Canon EOS Rebel T1i / 500D and Canon 50D comparison

Alert: Canon rebates on lenses, Canon XSi Canon 50D and speedlites available

Canon EOS Rebel T1i or Canon 500D was announced on March 25 and will be available for $799 body only and $899 with kit lens Canon 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS.  Canon EOS 500D or Rebel T1i has a better HD movie mode than Nikon D90, although Nikon D90 is a better camera for its superb AF and higher shooting speed (For the  comparison of Nikon D90 and Canon 500D or T1i, read here). Canon Rebel T1i or Canon 500D is apparently a great upgrade of Canon XSi or Canon 450D (for the comparison of Canon T1i /500D with Canon XSi /450D, read here).

Both Canon EOS Rebel T1i or 500D and 50D have a 15.1 megapixel 22.3 x 14.9 mm CMOS sensor.  The side by side comparison of the two cameras are very similar.  What are the key differences of the two cameras?

First,  please keep in mind that Canon Rebel T1i or 500D was designed to be an entry level consumer grade digital SLR with a lower price tag.  Canon EOS 50D is a digital SLR for advanced amateur with a higher price tag and better building quality.  The major differences of the two cameras are as follows:

Building quality, dimensions and price

Canon EOS Rebel T1i / 500D has a MSRP of $799 body only and Canon 50D has a MSRP of $1299 (currently sells for $1106 body only on amazon).  Canon Rebel T1i / 500D has a dimensions of 129 x 98 x 62 mm (5.1 x 3.9 x 2.4 in) and weighs 520g (18.3 oz) including battery, which is much smaller and lighter than Canon EOS 50D (146 x 108 x 74 mm or 5.8 x 4.3 x 2.9 in, 822 g or 29 oz including battery).  Canon 50D has better building quality with weather resistant magnesium alloy body.

HD movie mode

Canon EOS Rebel T1i or 500D has a HD video capture with three video modes: a 16:9 720p HD video capture at 30 fps,  a Full HD 1080p video capture at 20 fps, and a third option to record 4:3 standard TV quality (SD) video capture at 640 x 480 pixels at 30 fps.  May be the most useful movie mode is 720p at 30 fps which has a limit of ca 18 min. The video mode is very useful.  You can take advantage of the availability of different lenses to achieve videos with  shallow depth of field or with much wider angle of views. These kind of videos could not be created with even the high end HD camcorders.

Canon 50D does not have movie mode.

Shooting speed:

Canon 50D has a higher continuous shooting speed (6.3 frames per second up to 90 JPEG or 16 raw frames) than Canon Rebel T1i or 500D (3.4 frames per second up to 170 JPEG or 9 raw frames).  The higher shooting speed is very useful for sports photography and wildlife photography or other action shots such as children at play. Please note: Canon Rebel T1 or 500D has a larger burst buffer of JPEG: 170 frames than Canon 50D (90 frames).

Max shutter speed:

Canon 50D has a higher max shutter speed of 1/8000 than Canon Rebel T1i or 500D (1/4000).  The higher max shutter speed is extremely useful to freeze actions in sports photography or wildlife photography.  The higher max shutter speed is also useful in bright sunlight to create bokeh (blurred background) at large aperture when taking portraits or macro shots.

Viewfinder

Canon 50D has a better viewfinder than Canon Rebel T1i or 500D.  The viewfinder in Canon 50D uses a pentaprism which gives a brigher and larger image than the viewfinder in Canon Rebel T1i or 500D which uses a pentamirror.  Canon 50D also has a larger view finder magnification (0.95) than Canon Rebel T1i or 500D (0.87).

In addition, Canon 50D has some extra features such as avaialblity of two small RAW formats, sRAW1 and sRAW2, Kevin temperature setting in white balance, top secondary LCD screen etc.

In conclusion, Canon EOS Rebel T1i or 500D is more suitable for beginners, or as a second back up camera body or as a travel camera.  Canon 50D is more suitable for advance amateur photographers who seek better camera performance rather than video capture. Especially for people who like sports photography.

To order Canon T1i at Amazon, click and buy for $899 with kit lens Canon 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6

For two major coming competitive digital SLRs:

Panosonic Lumix GH1

Nikon D5000

Related posts:

1. Canon EOS digital Rebel T1i / 500D and Canon EOS 450D/ digital Rebel XSi comparison
2. Canon EOS Rebel T1i /EOS 500D-key features and availability
3. Nikon D90 and Canon Rebel T1i comparison, which one should you buy?
4. Which Camera has the best video recording: Canon 5D Mark II, Nikon D90 or Canon 500D /T1i?
5. Canon Rebel T2i / EOS 550D and Rebel T1i / EOS 500D comparisons