The Canon EOS 50D is a 15 megapixel Digital SLR. It is compatible with lenses with a Canon EF or EFS lens mount. As well as having a viewfinder the EOS 50D has a live view mode for composing shots. Live Mode offers three ways to auto focus: Quick AF, Live AF, and new Face Detection Live AF. Face Detection Live AF optimises focus based on faces detected in the frame, the aim of this is to give fast, spontaneous portraiture.

Compared with its predecessor the Canon EOS 40D a new DIGIC 4 processor has been fitted. This increases shooting speed to give you up to 6.3 frames per second continuous shooting, in bursts of up to 90 JPEGs with a UDMA card. This sort of performance is likely to appeal to photographs working in sports and wildlife fields.

For the EOS 50D Canon have added a Quick Control screen. This gives you fast access to the most commonly-changed settings.

A further upgrade comes in the automatic sensor cleaning area. This helps to keep the sensor clear from dust.

Shutter speeds can be set in the range 30-1/8000 sec. There is also a bulb setting. There is a button to give you a depth of field preview.