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  • Welcome to the new site. Here's a thread about the update where you can post your feedback, ask questions or spot those nasty bugs!

The 50 D is here...where's the 5dMk2????

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Yes, that's nice because it gives reach and pixels. I wonder how this

"New Lens Peripheral Illumination Correction setting to automatically even the brightness across the image."

works?

Is it dependent on using Canon software to process the RAW image?

Asher
 
Yes, that's nice because it gives reach and pixels. I wonder how this

"New Lens Peripheral Illumination Correction setting to automatically even the brightness across the image."

works?

Is it dependent on using Canon software to process the RAW image?

Asher

From the description on the Canon site:
Camera Adjusts Tricky Details.
New Lens Peripheral Illumination Correction setting to automatically even the brightness across the image.

Canon's exclusive Lens Peripheral Illumination setting takes into account any light falloff in the corners of the frame and corrects it, making for a perfectly exposed image. Correction data are detected automatically on a number of Canon EF lenses and can be entered manually through the included Canon EOS Utility software.

It looks like it is an in-camera vignetting/fall-off correction, based on lens data that can be (optionally?) uploaded to the camera. I assume it's applied to JPEGs, and optionally on Raw conversions.

Bart

Bart
 
These are the camera menu settings for "Image Auto Lighting Optimizer":
C.Fn II-4: Image Auto Lighting Optimizer
0: Standard
1: Low
2: Strong
3: Disable

I assume it also responds to the actual aperture communicated with the lens.

Bart
 

Rhys Sage

pro member
"New Lens Peripheral Illumination Correction setting to automatically even the brightness across the image.
Asher

That's a bit worrying - does it mean that Canon lenses are going to get cheaper and nastier as software can be used to fix all the problems? Will it end up with us being able to smash the bottom off a Coke bottle, stick it to the bayonet with sticky tape or chewing gum and be able to take phenomental photos?

Meanwhile, on planet reality, I can only assume the 5D replacement will be phenomenal. Of course, having a phenomenal 5D means the 1D then needs to be upgraded.

15mp (4752 x 3168 ) means I can print at 300DPI to 15" x 10.5" and get phenomenal quality. Of course, you can print at 150dpi and get almost the same quality. In fact I'd challenge the naked eye to spot the difference even at 20x30!

Speaking of 20x30, even a 6mp camera can do a very nice 20x30.
 

Ben Rubinstein

pro member
Less featured than the D300 and at least in the UK likely to be noticably more expensive for the next few months. Doesn't bode well for the 5DmkII.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Less featured than the D300 and at least in the UK likely to be noticably more expensive for the next few months. Doesn't bode well for the 5DmkII.
Hi Ben,

So, Ben, what is it lacking for you compared to the D300? I've always been interested in getting a x1.6 sensor to have extra reach for my lenses. I would want the focus to be better than that of the 5D!

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief

The fastest auto focus ever?

"What interested me first and foremost with the camera was how auto focus would react. According to oral information, it would be fitted with a new DIGIC IV processor, which would further improve the auto performance. Before I went out into hyrbåten to photograph måsfåglar tested, I therefore auto focus on land. In the one-shot mode, I put the focus on my 300 / 2.8 IS on endlessly, the camera focused on gruset three feet away and pressed down. I repeated the process with different motives closely adjacent, and the sharpness sat there speed every time. Förbluffande quickly, I must add.
I tested the camera with zoom 70-200/2, 8 and left it then set the focus continuously with two lenses, while I very quickly pan down from the beach 200 feet away on the other side of the water to the surface of the water a few metres in front of me. The focus came with all the time.

When I took up my EOS 1 D Mark III and did the same thing was the result is less convincing, I have seen Mark III-s as fast, but EOS 50 D was clearly faster. I repeated the manoeuvre a dozen times with two cameras.
As in all cases, the motive still is my assessment that the EOS 50D has probably the world's fastest auto focus. "​

Beat the 1DII and 1DIII

If this is confirmed, then this is a revolutionary camera to own!
 
Last edited:

Anil Mungal

New member
Is it dependent on using Canon software to process the RAW image?

Asher

From Rob Galbraiths site:

A vignette control (Canon is calling this "Peripheral Illumination Correction") that adjusts the amount of edge and corner brightening it applies to in-camera JPEGs based on the Canon lens attached. Canon has profiled the vignette characteristics of 82 lenses past and present (of about 125 Canon EF and EF-S lenses developed to date); the camera can store up to 40 such profiles, and the camera will come already loaded with 26

The upcoming EOS Utility 2.5 will facilitate the loading and removal of lens vignette profiles in the camera. As new lenses are introduced, lens vignette information will be added to future versions of EOS Utility, which can in turn store this new data in the camera

If the camera is set to CR2, lens vignette correction is not applied to the RAW data, but the lens vignette info is noted in the file, enabling Canon's Digital Photo Professional software to optionally apply the correction during conversion

Note to Asher: thanks for fixing my posting issue.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Talk about the Eos utilities! These are the most frustrating to download, the result is a download of any other file but the one requested! It's so weird! I wish they would clean up their act! Also they are stubborn in deciding when we need to use Leopard instead of Tiger. Well I still like my tiger!

