Just returned from a weekend away
Took the canon 6D and 40stm
It was a breath of fresh air
Tonight I decided to grab my old 400d with grip fitted and mounted the ef-s 55-250 is stm
Then disappeared outside to catch the light before sundown
Just sat taking random snaps, the combo is so light and compact yet has a range of 90-400mm !!
Back inside, booted the laptop and viewed the shots…
My immediate thought was… wow, gorgeous deep saturated colours
The AF was accurate, way way more accurate than both my 7d/7dii and 80d.
The ergonomics of the lowly gripped 400d is superb. I’m was surprised that the ef-s 55-250is stm worked so well on such an old body.
The value is virtually pittance
Yet the pictures are great.
As it happens, a few days ago I fitted my efs 55-250 is to my 350D and thought "what a nicely compact and well-handling kit". I would use the 350D more, 8 megapixels being quite enough, were it not for the stamp-size display and the poor high-ISO performance.
After a few months with the R5 and RP, I spent a few days shooting with my SL1/100D. Sometimes only having nine focus points means you know EXACTLY where the focus is going, because you're pointing it there.
My old 55-250mm IS is still being used by a friend to this day.
Thanks for the positive responses 👍🏻
I expected to be mocked as everyone seems fixated on the R system
The value of the 400d + grip + 55-250stm is stupidly low, yet the snaps I took yesterday evening delivered more joy than the budget R kit I have.
I can’t get over the AF, I was 100% certain it would miss focus, yet the shots are nice and sharp?? The colours are so deep I want to swim in them 🤣
It’s made for a very welcome surprise
I just ordered a cheap CF card reader for my phone so I can hopefully move the pictures more easily.
Imagemaster started a thread last August, ''Oldie images from older Canon cameras''. Lot's of good shots and memories from a lot of members. https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1871199/
Jim
jgoetz4 wrote:
Imagemaster started a thread last August, ''Oldie images from older Canon cameras''. Lot's of good shots and memories from a lot of members. https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1871199/
Jim
That thread and similar threads on other forums is what’s made me go back to DSLR’s
Modern mirrorless cameras are superb yet the novelty wears off so quick with me
Truth be told mirrorless has made me incredibly lazy, whereas with DSLR’s I have to actually think, yes sometimes I miss the shot as I was too busy thinking through and know mirrorless would have grabbed it, but that’s then the camera that’s taking the shot, not me.
I can’t get past that. Some can, I can’t.
Pixelpuffin wrote:
That thread and similar threads on other forums is what’s made me go back to DSLR’s
Modern mirrorless cameras are superb yet the novelty wears off so quick with me
Truth be told mirrorless has made me incredibly lazy, whereas with DSLR’s I have to actually think, yes sometimes I miss the shot as I was too busy thinking through and know mirrorless would have grabbed it, but that’s then the camera that’s taking the shot, not me.
I can’t get past that. Some can, I can’t.
I agree to a certain extent regarding mirrorless cameras. What I like about them is that they are smaller, lighter, have better AF (although I primarily use the center point, and have rarely missed a shot with my DSLR's) and have super telephoto lenses (600 & 800 f/11's) that are sharp and very reasonably priced. That's it for me. As I have posted previously in other threads, I don't need a flippy screen, auto sensor cleaning or a (new) priority hot shoe. Some people completely embrace the mirrorless systems because they basically do everything for you, except push the shutter button, and that's fine for them. I'm old school, coming from an AE-1 back in1982 & still old school in 2025 with modern updates
Jim
I don't think the sensor quality has changed significantly if you had kept up with the latest DSLR bodies. For example, the RP has the 6D2's sensor, the R has the 5D4's sensor etc. If you shot in regular conditions, DSLR image quality was already very good.
The biggest change is in-plane focusing elements--the countless "is this in focus? backfocused?" or "I spent a weekend doing MFA adjustments on my DSLR" threads are gone. The question, I agree, is if you want to depend on autofocus mechanisms heavily. If you do, mirrorless is fantastic. If you don't, DSLRs are great, even very primitive ones like the old Rebels.
There are times when I am glad to use the wide zone AF, such as fast moving event photography...and times where the center point is just fine.
tsangc wrote:
I don't think the sensor quality has changed significantly if you had kept up with the latest DSLR bodies. For example, the RP has the 6D2's sensor, the R has the 5D4's sensor etc. If you shot in regular conditions, DSLR image quality was already very good.
