450d or 50d

i currently own a canon rebel xsi/450d i am very happy with it topside but as far as underwater i have only used point and shoots. i am looking to make the leap to dslr underwater and up until a few days ago was just going to get a housing for my rebel. i started thinking though that once i am spending the amount of money it costs to outfit a dslr for underwater use i might want to upgrade my camera now rather than buy all the gear for my rebel and then in a year feel that it is not up to par and have to buy a whole new kit. keep in mind i am a novice photographer and was just wondering what your opinions on this were. if i should upgrade or if my rebel will be more than good enough for the next few years. also any suggestions on housings would be greatly appreciated i am leaning towards ikelite at the moment. thanks a lot.

i currently own a canon rebel xsi/450d i am very happy with it topside but as far as underwater i have only used point and shoots. i am looking to make the leap to dslr underwater and up until a few days ago was just going to get a housing for my rebel. i started thinking though that once i am spending the amount of money it costs to outfit a dslr for underwater use i might want to upgrade my camera now rather than buy all the gear for my rebel and then in a year feel that it is not up to par and have to buy a whole new kit. keep in mind i am a novice photographer and was just wondering what your opinions on this were. if i should upgrade or if my rebel will be more than good enough for the next few years. also any suggestions on housings would be greatly appreciated i am leaning towards ikelite at the moment. thanks a lot.

If you are happy with your camera topside, I see no reason why you should be unhappy with it underwater. I think you should decide if you think it is likely you will want to upgrade soon even if you were not planning on taking a camera underwater. For some reason I cannot explain even thinking about taking photographs underwater makes us photographers want to upgrade.

Seriously though, if you are like most amateur underwater photographers you will still use your camera more topside than underwater, so that should be your deciding factor.

Why not the 40D??? Sorry to confuse you even more...

According to this the 40D was not properly replaced by the 50D.

I say this because the second command dial makes a difference in the UW World.

And you can get a 40D much cheaper and invest the money in a good aluminum housing.

Once you starting doing u/w photography you should consider having a spare camera body. This would give you a camera available for topside shooting, as well as a backup for the housing (just in case). This means the 2 cameras need to be identical (or work in the same housing). Can you still get a 450D? This may depend on how serious you are about your u/w pics, & if you dive travel often. My approach is to spare everything electronic. Murphy is always watching

The 50D is a better camera than the 40D for underwater use IMO, it got a bit of a beat up because people were expecting improvements that werent really physically possible, ie go 15mp and get better dynamic range and get better noise and get.......

If you bought it solely as an upgrade to a 40D you'd be nuts, I justified it to myself by being able to get it as my second body, and I hardly use my 40D now, my plan was to use it for above water, but I find myself constantly being irritated by it when I do.

Image quality is little improved (it is slightly improved though detail wise), but there are various other things that help a lot. The biggest would be the combination of the improved preview screen and that it now stores full size jpeg in the RAW file, which the 40 did not. Previously sharpness was a guess as you couldnt zoom in when previewing due to the small size of the embedded jpeg. Now you can check properly, it was a real pain underwater when wanting to check focus.

I also find liveview more useful than previously, again mostly because the screen quality has improved so much.

The main advantage of the x0D series in my view is better AF, larger viewfinder, and the extra control dial. You probably wont see a massive increase in image quality over the 450D and it might even look like a decrease if you zoom in to 100% instead of checking for the amount of detail actually captured, its more about an improved interface.

Otara

If you look at the OVERALL cost between a 450D and a 40/50D system I think you'll find that it's pretty close. Like what - 20% difference? The camera price is only the small part. If that 20% isn't significant to you then get the better camera.

Cheers

James

In respect to what James and loftus said: If you are happy with what you got, go on with it. While I would completely agree with that for top-side only photography, I think that the 40D/50D will offer two advantages over the rebel underwater. First a larger viewfinder and second live view. I used to shoot a P&S underwater and a 20D topside until I bought the housing for my 20D and I miss the live view feature.

