Pleasure of Life: Canon EOS 450D

Why Canon EOS 450D?

Entry level DSLRs, such as the Canon EOS 450D, are best suited for beginner and amateur photographer but firstly, need to get used to a camera. The images produced are high quality. Canon is also one of the top brands of DSLR.

Canon EOS 450D is the entry level DSLR with an affordable price, yet produces pro-like image quality. It is suitable for beginner and amateur photographer.

The suggested retail price of Canon Malaysia is RM2, 699 (body only) but you can get 450D at less than RM2, 500.

The Canon image stabilizer gives stabilization up to four stops. This means you can successfully shoot a sharp image as low as 1/4second. In practice it doesn't seem to work as effectively.

In my tests I got a blurred image at 1/4second and it wasn't until 1/6second that the image got sharp. Taking shots at 1/6second with the IS on and off showed a definite difference so the lens was certainly doing its job and it's only a 2/3stop difference.

The top plate of the camera has the built in pop-up flash with dedicated hotshoe for external Canon flashguns.

The mode dial features the familiar, green Auto mode with the equally familiar layout of pre-programmed modes below the green box and programmable modes above.

Program mode is the same as Auto in the respect that it does everything for you. Looking in the Menu system will reveal the differences as more options will be open to you for creativity.

AV is Canon's Aperture-Priority mode where you control the aperture and the camera controls the shutter speed. TV is Shutter-Priority and does the reverse of Aperture-Priority. Manual allows you to control both the Shutter and Aperture for full creative control. The final option is A-DEP which stands for Automatic Depth of Field.

The power switch is sat under the mode dial with ISO getting its own dedicated button between the mode dial and the thumb wheel. The shutter release button sits on an oblique ledge away from the other controls.

The AF modes are accessed by pressing the right arrow and three options of One Shot, AI Focus and AI Servo are available.

Pressing left gives access to the drive modes and you can choose from Single Shot, Continuous Shooting, Self Timer (10second), Self Timer (2second) and Continuous Self Timer. The Continuous Shooting is a high speed burst mode generally used for sports photography for capturing fast moving objects. The Self Timer is great for self portraits or if you wish to take landscapes and minimize vibration from pressing the shutter making your pictures super sharp.

The down button has nine pre-set picture styles for Standard, Portrait or Landscape work in addition to Neutral, Faithful, Monochrome (Black & White) and three user defined settings. The pre-set options will adjust the color, contrast and saturation for optimum shooting results in those genres so think of them as pre-set modes for the initiated.

Canon EOS 450D: Build and handling
The low end SLRs and DSLRs from Canon have always strived to be the smallest and lightest. The EOS 450D is the same at a welterweight 475g compared to some rivals such as the Nikon D60 at 495g or the more portly Sony Alpha A200 at 545g. It's by no means the lightest, though with the Olympus E-420 coming in at a sprightly 395g.

The screen is bright and has a new layout with large icons and letters to make it easier for the novice to understand. The shutter speed and aperture dominate the upper portion of the screen with exposure compensation chart just below. The program you're currently in will display to the left with the White Balance setting across from it.

Which Lens?

The Canon kit lens is good enough for beginner. If you have the budget, you should buy a couple of better built lenses to have higher image quality.

After some researches and friends’ suggestions, I have chosen the following lenses to match my Canon EOS 450D:

Canon EF 24-105mm F/4L IS USM lens — one of the best and most popular Canon general purpose lenses. This is the lens you want if you can only have one lens. It works very well in low lighting condition and best of all; the background of the picture taken is off focus or blur, like those model / superstar picture. relatively good quality for its inexpensive price of around RM 1,200
Canon EF-S 17-55mm F/2.8 IS USM lens — Wide angle lens. Very high image quality, one of the best general/multi-purpose lenses available.
Canon EF 100mm F/2.8 USM Macro — Excellent macro lens. The 100mm focal length along with great foreground/background blur quality makes this a great portrait lens as well.
Canon EF 70-200mm F/4L USM — Telephoto lens, arguably Canon’s best value “L” Lens combining professional grade build and optical qualities.

Canon EOS 450D: Performance
The colour chart test shows the familiar boost in primary colours thanks to the JPEG format and Digic III processor doing as its told. Blue is the most prominent with green and yellow following behind and these help with landscapes. The tones are nicely balanced, but I think the skin colour is too pale.

The kit lens has a close focusing distance of 25cm which is pretty rubbish, but it's only designed for regular use.

I tried the adjustments that can be made in camera by selecting user defined and going into the main menu and choosing shooting styles. Pressing Display in this area will open up the Saturation, Contrast, Sharpening and Colour tone for manipulation.

I took one shot in standard and one with some definitions adjusted, boosting the sharpness, saturation and contrast. The colours certainly look richer in my shot of the old car and the contrast is punchier. This could get tardy if you don't keep an eye on it so be careful.

The shot of the white horse is a quick display I wanted to include to show how a DSLR like the EOS 450D can distort features in this case making the horses nose look larger than it really is. This is done by choosing a wide angle.

The shots of the canal were taken in live view and show how moving the white box around the screen will expose from the chosen area.

The Landscape mode for the image of the lock has chosen a relatively wide aperture of f/8 and shows with the bridge being slightly out of focus.

Chromatic aberration is present from the kit lens shown as green and orange bands on the white bars leading into the canal, the windows and roof of the building but it's not the worst I've seen. There's nice detail in the grass, but I'd like to see it a bit greener maybe.

Despite a pale skin tone result on the color chart, I like the results in Portrait mode. The skin is balanced with no harsh shading from too much contrast. Using the built-in flash has balanced out the shadow areas without overloading the highlights too much which is a good result. Catchlights have been created too, putting more life into the eyes.

The portrait shot taken in Aperture-Priority is a bit darker than the one in Portrait mode. The shadow areas are heavier and putting the camera into portrait picture style hasn't improved the exposure any. Interestingly, Aperture-Priority was set to Centre-Weighted metering, so used that setting, but Portrait mode adjusted to Partial metering which is the obvious reason to the more balanced exposure.

The colour chart has boosted the primary colour, giving good mono tones but the skin tone colour is too pale.	The kit lens is unsuitable for close detail, but putting the subject off-centre creates interest taking your mind off the lack of macro.
Good detail is created in the standard picture style setting.	In User Defined, the settings can be changed, but could get sickly if overdone.
Why the long face? Using a wide angle setting can distort features making them look unusual. Note how the landscape bends slightly on either side of the horse.	Slowing the shutter speed allows for flowing water to smooth out looking like silk. A setting of 1second or slower is a good starting point.
Using the exposure box in live view, I moved it to the grass at the left of the shot.	Moving the exposure box to the reeds has given a slightly flatter exposure due to their neutral colour.
Exposing for the sky makes for a broody shot, but it's predictably underexposed.	In Portrait mode the skin tone is quite nice despite what the colour chart told us.
Using the flash fills in the darker areas nicely without blowing out the highlights. Nice catchlights are added to the eyes.	In Aperture-Priority, the centre-weighted metering has wrongly exposed. The skin is warmer too, but that is the Portrait picture style built in to the camera.