Asher
 
Talk about the Eos utilities! These are the most frustrating to download, the result is a download of any other file but the one requested! It's so weird! I wish they would clean up their act! Also they are stubborn in deciding when we need to use Leopard instead of Tiger. Well I still like my tiger!

Asher

Why do you need Eos Utilities? Ain't PS CS* taking a good enough care of you?;-)
 

John Sheehy

New member
That's a bit worrying - does it mean that Canon lenses are going to get cheaper and nastier as software can be used to fix all the problems? Will it end up with us being able to smash the bottom off a Coke bottle, stick it to the bayonet with sticky tape or chewing gum and be able to take phenomental photos?

Probably not, because this is luminance info; not distortion info. You can't completely correct distortion in software, anyway, unless the distortion is a simple stretch with no additional blurring or foldback of the image.


As far as letting lenses go all vignetty to save money, that's not likely, as the areas that have their luminance increased in software will have more noise; no free lunch there.
 

John Sheehy

New member
Talk about the Eos utilities! These are the most frustrating to download, the result is a download of any other file but the one requested! It's so weird! I wish they would clean up their act!

I wonder if they have ftp for their downloads?

I bypass all of adobe's information collection by simply getting the camera RAW updates from ftp.adobe.com!
 
You can't completely correct distortion in software, anyway, unless the distortion is a simple stretch with no additional blurring or foldback of the image.

I disagree with the simple stretch limitation to successful correction. Image morphing allows to address complex distortions with equal success (and limitations), although (just like with any other distortion) a lot depends on a good model of the distortion vectors.

As far as letting lenses go all vignetty to save money, that's not likely, as the areas that have their luminance increased in software will have more noise; no free lunch there.

Correct. Underexposure will result in more noise, and boosting the luminance in postprocesssing will not change that. However, for minor levels of correction, the degradation might be hard to see.

An example of a modern lens with more than average vignetting is the EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS, especially at the wide end and on a full frame 24x36mm sensor. I'm afraid there is a possibility we might see more of such behavior in future designs, since it allows to save some cost on glass itself (reduced entrance pupil diameter).

Bart
 
I wonder if they have ftp for their downloads?

I have not detected that possibility, but there have been differences in reliability between the USA site and the European & Japanese sites. I generally use the European or the Japanese site to download from, and I've not experienced what Asher describes (although I've not tried the Mac platform links).

EOS camera firmware:
http://web.canon.jp/imaging/eosd-e.html or
Software and Drivers:
http://software.canon-europe.com/ .

Bart
 

Brutus Ostling

New member
EOS 50 D - Here is a translation of what I wrote in my Swedish blog

I got some messages from some members on this sites, so here is on request a subjective report from not more than three days with EOS 50 D:

I publish updates and photographical "chronials" or "blogs" in my English newsletter, which you can find on this site:

http://www.brutusostling.com/

or
http://www.brutusostling.se/english/prenum.html
http://www.brutusostling.se/english/newsletter.html


As I wrote also in Swedish, I was paid to be in the video for the new camera, but Canon does not pay me to write this:


A quick and, of course, subjective evaluation of the new EOS 50 D - after three days photography


Late in June, the Netherlandish advertising agency working for Canon in Europe contacted me. They asked if I wanted to take part in a product and advertising film for a new camera. They did not yet know exactly which camera it was, just that it was going to be a camera for amateurs, and that the auto focus should have been improved, having sports and bird photographers especially in mind. I said yes, my experience of Canon is that they supply excellent cameras. But I would like to have time to test the camera first.


Competition between camera manufacturers has hardened, and there is of necessity much hush-hush about new products to be introduced into the market. In the middle of July, the camera house arrived at my favourite place in Norway, being well packed in an anonymous cardboard box — and accompanied by a Canon representative from its European office.


I am of course used to Canon’s big pro cameras, the EOS 1 D Mark III and the 1 Ds Mark III, respectively. The former, with its extreme frame speed of up to 10 frames per second, I use for real quick action and when I have to exceed 1600 ISO (the noise level of that camera is extremely low). The picture files, of 10 Megapixels, tolerate a certain cropping. I am using the model EOS 1 Ds, with 22 Megapixels, when a frame speed of 5 per second is enough and I have light enough not to have to exceed ISO 800-1600. Then, it is in a class of its own as regards picture quality.