In order to keep initial cost down, you might consider a used 40D. Apparently, the housing for the 40D and 50D are the same, so you could upgrade to a 50D later without the loss of the housing. See this topic for details: Canon 50D and 40D housing are a match, Finally!!!

I don't think you will see a big difference in picture quality between the rebel and the 40D/50D. Depending on the lenses you already have, a couple new lenses might make a much bigger impact. You will definitely want to invest in a wide angle lens (12mm or wider).

Either way, prepare yourself for a hefty credit card bill as you will be diving in a bottom-less pit.

the rebel has live view as well as a 3 inch screen. so those reasons dont really apply. lol.

i guess i should put it differently. what do i gain by upgrading to a 50d for uw photography as i am very happy with my rebel i just worry that there might be something i dont realize now that i may realize later after ive made the investment. so what in actuality can i not do with the rebel xsi 450d that i can do with the 50 d?

the rebel has live view as well as a 3 inch screen. so those reasons dont really apply. lol.

I only ever had the 400D in my hands at one point in time and never kept up with the new features of the rebel line. My bet.

The 50D has the nifty AF adjustment feature.

It made a world of difference on my Sigma 17-70 macro lens. I used the micro adjustment to fine tune the lens at 70mm and it made quite a difference. Maybe my lens wasn't perfect to begin with but what did I know. After my tweaking, that lens is now very close to the sharpness of my 60mm.

TomC

My comment about the screen on the 50D was vs the 40D, so if you get it you'll be getting a worse screen than the 450D has. It was one reason why 40D owners were so grumpy about the 450d, along with the sensor increase form 10 to 12mp.

If you're happy with it dont change. The biggest problem you're likely to face is finding out what easy above water is more of a pain underwater. Where this shows up most is in controls ie being down a control wheel, and viewfinder - I dont know how the 450D one is, but the 350D was very different to the 40D or 50D. As always go into a shop and see if you see an improvement thats worth paying for.

Edit: Tom I had hig hopes ofr the micro adjust, but cant seem to corect my 17-70, if i get it right at one zoom end its wrong at the other. The rest of my lenses seem to be fine so maybe I just got a dud copy.

Otara

My comment about the screen on the 50D was vs the 40D, so if you get it you'll be getting a worse screen than the 450D has. It was one reason why 40D owners were so grumpy about the 450d, along with the sensor increase form 10 to 12mp.

 

If you're happy with it dont change. The biggest problem you're likely to face is finding out what easy above water is more of a pain underwater. Where this shows up most is in controls ie being down a control wheel, and viewfinder - I dont know how the 450D one is, but the 350D was very different to the 40D or 50D. As always go into a shop and see if you see an improvement thats worth paying for.

 

Edit: Tom I had hig hopes ofr the micro adjust, but cant seem to corect my 17-70, if i get it right at one zoom end its wrong at the other. The rest of my lenses seem to be fine so maybe I just got a dud copy.

 

Otara

thanks i guess now im thinking that as long as i stay with the canon and the company of my housing the switch to a better camera wont be too pricey. i think im gonna stay with the rebel. and if i decide to upgrade can either keep as my back up or sell it with housing for money to put towards the 50d.

If you already have the 450D, zstick with it and buy the new Sea&sea housing... that costs almost half of the Sea&Sea house for the 40D/50D! Saves you some bucks for nice ports and flashes.

Edit: Tom I had hig hopes ofr the micro adjust, but cant seem to corect my 17-70, if i get it right at one zoom end its wrong at the other. The rest of my lenses seem to be fine so maybe I just got a dud copy.

 

Otara

Otara,

I adjusted mime for 70mm at 18 inches. I felt that 17mm would be more forgiving and quite as critical as 17mm would be used for w/a.

Tom

Otara,

 

I adjusted mime for 70mm at 18 inches. I felt that 17mm would be more forgiving and quite as critical as 17mm would be used for w/a.

 

Tom

Thanks Ill try that too, makes a lot of sense.

Good luck Seadweller, Im sure you'll be fine.

Otara