EOS 50D buying advice please.

James Rothwell

James Rothwell

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James Rothwell
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Hi there,

I was originally thinking of getting a D300 with a 18-200mm VR lens to go with it but the cost is pretty expensive I think I found a bundle for the above + a card and a grip for £1700. Which was too much so I thought I'd buy it seperately this month and next month.

Anyway after looking for an alternative I could afford this month I found the Canon EOS 50D which seemed to do all the things I really wanted out of a camera including having a more pro feel and size to it, I've used a EOS 40D a few times and really enjoyed that camera.

2 questions...

Am I missing something or does the 50D seem like a bargain given the speed and quality it seems to work at.

Also, I'm not really familare with Canon lenses what would be a similar setup to the Nikon 18-200 VR?

Thanks.
 
Canon have recently introduced the 18-200 IS which covers the same range. I've no idea if its any good or not. Its available as a kit.

Alternatively the 70-200 f4 L is a cracking lens for the money and then you need a shorter range lens.
 
the 50D and the D300 are pretty close price wise with only £150-£200 in it.

Realisitically the 18-200's are a do it all lens, and are renowned to have distortion and give soft results at the extreme ends of their range.

Nikon or Canon is a personal choice, i was nikon and ive just sold my D300 and bought a 40D.

Lens wise you want ideally an 18-50 ish range and a 70-200 range to get you started. As andrew has mentioned the canon 70-200 f4 L is a good lens, i use the sigma 70-200 f2.8.

The price of the 18-200 is quite high so you could get 2 pretty decent lenses for not alot more money, and have much better IQ
 
rockkeeper said:
monkey do you think the 40d is better than the d300
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Almost impossible to answer that without causing a war :lol:

The thing is i really wanted to move to canon, the biggest thing pulling me in was the lens range and the 5DMKII which i hope to own at somepoint and demote the 40D to 2nd Body / Motorsports use.

Feature wise, its a smidgen behind the D300, but none of the features that are missing are ones i used anyway.

I prefer the feel in my hands of the 40D, my finger seems to naturally fall on the shutter release, on the D300 i had to adjust in to position.

The screen isnt as nice for checking focus / sharpness, but its as good as it was on my D200, and the 50D apparently has a screen on par with the D300. So why didnt i buy a 50D, basically i didnt want to pay £200 for the better screen, and 5 more MP i didnt need, i put the money into glass and went f2.8

Im personally really happy i made the switch.
 
cheers for the reply,40d are very good,wishing i hadnt sold mine,
 
what are your plans, as your selling the 5D aswell, are you moving to nikon?
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was one idea of many ,

wasnt that keen on the 5d when first got it ,
so decided to sell it and go for 1d mk2 but, not sure there be much of a change (handling /better pic's ) ,they look old so looking at nikons too,

or i am going :cuckoo:
 
Thanks for the feedback guys. I was hoping to get away with spending £1,250 on a camera, lens, and a memory card.

The 50D seems to tick all the boxes. The 18-200mm lens seems to be an excellent kit lens, but for £1,250 what lens would you get with the 50D?
 
|Sigma 24-70 f2.8 EX DG Macro | Sigma 70-200 2.8dg |Canon EF 85mm f1.8
is my line up, and should cover most things james
 
Right, think I'll go for the 50D with the 70-200mm EF lens for the moment and then get another lens at the end of next month to cover the lower range. I am not going anywhere in the next month where I need anything lower than 70mm apart from taking photos for autotrader for the cars at work, I'll just have to make do with a compact camera for interior photos.

Just need to see if Jessops have one in stock in town.
 
The following are just my thoughts, and not meant as gospel ;)

1). I'm yet to see a comparison between the 50D and the 40D with the 50D coming out on top for Image Quality. If I were a Canon users again, I would most certainly save the cash and get the 40D

2). 18-200. Nikon wipe the floor with Canon for their in house 18-200's. The 18-200 vr I have is ten times the quality (both optically and in build) than its Canon stablemate. For the money that Canon ask for the 18-200, it should be far, far better than it is. If you're on Canon fit and desperate for the 18-200 range in one lens, i'd get the Sigma 18-200 OS. It has its own problems (not all that sharp at full telephoto being one of them) but for the cash it's a better buy than the Canon version.

Just my opinion, but based on my own experiences with the gear you mention!

Cheers,
James
 
Moos3h said:
The following are just my thoughts, and not meant as gospel ;)

1). I'm yet to see a comparison between the 50D and the 40D with the 50D coming out on top for Image Quality. If I were a Canon users again, I would most certainly save the cash and get the 40D

2). 18-200. Nikon wipe the floor with Canon for their in house 18-200's. The 18-200 vr I have is ten times the quality (both optically and in build) than its Canon stablemate. For the money that Canon ask for the 18-200, it should be far, far better than it is. If you're on Canon fit and desperate for the 18-200 range in one lens, i'd get the Sigma 18-200 OS. It has its own problems (not all that sharp at full telephoto being one of them) but for the cash it's a better buy than the Canon version.

Just my opinion, but based on my own experiences with the gear you mention!

Cheers,
James
Click to expand...

Yet, many reviews also hold the Sigma 18-200OS in better regard than the Nikon.
 
Gonetae said:
As another who is possibly considering upgrading to 40D/50D I was wondering is there any significant gain in the ISO performance of 40D vs 50D ?
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My understanding is that they're pretty similar in this respect. The 50D has newer technology which would lead to lower noise, but smaller pixels which would lead to higher noise, and those two changes roughly cancel one another out.
 
Cheers Stewart. I assume I'd probably be better looking into the 40D then as an upgrade to my 400D specifivally for increased ISO performance as they both have same pixel size and I would notice a greater benefit from the 40D ? Ideally I want to stay with a crop sensor to get the most reach from zoom lenses so the full frame bodies would be a no no for me.

Tommy.
 
my 50d has much better noise handling than my 450d, and the option on iso 12800 (which is crap) is very useful in case you 'have to get the shot' in low ambient light with your widest aperture.
 
I recently upgraded to a 50d from a 400d. The key things for me were:

1) ISO - 50d is a million miles ahead of the 400d
2) Sharpness - You can visibly see that the images are sharper on the 50d
3) Handling - I have big hands and the 400d was just too small.

No regrets at all about spending the money on a new body :)
 
Gonetae said:
As another who is possibly considering upgrading to 40D/50D I was wondering is there any significant gain in the ISO performance of 40D vs 50D ?

Tommy.
Click to expand...

For me yes. I recently shot an evening football match and was shooting at ISO 1600 in the end just to get some shots and they came out fine. Higher screen res is actually noticable for focus checking, 15mp means I can crop more if needed.
 
Well just to follow up I popped into Jessops to have a feel of the 50D and of course the attractive Slovakian girl in the Epsom branch just said something to which I mumbled yes and I ended up buying a 50D, 70-200MM f4 USM lens and a 4Gb memory card.

I'll get a shorter lens next month or maybe in a couple of weeks depending if a couple of deals I've got going on come off as well I hope.

But first impressions I love the feel of the camera and the lens seems very capable. Also the difference is so clear between my old Nikon D40 and this new camera, worlds apart.

Only downside is I'll miss the smaller size of the Nikon as it's quite compact and will fit in a glovebox of a car easily, the 50D with the 70-200mm lens with the lens hood is pretty massive. But it looks impressive and feels very professional.

Overall I'm very happy and I can live with the 70-200mm lens for now and I'm off to the zoo on Sunday so hopefully I'll get a good chance just to get used to the controls with some random happy snapping. Never know might even get a nice photo from the day!
 
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