Canon EOS 50D verdict in 2024
Summary
The Canon EOS 50D was launched way back in 2008, so its sensor specifications are some way behind a modern camera’s, and yet its 15.1MP resolution is still perfectly usable today for any kind of online imagery and even mid-large size wall prints. This is a camera for stills photography not video, as you would expect from this era, but perhaps the biggest surprise is this camera’s design, build quality and finish, which you just don’t see in the enthusiast sector today.
Pros
+ Exceptional build quality
+ Excellent design and controls
+ Amazingly cheap today even in A1 condition
+ Basic but responsive AF
Cons
– No video capability
– 15MP but not the best detail rendering
– Big and heavy!
– Crude live view with no focus control
Introduction and context
The Canon EOS 50D dates back to an era long before mirrorless cameras, when all the big advances were being made in DSLR design. Then as now, Canon was one of the biggest names in digital photography and along with Nikon it dominated the DSLR market. It was also from a time when camera makers took the APS-C format seriously, and not just as a strategic upsell for full frame cameras.
Canon DSLRs were split into three groups. The single-digit cameras were for expert/professional users, while the double-digit cameras were for advanced amateurs and enthusiasts. The EOS 50D is one of these, following on from the EOS 10D, 20D, 30D and 40D, and preceding the EOS 60D, 70D, 80D and today’s EOS 90D.
I was looking for a used EOS DSLR from this era to review in the context of today’s cameras, and I chose the EOS 50D for a couple of reasons. One is that it’s the last of this series which, in my opinion, has ‘proper’ Canon DSLR build quality, as later models certainly improved on image quality and feature but also went more plasticky.
The other reason is that EOS 50Ds are cheap. I got mine from MPB for just over $100/£100, and this for a camera in excellent condition (as new, as far as I’m concerned) with just 4.5K shutter actuations. It’s a LOT of camera for the money.
I paired it up with a Canon EF-S 15-85mm zoom, also in excellent condition, for $150/£150. It’s not a pro lens but it’s not bad and it is versatile. I’ll review that separately.
See also
• Best used cameras to buy today
• Are used digital cameras any good for photography today?
Canon EOS 50D features
The first thing to note is that the EOS 50D has a 15.1MP APS-C sensor. That’s down on today’s resolutions, but not unusable by any means. The first Fujifilm X-mount cameras were 16MP. I have a 16MP Fujifilm X-T1 and it’s still still perfectly usable today.
There’s no video on the EOS 50D. That didn’t arrive until the 18MP EOS 60D two years later, but if you’re getting a used DSLR for stills photography, that won’t matter.
The sensor’s resolution might be adequate but it shows its age in its ISO range, which is just 100-3200, or ISO 12800 in expanded mode.
The 9-point AF system sounds pretty basic, too, but these 9 points cover a reasonably large area in the center of the frame and are perfectly adequate for general photography.
Round the back of the camera is a surprisingly good 3-inch 920,000-dot display. This is fixed, though, without the vari-angle pivot that’s now become standard on even the most basic mirrorless models such as the Canon EOS RP. The EOS 50D doesn’t have a live view mode in the modern sense, though. You can view the scene on the rear screen once you’ve configured this in the menus, but there’s no autofocus, so this is best kept for considered tripod shooting.
The EOS 50D does have a fairly decent 6.3fps burst rate, though, and a 100,000-shot shutter life, so it’s not out of its depth for light action photography. It does use CF memory cards, though, so if you still have any, now is the time to dust them off and bring them back into service.
Canon EOS 50D design and handling
Given its age, it’s hardly surprising that the EOS 50D’s specs are on the marginal side by today’s standards, but it’s in its design, build and handling that it really turns things around. This is a big, heavy camera – it’s cameras like these that drove the demand for lighter mirrorless cameras in a few years’ time. And yet if you like your cameras hefty and solid, the EOS 50D delivers. The only other cameras I have with this degree of solidity are my Nikon D600 and Nikon D800.
