Canon has ditched the three-year-old DIGIC 4 processor in favour of the DIGIC 5 chip used in recent PowerShot cameras. This raises the continuous speed from 3.7fps to 5fps, and also introduces in-camera chromatic aberration (CA) correction. This eliminates discoloured halos around high-contrast lines) and has been offered by Nikon’s SLRS for many years. These benefits arent available at the same time, though. With CA correction enabled, 5fps shooting lasted for just three frames before slowing to 2.lfps. With it disabled, it lasted for 29 frames and then slowed to 3.6fps.
Automatic high dynamic range (HDR) shooting is now available, and has a dedicated position on the mode dial for quick access. Curiously, the camera slightly crops and then enlarges the image back to 18 megapixels. More worryingly, autofocus problems were quite common in this mode. There’s also a new Handheld Night Scene, which combines three exposures to reduce noise. It made things softer at ISO 3200 but proved its worth at ISO 12800.
Our video quality tests gave similar results to the 600D. Details were sharp, but not as crisp as the Panasonic GH1. The difference is subtle though.
We experienced the same problems with moire interference that we’ve seen from countless other SLRs’ video modes, where dense repeating textures exhibit swirling interference. We shouldn’t dwell on the
negatives, though. Colours in videos were sumptuous, noise at fast ISO speeds was impressively low, and shallow depth-of-field effects gave video footage a beautiful film-like quality.
We struggled to find anything to complain about regarding the 650D’s photos. CA removal not only eliminated halos, but tightened up focus towards the edges of frames as well. Meanwhile, the improved noise reduction maintained slightly crisper details at ISO 1600 and 3200 and exhibited less chroma noise at ISO 6400 and above. Noise in unprocessed Raw files appeared heavier than from the 600D, though. Regardless, the 650D is arguably the best performer at this price for image quality. Automatic exposures were expertly judged and JPEGs displayed gorgeous colours.
COLOUR CHARTS
EOS cameras’ colour output makes our spines tingle that bit more than with rival cameras. The controls are straightforward and elegant, and the increased speed, extra shooting modes, in-camera CA correction and improved live view autofocus mean there are four less reasons to look elsewhere. Slightly iffy autofocus with the 18-55mm and 40mm lenses is our only bugbear, but it’s pretty subtle, and something we could live with until we’d saved up for a better lens.
The Panasonic GH2 is available with a 14-42mm lens for about the same price, and the fantastic Nikon D7000 costs just a little more. The GH2 comes top for video and the D7000 wins hands down for photographic control, but the Canon EOS 650D is hot on both their tails, and nudges ahead of the Nikon camera for image quality. (Ben Pitt)
Automatic high dynamic range (HDR) shooting is now available, and has a dedicated position on the mode dial for quick access. Curiously, the camera slightly crops and then enlarges the image back to 18 megapixels. More worryingly, autofocus problems were quite common in this mode. There’s also a new Handheld Night Scene, which combines three exposures to reduce noise. It made things softer at ISO 3200 but proved its worth at ISO 12800.
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| eos 650d |
LIVE AID
For us, the 600D’s biggest weakness was its slow autofocus in live view mode. Live view on an SLR bypasses the main phase-detect autofocus system, and the 6OODs backup contrast-detect system was appalling, taking up to four seconds to lock on to subjects. For the 650D, Canon has integrated additional phase-detect autofocus points on to the sensor. This appeared to improve live view autofocus speeds, but only to an extent; it still took between one and two seconds to focus. That’s still likely to be too slow for most people. It’s also significantly slower than the Pentax K-30.
We ran tests using the phase-detect autofocus and then retook the shot using live view’s contrast-detect
autofocus. Most were identical, but in a third of these shots live view gave sharper results. The imperfect
shots were usually good enough to keep) but having to choose between fast or accurate autofocus is frustrating.
