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 image, or the smallest point in an all points addressable display device. In most digital display devices, pixels are the ...

digital single-lens reflex camera A digital single-lens reflex camera (digital SLR or DSLR) is a digital camera that combines the optics and the mechanisms of a single-lens reflex camera with a digital imaging sensor. The reflex design scheme is the primary difference between a ...

, announced by

Canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western can ...

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 on 25 March 2009. It was released in May 2009. It is known as the EOS Kiss X3 in Japan, and as the EOS Rebel T1i in North America. It continue ...

. 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 where each pixel sensor unit cell has a photodetector (typically a pinned photodiode) and one or more active transistors. In a metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) active-pixel sensor, MOS field-e ...

* 1080p 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). O ...

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

720p 720p (1280×720 px; also called HD ready, standard HD or just HD) is a progressive HDTV signal format with 720 horizontal lines/1280 columns and an aspect ratio (AR) of 16:9, normally known as widescreen HDTV (1.78:1). All major HDTV broadcas ...

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

PAL Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a colour encoding system for analogue 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 The first American standard for analog television broadcast was developed by National Television System Committee (NTSC)National Television System Committee (1951–1953), Report and Reports of Panel No. 11, 11-A, 12–19, with Some supplement ...

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 imagin ...

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

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. Liquid crystals do not emit light directly but i ...

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 is a standard RGB (red, green, blue) color space that HP and Microsoft created cooperatively in 1996 to use on monitors, printers, and the World Wide Web. It was subsequently standardized by the International Electrotechnical Commission ...

and

Adobe RGB The Adobe RGB (1998) color space or opRGB is a color space developed by Adobe Systems, Inc. in 1998. It was designed to encompass most of the colors achievable on CMYK color printers, but by using RGB primary colors on a device such as a co ...

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 representa ...

s *

ISO ISO is the most common abbreviation for the International Organization for Standardization. ISO or Iso may also refer to: Business and finance * Iso (supermarket), a chain of Danish supermarkets incorporated into the SuperBest chain in 2007 * Is ...

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

JPEG JPEG ( ) is a commonly used method of lossy compression for digital images, particularly for those images produced by digital photography. The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and im ...

), 6 images (

raw Raw is an adjective usually describing: * Raw materials, basic materials from which products are manufactured or made * Raw food, uncooked food Raw or RAW may also refer to: Computing and electronics * .RAW, a proprietary mass spectrometry data ...

)) * SD,

SDHC Secure Digital, officially abbreviated as SD, is a proprietary non-volatile flash memory card format developed by the SD Association (SDA) for use in portable devices. The standard was introduced in August 1999 by joint efforts between Sa ...

, and

SDXC Secure Digital, officially abbreviated as SD, is a proprietary non-volatile flash memory card format developed by the SD Association (SDA) for use in portable devices. The standard was introduced in August 1999 by joint efforts between San ...

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

USB 2.0 Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard that establishes specifications for cables, connectors and protocols for connection, communication and power supply (interfacing) between computers, peripherals and other computers. A broad ...

HDMI High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is a proprietary audio/video interface for transmitting uncompressed video data and compressed or uncompressed digital audio data from an HDMI-compliant source device, such as a display controll ...

control ( CEC) * LP-E8

battery Battery 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 *Automotive battery, a device to provide power t ...

*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 olde ...

, PhotoStitch, EOS Utility and Picture Style Editor. Battery Grip

Optional accessories

The Canon 550D has available accessories such as: * All EF and EF-S Lenses *

Macro Macro (or MACRO) may refer to: Science and technology * Macroscopic, subjects visible to the eye * Macro photography, a type of close-up photography * Image macro, a picture with text superimposed * Monopole, Astrophysics and Cosmic Ray Observat ...

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 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 release (and other contro ...

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 used 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 (GPL) 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 Liverpo ...

'' 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 D90. It features a 2.7-inch 230,000-dot resolution tilt-and-swivel LCD monitor (D90 is , 92 ...

Nikon D3100 The Nikon D3100 is a 14.2-megapixel DX format DSLR Nikon F-mount camera announced by Nikon on August 19, 2010. It replaced the D3000 as Nikon's entry level DSLR. It introduced Nikon's new EXPEED 2 image processor and was the first Nikon DSLR feat ...

, Canon 500D,

Nikon D90 The Nikon D90 is a 12.3 megapixel digital single-lens reflex camera (DSLR) model announced by Nikon on August 27, 2008. It is a prosumer model that replaces the Nikon D80, fitting between the company's entry-level and professional DSLR models. I ...

, 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 The Nikon D3200 is a 24.2-megapixelGoogle Image: Nikon D3200 sample, review and user images, >20MPix JPEG or Raw (NEF)/ref> DX format DSLR Nikon F-mount camera officially launched by Nikon on April 19, 2012. It is marketed as an entry-level DSLR c ...

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 The Nikon D7000 is a 16.2-megapixel digital single-lens reflex camera (DSLR) model announced by Nikon on September 15, 2010. It replaced the D90 as the top end consumer camera, by using much of the technology and controls from the earlier D5000, ...

, is positioned upmarket from the 550D.)

References

External links

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