Canon EOS 450D Hands-on Review
Reviewed on 3 April 2008

Three months into 2008 and camera makers from all corners have been flooding the market with their new entry level DSLRs. Sony and Nikon both fought earlier in the year for a piece of the spotlight with their respective releases and as the month turns April, it's Canon's turn to shine. After months of waiting and pre-release chatter, the much anticipated Canon EOS 450D is finally here at DigitalRev.

A quick preview back in January showed us in very enthused form as we detailed the many areas of praise this camera possessed. Now, with the camera in tow, our impression hasn't changed as the EOS 450D appears to be everything we had hoped it to be. While there will be inevitable comparisons with its predecessor, the EOS 400D released in 2006, the 450D stands as one of the most complete and well-rounded players against its rivals in the heated competition of 2008.

The Canon EOS 450D will be Canon's latest effort to succeed and overtake the widely popular EOS 400D. For both current 400D owners and point-and-shoot users, the 450D is an entry-level DSLR that is designed to appeal to both camps. As far as an upgrade is concerned, the EOS 450D is a revamp in every way possible. Firstly trumping the megapixels up to 12.2 on Canon's APS-C size CMOS sensor, it's a marginal upgrade that consumers will be demanding nonetheless in 2008. With Canon's DIGIC III image processor in place, this will be the crucial piece of technology that will help breathe in higher image quality and reel in unprecedented camera performance. A 3-inch LCD screen with Live View sets this camera far and apart from its competitors.

While the previous Canon EOS 400D was in essence a tremendous camera, it did receive criticisms pertaining to its construction and overall feel of the body. Attracting comments like 'cheap', 'slippery' and 'plasticky', Canon seems to have taken these comments to heart and came back with a vengeance in the 450D. Presented in a bigger build, it's a noticeably improved design with a much rounder body sculpting. With a bigger 3-inch LCD screen, a bigger viewfinder and a bigger redesigned handgrip, the 450D is fractionally larger than the 400D. While larger, these dimensions aren't hurting the ergonomics at all, it's actually improving it. With a tactful and well-fitting handgrip, the 450D is very likable from the outside.

Opening up the memory card door shows the controversial SD card slot, a drastic change over from the CF card slot of the 400D. This change is one that we believe will work to Canon's advantage. More than just saving space, it also boosts its direct appeal to the point-and-shoot users who are looking for an upgrade but have lots of SD/SDHC cards. This might come as an annoyance to those accustomed to CF, but given the affordability of SDHC cards, there isn't a need to despair. Furthermore, performance differences are not likely a problem as neither the 400D nor 450D are fast enough to really warrant a CF card slot. For a compact DSLR like the 450D, the smaller size of SD gives more room for other components like a bigger battery for example. This is exactly what's happened on the 450D with its new and higher capacity LP-E5 battery. Extending shooting time with a maximum of 500 shots on a single charge, this is a sensible improvement given the occasional usage of Live-View expected.

While there's been an ongoing love-hate affair for the Live-View feature, we believe it's a feature to better have than be without, especially when you've got the added option of remote live-view shooting. Traditional DSLRs demanded us to go eye to eye with the viewfinder but with live-view it doesn't. This makes life easier for when shooting at odd angles such as ground level or high up overhead. Given that live-view may take up considerable battery life, an eye-sensor under the viewfinder conserves battery by shutting off the LCD once your face comes into proximity. Two modes of autofocusing works during live-view, Quick AF (phase detection) and Live AF (contrast detection), and while they aren't as fast as point-and-shoot cameras, they are fast enough to deliver the accurate shots we wanted for still photography.

In the megapixels department, the 450D takes on a CMOS sensor with 12.2 effective megapixels for a 2 megapixels advantage over the 400D. Although megapixels are by no means the yardstick for image quality, Canon's new DIGIC III image processor makes the most of this sensor by bringing an A/D converter to handle the sensor's data in 14-bit, offering smoother gradation steps in final images. This processor also brings practical and handy features like Auto Lighting Optimiser and Highlight Tone Priority as seen on the Canon 40D. Once images are taken, the Auto Lighting Optimiser helps by correcting image contrast and brightness. Highlight Tone Priority on the other hand can capture and retain details in bright areas and shadows of an image. In taming the noise levels of a high megapixel DSLR, a noise reduction option can be applied for low light high ISO shooting. (ISO test below)

Like Canon's professional 1Ds Mark III DSLR, there's now a dedicated ISO button placed conveniently above the handgrip. Similarly, the button is complemented by an ISO display inside the viewfinder, thus allowing settings to be changed without your eyes leaving the viewfinder. For anyone familiar with Canon's XXD line, it's also evident that a number of technologies have trickled down to this camera. Spot-metering is one such feature that we were glad to see here. It's an invaluable tool we liked on Canon's 40D for when manually setting exposures in overly bright conditions and accentuating our desired subject in the photo. Lastly, the 450D's new and improved 9-point AF system lives up to the hype with quick and responsive autofocusing.

In summary, our review of the Canon EOS 450D tested out to be very positive and it's an extraordinary camera that surpasses even the title of an 'upgrade'. For beginning users of a DSLR, Canon has taken care of you lot by faithfully keeping this camera easy to use and implementing live-view as standard. For 400D users, the 450D is well worth your look because it offers you the bevy of features commonly found in Canon's higher end models. If there was any shortcomings you noted with the 400D, you can be sure those areas have been well rectified on the 450D, and if there was anything you liked about it, we're convinced that Canon's just done an even better job of it this time.

ISO Test

To get an idea of the image quality produced by the Canon EOS 450D, an ISO test was conducted to see how well the noise levels have been handled throughout its ISO range. The ISO test was conducted in a well-lit indoor environment with the Canon EOS 450D fixed steady on to a tripod. Using a scatter of paper cranes as our subject, we shot our way up the five steps of ISO sensitivity from 100 to 1600. Aperture was set to f/5.6 and with white balance set to Tungsten to match the indoor lighting. Noise reduction capabilities have not been applied.

ISO 100
At ISO 100, the paper cranes shown at the centre of the image look razor sharp and are displayed well in focus. As the 100% crop reveals, the shadows casted on the cranes show tremendous smoothness of tones and deliver a very accurate reproduction of colours.

ISO 200
ISO 200 duplicates the similar success as that of ISO 100.

ISO 400
Noise is still hardly noticeable at ISO 400.

ISO 800
As we make the step up to ISO 800, a faint cover of noise starts to become evident. In order to truly see the noise, this required an inspection of its 100% crop. The shadowed parts of the red crane positioned on the far left centre gives a slightly coarser shade of black.

ISO 1600
ISO sensitivity peaks at ISO 1600, the picture keeps amazingly sharp for an ISO sensitivity this high. By diving in deep into a 100% crop, the shadows found on the same red crane show a more evident smog of noise. Overall, we were thoroughly impressed with the picture quality and the handling of noise.

ISO 1600 marks as the highest ISO sensitivity of the Canon EOS 450D, and while some might feel it doesn't have quite the extensive ISO sensitivity range as that of its competitors, it certainly provides a very capable set of ISO sensitivity levels that deliver very usable image quality. As our tests have indicated, even at the highest ISO 1600, we were more than ready to use the quality produced at that level and scarcely any noise. Despite having five steps in its ISO range, it proves itself to be very versatile and definitely gave us some satisfying results at each step.