Equipment Canon XSi 450D

Live view is pretty much rendered useless with the lack of AF (or at least I find it that way). Personally, I just use it for adjusting exposure in M mode for different light contrast effects.

 

Liveview is meant specifically for on tripod studio work, sure there will be some people who will be trying to use it like a p&s, but this is not canons objective at all. It helps considerably when doing macro and low angle shots when looking through the VF is simply to difficult. And it DOES allow AF. I don't see it being too small either, especially for pro's who need back-ups on person at all times. Plus, a lot of people dont really want to carry around a 3lb camera on family trips to Disney...and I don't blame them. Trust me the weight of a camera body makes a huge difference. If you want a bigger body, buy a battery grip for those gorilla hands (http://www.dpreview.com/news/0801/canon/canon_450d_gripFr.jpg). Anyways, I'm a little upset that Canon didn't release the 5D 'replacement' or any grand optics (besides the 200 f/2 that everyone knew about)...booo. Its like Christmas came but Santa got hit by a mack truck before he got here. Or a kitten in the blender without the top on...something bad like that.

Edit: Oh yeah, forgot about SD. Yes, most likely all of Canons future bodies (maybe not the mark series) will switch over to SD, IMO. Think of it in terms of expense...its cheaper both for the consumer and for the manufacturer, a win win if you will. Also, as you all know SD is currently used in P&S's that are already sprawled out across the globe making for a inter-compatibility between the two. Personally, I feel CF is more secure in more ways than one, so hopefully its not a major overhaul on all Canon's future bodies.

 

Unless you use a tripod. Live view might be a great feature for some folks shooting landscapes. When the camera is sitting on a tripod and you have time to compose, it can be much easier to take a relaxing look at the LCD screen rather than put one eye to the viewfinder. This works especially well when the camera is sitting at a low angle. No more crouching in awkward positions trying to look through the viewfinder!

-monkey

 

That's where live view would shine, studio macro work with the camera linked to a laptop.
And up until now it's only recently been available on the top line Canon models.

 

Live view is a godsend for tripod work, or even just when you rest the camera on something. I agree it's not much use when hand holding, unless you have to take a shot in a position you couldn't easily get to with your face! I wish I'd had it when I took my last POTM entry about 5cm off the ground, but instead I had to lie in a puddle to see through the viewfinder. I certainly wouldn't have found it useless then!

 

Wait until they incorporate face detection... You just watch, it will happen.

 

They already did.
http://www.the-digital-picture.com/...Si-450D-Digital-SLR-Camera-Press-Release.aspx

(the linked press release also mentions that it can do some amount of AF when in live view mode without snapping down the mirror by means of some contrast detection thing... can't imagine it's as good as proper sensor-based stuff but I'm sure it'll get you close)

Of course. I'm not saying Live View doesn't have a lot of great uses. I can think of tons, especially as the optical viewfinder only covers 95% of the shot area and that extra bit on the edges can allow some unexpected toes in the image if you've got a wide-angle lens on, for example. I'm just saying that you'll find a lot more people with extra money and no idea how to shoot hauling around a 450D and using it as a point+shoot because that's available.

 

Bryan from thedigitalimage did not have it posted when I looked at the site prior to posting (edit: correction, he did, I just didn't see the press release link at the bottom), nor did dpreview mention 'face detection'. Either way I knew they would anyhow...There you go Bio, another P&S technology fused into a DSLR.

Edit: Why do you care if other people use it as a P&S in liveview? I mean, yeah its not the right way to use it...but then again thats why YOU use it the way its meant to be used. Who cares what other people do.

 

I couldn't care less how other people use their camera, just like how I prefer OS X but really have no interest in what other people are using. A camera, like a computer, is really just a tool to me, and it either does what I need it to do or it doesn't. Not everyone takes that mindset with electronics, so I'm just stating a fact about what's likely to happen.