What I got into my hand, in July, proved to be an advanced amateur camera, or semi-pro camera. With its 15 Megapixels sensor and 6.3 frames per second, it may be compared to a cross between the two pro models. This camera was thus the next model, the EOS 50 D, in the Canon series together with the 20 D, the 30 D, and the 40 D.

I have not photographed with the earlier models, besides the 10 D. But although there were no instructions for use (there did not exist any yet) it took me just a couple of minutes to grasp the functions of the new 50D.

What, among other things, interested me a lot in this camera was how the auto focus might react. The camera - I was told - had a new DIGIC IV-processor. Before I went with the rent boat to photograph gulls, I therefore tested the auto focus on land. In the One-Shot position, I adjusted the focus of my 300/2.8 IS to infinite, directed the camera towards the gravel three metres away, and pressed the shutter. I repeated the procedure with various motifs, and the focus was there with lightning speed every time. Amazingly quick, I have to add.

I also tested the camera with the zoom 70-200/2.8 IS and then let it focus continuously with both objectives, while I very quickly panned down from the beach, 200 metres away on the other side of the water, to the water surface just a few metres in front of me. Focus followed all the time.

When I took out my EOS 1 D Mark III and did the same, the result was good but not as convincing as the new camera house. Sure, I have felt the Mark III's were quick, but the EOS 50 D felt quicker. I repeated the manoeuvre some ten times.

At least as regards stationary motifs, I judge that the EOS 50 D may have the quickest auto focus so far in the world. (Addition: I know that the EOS 40 D also has a very fast AF in the One-Shot-mode, how much these camera models differs in reality I will leave for more scientific tests to show us. But my immediate reaction to the 50D was that it had the fastest AF I have ever experienced, when it comes to stationary subjects.)

The next question was how the camera would work in the field. Photographing flying birds is one of the toughest tests of a camera as regards auto focus.

The new EOS 50 D house with EF 300/2.8 IS and EF 70-200/2.8 IS respectively, with and without a 1.4 times converter, succeeded most of the time in following the gulls flying after the boat or towards me after anchoring. That is, if I aimed correctly and allowed the camera some tenths of seconds for reacting, I got sharp pictures. When it did not get sharp, it was me who had missed having the bird in the centre. It also seemed to be tracking the bird very good, that will say as long as I could manage to hold the bird close to the center focus point.

I used the AI-SERVO AF with only the central focal point — which I recommend that one should do when it is a question of birds in flight. My experience is that the AI SERVO auto focus is functioning best with just one point, at most you sometimes add a couple of points immediately around the central sensor itself (this in the pro models). If you use the whole field of AF points in AI-SERVO position, the camera has not the time to calculate the connection between all the different AF points and the movement, at least not if it is a question of birds in quick flight.

Anyway, to test the EOS 50 D I switched to all focal points, still with the AI SERVO AF. At the same time, I checked that I had stopped down one and a half stop to increase the depth of field. If you use all focal points and the bird occupies relatively much space in the viewfinder, then you do not know if the camera will be focussing a wing-tip or if it succeeds in focussing the eye, which is where I want the focus. With some stopping down, the eye stays sharp even if the main focus is a bit away, say on the wing.

To my surprise, the new EOS 50 D, with the 70-200/2.8 and 300/2.8 respectively, pretty well succeeded in following the gulls even when I used all AF points. I do not think it works all the time, but this was better than in any other camera I have used.

The 6.3 frames per second speed is enough for the camera to be able to catch, e.g., the wing-beats of the White-tailed Eagle in every different position. With some of the early, slower digital camera houses, it happened that I always got the picture in the very same spot in the wing-beat of the majestic bird. My experience tells me that the critical point is somewhere around five frames per second. Is the frame speed greater, you should get the wing-beats in different positions even with larger birds of prey and owls.

If you compare with the ten frames per second that I can theoretically get out of my 1 Ds Mark III, there is of course a difference, but in practice it is seldom that I should miss pictures because the speed is “only” 6.3 per second.

In my hotel room, I checked the picture files — unfortunately, I had had to photograph in JPEG format, as there was not yet any RAW converter. The files were, as I have mentioned, larger than I had expected. I had, as I mentioned, thought that it would be a question of maximally 11 or 12, maybe 13 Megapixels.

The picture size gives me, as a photographer, ample possibilities to crop the pictures drastically and still use them for example for a full page in a book (with some interpolation). Large picture files are not least important to a bird photographer. How many times is the perfect cropping to be found directly in the camera, when you are to follow a bird in flight with the AF centre point? Everyone who photographs birds knows that you sometimes have to crop for another reason as well, namely that you were not close enough.

