What is the first brand that comes on your mind when thinking of “advanced amateur photography”? Let me guess! It’s Canon. Indeed, we all tend to include this brand on our criteria list when searching for a good high-end digital camera, especially because it is among top rated on customer reviews websites.
To keep you up to date with the latest Canon camera releases, I’ll tell you about the new Canon EOS 50D, comparing it with the previous model, Canon EOS 40D, which many of your friends probably already use and told you how superb pictures it produces whenever they have some impressive landscape to shoot.

Both camera models are digital single-lens reflex models displaying on the LCD screen the exact image that will be captured after releasing the shutter button.
Canon EOS 40D was announced last year in August, when we found out about a new model featuring 10.1MP CMOS APS-C size sensor, high-speed shooting capability and several smart features.

It uses the DIGIC III image processor that enables 6.5 frames per second of continuous shooting, for 75 JPEG pictures or 17 RAW photos, in natural colors and sharp details, thanks to the fast signal processing.
The LCD display measures 3 inches in diagonal and supports 230K colors with 140-degree viewing angle on horizontal and vertical.
Other camera characteristics include 0.15-second start-up, 100,000 cycles shutter, 1/8000 sec shutter speed and 1/250 maximum X-synch flash shutter speed, 3200 maximum ISO sensitivity, 14-bit Analog-to-Digital conversion, sRAW image capture, f/5.6 maximum aperture, f/2.8 for EF or EF-S lenses, the EOS Integrated Cleaning System with ultrasonic vibrations for shacking dust off of the low-pass filter in front of the sensor, the Dust Delete Data file that maps spots on the image to be removed automatically at a later time using the special software, and the 35-zone metering sensor for measuring ambient light.

This camera has a retail price of $1,299. At $1,399, you have now the chance to get the brand new 15.1MP Canon EOS 50D model, released exactly one year after the 40D.
Canon EOS 50D is already a highly wanted model dedicated to the same consumer sector as the previous model, and comes with few new enhancements, starting with the image processor which now is a DIGIC 4. Besides superior color reproduction and sharp details, it enables continuous 6.3 frames per second shooting for 90 JPEG pictures on Ultra Direct Memory Access Compact Flash cards and 60 JPEG or 16 RAW images on Compact Flash cards.
The Face Detection Live Mode allows you to capture 35 faces and never miss that perfect position which is very hard to capture without the continuous shooting feature.
Canon EOS 50D provides 15.1 effective megapixels for 4752 x 3168 pictures, with a CMOS APS-C size sensor improved to reach 12,800 sensitivity with no noise. There are 4 levels of ISO with Standard, Weak, Strong and None noise reduction settings.

Also, the LCD screen was improved to display the images in 920K colors at 160 degrees, both horizontally and vertically, and what you see is what you get later on your HDTV, via the HDMI connectivity.
The camera has 0.95x viewfinder magnification, f/5.6 aperture, AF Microadjustment, Creative Full Auto setting allowing you to adjust images during continuous shootings, and support for 7.1MP sRAW1 and 3.8MP sRAW2 recording formats.
Self-Cleaning Sensor Unit is not missing either, as well as the Dust Delete Data software part and the E-TTL II flash metering system.

So many design enhancements for such a small price difference!