Thought this may be interesting to many of you. I led a group of photographers in Churchill this past week, six days of shooting polar bears from the tundra buggies in a variety of conditions ranging from sun to snow to wind to balmy temperatures to frigid ones.
Four of the nine photographers on board had recently purchased 50D's, three of those also had 5D's along as their other camera, while two of the new 50D owners also had an additional 40D as a 'backup' backup.
By all accounts, the 50D failed absolutely miserably, with all three of the 5D owners using it almost exclusively by the end of Day 2, even though it's limited for wildlife in being full frame and only 3 fps. There were serious issues with AF and sharpness with the 50D and both owners of the 40D said the 50D was no improvement whatsoever from what they could see.
Note that all four of these shooters were either serious amateurs or semi-pros. I'm a full-time professional wildlife photographer and have had well-documented problems with the 1D Mk III bodies and even after trying to calibrate two of the 50D's with lens AF microadjustments, the AF issues were still severe enough to make the owners of them put them back in their camera bags never to come out again.
Interestingly enough, my 1D III (my third body) actually performed the way it's supposed to for the first time in eons, though another 1D III owner started seeing AF problems for the first time since he's he had the sub-mirror fix done on the camera (no explanation for why that would occur!).
The two pros on board that were shooting Nikon did not have any problems, though it was also interesting to note just how much heavier Nikon gear is than Canon gear! The D3 with a 70-200 on it is almost the same weight as the 1D III with a 500 on it!!
Of the four new 50D owners, two are going to return or sell their bodies, one is undecided, and the least serious of the shooters has decided to keep hers.
Thanks for the report. I'm an experienced wildlife photographer and I too have "sharpness" issues with my 50D. Here's my Canon experience so far.
I just got my 50D and 100-400mm (both are new) back from Canon Service yesterday and will be testing them soon. Canon technical support/repair people have been very responsive to my requests to resolve the issue.
According to the paper work returned with the equipment they did recalibrate the AF due to "occasional rear focus". No problems found with the lens. Having just switched from Nikon, if I cannot get this camera to perform properly, I will be going back to Nikon very soon. My only reason for switching, was more lens options than Nikon. Which really doesn't matter if I can't get "sharp" image.
I purchased a 50D for my girlfriend a few days ago. I shoot wildlife a
and use mkIII,mkII, 40D and 5D. I am so impressed by the 50D. The detail in the files are amazing. The autofocus in AI servo is very very fast and very acurate, I'd say it feels faster than the mkIII. It can not track like the mkII, but then again its not a expensive pro camera.. With the EF500/4 and Ef70-200 f2.8IS the AF is impressive, and I have got zero (really!)OOF-shots.
It is most definetely not a low-light camera, and I would hesitate to use it over ISO400 for any critical work (but that goes for the 40D as well) For wildlife in good light,macro and portrait with flash this camera is just great. I see so many ways I can use it in my photography. It can also utilize the brilliant EFS 10-22mm lens.
To cut to the chase; I find it hard to believe that three users find their 50D's to be flawed. Especially shooting polar bears, which any AF-system can handle. I am not a big Canon fan, but I think the 50D is a great tool.
abqnmusa, I'm a Canon user. Perhaps read the post again before making stupid comments. If I were a "Nikon fanboy", then I would own Nikon gear.
abam, I can understand your concerns about anecdotal evidence. I did view the files from the 50D from two of the photographers and saw the problems firsthand. I also tried calibrating one of the 50D's myself and was unable to get it sharp using lens microadjustments. It's certainly possible that there was just a batch of bad 50D's in our group, but the 5D's were nailing shots that the 50D wasn't.
When the 50D did work properly, the photographers were extremely happy with the files. Excellent detail and limited noise if the ISO was kept below 640. The problem was more one of trust...none of the photographers seemed to trust their 50D's after missing several key shots.
As for temps, it ranged from -3 to about -40 Celsius. The 1D III performed very well, and overall there were few complaints that could be traced to the cold. I think all of the cameras on board performed remarkably well for the cold conditions. I shot 1700 pictures one day with the 1D III in -36 Celsius (-35 F) and the battery didn't even go below 50%!!
That is pretty impressive battery life and camera performance in that cold of an environment. I had a battery go nearly dead on my 1DsMK2 in 25 F weather in one hour. Now I was shooting long exposures at night, but I was surprised nonetheless.
jerrykur wrote:
How cold is it in those buggies. Maybe it was too cold for the 50Ds. According to the Canon USA site:
Operating range : 32-104°F/0-40°C
These numbers mean nothing, really. I have shot sessions as long as two hours by
-22°F/-30°C with my 20D. Not a single problem as long as you keep spare batteries in a warm pocket.
Is it realistic to expect a $1,200 camera designed to operate at 0°C to function flawlessly at -3 to -40? Did the 50D owners experience similar AF problems when using the camera within the recommended temperature range prior to the trip? I suspect not, otherwise they wouldn't have brought them. So it seems to be more a matter of not choosing the best tool for the job rather than an indication of 50D not performing up to specifications.
The lesson here? If one wants to shoot in extreme temperatures it would be wise to invest in more robust pro level equipment which is equal to the task. The fact that the 5D performed well by comparison is likely due to the fact that is AF mechanism is simpler with less precise tolerances affected by temperature.
On a related note, how does extreme cold affect lens performance?
ocean7 wrote:
These numbers mean nothing, really. I have shot sessions as long as two hours by
-22°F/-30°C with my 20D. Not a single problem as long as you keep spare batteries in a warm pocket.
Wrong. Those temperature ranges are what the camera has been tested within and shown to operate correctly. If you use the camera outside those temps you are performing your own environmental testing. No guarantees about the camera working properly outside the specified operation range.
I bought a 50D then returned it due to what I perceived to be problems with sharpness, manual WB, and (especially) noise--horrible chroma noise even at ISO 800.
Given the widely varying reviews and user reports, I am starting to wonder if there may be QC problem with early 50Ds, and if some of the cameras in the wild are not performing at factory specs. (At least, I hope that's what's going on--the alternative is depressing, being a Canon user for over 30 years.)
Were these issues related to been cold over there?
I am surprised when you ay that these folks were serious amateurs or semi-pros. These folks took 50Ds and then all of them had problems. Didn't they people notice these problems when they bought their 50d?
bobbyz wrote:
Were these issues related to been cold over there?
I am surprised when you ay that these folks were serious amateurs or semi-pros. These folks took 50Ds and then all of them had problems. Didn't they people notice these problems when they bought their 50d?
+1
Very strange sequence of events. I would assume that most if not all people who embark on a long photo trek would test new equipment before said trek. Test shots would show if 50Ds are indeed sharp or not. If they are, and then the cams cannot nail sharp shots of polar bears, then it is rasonable to allocate the blame to extreme cold conditions.
For the camera to be to blame irrespective of the cold conditions supposes that 4 semi-pros bought new 50Ds and trusted them enough to take them on the trek without testing them, even for a few minutes. Not exactly the behaviour of most camera buyers. I would also imagine, the more professional you get, the more you test and the less you trust, but obviously not in this case.
Wrong. Those temperature ranges are what the camera has been tested within and shown to operate correctly. If you use the camera outside those temps you are performing your own environmental testing. No guarantees about the camera working properly outside the specified operation range.
The 32F/0C numbers mean nothing really. They are more for Canon's protection on warranty issues and problems with frost or things freezing than anything.
I too have used my canon cameras (5D, 40D, XT) at temperatures below -20F for hours on end with no issues.
