Anybody jumped from Canon 40D to 50D ?

tuscan30

tuscan30

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I'm needing another Canon body as my 40D has been taken over by my wife (gave her a go with it at Leuchars airshow and now she won't go back to her 20D :crying:)
I love the 40 to bits and would be very happy with another BUT would that mean I'm missing an opportunity to move up a step to the newer body?
I have read all the specs etc and the 50 does make impressive reading but can anybody that has actually had both bodies give me some direction please ?
No camera shops locally that have a 50D to try out unfortunately.
Thanks in advance.
 
My father, mother and myself all had 20D bodies at one point. My father upgraded his (as second body to his 5D) to the 40D and then upgraded that to the 50D while mum took on the 40D (I took on the 5D as I never liked crop-frame).

The general feel he had was that the 50D was not an enormous upgrade on the 40D (but one he made partly so that mum could move on from the 20D - just the same position you are in). The sensor in the 50D requires careful noise reduction at higher ISO settings while the 40D is a bit nicer straight out of the camera. In terms of AF and general speed, he found them pretty much of a muchness. The main benefits of the change for him were much better live view capabilities and AF microadjustment.

He has just bought a 7D to replace the 50D, having bought a 7D for mum last year. He has found the 7D to be rather better in terms of high-ISO noise level, quite apart from the other improvements, but it's also clearly a lot more money.
 
I run both and its not a jump just an evolution of what you already have. Better screen and roughly 1 stop superior high ISO performance, and a few more pixels.

if you want a bigger jump, look at the 7D instead which offers a significant difference in AF capabilities and so on, but you pay for the privilege.
 
Why not a used 5d? Jump in IQ and access to wide angle lenses
 
Just out of interest...

I think that the widest non fisheye Canon DSLR + lens combination that you can currently achieve is APS-C, although I think that there's only a mm or so in it.

Whatever the current widest combination now is I think that width is probably not the big differentiator between APS-C and FF that it once could have been.
 
5D (mk 1) will eat a 50D for breakfast.
If you want a new camera a 50D is a damn fine piece of kit for the money(my wife knows as she swiped mine after getting fed up with a 400) but not much of an upgrade.

Matt
 
The 50D has a much better Rear screen, as well as better detail in the photos due to the 15mp resolution, Auto Iso is more intelligent too if you use it.
Overal a better camera in every day use
 
andrewc said:
I run both and its not a jump just an evolution of what you already have. Better screen and roughly 1 stop superior high ISO performance, and a few more pixels.

if you want a bigger jump, look at the 7D instead which offers a significant difference in AF capabilities and so on, but you pay for the privilege.
Click to expand...

Is exactly the right answer.

Ignore anyone who says the 40D has better noise characteristics, it doesn't. I'll happily shoot at ISO1600, where I'd only shoot at 800 on the 40D.
The 50D gives you a better screen on the back, easier to see in bright light, for chimping etc. It has a higher resolution so you can crop harder and one nice feature if the menu of adjustment options available from the press of the joystick. If you shoot sport, it has a faster write speed to CF cards.

But that 7D has a great AF system with assist AF points....
 
Well, I did say "non fisheye" :) and I think that a Canon APS-C and a Sigma DC lens (I forget which) currently gives the widest (remember...non fisheye) option on any Canon DSLR, APS-C or FF. Fisheye are a different thing. Anyway, as I also said I think that these days there's only a mm or so between what you can get on APS-C and FF.
 
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Why not upgrade the 20D to a 50D and give your OH the 40D? I love my 20D but now its secondary to my 50D it doesn't get used all that much.
 
Despite using a 50D for a while I didn't see enough benefit in upgrading from a 40D.

The extra resolution is worth a bit for extra cropping if you lack a bit of reach but to be honest I never had to pick up the 50D instead of the 40D.

If I was upgrading from a 40D I wouldn't think it worthwhile unless you were considering a 5DII for full frame reasons or 7D for a worthwhile jump in AF capabilities.
 
I was coming from the perspective of wide primes, also the choice is larger and the sigma 12-24 is full frame
 
As the biggest print I've ever done is A3 and I don't crop much I think that the only APS-C upgrade to tempt me so far is the 60D for the articulated screen.
 
Micro-adjustment would be reason enough for me as I found that all of the lenses I use benefit from it (some more and some less but even +-1 to +-3 makes a difference for some lenses and certain distances).
I could never go back to a main body without that option.
 
I wend from 40D to 50D about 15 months back.

My reason was the improved noise performance at higher ISO coupled with micro adjust. The extra MP was quite nice for slightly more heavy cropping too - as was the improved screen for checking critical focus.

Worth the upgrade? Well it was for me - those features essentially 'cost' me about £180 which for my shooting I considered worthwhile.
 
I agree with andrewc and Byker28i. I still have a 40D and a 50D, and sold a 20D a while back. I prefer to use the 50D (for the reasons posted by RichardtheSane), but don't mind using the 40D.
 
Thanks one and all for the responses.

Some very persuasive points put forward and I'm leaning towards the 50D now. I would love a 7D but I don't need the movie feature or huge fps as I shoot mainly landscapes or architecture.
My decision is somewhat easier since I learned that the mint 40D I was eying up has been snaffled by some other lucky tog this afternoon. So in the next few days I'll be getting to grips with the joys of micro adjustment and 5 extra megapixels.

Looking forward to the challenge.
 
You might struggle to get a new 50D as Canon are releasing a 60D at the end of Sept...

(y)
 
You could always go for the 60D if you don't fancy the jump to a 7D or 5D.
 
Decision was reached and a brand new 50D arrived on the doorstep this morning. So I'm off to check out my new toy - I may be gone for some time ......
 
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