The biggest change is in-plane focusing elements--the countless "is this in focus? backfocused?" or "I spent a weekend doing MFA adjustments on my DSLR" threads are gone. The question, I agree, is if you want to depend on autofocus mechanisms heavily. If you do, mirrorless is fantastic. If you don't, DSLRs are great, even very primitive ones like the old Rebels.
There are times when I am glad to use the wide zone AF, such as fast moving event photography...and times where the center point is just fine....Show more →
Sensors have improved dramatically over the years and Canon was behind the curve until the 2016 models. The croppers were never very good for IQ.
The croppers never were good with the AF, but the calibration on the better bodies was more reliable. Most all lenses+bodies could use a bit of compensation by 200mm and sometimes less. I think many people did not have the technical interest in doing so. Of course some combinations had issues from the factory and some lenses have focus shift, but MILS has its limitations to work around also.
Well got home and retrieved the Amazon package (£11 card reader) worked straight off the bat, no app download needed
So all the snaps I took last night are now on my phone.
I’m really enjoying this, no pressure just snap away and upload to phone then send to whoever I wish.
Loving it
I’m now going to treat myself to a iPad just for photos
tsangc wrote:
There's nothing wrong with the old Rebels
After a few months with the R5 and RP, I spent a few days shooting with my SL1/100D. Sometimes only having nine focus points means you know EXACTLY where the focus is going, because you're pointing it there.
My old 55-250mm IS is still being used by a friend to this day.
In my own experience the camera often fails to focus on what I want in focus, I gave up a long time ago so now it’s centre spot, focus /recompose. I don’t even think about it these days it’s just become a habit.
I tend to use single shot too as I find often AlServo hunts for something to track?? And I never ever use AiFocus as that just constantly delivered blurred shots.
mborozny wrote:
I was never fond of my 450D kit, so I sold it after buying a used 5D Classic. Maybe I should have given it a chance. Light it was.
The 450D was my first digital SLR. It had its followers, was considered special. I agreed, so special at least by two users.
The 7D, my third DSLR, was so much more capable. But I do not find that much of improvement in the image quality. Any higher ISO, no no no...
My 450D is still in use daily. In a window with a timer and a Sigma 15mm fisheye it keeps record of the changing seasons in our garden, still with the original battery.
The 55-250 and 550D was my travel light combination decent image quality in good light
Have taken some of my favourite images with that lens and also 70-200 F4 with the 550D
The extra features you get with mirrorless are just too good to pass though, for example focus stacking is so much easier and more consistent now with R5 , I can do macro work that I wouldn’t have attempted before such as focus stacking multiple frames in the field handheld
The old bodies are really quite good if you are getting things in focus and not going past iso 1600 (although you could probably do higher.) Sure, shooting pro sports you'd probably need more, most people on here probably aren't shooting sports though and pushing aps high iso that high anyway.
My pp has improved since ~2008 so these older cameras are more capable than before.
As some of you may know, I never shoot raw.
But the JPEG’s on the 400D really fall apart as soon as I zoom in
So, I switched to raw, took a snap and uploaded the file in windows 10 own editing suite
The computer had no issues at all opening it and yes, there was much better detail
My question is, what are the likely downsides that I may face?
I do try to get exposure pretty much bang on
So doubt I’ll be doing any heavy editing.
Pixelpuffin wrote:
Ok
Quick question for you knowledgeable chaps
As some of you may know, I never shoot raw.
But the JPEG’s on the 400D really fall apart as soon as I zoom in
So, I switched to raw, took a snap and uploaded the file in windows 10 own editing suite
The computer had no issues at all opening it and yes, there was much better detail
My question is, what are the likely downsides that I may face?
I do try to get exposure pretty much bang on
So doubt I’ll be doing any heavy editing.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
If you are going to shoot jpegs, you really need to try different settings on the Picture Styles. The 5D was particularly bad about jettisoning detail, haven't used 400D you need to try different sharpening imo
The main drawback of raw is probably file size but these older cameras aren't so bad on larger cards. Sure, on 512 MB I started on (MB not GB!) it's a problem but on even 8 gb not so much. Another drawback is having to edit the raw, but you could probably batch process in DPP , no edits, getting roughly the same as SOOC jpegs, plus the ability to get better details and other adjustments
