Canon EOS 550D- wrong choice?

Hi all,

I am new to this forum. I have spent months researching on what I felt was the ideal camera for me, saved the money for it. I had settled on the EOS 60D. However my boyfriend wanted DJ gear and I had made him sold his old gear and felt guilty so I took money out of my camera fund to pay for it. I could no longer afford the 60D so settled for the 550D with a 18-270 Tamron lense.

Now I'm miserable and really unhappy with my purchase. For a camera that cost me over 1000 bucks including the lense I feel I should be over the moon. The picture quality is just not what I expected. I wonder if it is the lense or the camera or me? Has anyone else bought the 550D and been dissapointed. I decided to go for this model as I had read really good reviews but I want to be able to take some semi-professional shots of my sports team, a friends wedding, a 20th anniversary club celebration and some of my baby nephews at xmas in the UK. I am really worried that the 550D is not up to this challenge..

I have the option to bite the bullet and tell my boyfriend( he is gonna be MAD) and take it back to the shop and get the 60D but I need some advice if this is going to be worth the agro, based on what I want to do with the camera in future. I realise that I probably need an external flash and a faster lense to support this(which I have my eye on)- but will this be enough in combo with the 550D or should I get the 60D...

I expected to be so over the moon with my DSLR and instead i'm just in tears

Thank you for your advice...

Lisa

Can you post some examples with the Exif intact, so we can see the problem?

I have the 550D, and have had it for over 2 years now. Can say that I am extremely happy with it. I started out with the kit lens then purchased the 55-250. Both excellent lenses for this camera. Later I upgraded to the 24-70 2.8L and the 70-200 4.0L.

Perhaps if you can post some of your photos and tell us about you challenges... someone can help you out.

Maybe if you could post some examples of the pictures with which you are unsatisfied, someone could tell where the problem lies...I can't imagine that the image quality would be a whole lot different from that of the 60D....The price premium for the 60D is mostly for ergonomics, AF, and build quality...Sorry you're having problems.

sounds like the boyfriend may be the actual - wrong choice.

Wow thanks for your speedy reply guys!

These are some images i'm not that happy with

https://plus.google.co​m …61?authkey=CJDW​u7jhj7D-CA

This is one im a bit more into

https://plus.google.co​m …posts/575330655​4884122738

Hopefully you can see them let me know if you can't

Cheers

Lisa

I can see the pics, but can't see the Exif info (lens, aperture, shutter speed, iso).

In the first one, the office photo with the lady in black you used a flash, so there should not be camera motion blur.

Are you doing any post processing? I took the liberty to do some post processing. If you don't want the photo to show, let me know and I will remove it.

I own both the 550D/T2i and a 5Dmk2, and still to this day really enjoy the T2i. Great camera.

I used the only lens that I have which I the 18-270 tamron. For the pic you mention its, f/4.5, 1/60 and ISO-400 but I had it on portrait mode I think so the settings seem to vary per pic

now you had the 550D
its a great camera
if you need a fast cheap lens for some great photos
you should have the
EF 50mm f/1.8 II
before buying this lens
go to the shop and try it on your cam

Give the camera a chance. Don't let its cheaper price lead you to believe its a lesser camera right off the bat, and its certainly not worthy of crying over. I had the T2i for two years, it was my first DSLR and it was great. You can't expect perfect, award winning shots right after the press of the shutter, if you are new to photography or DSLR's in general. Half the battle (probably more than half) is in the lenses. Are you looking for nicely blurred backgrounds and subject isolation? You will need a faster lens (for example, a f/2.8, f/2.0, f/1.8 - etc.) Another aspect is post processing - editing photos after they are shot to enhance the details, colours, and overall artistic rendering.

The T2i is a very good camera and capable of great things - its easy to be hasty and blame the tool, but its just a tool. You are the one using it

I don't know much about that Tamron lens, but with lenses you pretty much get what you pay for in terms of image quality and color rendition. If you want to see a substantial difference in portraits from the lens you currently have, pick up the very cheap Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II - its a prime lens, with an aperture that will melt away the noisy and distracting backgrounds, and focus on your subject. Sometimes just some bokeh can dry those tears

I don't see anything wrong with your photos Lisa...They look like "good casual at work" snapshots...What about them displeases you?...Probably nothing a little improvement in technique and post processing won't cure...Keep reading these forums and you will learn a lot...You're going to learn a lot from this thread I'll wager

Without knowing exactly what it is about your pictures you are unsatisfied with, what stands out to me is the fact that some of your photos aren't very sharp. I noticed you used f4 and f5 in several of your shots of the cake. You can clearly see where the clarity begins to fall off as you inspect the photo outward from the center. I would think this is because of the aperture you chose.

Well... I don't see anything too objectionable in the photos... the one in the KFC (I believe) did look like you were shooting with the ISO all the way to 12800. I often shoot with ISO's all the way to 1600 without too much noise... and I'll even use 3200 if I need to.

For using on camera flash... I believe you did the best you could do. You are not going to get much better with any camera. What you may consider doing is adding a flash. The ability to point the flash at the ceiling or a wall will make the light fall much more evenly on all your subjects giving you a much better exposure. On camera flash is really only good for a single subject... or where all of your subjects are the same distance from the camera... or lastly... when you want to use it as a fill flash (i.e. when shooting when the subjects back is to the sun).

The 550D is able to produce images just as good as the 60D or even the 7D. The differences are in the features... i.e. Build quality, shutter speed, various features...etc. But those three camera's all use the same sensor.

For Wedding/sports...etc..​. it is a fine camera... though won't have the fast continuous shooting like the 7D or the lower light capabilities like the 5D Mark II/III... but otherwise it is a very capable camera.

You said you used 1/60th on the photos - that could be why you see a tiny bit of motion blur. Its not terribly slow but if you have shaky hands or you didn't still yourself before taking the shot, that could be the reason. The faster the shutter speed, the less chance of motion blur because it freezes the moment.