Canon has announced a brand new video-shooting DSLR, the EOS 650D. This freaks me out a little bit as I used to sell the EOS 650 to people as a part of my Saturday job in a camera store. The 650 was a 35mm SLR that Canon made from 1987 to 1989, and it was the company’s first auto-focus SLR.
Back to today. The 650D has all that you’d expect from a modern camera, plus a swing-out touch-sensitive LCD screen.
Controlling the functions of an SLR is easy enough using the wealth of buttons and dials at your finger (and thumb) tips. But the flip-open screen also supports multitouch, letting you zoom in on photos to review them, and to swipe your way through menus. And the 1,040k-dot display makes such close-ups worthwhile.
Meanwhile, the guts of the machine are similarly impressive. A sensible 18MP sensor shoots at up to ISO 12,800, the nine autofocus points are all the more accurate cross type, and the camera is made to shoot movies, with 1080p at 24, 25 and 30 frames-per-second, and continuous AF which plays nice with Canon’s range of silent movie lenses.
It even has stereo mics for sound, and an "Integrated Speedlite Transmitter" for remote controlling flashes.
It’s getting hard to pick a DSLR these days — competition is so intense that just about anything will be good, and this one looks no different. The 650D will be available at the end of the month (June) for $850 body only.