The only practical outcome of that to me is more crappy but high-res shots of boringly-exposed/framed/posed subjects popping up and wasting my bandwidth (and of course, an increase in snarky responses when people ask me how expensive my camera is)

 

We've already hit that point. In October we were at a pumpkin patch watching the kids play around on the attractions. A lady walked up an asked me if I was using a Canon 40D. I said that I was. She then showed me her 40D and asked me if I knew how to change it from rapid-fire to single-shot mode.

The general public is under the assumption that the way to get "professional-looking" images is to buy a "professional-looking" camera. I can't count the number of times I've been volunteered to take the family portrait because I have "one of those expensive cameras." Truth be told, portraits were always my weakest point. No camera can save me in that genre.

-monkey

 

Just buy a Canon G9 and be happy!

 

The 1D and 1Ds have SD+CF slots, both in the mkIIs and mkIIIs, so it's already happening. I was very happy to see that the D3 was designed with 2 CF slots and not SD.

 

Let the general public buy expensive cameras thinking they'll get exceptional quality - though it always pisses me off a little to see someone with an expensive camera shooting full auto with the flash up - it's like watching someone drink an expensive wine with a hamburger. It almost feels like a slap to the face to anybody who's ever taken the time to learn the technicals behind photography and slaved away for that expensive camera.

Live View is a great feature. I love using it to check exposure and for macro MF, but to say that it's pushing the dSLR towards a P&S is like saying the Green square auto-mode is also making dSLRs more P&S friendly. But whatever, it'll just make people look that much sillier holding up a 5 kg camera 2 feet away from them.

On another note, contrast detection AF (listed as a feature on the XSi that enables AF in live view) sounds like something software/firmware based. If it is, and it isn't going to show up in 40D and 1D/s firmware updates, it will be an understatement to say that I'll be disappointed.

 

I drink quite expensive red wine with my hamburgers. I like wine, and make a mean hamburger (in the style of James Beard). And, truth be told, after 2 bottles of said red wine, I put my camera on auto. With the flash pointing straight up. lol, the pictures turn out ok, too.

 

yeah! wooh! purists are puerile!

 

Yep, that's why I always give snarky responses now. People seem to be under the impression that electronics are ACTUALLY powered by magic smoke, not realizing that when we say that kind of thing it's an inside joke. And then they translate magic smoke to making pictures automatically look better. Because, you know, it's magic.

There are some things you can do with an SLR that you simply can't do with a point+shoot (especially the ones that offer auto-mode only). You'll never see the same quality of bokeh even if you can control the aperture simply because it's a smaller sensor chip. But people never understand why my camera is almost always in manual mode and that I actually have to take a few seconds to set things up right - and they certainly don't make the connection that as a result, I'm not getting shots with blown highlights and shadows, overexposed skies and faces, and awkward composition. And guess what - I could, at least to some extent, do the same thing with my old point+shoot.

 

Maybe I should have specified. I was speaking in terms of SD only (getting rid of CF all together).

 

They should do both if anything, at least on their entry-level stuff. I understand that a large amount of the P+S uses SD now so they want to reduce transition costs, but the reverse is true for people upgrading to a newer body who already owned an SLR. Of course the cost of buying some new chips is pretty low compared to the cost of a 1DMkIII but even still it's one more thing to buy. We've made improvements by coming down from a dozen different card types entirely to basically two (except for Sony doing their own thing as usual), but at this point I'd really much rather see everything using CF and come up with some sort of weird CF->SD adapter that can sit in there rather than just switching over entirely. But what can I say... I'm cheap.

 

think i shall pick up one of those new kit lens 18-55 with IS, cant wait to test one for my self!

 

Personally, I don't like the idea of SD (small, dinky, exposed contacts) at all, at least not for DSLR's. Yeah they are fine for my gf's 870IS, but the physical size and BQ of a CF card does it for me. Yes, they are relatively more expensive but I am willing to pay for what they are worth. OTOH, I do like this body and I think they made some reasonable improvements over the 400D, nothing mind-blowing or unexpected really (besides SD format). Any how, I still look forward to a 5D successor and or picking up the 40D. As for Nikon, they are doing all the right things and if I were a canon shareholder I'd be a little worried.