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JasonMorrowPhoto · January 25, 2009

Hello Everyone,

I have had my Digital Rebel now for four years. I am still a basic user. I wanted to upgrade to either the 40D or 50D. I want to take shots of the racing events I attend along with outdoor photos. Which one do you recommend? Are there features on one that would benefit me over the other?

Thank you,
Jason

BobbyMarshall · January 26, 2009

Hello,

Two weeks ago I was in a similar situation regarding upgrading my camera body. I had the XTi(400D) for a little over a year, it was my first DSLR and was pretty happy with it. But after a while there were some features I started to wish it had.

The the 50D uses the newest image processor, the 40D is a nice camera, but if you are going to upgrade why not get the newest features, processor etc? I thought of it as, If I were to buy a new computer would I want one with the newest processor, or one that is a couple years old.. Essentually they do the same thing, but the newer one is going to do it better, right?

Last week I bought the 50D and couldn't be more happier with my decision. The difference when looking through the viewfinder is like light night and day.

I actually laughed the first time I held down the shutter and heard the frame rate shoot away on the 50D, this I thought is going to be great for action shots (XTI 3fps, compared to the 50D 6.3fps).

The camera is still pretty new to me, and I am not sure how accurate this assumption is, but I now feel comfortable shooting even ISO 1600, and with my XTi i wouldn't even like shooting ISO 800, let alone anything higher. I need to make some comparison shots with both cameras to see this in more detail.

If you do go with the 50D, I would recommend getting some new memory cards. I jsut bought a Scandisk 8GB extreme, I shoot in raw and my camera is showing that I have room for 325 shots..On my XTi i used a 4gb card not sure of the specs on it, but when I loaded it into the 50D it showed room for about 160 frames. That seems like its ok.. but at 6.3 fps, I am sure it will fill up fast when I am out shooting action. If your budget allows, look into some of the faster UDMA cards.

I am still relitively new to the 50D but this is my brief opinion of it so far.

pilotdave · January 26, 2009

I just upgraded from an XTi to a 50D. The camera is great, but the file sizes are absolutely killing me. I never really used raw on the XTi because it filled the buffer way too fast for me. The 50D with an 8-gig extreme III card is so fast, even with raw files. But processing the files is a whole new ballgame for me.

I used to easily take 1000 pictures in a day, not worrying about taking too many. Those were 10 MP jpegs on a 4-gig card. 15 MP raw files are a different story. I'm using DPP for the first time. Last night I processed about 70 pictures. It was a relatively horrible procedure.

Definitely going to need a new hard drive. Probably should be getting a new computer to go with it.

The lesson I'm learning about raw is that I can't just snap away like I'm used to doing. Gotta be more selective and delete more off the camera so I don't fill the card as fast and don't have to take the time and hard drive space to move them to my computer.

I'm not disappointed with the 50D... it's just that the rest of my technology is going to have to catch up with it. I really wonder how people deal with 20+ megapixel raw files from higher end cameras.

Dave

Candid Arts · January 26, 2009

pilotdave wrote:

The lesson I'm learning about raw is that I can't just snap away like I'm used to doing. Gotta be more selective and delete more off the camera so I don't fill the card as fast and don't have to take the time and hard drive space to move them to my computer

Dave

Gotta be careful when deleting photos straight from the camera when you are out shooting for two reasons.

A) Deleting them from the camera can cause the card to be corrupt and not work properly, not allow you to "re-fill" the card back up to replace deleted photos, or not allow you to offload them to your computer.

and 2) Viewing them on the screen and going through the deleting process on camera drains the battery quite a bit quicker. Just get a couple other memory cards and keep shooting.

baldmountain · January 26, 2009

MassUnknowledged wrote:

I am still a basic user.

Why not become an advanced user with your Digital Rebel first? As you learn you'll discover what features you need to take the pictures you want to take most and that will lead you to the camera you need.

ziggy53 · January 26, 2009

BobbyMarshall, welcome to the Digital Grin.

Thanks for your comments.

ziggy53 · January 26, 2009

MassUnknowledged wrote:

Hello Everyone,

I have had my Digital Rebel now for four years. I am still a basic user. I wanted to upgrade to either the 40D or 50D. I want to take shots of the racing events I attend along with outdoor photos. Which one do you recommend? Are there features on one that would benefit me over the other?

Thank you,
Jason

Jason, welcome to the Digital Grin.

Both the Canon 40D and 50D are very nice cameras and will produce similar prints up to 8" x 10". The 50D can make use of the highest quality lenses to produce somewhat larger images, especially in good light. The 50D file sizes should not be discounted, as Dave already mentioned. The 50D does require a very modern machine to process the larger files produced. The 50D also has the micro-focus adjustment which I find enticing, but not so enticing that I will leave the 40D.

