The Best Canon Digital SLR Camera

Page updated: March 2009

The best Canon digital SLR is - for me - the one that offers superior performance at a relatively reasonable price.

This last part is important, since there are many other Canon digital SLRs designed for professional photographers that could be considered the "best".

The only problem is that many of those cameras cost well over $3,000 USD.

Since this web site is more for beginning and amateur photographers, the best Canon digital SLR that I've selected doesn't cost nearly as much.

It's a good balance between the price you have to pay and the superior performance of the camera.

Improving a Legacy

Currently, I think that the best Canon digital SLR is the EOS 50D (Release Date: November 2008).

The 50D builds upon the generous feature set first introduced in the Canon EOS 20D back in 2004. At the time of its release, the 20D had one of the fastest continuous shot rates of any digital SLR (5 photos per second).

The 50D gets even faster, boosting that speed all the way up to 6.3 photos per second.

The 50D also leverages all of the features included in the 30D (Release Date: February 2006) and the 40D (Release Date: November 2007) including:

1. Dust Control
2. Live View LCD
3. Dynamic Range Control

But how has the 50D improved upon the cameras that preceded it?

Image Adjustments

Every digital SLR camera can take a fine picture on a sunny day - that's easy.

But as the available light changes and shifts, that's when most cameras start to have problems and will either under or over expose the image.

This is true only when the camera is in AUTO mode, so the solution is straightforward: put the camera in manual mode and make adjustments based on the light.

If you're shooting indoors at night under incandescent lights, you'll use different settings that when you're outside taking pictures in deep shade.

But what if the camera could automatically adjust for these sorts of challenging lighting situations automatically?

That is part of the promise that the 50D makes - that exposures will be accurate in AUTO mode, regardless of the available light.

The 50D includes features that help combat two common image problems with many digital SLRs:

1. Peripheral Illumination Correction - keeps brightness consistent across the entire image (darkness around the edges of a photo is an issue called vignetting)
2. Auto Lighting Optimizer - corrects exposure settings so that subjects that would otherwise be dark appear brighter (especially when working in shade or with backlighting)

Huge ISO Range

The ability to change the ISO setting on the fly is one of the most powerful features of the digital SLR.

Photographers have leveraged this setting to shoot photos hand-held in near-dark environments without having to use a flash.

The most common ISO range on digital SLR cameras is from 100 to 3200. By contrast, the ISO range on the 50D runs from 100 to 12800.

Now, by the time you're up in the ISO 12800 range, image noise (speckling or grain) is quite visible.

Even so, you can leverage this incredibly high ISO setting to grab shots in virtually zero light that simply are not possible with other cameras.

If you want to give your photos some atmosphere, you can also take advantage of the grainy look created by super-high ISO settings.

Live View, Phase Two

The original implementation of live view on digital SLRs was pretty clunky and slow.

While it gave photographers the ability to take shots without having to look through the viewfinder, it was really only practical for non-moving subjects.

Now that live view has become a standard feature on every new digital SLR, manufacturers are trying to improve the design.

The 50D pairs its live view system with three autofocus modes:

1. Quick Mode AF - leverages the speedy 9-point autofocus but blacks out the screen while focusing
2. Live Mode AF - uses a autofocus mechanism called "contrast detection" (common in many compact digital cameras) which is slower than Quick Mode but doesn't black out the screen
3. Face Detection Live Mode AF - uses the same type of AF as Live Mode, but can lock focus on up to 35 faces (provided they're looking at the camera)

The 50D also takes live view up a notch by improving the LCD display itself.

The LCD on the 50D is made up of 920,000 dots, 4 times the number available on the 40D's LCD screen.

Cameras with more LCD dots display images that are sharper and that have much better color fidelity.

DSLR For Dummies

Taking a page from Nikon's book (with their line of entry-level digital SLRs) the 50D includes a mode called "Creative Full Auto".

Even though the camera is in full auto mode, the photographer still has some control over the final image.

But rather than indicating that you want to adjust the lens aperture (the opening in the lens) you just indicate that you'd like to take a photo with a "blurry background".

Rather than learning about exposure, just tell the camera you'd like your photos "brighter" or "darker".

While a feature like this one makes perfect sense for those making the transition from point-and-shoot to digital SLR, I find it odd that it's found a home on the 50D — a camera that I really wouldn't recommend to any beginning digital SLR photographers.

Why not?

The 50D features and performance are really geared for more advanced photographers.

By contrast, Canon's Rebel line of cameras - the xTi, XSi and XS - are all designed for the beginner market.

I'm sure that Creative Full Auto mode will find its way onto the next version of the digital Rebel, but for now (March 2009) it's only available on the 50D.

Small RAW

I got my first introduction to the small RAW (sRAW) format when I used the Canon 40D.

Here's the quick rundown:

• There are two common formats for digital SLR photos: JPG and RAW
• JPG is a standard image file type that can be viewed and shared on any computer
• JPG image data is compressed to save memory space
• Compressed files "lose" some of the original image data
• RAW is an uncompressed format - it's all the data captured by the sensor
• Full-size RAW files take up a LOT of room on memory cards and hard drives

RAW files are so large because they always use every available megapixel on the camera's sensor.

But small RAW allows you to reduce the pixel count in the image (resulting in a smaller file size) without the loss of image data associated with compression.

There are three different small RAW sizes you can choose from on the 50D:

1. Large - 15.1 megapixels
2. Medium - 7.1 megapixels
3. Small - 3.8 megapixels

The 50D also makes the RAW format more accessible to beginning photographers, allowing this format to be selected in some of the camera's automatic modes (the RAW setting on many other DSLRs is reserved for manual settings only).

In Summary

Part of the price you pay to own the best Canon digital SLR camera is obviously due to its specifications: fast consecutive photo speed, 15.1 megapixels, dust control, live view, and compatibility with a wide range of accessories.

But the other part of the price is the peace of mind that:

• This camera will last and take thousands of photos for many years to come
• The features of this digital SLR won't be obsolete come next week

Please note: just because I think this is the best Canon digital SLR doesn't mean that it's the best for you.

There are many other digital SLR cameras that you can choose from, and if you don't see yourself leveraging the speed, performance and rugged durability that the 50D offers, then there's no reason to spend a lot of money on it.

Save yourself the dough, and find an SLR that is more suited for your style of photography.

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Related Links

• Canon EOS 40D Guide
• All Canon Digital SLR Cameras

Best Digital SLRs

Digital SLR Home

Canon Digital SLR