Canon EOS 50D – Trip to Normandy
July 5th, 2009Over a month ago, I’ve bought myself a new camera body for my birthday: a Canon EOS 50D. Though my previous one, an EOS 400D, is still functional, after two years, I was outgrowing its limits somewhat. The new one really is an upgrade. It’s bigger and as such more comfortable to hold. The larger and brighter view finder makes it much easier to operate in dimly lit theatre venues, where you can also benefit from the ISO 3200 sensitivity to get faster shutter speeds (you can even bump it to ISO 6400 and 12800, but it gets quite noisy). The jog wheel makes navigation faster and easier to control aperture in manual mode, while the joy stick allows you to quickly select another AF point. At 6.3fps, the high-speed continuous mode is perhaps even too fast for everyday use. Another difference is the LCD on top of the camera that holds all the information on the current settings, where the 400D had to use the main display. The display is also larger, allowing you to judge the pictures in camera more easily. Oh, and it takes better pictures too =)
Loaded with my precious new toy, I went on a short trip with Brecht to the Seine-Maritime department in Normandy, France. With two bikes, sleeping bags and a tent in de back of the car, we set off to the coastal village of Sotteville-sur-Mer, a very quiet and non-touristic place (in contrast to the neighbouring Veules-les-Roses and St. Valery en Caux) with just the necessary at hand: a bakery, butchery and a grocery. The only thing missing is a local pub that’s open at night (the typical bar-tabacs have normal shopping hours).
While exploring the area on our bikes, I had ample opportunity to test the new gear, and it totally lived up to my expectations. Exposure set to manual mode, the camera is easy to operate thanks to the separated controls for aperture and shutterspeed. And most importantly, image quality is great, turning the beautiful scenery into real postcards.
