The Canon Ninety D has been out since October, the Canon Rebel Tea Eight Eye will be available
in April. Trying to decide if you need the power of the Ninety D, or if the Rebel gives
you everything you need? Stay tuned. I’ll give you the information to help you decide.
Intro
The Canon Rebel Tea Eight Eye and the Ninety D come with the Digic eight processor. Startup
time is fast, LCD and other controls are fast and responsive. This is big for the ordinary
filmmaker that needs to capture moments as they happen. Have a child and want to capture
them in action, set the camera to full auto and it is ready within a second.
Shooting sports or fast action photography needs at least seven frames per second to
produce good results. The rebel is more than adequate as a starter camera for sports photography.
Seven frames per second captures the shots you need and the autofocus nails the shot
most of the time. The ninety D shoots up to ten frames per second mechanical through the
view finder increasing your odds of capturing the perfect shot over the Rebel and with increased
accuracy. Both cameras have limited time to refocus between shots. Not every shot will
nail focus on either camera.
The Ninety D with its faster shutter and improved autofocus increases the probability that you
will be successful more with the ninety D than with the Rebel. If you are serious about
fast action photography be aware that the buffer allows for Fifty-Eight Jay Peg or 25
raw photos before filling. Good for most people and most situations. It’s great for water
skiing, running, car racing and so on. But if you are serious about getting into sports
photography, or plan to make a living from your shots, there are better cameras like
the one DX mark III, 5D mark 4 Sony a seven four. More expensive cameras for sure, but
if you plan to make a living from sports photography, you are competing against a field of photographers
and neither the Ninety D or the Rebel will compete well in this field, but it is a good
starter camera. I’ve been shooting photos for twenty years for personal use. Seven frames
per second is what I consider the minimum bar to get the shot. I’ve used it for water
skiing, car racing and amateur sports. Either of these cameras satisfy my needs to fast
action and should work for most ordinary photographers.
BREAK. Dual Pixel autofocus is used in live view providing almost complete coverage. Dual
pixel is the only option for video and considered by many, including myself, to be the best
focusing system not the market for video. It is reliable, trustworthy and does not hunt.
I am using the seven year old Seventy D for this channel and I leave it on autofocus because
it never misses. The 90D has better autofocus than the 80D and has eye detection. I still
prefer to use the viewfinder for photos. Perhaps it’s just because I grew up shooting that
way. I find shooting photos through the live view to be unnatural. Sure the autofocus is
not as good, but I’m okay wth that trade off, but for video, the flip screen live view
is amazing. The ability to tap to pull focus, or to constantly change focus by moving my
finger on the LCD.
In Face Detection Mode, the 90D will prioritize the closest face, but you can drag your finger
around and it will shift focus instantly. The 90D may not be the most feature rich camera,
but it excels in ease of use across all camera capabilities. I can put the 90D down for a
few months, pick it back up and still be able to navigate through the menus and find what
I need. Ease of use is very important to me. I define ease of use as being able to use
and navigate the cameras capabilities with little to no training needed.
BREAK.Both cameras provide Four Kay, Ten Eighty and Seven-Twenty resolutions for video. The
Ninety D provides the standard frames rates of twenty four, twenty five and thirty frames
per second in 4K. The Rebel does not provide 30 frames per second in 4K. I won’t go into
a ton of detail here as this video covers frame rates in detail so here’s a high level
summary.
Twenty four frames per second gives a more cinematic look by creating motion blur. Thirty
frames per second captures life more as it happens. Whats more important? A dreamy look
or true to life. To simplify, documentaries generally shoot thirty frames per second capturing
life realistically. Hollywood movies generally shoot Twenty Four frames per second. Twenty
four frames also takes up less space. About twelve to fifteen percent less space than
thirty frames per second. If you shoot in both Thirty and Twenty-Four so that means
the Rebel would not work for you. But if you shot Twenty-Four or Twenty-Five and don’t
need thirty, the Rebel is a good option. Look at my earlier video bout frame rates where
I take more time to explain when to use which frame rate. It’s an early video so the quality
is not top shelf, but it has all the necessary information. Whatever you shoot today, its
nice to have the option to change your frame rate. I started filming in Twenty-Four, then
switched to Thirty, and am now going back and forth depending on the project.
