» At this point the megapixel race should probably stop

One thing that bothers me with professional photographers, is that often they are completely clueless about the physics and technology aspects behind their gear — they typically possess a very superficial understanding of it all, defined solely by the tech. slang of the trade, enthusiastic peers and the press. Much like a new linux user learning how to pay a visit to a web forum, mailing-list or irc channel and thinking he or she has become linux masters.

Along those lines is the now so common megapixel myth: that higher pixel count automatically translates to better pixels. The 50D review, and indeed the camera itself, provide a pretty compelling demonstration of why, even with the best lenses out there, a very high pixel count can suddenly make ‘optical resolution’ a much more familiar term to all those that seem to focus only on the electronics; if the top lenses, beasts costing thousands and weighing kilos, are barely sufficient to provide adequate pixel detail at 15MP and an APS-C sensor, you can easily imagine how bad so many compacts sporting 10 or 12MP may very well be with their subpar, mediocre lenses.

If anything, the review demonstrates that the 50D probably represents the last of a series of cameras that came before it; for in the future Canon is most certainly going to shift its focus to other areas of the camera besides pixel count; features that are hopefully going to make its successor a much better camera overall.

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2008.08.27

Canon EOS 50D

It’s been almost four and a half years since I got my venerable Canon EOS 20D. And, in DSLR time, that’s quite a lot.

The 20D was a fantastic camera for its time, highly valued by both amateurs such as myself and pros (mostly as a second body). Sadly, most updates to the series by Canon have left me cold: The 30D was a very marginal improvement to its predecessor and the 40D, while impressive on its own, paled in comparison to Nikon’s D300 (even though the latter was significantly more expensive).

Canon seemed right on the path of losing the DSLR crown and while the figures still showed that it was the undisputed king in terms of sales, it’s the mindshare that matters most and betrays the trends of things to come.

And then it happened: for the first time in the short history of Digital SLR cameras, Canon, the market leader, the innovator, the king of DSLRs ever since they started becoming the tool of choice for million of photographers, in sport, studio and landscape photography, flinched. The Canon EOS 50D, was announced yesterday, just a short 12 months after its predecessor, the 40D. 12 months instead of the customary 18 that underlines most of Canon’s release cycles for the series, all the while Nikon upped the stakes with D90 and the D700.

The Canon EOS 50D looks like it might become my next camera; given my investment in Canon glass, it’d make no sense to switch to Nikon now. It’s price (£1200, according to Amazon UK; that’s around €1,500 at the time of writing) is quite steep for a body-only mid-range prosumer DSLR camera. I’m sure that the price will come down very quickly, especially once Canon releases the long awaited successor to the ageing EOS 5D and the rest of the market adjusts to its release.

This is a welcome step for Canon; a rare, wise and humble step by the leading camera manufacturer, but also a company that has been consistently outsmarted by its arch-rival in the past few years; a company facing intense competition by ‘challengers’ in the form of Sony and Olympus and a company that probably has the unique position to massively fuel competition in the SLR market segment.

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