The Canon EOS 550D is an 18.0-

megapixel In digital imaging, a pixel (abbreviated px), pel, or picture element is the smallest addressable element in a Raster graphics, raster image, or the smallest addressable element in a dot matrix display device. In most digital display devices, p ...

digital single-lens reflex camera A digital single-lens reflex camera (digital SLR or DSLR) is a digital camera that combines the optics and mechanisms of a single-lens reflex camera with a solid-state image sensor and digitally records the images from the sensor. The reflex des ...

, announced by

Canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the material accepted as officially written by an author or an ascribed author * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western canon, th ...

on 8 February 2010. It was available since 24 February 2010, and to US dealers from early March. It is known as the EOS Kiss X4 in Japan, and as the EOS Rebel T2i in the Americas. It is part of Canon's entry- / mid-level digital SLR camera series, and was the successor model to the

EOS 500D The Canon EOS 500D is a 15-megapixel entry-level digital single-lens reflex camera, announced by Canon (company), Canon on 25 March 2009. It was released in April 2009. It is known as the EOS Kiss X3 in Japan, and as the EOS Rebel T1i in North A ...

. It was succeeded by the EOS 600D (Kiss X5 / Rebel T3i) but remained in Canon's lineup until being discontinued in June 2012 with the announcement of the EOS 650D (Kiss X6i / Rebel T4i).

Features

* 18.0 effective

CMOS sensor An active-pixel sensor (APS) is an image sensor, which was invented by Peter J.W. Noble in 1968, where each pixel sensor unit cell has a photodetector (typically a pinned photodiode) and one or more active transistors. In a metal–oxide–semic ...

1080p 1080p (1920 × 1080 progressively displayed pixels; also known as Full HD or FHD, and BT.709) is a set of HDTV high-definition video modes characterized by 1,920 pixels displayed across the screen horizontally and 1,080 pixels down the sc ...

HD video recording at

24p In video technology, 24p refers to a video format that operates at 24 frames per second (typically, 23.976 frame/s when using equipment based on NTSC frame rates, but now 24.000 in many cases) frame rate with progressive scanning (not interlaced) ...

(23.976 fps), 25p (25 fps), and 30p (29.97 fps) with drop-frame timing *

720p 720p (720 lines progressive) is a progressive HD signal format with 720 horizontal lines/1280 columns and an aspect ratio (AR) of 16:9, normally known as widescreen HD (1.78:1). All major HD broadcasting standards (such as SMPTE 292M) includ ...

HD video recording at 50 fps (50 Hz) and 60 fps (59.94 Hz) *

480p 480p is the shorthand name for a family of video display resolutions. The p stands for progressive scan, i.e. non-interlaced. The ''480'' denotes a vertical resolution of 480 pixels, usually with a horizontal resolution of 640 pixels and 4:3 a ...

video recording at 50 fps (50 Hz) and 60 fps (59.94 Hz) * 3.5mm microphone jack for external microphones or recorders. *

PAL Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a color encoding system for analog television. It was one of three major analogue colour television standards, the others being NTSC and SECAM. In most countries it was broadcast at 625 lines, 50 fields (25 ...

NTSC NTSC (from National Television System Committee) is the first American standard for analog television, published and adopted in 1941. In 1961, it was assigned the designation System M. It is also known as EIA standard 170. In 1953, a second ...

video output *

DIGIC 4 Digital Imaging Integrated Circuit (often styled as "DiG!C") is Canon Inc.'s name for a family of signal processing and control units for digital cameras and camcorders. DIGIC units are used as image processors by Canon in its own digital imagi ...

image processor * 14-bit analog to digital signal conversion * 3:2

aspect ratio The aspect ratio of a geometry, geometric shape is the ratio of its sizes in different dimensions. For example, the aspect ratio of a rectangle is the ratio of its longer side to its shorter side—the ratio of width to height, when the rectangl ...

LCD A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a flat-panel display or other electronically modulated optical device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals combined with polarizers to display information. Liquid crystals do not em ...

monitor * Live view mode * Built-in flash * Wide, selectable, nine-point AF with centre cross-type sensor extra sensitive at f/2.8 * Four metering modes, using 63-zones: spot, partial, center-weighted average, and evaluative metering * Highlight tone priority * EOS integrated cleaning system * Internal monaural microphone *

sRGB sRGB (standard RGB) is a colorspace, for use on monitors, printers, and the World Wide Web. It was initially proposed by HP and Microsoft in 1996 and became an official standard of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) as IEC 6 ...

and

Adobe RGB Adobe (from arabic: الطوب Attub ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for mudbrick. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is used ...

colour space A color space is a specific organization of colors. In combination with color profiling supported by various physical devices, it supports reproducible representations of colorwhether such representation entails an analog or a digital represe ...

s *

ISO The International Organization for Standardization (ISO ; ; ) is an independent, non-governmental, international standard development organization composed of representatives from the national standards organizations of member countries. Me ...

100–6,400 expandable to 12,800 * Continuous drive up to 3.7 frame/s (34 images (

JPEG JPEG ( , short for Joint Photographic Experts Group and sometimes retroactively referred to as JPEG 1) is a commonly used method of lossy compression for digital images, particularly for those images produced by digital photography. The degr ...

), 6 images ( raw)) * SD,

SDHC Secure Digital (SD) is a proprietary, non-volatile, flash memory card format developed by the SD Association (SDA). Owing to their compact size, SD cards have been widely adopted in a variety of portable consumer electronics, including digi ...

