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The Canon EOS 550D is a difficult product to categorize. Ostensibly designed to appeal to first-time DSLR buyers and enthusiasts, it offers a lot more technology, and at a higher price, than we might expect for a camera aimed squarely at this sector. Although it might seem logical for the 550D to replace the EOS 500D, the older camera is set to continue in Canon’s lineup, which leaves the 550D pinched between its entry-level (represented by the still-current EOS 1000D and the 500D) and nominally enthusiast (the EOS 50D) peers. Confusingly however, apart from build quality (which is all but identical to the EOS 500D), the 550D has more in common with the prosumer EOS 7D, and – perhaps even more confusingly – it out-specifies the EOS 50D in many areas.
Central to the impressive specification of the EOS 550D is a high-spec movie mode which offers full HD capture at up to 30 fps, manual control over exposure, and the option to use an external stereo microphone. The new camera also inherits the EOS 7D’s sophisticated metering system (which brings it a lot closer to similarly positioned Nikon SLRs).
So why has Canon apparently risked cannibalizing 7D sales by releasing such a similarly-specced, lower-end model? Well, Canon might have invented the ‘entry-level’ DSLR way back in 2003 with the attractively priced (for the time) EOS 300D, but these days, this sector of the marketplace is pretty crowded. Far from enjoying a monopoly, Canon, like all manufacturers, faces a stiff battle to make its products stand out amongst their numerous peers. To this end, Canon has pulled out all the stops with the EOS 550D and produced the most highly-specced Rebel we’ve ever seen. Now that a production sample has arrived in dpreview’s offices, we’ve had the chance to subject it to our full in-depth test procedure. Read on to find out how it performs.
EOS 550D vs EOS 500D Key differences
- Higher resolution 18MP CMOS with gapless micro lenses
- ISO 6400 no longer in ‘expanded’ range (12,800 max remains the same)
- Redesigned buttons and new movie/live view button
- Customizable auto ISO ranges
- Improved 63 zone metering (iFCL)
- 3:2 format screen with more pixels
- Improved movie functionality
- Slightly higher burst shooting rate (though buffer holds fewer shots)
- HDMI control (CEC)
- SDHX Compatible
Design
The Canon EOS is very similar to the EOS 500D and EOS 450D before it, which are themselves evolutions of a basic design which debuted in the EOS 300D, in 2003. There are a few tweaks here and there: the finish is slightly different, there are subtle styling differences (including a new mode dial), and the buttons have been redesigned for easier use. The main functional difference is that there’s a new movie / live view button to the right of the viewfinder. Where it used to be (and sharing a button with the indispensable ‘direct print’ feature) is a ‘Q’ button, borrowed from the EOS 7D, which gives direct access to the Quick Control Screen. The most obvious external change – button and surface textures aside – is the new wider aspect ratio screen.
Construction
The 550D inherits the 450D and 500D’s body and construction, and other than the surface finish and minor tweaks to the casing, it stays essentially the same. As such, it’s primarily made from three materials; a stainless steel chassis, the mirror box which is made of high-strength ‘engineering plastic’ and the body made of a special lightweight polycarbonate resin with glass fiber, which also provides some electromagnetic shielding. Construction isn’t bad for the price, but with the EOS 550D it is clear that you’re paying for the features, not the build quality.
Canon EOS 550 vs EOS 500D: what’s changed
Canon isn’t officially ‘replacing’ the EOS 500D with the new 550D, and for the foreseeable future the EOS 550D will sit in the range between the EOS 500D and the EOS 7D (ignoring for the moment the additional confusion of the EOS 50D). The changes are partly cosmetic (a very slightly different body shell design, tweaks to the buttons and mode dial), but the real changes are under the hood.
In your hand / grip
Since the body shell is virtually identical to the EOS 500D that it replaces, the handling is (aside from slightly better buttons) also virtually identical, meaning the grip still feels a bit fiddly unless you’re got very delicate hands. It’s by no means terrible (and can be to an extent mitigated by use of the optional battery grip), but it’s worth handling one to find out if you’re someone who can’t live with it. The most convenient comparison (in terms of size, weight and intended customer base) is with the Nikon D5000, which feels a little meatier.
3:2 LCD Monitor
It’s always been something of an oddity of digital SLR design (with the exception of Four Thirds models) that the screen on the back is a different shape to the pictures taken, meaning images are always displayed cropped or with black bars top and bottom. The EOS 550D’s 3:2 screen perfectly matches its stills (and gets closer to the 16:9 used for movies), and with over a million dots and anti-reflective design that minimizes glare, it’s a joy to behold too. Very nice.
