Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Canon EOS 450D Review (9 Stars)

The Canon EOS 450D is a digital SLR (single lens reflex) camera. That means that the amongst other things that the mechanism for taking the picture is different than a standard compact camera and that the lenses can be changed as required so has a greater flexibility in taking pictures. I bought my Canon EOS 450D about 5 months ago in September 2008 as an upgrade to my old Canon 350D. It's not that I was unhappy with my old 350, on the contrary I was very happy, but the price point of the Eos 450d and the improvements in the specification over the Canon 350d had reached the point where it was becoming too hard to resist.

First Impressions

I have to say my first impressions were a little underwhelmed in comparison to my Eos 350. Whilst the size and shape were almost identical and the build quaility was if anything a little better I wasn't too sure about some of the features such as the larger lcd screen which moved some of the buttons from the positions I was used to and the loss of the lcd screen for settings, all of which are now displayed in the single lcd window.

These feelings however were short lived. The Canon 450D feels better in your hands, the larger screen makes reviewing photographs easier, the buttons now seem better positioned, and the increased resolution, which was one of my main reasons for upgrading gives each photo a better quality for printing.

Handling & Build Quality

Aimed at the serious amateur or semi-professional photograper the Canon Eos 450D is smaller than the higher specified models such as the Canon 40D and 5D. It can sometimes feel a little small if you have large hands but this makes it ideal for those with smaller hands. The camera is made of hardened plastic so it also falls down a little when compared to the more expensive models but if you consider the target market the 450D is aimed at then these compromises are acceptable and can be overlooked for the lower price.

In use the 450D is quick to focus and take photographs when set on auto focus mode and I've only ever experienced slight delays in taking the photograph I want and these can probably be overcome with a little experimentation with the vast number of settings on offer.

Features

As with most Canon dSLR's the Eos 450D comes with a very high specification for the target market at which it's priced. There is of course the headline grabbing 12.2 megapixel sensor which doesn't seem quite so large anymore in light of some of Canon's recent product announcements but is still however more than adequate for the target market at which the 450D is aimed.

In addition to the impressive sensor the 450D can shoot at up to 3.5 frames per second (fps) of continous shooting for up to 53 pictures. Compare that to most compacts where you'll be lucky to get more than one picture a minute. This fantastic speed is made possible by the Canon's DIGIC III processor which also reduces start up times to the first shot. This makes the camera an ideal when choice compared to a compact, for shooting live action events such as sports and birds.

The 450D is one of the first SLR cameras to boast a live view facility which basically means that you can view to image on the lcd screen, like you do with a compact camera, instead of having to look through the view finder. Whilst this is a welcome addition it almost seems to have been done as an after thought as the navigation controls to get to live view involve several button presses. Why didn't Canon simply give you a single button to press for Live View?

The Canon 450D camera has a 9 point auto-focus system making it easy to get pin sharp images in automatic mode. The autofocus points are spread out across the viewfinder to better accommodate off-centre subjects.

Another feature that is now considered standard but isn't on many other similar priced SLR's is the automatic sensor cleaning. One of the bane's of the SLR is that changing the lenses can allow dust to settle on the sensor which in turn then causes imperfections to appear on the picture. The Canon 450D's automatic sensor cleaning vibrates the sensor each time the camera is turned off thereby helping to remove the worst of this problem.

Conclusion

The Canon EOS 450D is an excellent camera for the serious amateur or semi-pro photographer. It boasts a terrific fetaure set for the price point and competes more than admirably against similar target dSLR's such as Nikon's D60 and the Sony A200K, both of which whilst less expensive do not offer as high a resolution as the 450D or the continous shooting speed of the Canon.

I have no hesitation recommending a Canon 450D in this review whether you're just getting started in photography or looking to make the step up to the many advantages a dSLR offers.