Canon 500D : Thoughts
Back in the early 1990s I won my first EOS film camera, it was amazing and when the EOS 300D arrived it was a must buy. I pretty much suffer from an illness known as upgradeitus and thus I have owned the 350D, 400D, 450D and now the 500D. Have any of these upgrades been a significant improvement ? probably not and to be honest I really should have kept the 350D and waited for the 500D but that is the nature of the illness.
Given that I teach a course involving digital video and animation I have always personally owned a camcorder initially a mini DV but more recently I had moved to AVCHD. To be honest for personal use these devices worked out a bit of a waste of money simply as I never really used them after the initial month of attention.
I have pretty much being considering my digital imaging needs which coincided with the release of the Canon 500D that offers HD video support. Before buying this camera I took a look at all the digital video I have created in the last five years and more often than not these amounted to short video clips of family outings and events.
I never could be bothered taking a camcorder on holiday so surprisingly the video clips were created on a small Canon IXUS camera and they reasonable good for standard VGA.
The Canon 500D HD mode though is spectacular. The quality actually more visually impressive that my AVCHD camcorder in terms of image quality but there are negatives. Audio is mono and if you use the autofocus recording you get very nasty lens motor noise on the audio track. That said I really think this camera is the perfect solution to my home photo and video needs.
The camera can record up to 30mins of HD video directly to an SD card. This video is in .Mov H.264 format so is instantly playable and sharable. The quality is amazing and given that I will only be capturing a few minutes at a time and can opt for manual focus I think it really meets my needs very well.
Given the image quality achievable by the Canon 500D I think it may inspire better video recording and experimentation which is no bad thing either. Thus I have decided to sell both my Canon 450D and my AVCHD Camcorder and upgrade to the 500D.
Hopefully I won’t grow to regret this decision but at the minute I am pretty happy that the Canon 500D becomes my main camera for both photography and home video recording. Obviously the fact the 1080p is only 20 frames per second none the less it produces stunning moving images.
There is a dedicated 500D Vimeo group here.
I have been holding of on a camcorder upgrade until i see the first reviews of the new panasonic gh1 ( http://www.dpreview.com/news/0903/09030316lumixgh1handson.asp ) – what do you think?
I have always used Canon so have a couple of Lenses. I have to say I am impressed with what the 500D can offer even after a few hours. Will be happier once I have tested the battery life after a few larger video recordings.
So, would you recommend the 500D as a video camcorder substitute for home video use? I’m a mother to a 1 year old boy and I really want to get my first slr and also felt the need to get a video camcorder to capture my son’s growth. I feel like I can hit 2 birds with 1 stone by getting the eos 500D, good decision?
Definitely, when I bought the 500D I sold my old DSLR and my camcorder and now use the one camera to capture photo and video. It is really handy and remember it is High Def !
Ok, so I’ll be buying the Canon 500D and I just wanted to ask how I’m supposed to check the unit before purchasing it? I can’t find anybody knowledgeable enough to come with me and check/test the unit for myself. So, what should I test/check and how should I do it? Thanks a lot! I realize this question may take a while to answer.