Saturday, November 1, 2008

Canon 50D Irritants

A list of things that I expect to work a certain way, or things that make me wonder why they are a certain way (perhaps later, as I learn the camera, I will understand why) and things that generally bother me about the 50d:

  • No auto-focus with shutter button in LiveView mode (if a point-and-shoot can do it...)
  • Blinking numbers or symbols (the shutter speed blinks, the aperture value blinks, a circle blinks when corresponding limits are reached; this is the 21st century: I want a message in English telling me what's wrong and I want it projected in the eye-piece and I want errors coloured red)
  • Multiple ways of setting the same thing; the top-deck status LCD (for backwards compatibility to keep the old-timers happy, I suppose) and the rear status/Quick Control LCD menu (I have re-considered this irritant and accept that the top LCD is useful)
  • The auto-focus points in the view-finder are difficult to see when shooting in low light
  • the CA mode settings reset after photos are reviewed or if the camera is switched to another mode (Tue Nov 04 23:26:17 2008)
  • A photo can be automatically reviewed (for a customizable period) after each shot; I would like to zoom-in to the picture being reviewed without having to press Review and explicitly entering review mode (Sat Nov 15 14:25:53 2008)
  • With the rear LCD on, when you switch to a different exposure mode; e.g. from Shutter Priority to Aperture Priority, the LCD shuts off. In the dark, it's difficult to read the top dial, so the LCD is handy to see what mode you're shooting in. But I have to keep turning the LCD on every time I switch modes. (Sun Dec 21 12:53:27 2008)
  • This is more of a wish— backlit buttons so I can see what I'm pressing in the dark given how much pressing Canon engineers expect me to do. A backlit exposure-setting top-dial would be nice too. Wed Dec 31 22:23:10 2008

About

This blog will go live on a full-time basis when I have finished copying all my old articles from my journal. I have a Picasa Album for my photos.