Canon Announces its Latest Rebel DSLR – First Look at the T2i
Yesterday Canon unveiled the latest entry in its Rebel line of entry-level DSLRs, the Rebel T2i (a/k/a the EOS 550D). The new T2i features the usual and probably expected spec bumps over its predecessor, the March 2009 Rebel T1i: effective pixel count increased from 15.1 million to 18.0 million, unexpanded ISO pushed from 3200 to 6400, metering points bumped from 35 to 63, and LCD dot count increased from 920,000 to 1,040,000. Pixel density has increased from 4.5MP/cm2 to 5.4MP/CM2, support for the new SDXC cards have been added, and the T2i can shoot 1080P video at 30 fps (vice the odd 20 fps of the T1i).
The new LCD screen and the 63-point metering are inherited from Canon’s pricier EOS 7D camera, and a side-by-side comparison of the T2i with its bigger sibling, the 7D and the 5D MkII reveal just how far this new Rebel has come in chasing the big guys on a lot of the specs. The big guys still have the metal bodies and other build-quality features, but the gap is closing on pixel count and ISO range. Of course the 5D MkII retains its sizable advantage in pixel density and a full frame sensor. Additionally, the T2i’s use of the SD cards is a big plus these days, and the release of the SDXC standard has made Compact Flash seem like an anachronism. I suspect that Canon would like to move all their DSLRs to the smaller card, but they fear the howls of outrage from professionals with big bucks sunk into Compact Flash. Personally, I’d be willing to take the hit to the wallet to use the smaller cards and gain Eye-Fi compatibility.
On a more interesting note (to me at least) Canon has added explicit support for Eye-Fi cards, which is a smart move considering that the target audience for this camera certainly includes parents of young kids. I will write more in a future article about the Eye-Fi cards and why they are an absolute must-have for parents with small kids to photograph, no time to process and upload pictures, and grandparents clamoring for more photos of the little darlings.
I hope you’ve enjoyed my first foray into digital camera blogging, and I look forward to expanding and improving my writing on this topic, with help from your feedback of course. At the end of this month I plan on shooting a few (dozen?) gigabytes of photos at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, and will report back on my experiences with the equipment and sports photography in general.
Hat tip to Gizmodo.com, DPReview.com and Canon Product Page.