This is the first SLR to include a touchscreen, and it’s extremely well implemented. It shows a variety of shooting details, and turns into a control panel when the Q button is pressed.
For us, the 600D’s biggest weakness was its slow autofocus in live view mode. Live view on an SLR bypasses the main phase-detect autofocus system, and the 6OODs backup contrast-detect system was appalling, taking up to four seconds to lock on to subjects. For the 650D, Canon has integrated additional phase-detect autofocus points on to the sensor. This appeared to improve live view autofocus speeds, but only to an extent; it still took between one and two seconds to focus. That’s still likely to be too slow for most people. It’s also significantly slower than the Pentax K-30.
We ran tests using the phase-detect autofocus and then retook the shot using live view’s contrast-detect
autofocus. Most were identical, but in a third of these shots live view gave sharper results. The imperfect
shots were usually good enough to keep) but having to choose between fast or accurate autofocus is frustrating.
This is the first SLR to include a touchscreen, and it’s extremely well implemented. It shows a variety of shooting details, and turns into a control panel when the Q button is pressed.
.JPG) |
| touchscreen |
The touchscreen is best in Live View and Video modes, where it sets the autofocus point. Its useful to be able to move it while recording video as full.time autofocus is available in video mode, thanks to the on-sensor autofocus points It’s an improvement over the 600D, but it still isn’t brilliant, with frequent focus hunting and long periods that were completely out of focus. However, while video autofocus on the 600D was hopeless, on the 650D it’s OK for casual use.
The autofocus motor spoiled the soundtrack when using the 18-55mm and 18-135mm lenses, but was much quieter with the 40mm STM lens, which is designed to be quiet while recording. Adjusting manual exposure while recording is now silent, with shutter speed, aperture and ISO speed controls available on the touchscreen.
CLIP HIGHLIGHTS
Video clips are no longer constrained by a 4GB limit. The 600D’s videos stopped without warning after about 15 minutes, but the 650D can span videos across multiple files up to a maximum of 30 minutes. You’ll need videoe diting software to stitch the files back together, but there were no glitches to the picture or soundtrack when we did so.
The autofocus motor spoiled the soundtrack when using the 18-55mm and 18-135mm lenses, but was much quieter with the 40mm STM lens, which is designed to be quiet while recording. Adjusting manual exposure while recording is now silent, with shutter speed, aperture and ISO speed controls available on the touchscreen.
CLIP HIGHLIGHTS
Video clips are no longer constrained by a 4GB limit. The 600D’s videos stopped without warning after about 15 minutes, but the 650D can span videos across multiple files up to a maximum of 30 minutes. You’ll need videoe diting software to stitch the files back together, but there were no glitches to the picture or soundtrack when we did so.
.JPG) |
| 30 minutes video |
We experienced the same problems with moire interference that we’ve seen from countless other SLRs’ video modes, where dense repeating textures exhibit swirling interference. We shouldn’t dwell on the
negatives, though. Colours in videos were sumptuous, noise at fast ISO speeds was impressively low, and shallow depth-of-field effects gave video footage a beautiful film-like quality.
.JPG) |
| ISO 1600 and 3200 |
COLOUR CHARTS
EOS cameras’ colour output makes our spines tingle that bit more than with rival cameras. The controls are straightforward and elegant, and the increased speed, extra shooting modes, in-camera CA correction and improved live view autofocus mean there are four less reasons to look elsewhere. Slightly iffy autofocus with the 18-55mm and 40mm lenses is our only bugbear, but it’s pretty subtle, and something we could live with until we’d saved up for a better lens.
.JPG) |
| 18-55mm and 40mm lenses |
The Panasonic GH2 is available with a 14-42mm lens for about the same price, and the fantastic Nikon D7000 costs just a little more. The GH2 comes top for video and the D7000 wins hands down for photographic control, but the Canon EOS 650D is hot on both their tails, and nudges ahead of the Nikon camera for image quality. (Ben Pitt)