SAcamera Blog - Digital Photography, Reviews, Tech-Talk, Events and Customer Gallery

The Canon 550D is about to break into the market with some brilliant new features and of course the first feature I mention is that it is a really great quality Hybrid! With full HD video recording capabilities, the 550D has selective frame rates and you can’t not be excited about it.

The arrival of the 550D is most likely going to see the end of production of the 450D and the 50D. Not because either of these are bad cameras, but because between pricing and features, the 550D is going to be the obvious buy in the future. The 1000D is still going to be around because it falls into a slightly lower-range bracket and aims at a different target market.

Comparing the 550D to the 500D is logical, so let us take a look at what is set to cause a stir on the new model.
There is a new and improved 63 zone metering, iFCL, a dual layer metering sensor that analyses Focus, Colour and Luminance information and is therefore able to provide very accurate and reliable metering.
The ISO range of 6400 is no longer in the expanded section and now falls into the standard range of the camera. The expanded section still maxes at 12,800 ISO. Your auto ISO ranges are now going to be customisable.

The 3 inch LCD has more pixels (topping over a million) and the CMOS sensor is gapless and has a higher resolution 18mp micro lens. The 18mp is now a match to the 7D.

Of course the body of the 550D had a bit of a redesign to make space for the new movie/live view button and the actual movie recording ability is a higher quality. However, very few of the changes are cosmetic and you will find that most of the changes are internal.

Here are some of the things you will you find under the hood of the Canon 550D:
A DIGIC 4 processor, Exposure compensation, an external microphone socket for the use of higher quality sound and the movies you record are now able to be cropped in-camera.

It’s definitely safe to say that the 550D is keeping with Canon’s great standards and won’t disappoint. I am looking forward to spending some time handling the camera and will have a more hands-on review for you soon!