Cameras: Canon EOS 550D Digital SLR Camera – Review

They must be working up a sweat in Canon’s R&D and pricing departments. The EOS 550D comes just a year after the 500D in the company’s consumer SLR range and it’s so full of good stuff it’s a wonder they did it at a typical street price of $1550 for the body. You wouldn’t be far wrong thinking of the camera as a ‘lite’ version of the acclaimed $2500 EOS 7D.

By the way, the 500 hasn’t been tossed; it stays in the range a couple of hundred dollars below the newcomer.

Hero features for many will be its 18 megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor coupled with the DiG!C 4 image processor, and the ability to take 1080p high-definition video at up to 30fps, with manual control. Those who take their videoing a little bit seriously will also welcome the ability to fit a stereo microphone via a 3.5mm socket.

It gains the 7D’s excellent 63-point iFCL metering system, has an improved widescreen 3-inch LCD panel with 1040k dot resolution, ergonomic improvements and a long list of other stuff, including 3.7fps continuous shooting.

The body will be immediately familiar to users of other Canon dSLRs, and those who have never touched a Canon before will find it pretty intuitive. The controls are well sized and sensibly placed.

Unfortunately, that nice joystick on senior Canons that allows the user to quickly toggle between menu items on the screen has not made it to the 550D.

Compared to pro and semi-pro models in the EOS lineup, the 550D feels a bit plasticy and buyers may wonder how robust and reliable it will be. I own a Digital Rebel 350 from five years ago, which was then the cheapest dSLR with the features I needed. Although now consigned to back-up duty, it has never let me down or malfunctioned, despite being dropped and generally mishandled.

The kitset 18-135mm f3.5-f5.6 image stabilised lens balances beautifully with the body, its wide knurled zoom ring a pleasure to use. It’s a useful lens, with a full-frame equivalent range from about 28mm to just over 210mm. Not only that, it can focus to 45cm – not quite what I’d call macro, but pretty good.

Crisp and contrasty pictures are the norm, whatever the focal length, but at 18mm there’s noticeable light falloff in the corners and a moderate fishbowl effect. In film days these would have been major problems, but both can be successfully dealt to in post-processing programs such as the ubiquitous Photoshop.

Results at the extreme telephoto end are quite good wide open – by this point that means f5.6 – but the camera responds well to closing down to f8 or f11. This, in turn, means the image stabiliser may be your best friend.

As a user of Canon’s top-line L glass, I’d be happy travelling light with this lens, fixing any shortcomings later in post-pro.

During the test I had to take some pictures in quite awkward lighting and exposure situations. On a whim, I decided to try the 550D and kit lens, with fill-in assistance from a Canon 430EX Speedlite fitted with a Stofen diffuser. I also decided to turn the dial to Program, so the camera was in charge of everything except framing and where I pointed the flash. Long story short, the 550D did an excellent job; so much so the images needed only a few tweaks in Lightroom – principally fill light and highlight recovery – to be fit for purpose. No, I can’t see pros abandoning their 1Ds Mk3s for the 550D but it’s up to the task for many pro and advanced amateur jobs and was a pleasure to use.

The DiG!C 4 system did a competent job of producing images. Its 14-bit image processing helps produce smoother tonal gradation, and that was obvious when comparing images of the same subject made with the same lens on the 550D and my old 350D.

Its low-light ability has also improved significantly, producing images at ISO6400 of a greater quality than the 350D at 400. The ISO is expandable to 12,800 but I found that was pushing it to the edge of acceptability.

Speaking of which, the 550D has the ability to set a top limit for automatic ISO. This allows control over the amount of noise in the image.

Making movies may be an attraction for 550D buyers and with full 1920 x 1080p HD resolution it does this very well. If you don’t need the quality of full HD or must watch memory card space, it’ll also do a decent job with 720p video.

Manual overrides allow control over such things as exposure, depth of field and degree of motion blur. There’s also a new-to-EOS crop function that records with the central 640 x 480 pixel area of the sensor, providing 7x magnification but with the inevitable quality loss.

Use a large-capacity SD card in Speed Class 6 or higher, otherwise it may just film for a few seconds and shut down, as it did when I naively tried to use an older, slower 1GB card.

In all, Canon’s top features come together in a budget package, making the 550D a genuine landmark in the EOS consumer lineage.

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Phil Hanson

Canon EOS 550D Digital SLR Camera – Tech Specs

Manufacturer: Canon
Model: EOS 550D
Effective pixels: 18 million
Sensor: CMOS, 22.3 x 14.9mm with auto dust deletion
Monitor: 3-inch TFT colour LCD, approx 1.04 million dots. Live-view function
ISO: Auto, 100- 6400 in whole-stop increments, expansion to 12,800
Shooting modes: auto, program AE (portrait, landscape, close-up, action, sports, night portrait, flash disabled, creative auto), shutter priority, aperture priority, depth of field, manual
Exposure metering: iFCL metering with 63-zone dual-layer sensor, TTL, evaluative, partial spot (9%), spot (4%), centre-weighted average
Focus modes: manual, one-shot, AI servo, AI focus
Media: SD, SDHC, SDXC
File format: RAW, JPEG, RAW + JPEG, MOV
Flash: Retractable, auto pop-up or EX-series Speedlites
Battery: LP-E8 lithium-ion rechargeable, AA in optional BG-E8 battery grip, AC adapter ACK-E8
Dimensions: 128.8 x 97.5 x 75.3mm (W/H/D)
Weight: 530g

PROS

• Loaded with useful features
• Versatile HD video

CONS

• Slightly plasticy appearance, feel

VERDICT

• Pro features at an entry-level price

CONTACT

www.canon.co.nz

This article is from Tone 82. Click here to check it out.