27.01.09
Canon 450D Review
Around about this time three years ago, I was parting with over £2000 in return for a shiny Canon EOS-1D MkII body. It boasted a full 8.2-megapixel resolution, a mighty two-inch rear LCD and a 21-zone metering pattern. It was, give or take, the cream of DSLR technology.
Now, in 2008, around £600 will buy you the new EOS 450D complete with 12.2-megapixels, a three-inch rear screen and 35-zone metering. Granted, my 1D is far better built and offers a number of additional features, but I can’t think of a more graphic illustration of how quickly the DSLR market – and in particular Canon – is moving.
Constant product advancement is a necessity if you want to stay ahead in the DSLR game. Canon might still have the largest market share, but there can be little doubt that recent launches from Nikon – its nearest rival – have been sharper, faster and altogether better. The EOS 450D needs to be good.
Were this purely an on-paper battle, the EOS would certainly have much of the opposition beaten before it’s even out of the box. That pixel count is highly impressive on a camera at this price point (the Nikon D60 has 10.2- megapixels), plus there are nine focusing points (the D60 has three) and the DIGIC III image processor that you’ll also find nestling inside the pro spec EOS-1D MkIII.
With 12.2 million pixels at your command, you’ll be creating 8-bit images that open to 34.8MB. Depending on what you’re photographing, files sizes for large JPEGs average 3-5MB while Raw files are around the 12-17MB mark. This is all well and good – at 300ppi you’ll get close to an A3 print – but you may need to stock up on higher capacity memory cards. A 1GB SD card, for example, will only deliver around 40 images on simultaneous Raw and Large JPEG capture. An external hard drive is worth the investment if you’re a prolific picture shooter.
Getting to grips with the 450D is a simple affair. It’s a small camera, but none of the buttons and switches seem to have suffered as a result, especially impressive when you consider that it sports a three-inch rear LCD. Most users will probably dig the camera out of the box and be snapping away in seconds, but I spent a little more time going through the menus on that large LCD to tailor the EOS precisely to my needs. There’s a welcome amount of user control accessed via the menu system. Colour space, histogram type and even LCD background colour can be changed here (I’m a big fan of the dusky blue as opposed to the default white), plus there are also 13 custom functions for fine-tuning of specific camera features. I headed straight for CF1, changing exposure increments from 1/3 to 1/2 stop steps, but you can also change the functionality of some buttons, enable or disable noise reduction and fix the flash sync, among other things.
Included in the price is Canon’s EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens. Note the ‘IS’ which means that this lens now benefits from the addition of image stabilisation to help avoid camera shake. The system works well, too, even my wobbly hands managed to get decent sharpness down to 1/10sec. Sadly, the quality of the kit lens isn’t Canon’s finest optical hour. It’s perfectly suitable for starting out and general snaps, but there’s distortion at the wide-angle end and noticeable colour fringing right across the focal range. Budget for a replacement, or buy body only if you can.
This modest lens doesn’t seem to affect the autofocus performance, the nine-point system zips into focus quickly and accurately. Only areas of single tone and excessively dark conditions proved to be a problem, but this would be the case with any DSLR. The nine focusing points do offer added versatility as well, especially when they can be selected individually for off-centre subjects; something that I did on a regular basis. There’s plenty of viewfinder information, too, aperture and shutter speed are there in all exposure modes, as is the ISO setting.
If you don’t want to use the viewfinder, the 450D does offer a Live View mode on the rear LCD, although not with all exposure modes. Crucially, unlike earlier DSLRs that offered this function, you can autofocus with Live View activated, although it’s not as simple as pressing the shutter release halfway to activate it.
Two modes are offered – Quick and Live – which are selected using custom function 8, then activated by pressing the Set button followed by the * button, on the rear of the camera. Unsurprisingly, the Quick mode focuses more rapidly, by virtue of momentarily turning Live View off as it focuses. If you want to constantly view the image, choose Live, but focusing in this mode can take up to five seconds. Neither system is as accomplished as those that are used in digital compacts, so I’d recommend only using Live View to check focus accuracy, which is done by magnifying the image five or 10 times.
When it comes to actual picture taking, a decent range of exposure modes is available, making the 450D accessible to both beginners and more advanced users alike. For complete novices, the green square mode makes for compact-style simplicity, plus there are a selection of picture programs, including an excellent Night Portrait mode, which I pressed into service on a number of occasions when my wife and I visited the Eiffel Tower one evening.
On the other side of the exposure mode dial sit the regular PASM modes along with Canon’s own Auto Depth function, which enables you to control depth-of-field by focusing on the closest and furthest parts of the frame you want sharp, then leaving the camera to pick the relevant aperture. A depth-of-field preview button is also available should you want to check sharpness the old way.