Either would make a fairly decent update from the original Digital Rebel.

JasonMorrowPhoto · January 26, 2009

ziggy53 wrote:

Jason, welcome to the Digital Grin.

Both the Canon 40D and 50D are very nice cameras and will produce similar prints up to 8" x 10". The 50D can make use of the highest quality lenses to produce somewhat larger images, especially in good light. The 50D file sizes should not be discounted, as Dave already mentioned. The 50D does require a very modern machine to process the larger files produced. The 50D also has the micro-focus adjustment which I find enticing, but not so enticing that I will leave the 40D.

Either would make a fairly decent update from the original Digital Rebel.

Thank you everyone.

baldmountain, the camera has seen better days. I sent it in for repairs and it's not worth fixing. Friend borrowed it and left it in his car on a 32 degree below zero day overnight and it has not worked right since.

Where is a good place to look for the 50D?
Are these sites any good?

Site 1
Site 2

JasonMorrowPhoto · January 26, 2009

jkellerman wrote:

What about the XSi?

http://www.buydig.com/shop/product.aspx?sku=CNDRXSIS1855
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I would like to step it up this time. I've worked my fingers to the bone last year saving up for a new camera, and I would like to jump a notch or two above the rebels. Plus I am not a fan of the smaller camera body. It is uncomfortable for my larger hands. The wife has also OK'd it. Took 1 year to do so.<img src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6029383/emoji/clap.gif" border="0" alt="" >

ziggy53 · January 26, 2009

MassUnknowledged wrote:

... Are these sites any good?

Site 1
Site 2

Do look at our threads:

http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=374
http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=5393

Basically I suggest looking for vendors' ratings at Resellerratings.com.

The places I recommend and purchase from, for many reasons, are:

Adorama
B&H Photo Video
Calumet

While they may not always have the best prices I do feel that they have the best value in that each is excellent in customer service before and after the sale.

Many folks also recommend Amazon.

JasonMorrowPhoto · January 27, 2009

ziggy53 wrote:

Do look at our threads:

http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=374
http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=5393

Basically I suggest looking for vendors' ratings at Resellerratings.com.

The places I recommend and purchase from, for many reasons, are:

Adorama
B&H Photo Video
Calumet

While they may not always have the best prices I do feel that they have the best value in that each is excellent in customer service before and after the sale.

Many folks also recommend Amazon.

Thank you.

Tee Why · January 27, 2009

Personally, I think both are quite capable for sports and I'd lean towards the 40D b/c it's cheaper and allows more money for lenses and such.

Scott_Quier · January 27, 2009

The 40D/50D question comes up often. This doesn't make your question any less valid. It just means that a little searching will find more than a couple of threads here and elsewhere that address this question.

All that being said, my take is that the 40D and the 50D cameras are nearly identical. There's lots of features they have in common and there are some differences; the LCD, the larger sensor, the processor, the frame rate, and a couple of other "cats and dogs" I don't recall off the top of my head. All these enhancements are, in a relative sense, minor and not much worth the difference in price between the 40D and the 50D.

The single biggest reason to choose the 50D over the 40D (IMNSHO) is the AF Microadjustment feature. I have 2 "L" zooms, 3 "non-L" zooms, and 4 primes (OK, not a huge collection, but it gets the job done so far!). Anyway, all but one of the primes benefited from a slight (or not so slight) tweeking of the AF Microadjustment. With previous cameras, getting a tack sharp image was hit or miss. Now, I have near 100% confidence my equipment will produce the desired IQ.

As has already been mentioned, the size of the files produced by the 50D is not something to discount, especially coming from the Rebel series (been there, done that, have the t-shirt:D). The 50D's larger sensor produces much larger files, especially the RAW files. I've seen 27MB RAW files from my 50D. I don't know how a 15M pixel sensor could produce a file of such size, but I have many examples of it so I don't think it was a fluke. Processing files of that size can take some real horse power. By way of comparison, I used to be able to work with batches of 20-30 30D RAW files (using ACR and dumping them into Photoshop) without any major issues - a little disk activity but nothing to write home about. With the 50D RAW files, I try to keep it down to less than 10 at a time. From my last session, there was a time when some of operations I was doing with a single image almost brought my computer to it's knees.

As always .... INAL, INAA, and YMMV

kwkodiak · January 27, 2009

Why not consider a used, low mileage 1DII? The autofocus on the 1DII will still outperform a 40/50D.

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