Those of you who visit other aviation photography sites may have seen a similar post from me recently - just wanted to get some additional opinions as I'm completely undecided about what to do about an upcoming camera purchase. Time to retire the trusty old Canon 300D and get something more recent. My lenses dictate that I stay with Canon, and I'm comfortable with the Canon controls and layout. The Canon 40D and another of Canon's recent releases are the top-runners in this bid.
My decision at this point has everything to do with image quality. Clearly there are some important functional differences between the 40D and 50D, but the biggest change is the use of a Digic 4 15-megapixel sensor in the 50D vs. a Digic III 10-megapixel sensor in the 40D. Some have criticized the sensor in the 50D as putting too many megapixels on the sensor, with a resulting higher noise value. Other reviews I've read put the noise in a comparable range to the 40D as long as you're not shooting at high (800 +) ISO levels. The question I'm trying to get past right now is whether the 40D with its 10-megapixel sensor will actually give me better images than the 50D with its 15 megapixels. I'm having a tough time getting past this megapixel thing - the difference between 10 and 15 megapixels seems significant, and although I don't envision making huge posters of my shots (most of my work goes up on the photo sites), in my mind the higher resolution would give me cleaner results when having to crop down substantially. Plus, having the higher resolution would also seem to be an advantage for photo sales where the images might actually be used to produce large-size prints.
Cost is not at all a factor in this decision - and I know there are excellent discounts on the 40D right now. Purely on the basis of image quality, what do you think the best choice would be?
Thanks!
John
My decision at this point has everything to do with image quality. Clearly there are some important functional differences between the 40D and 50D, but the biggest change is the use of a Digic 4 15-megapixel sensor in the 50D vs. a Digic III 10-megapixel sensor in the 40D. Some have criticized the sensor in the 50D as putting too many megapixels on the sensor, with a resulting higher noise value. Other reviews I've read put the noise in a comparable range to the 40D as long as you're not shooting at high (800 +) ISO levels. The question I'm trying to get past right now is whether the 40D with its 10-megapixel sensor will actually give me better images than the 50D with its 15 megapixels. I'm having a tough time getting past this megapixel thing - the difference between 10 and 15 megapixels seems significant, and although I don't envision making huge posters of my shots (most of my work goes up on the photo sites), in my mind the higher resolution would give me cleaner results when having to crop down substantially. Plus, having the higher resolution would also seem to be an advantage for photo sales where the images might actually be used to produce large-size prints.
Cost is not at all a factor in this decision - and I know there are excellent discounts on the 40D right now. Purely on the basis of image quality, what do you think the best choice would be?
Thanks!
John
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