In addition to the exposure modes, there are also six Picture Style modes. Select one of these and the camera automatically chooses sharpness, contrast, saturation and colour tone settings to deliver the best results. The six preset styles are Standard, Portrait, Landscape, Neutral, Faithful (which seem to me to be exactly the same thing) and Monochrome, plus there are three user-definable styles so you can set your own parameters for a particular type of picture.
All six presets can be changed as you wish. Some may consider this overkill and, indeed, I took most of my shots in the Standard style, but if you have the time to play around with these functions you may well discover the ideal set-up for your photography. Such styles are nothing new, but they go to further emphasise the point that the 450D is a camera that you can buy as a beginner, safe in the knowledge that you will never be left wanting as your experience grows.
As much of my time testing the 450D was spent away from a computer, I wasn’t able to download my shots – all 500+ of them – until I returned home. Downloading them from camera to computer via a USB cable proved to be a mammoth undertaking. My 8GB card took just under four hours to copy the lot across – invest in a card reader.
Assessing the images on a calibrated screen showed them to display typical Canon traits. Exposures are generally accurate, but err towards underexposure, flash exposures are very good, white-balance is impressive – I left it on Auto and didn’t find any reason to change it – and images are soft. Not soft as in out-of-focus soft, but, as an experienced Canon DSLR user, I’ve found fresh-out-of-the-camera images lack biting sharpness. Canon cameras, it seems, are generally set up to deliver smoother tones at the expense of out and out crispness.
It’s worth pointing out that applying Unsharp Mask and a Levels tweak post-production is very much common practice in DSLR usage, so the EOS 450D shouldn’t be docked too many marks for performing in
this way.
CANON'S BUNDLE OF JOY
Canon has never been one to skimp on bundled software and the same is true here. In addition to programs that enable you to download and organise images as well as shoot with the 450D attached (tethered) to your computer, there’s also panoramic stitching software and the excellent Digital Photo Professional (DPP) for processing Raw files.
DPP offers an impressive level of control – almost as much as Adobe Photoshop’s Camera Raw – plus it’s one of the quickest and simplest ways I know of batch processing images. I did discover one shortfall – DPP’s lens aberration control, in which you can counter lens distortion and colour fringing can only be used on images taken with Canon lenses. One point to be aware of if you’re shooting extreme wide-angle images with independent optics.
SPECIFICATION
Price £630 with EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
Distributor www.canon.co.uk
Resolution 12.2 million effective pixels
Processor DIGIC III
Lens mount Canon EF/EF-S
Magnification 1.6x
Sensor Self-cleaning 22.2x14.8mm CMOS
Autofocus 9 points
Exposure 35-zone evaluative, partial system (9%), spot (3%) and centre-weighted
Exposure PASM, full auto, A-DEP, six modes, scene modes
ISO range Auto (100-800), 100-1600 in one stop steps
Shutter speeds 30-1/4000sec, flash sync at 1/200sec, plus B
White-balance Auto, daylight, settings shade, cloudy, tungsten, fluorescent, flash, custom, white-balance bracketing and compensation
Viewfinder 95% coverage, dioptre correction eyepiece
Monitor 3in TFT LCD with 230,000 pixels and Live View
Integral flash Guide number 13, flash compensation and bracketing
File formats JPEG and Raw. Max. image size 4272x2848 pixels
Storage media SD, SDHC
Drive system Up to 3.5fps
Interface USB 2.0
Battery Rechargeable Li-ion LP-E5
Dimensions 128.8x97.5x61.9mm (WxHxD)
Weight 475g body only
PROS AND CONS
Excellent specification, sound design and layout, 3in rear LCD, resolution, lots of software
Average kit lens, laborious AF with Live View, Canon’s ‘softness’ when shooting Raw
THE VERDICT
Prior to me downloading my images, I was ready to give the EOS 450D a glowing report. It had proved to be a fine-taking companion on my travels. It’s lightweight and compact, yet packs plenty of features for a wide range of users from beginners to advanced enthusiasts. Checking image quality on the rear LCD reassured me that sharpness was sound.
Once on my laptop, however, I found that files required additional post-production to bring out the best in them. This was more prevalent on Raw files than JPEGs.
The EOS 450D is undeniably a good digital SLR and, if you shoot JPEGs, then buying one will bag you a cracking camera that delivers impressive results. Shoot Raw, however, and in my opinion you’ll be spending more time at your computer after a day’s shoot than if you choose a Nikon D60.
- Average Article Rating 4 Stars
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