The resolution is similar to the EOS 500D (720×480 / 1040k pixels) but the wider shape makes a lot more sense. Canon has removed the air-gap between the LCD’s protective cover and the liquid crystal to reduce glare. The screen has a viewing angle of 160 degrees.
Viewfinder view
The viewfinder view is identical to the 500D’s; the focusing screen has a circle indicating the spot metering location, and the AF areas are indicated by a small LED dot in the center of the AF point rectangle. With a depression of the shutter release button (half or full) this dot will briefly light to indicated the selected AF point (either automatic or manual) and then blink again once AF has been achieved.
Viewfinder size
Typically, entry-level DSLRs are equipped with fairly small, cramped viewfinders compared to their more advanced cousins. This is partly a result of their use of pentamirrors rather than pentaprisms, which tend to produce a dimmer, and – because of size constraints – a smaller viewfinder image. The EOS 550D offers essentially the same viewfinder experience as most cameras of this class.
Because of the way viewfinders are measured (using a fixed lens, rather than a lens of equivalent magnification), you also need to take the sensor size into account, so the numbers in the diagram below are the manufacturer’s specified magnifications divided by the respective ‘crop factors’. As you can see, the result is that the EOS 550D has a viewfinder that’s almost identical to the Nikon D5000, and one that’s a touch bigger than the equivalent Olympus Four Thirds SLR.
Battery Compartment / Battery
The EOS 550D’s battery compartment is located in the base of the hand grip behind a metal hinged plastic door. The battery fits horizontally into the base and is held in place by an white clip. The 550D uses a new battery (the LP-E8), which provides 4-level battery life information and is good for around 440 shots using the CIPA testing standard. This is a little lower than the EOS 500D, presumably the new sensor and screen draw a touch more power. The battery is charged using the supplied ‘brick’ charger.
Secure Digital Compartment
The EOS 550D sports an SD memory card slot and in addition to the now ubiquitous SD and SDHC cards, it’s one of a new generation of cameras to support the new SDXC standard that promises increased speed and capacities up to 2TB. As on the EOS 450D and 500D there is a ‘beware I’m still writing to the card’ warning screen and beep if you open the card door too soon.
Connections
On the left side of the camera are all of the cameras connections, these are protected by a rubber cover which fits flush when closed. In summary from top to bottom: 3.5mm stereo mike socket, Remote terminal (E3 type), a combined A/V output and an HDMI socket.
Pop-up Flash
The EOS 550D’s pop-up flash has the same specifications as its predecessor (and all models of this series back to the the EOS 350D) with a range of approximately 3.7 m (12.1 ft) at wide angle using the 18-55 mm kit lens or 2.3 m (7.5 ft) at telephoto (guide number 13). The camera utilizes Canon’s E-TTL II flash metering system which combines subject distance information gathered from the lens with measurements taken from a brief pre-flash before the main flash to determine flash power. The built-in flash can sync up to 1/200s and has an electronic pop-up release, in Auto exposure mode the flash will raise itself when required.
Flash Hot-shoe
The EOS 550D’s hot-shoe can be used with Canon and third party flashes (although sync only on most third party units). The hot-shoe is E-TTL II compatible. Compatible flashes include the Speedlite 220EX, 270EX, 380EX, 420EX, 430EX, 430EX II, 550EX, 580EX, 580EX II, Macro-Ring Lite MR-14EX, Macro Twin Lite MT-24EX and Speedlite Transmitter ST-E2.
Lens Mount
The EOS 550D has a metal EF / EF-S lens mount which means that it can use the full range of Canon EF lenses as well as the designed-for-digital EF-S lenses. Because the sensor is smaller than a 35 mm frame all lenses are subject to a field of view crop (sometimes called focal length multiplier) of 1.6x, thus a 18 mm lens provides the same field of view as a 29 mm lens on a 35mm camera, a 50mm becomes equivalent to 80mm, etc.
