Has anyone upgraded from the 400D to the 50D

Hi,

I just upgraded from the 400D to the 50D and would be interested to know the thoughts of others who have done this.

The light in my area has been pretty crappy since I got the camera but I do have the feeling that the images I have captured tend to be over exposed compared with the 400D. Now I do recall multiple posts when the 400D first came out saying that it tended towards under exposure so maybe I am seeing what "normal" exposure looks like? I have tried all the various metering options.

Did anyone else notice this? I have yet to delve into any custom settings but I will have time to do that over the holidays and hopefully get some shots that I can post as examples but for now, I'd be very interested to learn of others experiences and pick up any other tips from people out there who have made this upgrade regarding what settings to use or any custom stuff that you have found to be effective/helpful.

Cheers

Jon

I've found the 50D to expose pretty well. "Proper" exposure doesn't really exist it's really up to you to get the exposure you want. The camera helps, but by reviewing the photo and the histogram you can get to learn if what you have taken will be acceptable to you.

If you feel a little rusty on exposure and how all the functions of the camera effect exposure I'd suggest picking up a good book on the subject. "Understanding Exposure" is suppose to be a good one.

Thanks for the response. I already own that book and it has helped me immensely. I suppose what I did not mention was that the "exposure" issue happens when I am photographing a backlit subject. I had hoped the 50D would handle the dynamic range better than the 400D and with the Highlight Tone Priority setting, these situations would be easier to handle. MAybe I have misunderstood this.

lemminglover wrote in post #6933029
Thanks for the response. I already own that book and it has helped me immensely. I suppose what I did not mention was that the "exposure" issue happens when I am photographing a backlit subject. I had hoped the 50D would handle the dynamic range better than the 400D and with the Highlight Tone Priority setting, these situations would be easier to handle. MAybe I have misunderstood this.

You could try using the spot meter mode. It might help.

That blows the highlights the worst - it takes no account of the background.

lemminglover wrote in post #6933126
That blows the highlights the worst - it takes no account of the background.

yeah but you're in a no win situation, you want the foreground or the background? you can't have both, you're hitting the limit. at the most you underexpose it and PP it brighter.

sounds like you need fill flash then.

HyperYagami wrote in post #6933152
yeah but you're in a no win situation, you want the foreground or the background? you can't have both, you're hitting the limit. at the most you underexpose it and PP it brighter.

It seems that you are missing the point. I KNOW that bright backgrounds cause problems. I KNOW fill flash, filter etc can fix this. My POINT is that I could manage this better with the 400D (out of camera) and find it hard to do with the 50D and was really asking if anyone one else found this an issue and if they had any tips that could help be learn about my new camera. Plus any other tips people have for someone like me on this new learning curve.

Probably my fault for not being clearer about my issue

lemminglover wrote in post #6933233
It seems that you are missing the point. I KNOW that bright backgrounds cause problems. I KNOW fill flash, filter etc can fix this. My POINT is that I could manage this better with the 400D (out of camera) and find it hard to do with the 50D and was really asking if anyone one else found this an issue and if they had any tips that could help be learn about my new camera. Plus any other tips people have for someone like me on this new learning curve.

Probably my fault for not being clearer about my issue

no I'm not missing your point. 50d is 14-bit so (in theory) you can PP to recover the details from the overexpose or underexpose, your choice, better than the 400d. that's at the most you can do. i had to dial +2/3 or +1 with the 400d that i don't have to do that anymore with the 50d. so maybe you're just used to dealing with slightly underexposed pics as in the 400d.

Thanks for your reply and your interest in my issue. Maybe I need to re-phrase this. Out of camera, I find shots from my 400D more useable than my new 50D. Clearly, the 50D is a better body than the 400D so what I want to know is what can I do to correct this? Did anyone else notice this?

I want to get the most out of my new camera and would like to learn from the experiences of others here who may have had the same issue. This is not a 50D bashing thread. I am commited to my new purchase and would just like to learn from others here who have made the same upgrade to supplement my experiments and reading of the manual.

lemminglover wrote in post #6933457
Thanks for your reply and your interest in my issue. Maybe I need to re-phrase this. Out of camera, I find shots from my 400D more useable than my new 50D. Clearly, the 50D is a better body than the 400D so what I want to know is what can I do to correct this? Did anyone else notice this?

NP. Well you probably want to dial the 50D maybe -1/3 or -2/3 to match the your 400D output if that's what you prefer. I personally want the exposure to be slightly to the right so I dialed the 400D to even +1 stop in some cases.

Of course you can shoot M which you can have it whichever way you want on the fly.