Canon today introduced the new EOS Rebel T1i DSLR camera, capable of 1080p HD video and packing a lot more megapixels – it has a 15.1-megapixel CMOS sensor.
The good news is that it is still a good DSLR camera, following the Rebel (EOS 300D, 350D, 400D, 450D and now the 500D) line which has a solid track record in camera performance.
The other good news is that it can now record HD video. The bad news? Canon crippled its HD performance to just 20 frames per second in 1080p recording (you don’t get a good movie unless you go up to 30fps). Well, you can work around it if you’re willing to go down to only 720p video which can go as high as 60fps.
The Canon Rebel T1i (quite an unimaginative name!) also followed the Nikon D90, the first DSLR to offer video capability, and the EOS 5D Mark II in their lack of full-time autofocus during movie recording. You have to pre-focus the camera before recording, a shooting arrangement that’s good only if your subject is stationary. But you know how we shoot video: we want to zoom in, zoom out, shoot low, shoot high, varying our angle of view – and our subject seldom stays in just one place.
And where’s the auxiliary audio input? I’m capturing high quality footage but I don’t get high quality audio? I want stereo sound there; I need an AUX MIC input for that!
That is not to say of course that the EOS 500D, the Rebel T1i (My eye! Maybe they hired the same guy who came up with the Pentax *ist D name), is a bad camera. It’s got pedigree. Canon has reasons not to put everything there and make it a perfect camera because it will cannibalize sales in their other DSLR models and videocams.
If you want the latest Canon in the Rebel line, with video capability to boot, it’s here now: $800 body only, $900 with an 18-55mm IS kit lens. Just don’t expect to get perfect 1080p HD video. But it’s there.
[Via: Canon USA]