Supplied In the Box
The EOS 550D Kit is supplied as:
- Canon EOS 550D Digital SLR body
- Eyecup (attached to camera)
- LP-E8 Lithium-Ion battery pack
- LC-E8 Battery charger
- Neck strap
- USB Cable
- Video Cable
- CD-ROM: Canon Digital Camera Solutions Disk (Win/Mac)
- Manuals / Reg. card
Canon EOS550d (Rebel T2i) specifications
| List price (US) | • Body only: $799 • Body+18-55 IS Kit: $899 |
|---|---|
| List price (EU) | • Body only: €729 + VAT • Body+18-55 IS Kit: €829 + VAT |
| International naming * | • US: Canon Rebel T2i • Japan: Canon EOS Kiss Digital X4 • Elsewhere: Canon EOS 550D |
| Body material | Stainless Steel and polycarbonate resin with glass fiber |
| Sensor * | • 18.7 million effective pixels • 18.0 million total pixels • 22.3 x 14.9 mm CMOS sensor • RGB Color Filter Array • Built-in low-pass filter with self cleaning unit • 3:2 aspect ratio |
| Dust reduction | • Low-pass filter vibration at power-on (can be interrupted) • Anti-static coating on sensor surfaces • Software based dust-removal (camera maps dust, removed later) |
| Image sizes * | • 5184 x 3456 • 3456 x 2304 • 2592 x 1728 |
| Still image formats | • RAW (.CR2 14-bit) • RAW (.CR2 14-bit) + JPEG Large/Fine • JPEG (EXIF 2.21) – Fine, Normal |
| Movie recording * | • 1920 x 1080 (1080p, 16:9) @ 30/25/24 fps • 1280 x 720 (720p, 16:9) @ 60/50 fps • 640 x 480 (4:3) @ 60/50 fps • Quicktime MOV format (H.264 video,linear PCM audio) • Up to 29 min 59 sec (or max file size 4 GB) |
| Image processor | DIGIC 4 |
| Lenses | • Canon EF / EF-S lens mount • 1.6x field of view crop |
| Focus modes | • Auto Focus • Manual Focus (switch on lens) |
| Auto Focus | • 9-point CMOS sensor • F5.6 cross-type at center, extra sensitivity at F2.8 • AF working range: -0.5 to 18 EV (at 23°C, ISO 100) • Predictive AF up to 10 m |
| AF modes | • AI Focus • One Shot • AI Servo |
| AF point selection | • Auto • Manual |
| AF assist | Flash strobe |
| Shooting modes | • Auto • Portrait • Landscape • Close-up • Sports • Night portrait • Flash off • Movie • Program AE (P) • Shutter priority AE (Tv) • Aperture priority AE (Av) • Manual (M) • Auto depth-of-field |
| Metering * | • TTL 63-zone SPC • Metering range: EV 1.0 – 20 EV (at 23°C, ISO 100, 50 mm F1.4) |
| Metering modes | • Evaluative 63-zone (linked to AF points) • Partial 9% at center • Spot 4% at center • Center-weighted average |
| AE Lock | AE lock button |
| AE Bracketing | • +/- 2.0 EV (3 shots) • 0.5 or 0.3 EV increments |
| Exposure compen. * | • +/- 5.0 EV • 0.5 or 0.3 EV increments |
| Sensitivity | • Auto (100 – 6400 *) • ISO 100 • ISO 200 • ISO 400 • ISO 800 • ISO 1600 • ISO 3200 • ISO 6400 * • H1 expansion (ISO 12800 equiv.) • Highlight tone priority |
| Shutter | • Focal-plane shutter • 30 – 1/4000 sec (0.5 or 0.3 EV steps) • Flash X-Sync: 1/200 sec • Bulb |
| Aperture values | • F1.0 – F91 (0.3 EV steps) • Actual aperture range depends on lens used |
| White balance | • Auto • Daylight • Shade • Cloudy • Tungsten • Fluorescent • Flash • Custom |
| WB Bracketing | • +/-3 levels • 3 images • Selectable Blue/Amber or Magenta/Green bias |
| WB fine-tuning | • Blue (-9) to Amber (+9) • Magenta (-9) to Green (+9) |
| Color space | • sRGB • Adobe RGB |
| Picture style | • Standard • Portrait • Landscape • Neutral • Faithful • Monochrome • User 1 • User 2 • User 3 |
| Custom image parameters | • Sharpness: 0 to 7 • Contrast: -4 to +4 • Saturation: -4 to +4 • Color tone: -4 to +4 • B&W filter: N, Ye, Or, R, G • B&W tone: N, S, B, P, G |
| Image processing | • Highlight Tone Priority • Auto Lighting Optimizer (Basic and Creative modes) • Long exposure noise reduction • High ISO speed noise reduction • Peripheral illumination correction |
| Drive modes | • Single • Continuous: 3.7 fps up to 34 Large/Fine JPEG / 6 RAW frames * • Self-timer 10 secs (2 sec with mirror lock-up) • Self-timer continuous |
