Sweet New Toys from Canon (50D) and Nikon (D90)

Photokina 2008 is barely a month away, and camera giants Nikon and Canon (or Canon and Nikon, for my latter-biased friends ) have started pumping out new babies to hungry photography enthusiasts the world over.

Canon is said to be releasing the EOS 50D, a sister model of last year’s popular release, the 40D. Nikon, on the other hand, is set to release the D90, the world’s first DSLR with Movie Mode (at a sweet 720p HDTV quality, albeit forgettable Mono sound quality, so that they can still say, “hey, at least we still bothered.”).

I’m a Nikon user, and I love my D70s (which is now in danger of being replaced and moved into a DSLR nursing home if there ever was one), but I can appreciate what both brands have to offer.  If I had assimilated myself into the Canon family first, I would probably still be using the brand until now. I’ll let other people defend their brand advocacies and just nod along to each argument.

So here’s a quick look at some readily comparable features available in the upcoming Canon 50D and Nikon D90:

	Nikon D90	Canon EOS 50D
Effective pixels	12.2 mp	15.1mp
AF Points	11 points	9 points
LCD Monitor	3.0″ TFT LCD	3.0″ TFT LCD
ISO	ISO 200 to 3200	ISO 100 to 1600
Continuous Shooting	4.5 fps	6.3 / 3.0 fps, 60/90 frames
Damage to Bank Account	$1299 with 18-105 VR kit lens (or roughly around Php 60k)	$1599 with 18-200 IS lens (or roughly around Php 72k)

If you need more facts and specs so you can brag about how great the new Nikon is to your Canon-toting friends (or vice-versa), visit both hands-on previews at the ever-reliable Dpreview website (Or straight here for the EOS 50D review, and here for the Nikon D90 review).