, and

SDXC Secure Digital (SD) is a proprietary, non-volatile, flash memory card format developed by the SD Association (SDA). Owing to their compact size, SD cards have been widely adopted in a variety of portable consumer electronics, including digi ...

memory card file storage * Raw and large JPEG simultaneous recording *

USB 2.0 Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard, developed by USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), for digital data transmission and power delivery between many types of electronics. It specifies the architecture, in particular the physical i ...

HDMI High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is a proprietary digital interface used to transmit high-quality video and audio signals between devices. It is commonly used to connect devices such as televisions, computer monitors, projectors, gam ...

control ( CEC) * LP-E8

battery Battery or batterie most often refers to: * Electric battery, a device that provides electrical power * Battery (crime), a crime involving unlawful physical contact Battery may also refer to: Energy source * Battery indicator, a device whic ...

*Approximate weight with battery and card

Bundled software

The 550D comes with following image-processing and camera-operating software: * ZoomBrowser EX / ImageBrowser Image Processing *

Digital Photo Professional Digital Photo Professional (DPP) is the software that Canon ships with its digital SLR (and some of its compacts, e.g. the Canon PowerShot S90) cameras for editing and asset management of its Canon raw (.CR2) files. It can also work with the o ...

* PhotoStitch * EOS Utility * Picture Style Editor Battery Grip

Optional accessories

The Canon 550D has available accessories, such as: * All EF and EF-S lenses * Macro Ring Lite MR-14EX * Macro twin lite MT-24EX * E-series Dioptic Adjustment Lenses * Angle Finder C * Semi hard case EH19L * Interface Cable IFC-200U/500U * Original Data Security Kit OSK-E3 * Canon EX-series Speedlites & ST-E2 * AC Adapter Kit (AC Adapter CA-PS700 & DC Coupler – DR-E8) *

Battery grip A battery grip (aka battery pack) is an accessory for an SLR/ DSLR (and occasionally other cameras), which allows the camera to hold multiple batteries to extend the battery life of the camera, and adds a vertical grip with an extra shutter relea ...

BG-E8 * Battery Magazine BGME8A/L * Eyepiece Extender EPEX15II *

Cable HTC-100 * Remote Switch RS-60E3 * Wireless Remote Controller RC-6

Firmware updates

In July 2010, Canon released firmware 1.0.8 that fixed a phenomenon in which the set aperture moves unexpectedly when shooting movies in manual exposure mode using some Canon lenses (such as macro lenses). On 25 December 2010, Canon offered firmware version 1.0.9 which fixed tone jumps in some images, depending on the shooting scene and when shooting with the Auto Lighting Optimizer settings (low / standard / strong).

Custom firmware

Magic Lantern The magic lantern, also known by its Latin name , is an early type of image projector that uses pictures—paintings, prints, or photographs—on transparent plates (usually made of glass), one or more lens (optics), lenses, and a light source. ...

is an

open-source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

(

GPL The GNU General Public Licenses (GNU GPL or simply GPL) are a series of widely used free software licenses, or ''copyleft'' licenses, that guarantee end users the freedom to run, study, share, or modify the software. The GPL was the first c ...

) firmware add-on for Canon DSLR cameras, which has enhancements for video and still photography without replacing the stock firmware. The Canon T2i is compatible with Magic Lantern firmware.

Reception

The ''

British Journal of Photography The ''British Journal of Photography'' (BJP) is a magazine about photography, published by 1854 Media. It includes in-depth articles, profiles of photographers, analyses, and technological reviews. History The magazine was established in Liverpoo ...

'' was impressed by the 550D and said "the EOS 550D is a good match for the 7D at half the price". On ''

Digital Photography Review ''Digital Photography Review'', also known as ''DPReview'', is a website about digital cameras and digital photography, established in November 1998. The website provides comprehensive reviews of digital cameras, lenses and accessories, buying g ...

'', it got overall score of 77%. For most of its product life, alternative cameras included the

Nikon D5000 The D5000 is a 12.3-megapixel DX-format DSLR Nikon F-mount camera, announced by Nikon on 14 April 2009. The D5000 has many features in common with the Nikon D90, D90. It features a 2.7-inch 230,000-dot resolution Articulating screen, tilt-and-swiv ...

, Nikon D3100, Canon 500D, Nikon D90, and

Pentax K-7 The Pentax K-7 is a 14.6-megapixel digital single-lens reflex camera, announced on 20 May 2009. This is the first new flagship model released by Pentax since its merger with Hoya Corporation on 31 March 2008. It was discontinued late in 2010 in f ...

. Immediately before it was discontinued in 2012, the main competitors of the 550D were the Nikon D3200 and D5100 (respectively the replacements for the D3100 and D5000),

Pentax K-r The Pentax K-r is a 12.4-megapixel digital single-lens reflex camera, announced on September 9, 2010, and replaced the K-x in Pentax' line-up, with which it shares many features. The K-r is available in three body colors (black, white and red) in ...

(replacement for the K-x), and the

Sony Alpha 57 The Sony Alpha 57 (model name SLT-A57) is a Digital single-lens reflex camera that replaced the A55 in 2012. The camera features an electronic viewfinder and a translucent mirror. The main advantage of a translucent mirror is that it needn't fli ...

, one of the company's SLT cameras. (The replacement for the Nikon D90, the D7000, is positioned upmarket from the 550D.)

References

External links

*
Product Page
{{Canon DSLR cameras 550D Live-preview digital cameras Cameras introduced in 2010