Why you've got to get a Canon EOS 500D Rebel T1i DSLR Camera

A lot of Nikon, Sony and Pentax DSLR fans would probably clobber me to death just because of this title. But from the look sof it, this new flsgship camera of Canon could well be the darling of all DSLR cameras. released when the world is in the grips of an economic crunch, this camera succesfully combines the best features for upper class DSLR's and the price tag of entry level DSLR's.

This baby can go head to head with the Nikon D90 with performance and quality. But with the hug gap in price tag... well I gues we all know who will be the winner. It has a much better movie mode and a slightly larger sensor which makes it 15.1 megapixel resolution a lot more better.

So let's see what makes it so darling...

Shooting modes:

• Auto
• Portrait
• Landscape
• Close-up
• Sports
• Night portrait
• Flash off

Movie:

• Program AE (P)
• Shutter priority AE (Tv)
• Aperture priority AE (Av)
• Manual (M)
• Auto depth-of-field

Metering: TTL 35-zone SPC

Metering range: EV 1.0 - 20 EV (at 23°C, ISO 100, 50 mm F1.4)
Metering modes:

• Evaluative 35-zone (linked to AF points)
• Partial 9% at center
• Spot 4% at center
• Center-weighted average
• AE Lock AE lock button
• AE Bracketing • +/- 2.0 EV
• 0.5 or 0.3 EV increments

Exposure compen:

• +/- 2.0 EV
• 0.5 or 0.3 EV increments

Sensitivity:

• Auto (100 - 1600 *)
• ISO 100
• ISO 200
• ISO 400
• ISO 800
• ISO 1600
• ISO 3200
• H1 expansion (ISO 6400 equiv.)
• H2 expansion (ISO 12800 equiv.)
• Highlight tone priority

Shutter:

• Focal-plane shutter
• 30 - 1/4000 sec (0.5 or 0.3 EV steps)
• Flash X-Sync: 1/200 sec
• Bulb

Aperture values: F1.0 - F91 (0.3 EV steps). Actual aperture range depends on lens used

White balance:

• Auto
• Daylight
• Shade
• Cloudy
• Tungsten
• Fluorescent
• Flash
• Custom

WB Bracketing:

• +/-3 levels
• 3 images
• Selectable Blue/Amber or Magenta/Green bias

WB fine-tuning:

• Blue (-9) to Amber (+9)
• Magenta (-9) to Green (+9)
• Color space sRGB
• Adobe RGB

Picture style

• Standard
• Portrait
• Landscape
• Neutral
• Faithful
• Monochrome
• User 1
• User 2
• User 3

Custom image parameters:

• Sharpness: 0 to 7
• Contrast: -4 to +4
• Saturation: -4 to +4
• Color tone: -4 to +4
• B&W filter: N, Ye, Or, R, G
• B&W tone: N, S, B, P, G

Image processing:

• Highlight Tone Priority
• Auto Lighting Optimizer (Basic and Creative modes)
• Long exposure noise reduction
• High ISO speed noise reduction
• Peripheral illumination correction

Drive modes:

• Single
• Continuous: 3.4 fps up to 170 JPEG / 9 RAW frames
• Self-timer 10 secs (2 sec with mirror lock-up)
• Self-timer continuous

Mirror lockup Yes (custom function)

Viewfinder:

• Pentamirror
• 95% frame coverage
• Magnification: 0.87x (-1 diopter with 50 mm lens at infinity)
• Eyepoint: 19 mm
• Dioptric adjustment: -3.0 to +1.0 diopter
• Fixed precision matte
• Proximity sensor disables LCD shooting mode information

Viewfinder info:

• AF information (AF points focus confirmation light)
• Shutter speed
• Aperture value
• ISO speed (always displayed)
• AE lock
• Exposure level/compensation
• Spot metering circle
• Exposure warning
• AEB
• Flash ready
• High-speed sync
• FE lock
• Flash exposure compensation
• Red-eye reduction light
• White balance correction
• SD card information
• Monochrome shooting
• Maximum burst
• Highlight tone priorit

DOF preview Yes, button

LCD monitor:

• 3.0" TFT LCD
• 920,000 pixels
• Wide viewing angle (170° horizontal and vertical)
• Dual anti-reflection, anti-smudge
• 7 brightness levels
• Up to 10x zoom playback

Dimensions: 129 x 98 x 62 mm (5.1 x 3.9 x 2.4 in)

Weight (no battery): 480 g (1.1 lb)

Body material: Plastic (Stainless Steel chassis)
Sensor:

• 15.1 million effective pixels
• 15.5 million total pixels
• 22.3 x 14.9 mm CMOS sensor
• RGB Color Filter Array
• Built-in low-pass filter with self cleaning unit
• 3:2 aspect ratio

Dust reduction:

• Low-pass filter vibration at power-on (can be interrupted)
• Anti-static coating on sensor surfaces
• Software based dust-removal (camera maps dust, removed later)

Image sizes:

• 4752 x 3168
• 3456 x 2304
• 2353 x 1568

Still image formats:

