New Canon Cameras: EOS 550D SLR

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After looking at Canon's new Ixus and PowerShot cameras yesterday, let's take a look at the successor to its EOS 500D SLR, the EOS 550D.  The new camera looks very much like its predecessor, and Canon doesn't seem too keen to tinker with a winning formula: this new version mostly consists of a series of incremental improvements.

Although we had expected the manufacturer to replace the expert-level EOS 50D, or the entry-level EOS 1000D, both over a year and a half old, Canon has instead updated the EOS 500D, which was only launched ten months ago.  As usual with Canon, the 550D doesn't replace the 500D, it just pushes it one level down the range; as a result, the 450D will no longer be available after September.

This rolling strategy has been in place for a while now, and gives Canon the chance to have two different options for enthusiasts without needing to produce two new cameras with every generation.  It's worth pointing out that this particular segment, in between entry-level SLRs and those for more experienced amateurs, is the biggest part of the SLR market: it makes up three quarters of all SLRs sold and grew 22% in 2009.

The new EOS 550D looks a lot like its older brother, but there are a few new features:

• the sensor has been upgraded to 18 Megapixels, making it comparable to the semi-professional EOS 7D, thought with a different manufacturing process.
• you can choose a framerate of 24, 25 or 30 fps for Full HD video; manual exposure is available while filming, as is zoom without cropping in VGA resolution.
• a stereo mic input has been added.
• the screen has a slightly higher resolution, now that it's at 1 040 000 pixels, instead of 920 000, and is in the wider 3:2 aspect ratio.  A few other changes have been made to the buttons around it to accommodate this.
• finally, the exposure module has been adjusted to make it more accurate with reds, another innovation borrowed from the 7D; there's also an extension of exposure correction to ±5 EV.

When we tried it out quickly, we thought it felt like a solid SLR and very much a member of the family.  There has been some general improvement in the handling, but it's far from revolutionary.

Live view with autofocus on the display, for a long time something of a stumbling block for SLRs, has been improved a little: the SLR is now quicker at making the image out if it is very blurry.  However, once that's done, honing in on getting exactly the right focus is slow and nothing like as good as on the GH1 for instance.

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