| Mirror lockup | Yes (custom function) |
| Viewfinder | • Pentamirror • 95% frame coverage • Magnification: 0.87x (-1 diopter with 50 mm lens at infinity) • Eyepoint: 19 mm • Dioptric adjustment: -3.0 to +1.0 diopter • Fixed precision matte • Proximity sensor disables LCD shooting mode information |
| Viewfinder info | • AF information (AF points focus confirmation light) • Shutter speed • Aperture value • ISO speed (always displayed) • AE lock • Exposure level/compensation • Spot metering circle • Exposure warning • AEB • Flash ready • High-speed sync • FE lock • Flash exposure compensation • Red-eye reduction light • White balance correction • SD card information • Monochrome shooting • Maximum burst • Highlight tone priority |
| DOF preview | Yes, button |
| LCD monitor * | • 3.0″ 3:2 TFT LCD • 1040,000 pixels • Approx 100% coverage • Wide viewing angle (160° horizontal and vertical) • Dual anti-reflection, anti-smudge • 7 brightness levels • Up to 10x zoom playback |
| LCD Live view | • Live TTL display of scene from CMOS image sensor • 100% frame coverage (30 fps display rate) • Real-time evaluative metering using CMOS image sensor • Best view or exposure simulation • Grid optional (thirds) • Magnify optional (5x or 10x at any point on the screen) • Optional Auto-focus with mirror-down / mirror-up sequence • Quick or Live mode autofocus |
| Record review | • Uses last play mode • Magnification possible • 2 / 4 / 8 sec / Hold |
| Flash | • Auto pop-up E-TTL II auto flash • Guide number approx 13 • Modes: Auto, Manual Flash On/ Off, Red-Eye Reduction • X-Sync: 1/200 sec • Flash exposure compensation: +/-2.0 EV (0.3 or 0.5 EV steps) • Coverage up to 17 mm focal length (27 mm FOV equiv.) |
| External flash | • E-TTL II auto flash with EX-series Speedlites • Hot-shoe |
| Other features | • Orientation sensor • In-camera copyright information • Automatically writes FAT16/FAT32 depending on capacity |
| Auto rotation | • On (playback uses orientation data in file header) • Off |
| Playback mode | • Single image • Single image with info (histogram brightness / RGB ) • Magnified view (1.5 – 10x in 15 steps, browsable) • 4 and 9 image index • Auto play • Image rotation • Jump (by 10, 100 or date) |
| Custom functions * | 12 custom functions with 36 settings |
| Menu languages * | • English • German • French • Dutch • Danish • Portuguese • Finnish • Italian • Norwegian • Swedish • Spanish • Greek • Russian • Polish • Czech • Hungarian • Romanian • Ukrainian • Turkish • Arabic • Thai • Simplified Chinese • Traditional Chinese • Korean • Japanese |
| Firmware | User upgradable |
| Connectivity * | • USB 2.0 (Hi-Speed) • Video out (PAL / NTSC) (integrated with USB terminal *) • HDMI mini output (HDMI-CEC) • E3 type wired remote control • Remote Controller RC-6 • External microphone (3.5mm Stereo mini jack |
| Audio * | • Mono microphone on front • Mono speaker on rear • External stereo mike (optional) |
| Storage | • SD / SDHC card • SDXC card * |
| Power * | • Lithium-Ion LP-E8 rechargeable battery • Approx 440 shots (23°C AE 50%, FE 50%), CIPA standard • 4 level battery life display • Optional ACK-E8 AC adapter kit |
| Battery Grip * | Yes, BG-E8 |
| Direct printing | • Canon Selphy Printers • Canon Bubble Jet Printers with direct print function • Canon PIXMA Printers supporting PictBridge • PictBridge |
| Dimensions | 129 x 98 x 75 mm (5.1 x 3.9 x 2.9 in) |
| Weight (inc batt/card) | 530 g (1.17 lb) |
| Software | • Zoom Browser EX / ImageBrowser • Digital Photo Professional (Windows / Mac) • PhotoStitch • EOS Utility (inc. Remote Capture; Windows & Mac except Mac Intel) • Original Data Security Tools |
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