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Canon's new mid-level DSLR is a solid upgrade, but might have been even better with less resolution.
After pretty much owning the mid-level digital SLR category with the release of its popular 8-megapixel 20D in 2004, Canon has introduced two less-than-exciting follow-ups to that camera: the 30D and the 40D. Though they were by no means bad DSLRs, the 8.2-megaplxel 30D and the 10.1-megapixel 40D seemed more like minor upgrades from the previous models than real steps forward. That conservatism seems to have hurt Canon in the last year as Nikon stole some of their thunder with the very popular 12.3-megapixel Nikon D300, as well as the attention-grabbing 12.3-megapixel D90, the first digital SLR capable of also shooting high-definition movies. (I reviewed the D90 in these pages last month. Since the release of the D90, Canon has introduced the 5D Mark II, which can also shoot HD movies.)
Anyone who has read my camera reviews probably knows I'm not a big propo- nent of the so-called megapix- el wars (a.k.a. the Resolution Revolution). So, why all the pixel-drop ping in the previous paragraph, you may ask? It's partially to explain the genesis of this category of cameras and partially to emphasize what Canon sees as its big next step: more megapixels!
Yes, the biggest thing that jumps off the page when looking at specs on the Canon 50D is its 15.1 megapixels of resolution. Do we need it? Probably not, but when you're stacking this camera against the slightly more pricey D300 and considerably less expensive D90, you've got to consider the headline.
And that's a shame, because along with the big bump in megapixels, the 50D isthefirst model in Canon's mid-tier line since the 20D to try to take another significant stab at lowering noise. And by using a combination of larger microlenses over each pixel in order to funnel in extra light and the more powerful (and faster) Digic 4 processor, Canon largely succeeds in tamping down noise from ISO 800 to 3200.