Canon 450D, 500D or 550D

[middy]

I am thinking of buying my wife a DSLR for our 10th wedding anniversary and it will either be a 450D, a 500D or a 550D. Now for daytime use I'm sure that any of them will be just as good and we really wouldn't be able to pick any differences between the images from all three.

My concern is more from a night time point of view when I 'borrow' it. They all have the same size sensor just with more Mega-pixels as you go up in model. I believe that more Mega-pixels -> smaller 'buckets' for the photons -> more noise for long exposures/low light work.

My question is should I get the 450D because it would have the largest 'buckets' for the photons and hopefully less noise, or has the software improved on the newer models and the extra noise with the smaller 'buckets' isn't really a problem?

[Chillie (Henry)]

I have the 450D for general photography. I say go for the 550D. It has better noise figures in low light. Higher ISO.

Check out the reviews for all 3 of them at:

http://www.cameralabs.com/

[Dennis]

Hi Andrew

I think the 550 has a HD Movie mode, Digic IV vs. III processor (450D) as well as improved high ISO noise reduction and more metering segments (63 vs. 35).

If these are important, get the 550!

Cheers

Dennis

[rastis95 (Scott)]

I own the 500d and during daytime use it is really surpurb. Night time is a different matter. It does have great iso range but ive found that anything over iso 800 and a long exposure and the noise starts to get very noticible, even with long exposure noise reduction turned on. You are right about the sensors but i havent seen any noise comparisons with the 550d and the higher megapixles.
Hope that is of some help
Cheers
Scott