can also be enabled through the ISO expansion option. The Auto ISO option has also been tweaked, with the ability to specify a maximum ISO being added. This is a welcome addition, as it will allow the user to prevent the camera from hiking the ISO too high to prevent camera shake.
A higher resolution screen has been fitted to this new model, increasing from 920,000dots as found on the EOS 500D, to 1040,000dots. The screen is bright, contrasty and sharp enough to check focus accurately. Although I feel the resolution increase is only a slight improvement over the previous unit, this new screen appears easier to see use out in broad daylight. This really helps when it comes to using the enhanced video features.
The metering system has been upgraded, with the new iFCL 63-zone dual-layer sensor found on the EOS 7D being squeezed into the camera's diminutive chassis. iFCL is an acronym for intelligent Focus, Colour and Luminance, which means the system uses distance, colour and luminance (brightness) information to work out the correct exposure when using Evaluative metering, rather than just luminance readings as found on previous Canon metering systems. This isn't that new a concept, Nikon have employed 3D Colour Matrix metering in many of their cameras since the F5 released in 1996.
HD movie has become pretty-much a standard feature on new SLR releases of late and this camera improves on its predecessor by upping the frame rate to 30fps at 1080p. Slower frame rates of 25 and 24fps can also be selected to help save memory when the frame rate isn't your primary concern. Faster frame rates of up to 60fps can also be selected at 720p resolution, which should play back smoothly at almost a third of the speed making it possible to use slow motion creatively. Exposure values for video recoding can also be set manually and an external microphone jack is included, adding to the creative scope this camera provides for movie shooters.
An SD card with a write speed of at least class six is required to make the most of the HD video recording features, otherwise the camera may not be able to write all the information to the card quickly enough. In the case that you use a slower card, the camera will attempt to buffer the footage for so long, depending on the speed of you card. When played back using Canon's software, the 30fps footage looks very clear and smooth. I did have issues playing the same footage back in Windows Media Player and Quicktime, even though both programs each have the latest updates installed. It could be that both pieces of software need a further update of some description to work effectively with this footage.