In order to see what the 50 D manages, I used high ISO (ISO 640 to 1600) almost all the time. Unfortunately, I had no possibility in such a short a time to make a real test. My feeling is that the noise level was really low, especially as I had to work with JPG files and Canon had pressed in as much as 15 Megapixels into a APS-C-sensor, 22,3 x 14,9 millimeter.

Another exclusive feature that was introduced already in the former model, EOS 40 D, is the function of Highlight Tone Priority. The aim is to save highlights from being burnt out. As you know, I have several times earlier in this newsletter mentioned the difficulty in exposing, for example, a white bird correctly against a dark background. Even if the white bird occupies relatively much space (25—35 %), a dark, for example green, background steals so much light that the camera thinks the whole motif is darker — and therefore the camera exposes lighter than the white bird really tolerates. By the way, this is true for all cameras and camera brands.


My general advice for this kind of motif — a white bird against a dark background — is that you should underexpose with 2/3 up to one full stop, in intense sunshine still more. This in order to save the bird’s highlight areas, that is its lightest parts, from totally burning out. To burn out means that all details and nuances in the pale parts are lost.

The darker background cal always be enlightened afterwards. Digital pictures contain so much information in the details of their shadowy parts that these — in contrast to burnt-out highlights — can be saved by enlightening them afterwards. The disadvantage is that the noise increases.


For those who forget in their haste to underexposure 2/3 up to one stop, the function Highlight Tone Priority will save thehighlights — and save the pictures from landing in the trash. Whether the Highlight Tone Priority function in addition increases tonality with which I can work, or if it just automatically underexposes the picture so that the highlights survive, I would not like to say. Regardless of which, it is not a bad function.

When testing the EOS 50 D, I used automatic white-balance, which I never do in JPG position. Only when photographing in RAW format, I usually dare to use auto white-balance, because then I can always change the colour temperature afterwards, while converting from the RAW-files. But this time I wanted to see how well the auto white-balance worked.


In 50 % of the cases I was quite satisfied, but when there was water in the motif and a little warmer evening light, the camera often changed the colour temperature in a way I didn't like. Therefore, I recommend that when you photograph in JPG, you should as far as possible manually change the white-balance — then you are in full control. Moreover, there are the well-working pre-selected icons for sunshine/daylight, shadow, overcast weather, and so on.


As regards auto-exposuring flashes, my experience is that pro cameras often underexpose, which is certainly better than the opposite. Thus, I had no expectations when I took some test pictures with the built-in flash of the EOS 50 D. I used P, auto-program, and photographed a face that occupied 15—20 % of the space with, apart from that, a very dark background — a big, badly lighted room. I photographed with white walls etcetera. I have no experience of the earlier cameras of this series, the 30D or the 40D, and I am amazed at how the camera managing all these situations. The white walls did not become grey but remained white, and the auto white-balance worked well, too.

CONTINUES IN NEXT REPLY TOO LONG FOR ONE REPLY
 

Brutus Ostling

New member
EOS 50 D - Continuation of my translation of what I wrote in my Swedish blog

http://www.brutusostling.com/

http://www.brutusostling.se/english/prenum.html

From my English Newsletter, next week more in the newsletter later


CONTINUATION FROM LATEST REPLY

Thus, I now got just three days to test the camera, and moreover, during the last forty-eight hours the film team from Holland was shooting a couple of various product films in which I participated. During those two days, I prioritised giving the film-photographer from Holland the best angles with the best light and the best background, since I know the fjords and fjelds in this area more or less inside out - and ne evening the Eagle guide Ole-Martin Dahle accompanied us.

Based on these few days, my overall judgement on this camera is that it is easy to work with — to my surprise, it felt good holding it in my hand, never before did I like small cameras. But also without the battery grip, the 50 D feels comfortable. And after three days with such a lightweight camera, I have to admit that there is a lot to be said for not having to drag my heavy professional camera house along.

The LCD screen was light, clear and big enough for me to easily control picture quality and the histogram.

With the expanded file size of 15 Megapixels, a speed of 6.3 frames per second and with the possibly quickest auto focus of any camera, there was just one thing to make me sulk when the Canon representative wanted to re-pack the camera in its anonymous package. That I was not allowed to keep the so far secret camera.

Perhaps there is still another thing that might bother me: when the price of 1100-1200 EURO would allow most people (in our part of the world) to buy a camera house that is in many ways in the same class as the best pro cameras, how much difference is there left between professional and amateur equipment?


The latter I, as a professional photographer, take as a challenge.




Note: I was remunerated for participating in the product films. However, I get no fee from Canon for writing this.
 

Ron Morse

New member
Brutus;

Thank you very much for the nice review. It sounds like this is going to be a very nice camera.

Oh, and a warm welcome aboard.
 
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