It also houses a set of controls which I think were a high point of Canon camera design, and this was the last double-digit Canon camera to have them – a key reason I chose this model. I’ll go through them one by one.
First, there’s the huge thumb-operated control dial on the back. It only has one job. It doesn’t try to double-up with four-way control buttons that you can too easily press by accident. This is simply the best rear control dial Canon has ever made, and we should keep reminding them of that!
Just above this dial is a focus joystick. Admittedly, with only 9 AF points it doesn’t have too much to do, but even so if you go from a camera that has one, like this, to a camera that doesn’t, like my Canon EOS R8, you will curse its absence.
Most of the rest of the right thumb area on the back of the camera is clear of buttons, and that’s so refreshing – a camera that you can hold without accidentally pressing stuff! There is a row of buttons under the rear screen for playback, deletion, info, picture styles and a programmable Func. button, and that’s fine by me. You operate them with your left thumb, but that’s fine by me. The EOS 50D is not a camera you would try to work one-handed.
On the top of the camera is another classic Canon control layout dropped in subsequent models – a set of three buttons for metering pattern/white balance, AF mode/drive mode and ISO/EV compensation. Each button has two functions which are set by using the front or rear dial.
This is a supremely effective way of putting six key functions at your fingertips, all labelled so that you don’t have to remember how you’ve programed a bunch of unmarked function buttons (a modern camera design disease) and all displaying their settings on the top LCD status panel. How many cameras have a status panel these days?
There’s one thing worth noting on the mode dial on the far left of the top plate. It does include a bunch of scene modes (thank goodness we’ve lost interest in those) but it also has Canon’s long-forgotten A-DEP mode.
This is very clever. It checks the nearest and furthest focus points in the scene and calculates the lens aperture and focus distance needed to keep both nearest and furthest points sharp. What wouldn’t we give to have a feature like that in today’s cameras?
Canon EOS 50D performance
The EOS 50D performance is mostly a lot better than you might expect. I reviewed the EOS 50D when it first came out in 2008 and noted that the JPEGs didn’t have very good fine detail, and this was a thing with Canon DSLRs at that time. You get much better fine detail from the RAW files, and I find it especially noticeable when opening them in Capture One today. Capture One also has a correction profile for the EF-S 15-85mm lens, incidentally. With no extra editing in Capture One, the RAW files look a whole lot crisper, and with some adjustments to the sharpening settings the results are transformed. You have to work a little to get that fine detail to show, but it’s in there somewhere.
Modern sensors do boast higher resolutions, we know that, but what’s less obvious is the steady progress that’s been made in high-ISO image quality. These days we might not think twice about shooting at ISO 6400 or above, but back when the EOS 50D was launched you definitely would. Having shot with the EOS 50D in a variety of conditions, I would think twice about going much beyond ISO 1600. In good light the EOS 50D holds its own fine, but it’s not a low-light camera.
To sum up the performance, the EOS 50D gives nothing away to modern cameras for handling, responsiveness and controls. Absolutely nothing. For image quality you need to make a few more allowances. It can be very good, but ideally you need to shoot RAW and you may need to work a little in software to achieve the best results. For its time it was good, today it’s so-so.
Canon EOS 50D verdict
You have to make allowances for the EOS 50D’s age when judging its features and its image quality. Both are quite adequate by current standards, but there are better used cameras to choose from if these are important to you.
But nowhere else will you get a camera of this physical build quality, design and ergonomics at such a low price. This is how Canon DSLRs used to be made when they were at their peak. Newer cameras are faster, better and more powerful, but they’re not made like this.
Perhaps the key thing for me is the price. It’s extraordinary that you can buy camera equipment of this quality and condition for so little money. If I were advising a student of photography on the best camera to get for the least possible outlay, this would be right at the top of the list. I think I still might spend a little more on a Nikon DSLR from that same era, but you won’t get a decent Nikon DSLR at this price.