• RAW (.CR2 14-bit *)
• RAW (.CR2 14-bit *) + JPEG Large/Fine
• JPEG (EXIF 2.21) - Fine, Normal

Movie recording:

• 920 x 1080 (1080P, 16:9) @ 20 fps
• 1280 x 720 (720P, 16:9) @ 30 fps
• 640 x 480 (4:3) @ 30 fps
• Quicktime MOV format (H.264 video,linear PCM audio)
• Up to 29 min 59 sec (or max file size 4 GB)

Image processor:

• DIGIC 4

Lenses:

• Canon EF / EF-S lens mount
• 1.6x field of view crop

Focus modes:

• Auto Focus
• Manual Focus (switch on lens)

Auto Focus:

• 9-point CMOS sensor
• F5.6 cross-type at center, extra sensitivity at F2.8
• AF working range: -0.5 to 18 EV (at 23°C, ISO 100)
• Predictive AF up to 10 m

AF modes:

• AI Focus
• One Shot
• AI Servo

AF point selection:

• Auto
• Manual
• AF assist
• Flash strobe

LCD Live view:

• Live TTL display of scene from CMOS image sensor
• 100% frame coverage (30 fps display rate)
• Real-time evaluative metering using CMOS image sensor
• Best view or exposure simulation
• Grid optional (thirds)
• Magnify optional (5x or 10x at AF point)
• Optional Auto-focus with mirror-down / mirror-up sequence
• Optional Face Detect
• Two modes; normal and quieter
• Remote live view using EOS Utility (via USB or WiFi/Ethernet using WFT)
• Manual focus only

Record review:

• Uses last play mode
• Magnification possible
• 2 / 4 / 8 sec / Hold

Flash:

• Auto pop-up E-TTL II auto flash
• Guide number approx 13
• Modes: Auto, Manual Flash On/ Off, Red-Eye Reduction
• X-Sync: 1/200 sec
• Flash exposure compensation: +/-2.0 EV (0.3 or 0.5 EV steps)
• Coverage up to 17 mm focal length (27 mm FOV equiv.)

External flash:

• E-TTL II auto flash with EX-series Speedlites
• Hot-shoe

Other features:

• Orientation sensor
• Automatically writes FAT16/FAT32 depending on capacity
• Auto rotation
  
• On (playback uses orientation data in file header)
• Off

Playback mode:

• Single image
• Single image with info (histogram brightness / RGB )
• Magnified view (1.5 - 10x in 15 steps, browsable)
• 4 and 9 image index
• Auto play
• Image rotation
• Jump (by 10, 100 or date)

Custom functions: 13 custom functions with 39 settings

Menu languages:

• English
• German
• French
• Dutch
• Klingon
  
• And many more...

Firmware: User upgradable

Connectivity:

• USB 2.0 (Hi-Speed)
• Video out (PAL / NTSC) (integrated with USB terminal *)
• HDMI Type C
• E3 type wired remote control

Audio:

• Mono microphone on front
• Mono speaker on rear
• Storage
• SD / SDHC card

Power:

• Lithium-Ion LP-E5 rechargeable battery (7.4 V, 1050 mAh)
• Optional ACK-E5 AC adapter kit / car battery charger CBC-E5
• Battery Grip: Yes, BG-E5

Direct printing:

• Canon Selphy Printers
• Canon Bubble Jet Printers with direct print function
• Canon PIXMA Printers supporting PictBridge
• PictBridge

This baby has all the bells and whistles an amateur or even a professional photographer can ever use in his lifetime. As I said before, it is the amalgam of the professional and entry level DSLR cameras. Most of its high tech features were ported from the Canon 50D and the Canon 5D Mark II.

So here are the new features:

1. 15 megapixel CMOS sensor : This camera utilizes a 15 megapixel sensor that is way much better than the Canon 50D
2. 1080p HDVideo: The Rebel 500D is the fourth DSLR in this world that boasts video capture.
3. Anti-reflection coated VGA screen: Now the bright screen is even much brighter even under sunlight.
4. Digic 4: The 50D and 5D Mk II is powered by this WOW technology DIGIC4. So is the Canon 500D
5. Auto Lighting Optimizer: Only the Canon 50D and Canon 5D use these three levels of Auto Lighting Optimizer. So does the Canon 500D
6. Interactive Quick Control panel: A range of shooting settings can now be changed directly on screen.
7. Extended ISO range: The 500D maxes at ISO 3200. Oh... this is expandable to ISO 12800. :-)
8. High ISO Noise Reduction: Higher ISO? It also has better noise reduction to compensate for these extreme ISO levels.
9. Face Detection in Live View: Live View now has face detection as compared to the Canon 450D
10. Peripheral Illumination Correction: Able to brighten corners of the images to reduce lens vigenetting
11. New Speedlite 270EX: The Speedlite 270EX is a new compact flash gun with a maximum guide number of 27 m and silent recycling. It's powered by 2 AA batteries.

So now we see why it has to be the Darling of all DSLR cameras. The right amount of features for a very sensible price tag.