Canon EOS 450D

Canon UK announced that they are opening a cash-back program for photographic students of various UK institutions. Teachers, lecturers and technicians in the same institutions will also be eligible.

The cash-back on the EOS 450D configurations amounts to £50, whereas it climbs to £65 on a Canon EOS 500D. It will run until 31 October 2009.

Source: www.canon.co.uk/futurephotocashback

Canon information:

From the 11th September to 31st October 2009 if you are a student, lecturer or technician working on a recognised university photographic course you can save up to £65 on a purchase of a new Canon EOS camera.

Purchase either an EOS 450D and claim £50 cashback or an EOS 500D and claim £65. All you have to do is purchase the camera (any configuration) from an authorised retailer in the UK or Ireland, download and complete the claim form from this page, send along with a photocopy of your receipt and photocopy of your academic status (NUS card, Academic security pass or course acceptance letter) to the address on the form. You will then receive a cheque within 28 days.

EOSInfo is a small utility program which allows you to read the internal counter of shutter operations from your Canon EOS dSLR camera (except for the Canon EOS 500D). It installs on Windows, it is free, it works well.

Since some people have a hard time finding it, the Canon EOS 450D (aka Canon Rebel XSi) owner’s manual (6.9MB PDF file) is now available for download from the Canon website.

There was no Canon EOS 500D at Las Vegas PMA Fair. Not even the shadow of the premature announcement of an SLR camera. So, people’s spirits start fuming and you can find the most varied vapors transformed into near certain suppositions about its arrival (nobody has a doubt about the nearness of the launch of the successor to the Canon EOS 450D). Here is a small summary:

• Against all logic (but based upon a very short and rather imprecise Danish post), many are trying to believe that the announcement of the Canon EOS 500D will be done on 25 March.
• The control interface could be improved with a jog wheel but nobody seems to be able to confirm such a thing.
• The arrival of the Olympus E-620 seems to have given substance to the rumour of a tilt-and-swivel LCD screen. It would have an excellent (marketing) justification in the success of the Sony Alpha 300/350.
• It has often been repeated in the recent months that Canon will use this camera to present a new flash (or bounce flash). It would be surprising on an entry-level camera…
• Face detection could be added to direct the Autofocus operation (Nice idea, this).

So, we’re left with some time to wait before we can be sure.

So, you wanted to do some Infrared (IR) photo with your Canon EOS 450D/Rebel XSi? Just have a look at the IR tests done by Wayne J. Cosshall.

By the way, traditionnally, since the Foveon technology of sensors does not use infrared filters, the Sigma dSLR cameras are very good candidates for IR photo.