Both cameras produce good detail in 4K and Ten-Eighty. Color is captured at Eight Bit
Four-Two-Zero, and looks good. Detail is good, but not great. Want really good detailed Ten-Eighty
video, shoot in 4K and then downsample. Downsampling creates a better detailed image because 4K
has four times the information as 1080. Downsampling is not complicated. In your computer’s
editing software, set up the project as Nineteen-Twenty by Ten-Eighty. Import the 4K video to your
editing software, and your software will do all the work for you, creating a much sharper
video than if you shot in ten-eighty.
Shooting in 4K means larger files, but should not be unmanageable. The Ninety-D and Rebel
shot using IPB compression resulting in much smaller files. However, if you are doing a
lot of colour grading effects, this might start to go sideways, but for most scenarios
you are going to be happy with the results.
While 4K makes great Ten-Eighty, 4K video itself is soft compared to other cameras so
it does not work very well as a master file. This matters if you like to crop or zoom in.
I often shoot 4K and crop into the image to create a more dynamic scene without having
to move the camera and reframe. I just talked about downsampling 4K into a ten-eighty project
and said that it creates very good detail. But if I wanted to zoom into that 4K video,
the image would get soft, losing the detail. The 90D provides more detailed 4K video mode
if you are willing to accept a One Point Two crop factor, but this will cause the camera
to heat up and won’t be something you could very well use for YouTube, but would be fine
for run and gun where you are just shooting short clips. The 90D offers up another advantage
over the Rebel when shooting 4K. The 90D provides full sensor read out so there is no additional
crop on top of the One Point Six crop already provided with the APS-C sensor.
If having detailed 4K is important, I suggest looking at the Sony Sixty-Four Hundred or
the Fuji X Tea Four. But both cameras cost more than either the Rebel or the Ninety-D,
but provide a much more detailed 4K and offer several film simulation modes. Additional
detailed can be had by recording externally over the HDMI port on both the 90D and the
Rebel. The quality increases as both cameras output from the sensor directly and provide
eight bit Four-Two-Two instead of Four-Two-Zero. But external recorders can easily set you
back Six hundred dollars of more once kitted out.
BREAK. Slow motion is an excellent film making technique. I love it. Any frame rate over
your standard frame rate is considered slow motion. If you project frame rate is thirty
frames per second, sixty frames gives you two time slow motion. One Twenty gives you
four times slow motion. One Hundred and Twenty frames per second is where the magic happens.
One Twenty slows down the scene providing very smooth motion. Great when you want to
focus on your subject. It’s also very effective at stabilizing video in a shaky environment
such as horseback riding.
The Rebel tops out at Sixty frames per second while the 90D offers One Hundred and Twenty
frames per second. Unfortunately, Canon’s cripple hammer struck locking focus. Some
channels write off One Twenty on the Ninety-D due to lack of autofocus. Tech Gear Talk says
that the image quality is very good, there is no continuous autofocus. No image stabilization.
And no audio in this mode. the lack of autofocus makes this feature almost useless. Tech Gear
Talk is not alone in this opinion. As YouTubers, we are not perfect and sometimes
we are a little harsh on cameras and sometimes we make mistakes. One twenty is not almost
useless. Far from it. The Ninety D produces very good slow motion. There is a simple workaround
to the lack of autofocus. Shoot at a higher F-Stop. A higher F stop increases the depth
of field. Most of the frame stays in focus. Try setting the f stop to eight or higher
and you will be pleasantly surprised. Second, I don’t understand how lack of stabilization
is an issue in One Twenty. The very nature of 120 smooths out the video making the need
to stabilization a moot point. Sure autofocus would be nice, but play with the F Stop and
you will get great results.
BREAK. The 90D and Rebel do not provide in body image stabilization. Image stabilization
is a must for video scenarios, and useful shooting photos with longer exposures. While
the ninety D and the Rebel do not have In Body Image Stabilization, canon has a large
lens library with image stabilization that provides good results. Not as good as what
the Panasonic GH5 provides. Even with great Ibis, learn the basics of filming. Knowing
how to hold the camera, stabilizing using a tripod, bracing yourself, or framing against
a solid object like a wall will help you improve your output. This video describes three simple
and cheap ways to stabilize your video footage with the camera or lens stabilization is not
available. Again, this is one of my early video so audio is not top shelf.
BREAK. My favourite go anywhere, general purpose lens for video is the eighteen to One Thirty
Five U S M. For photo centric users, the Eighteen to One Thirty Five U S M is my favourite general
purpose lens for these cameras. It is stabilized and has a quiet focus motor. The U S M provides
sharper more detailed photos than the STM, but the older U S M focus motor can be heard
in video mode and is very distracting. However, the new U S M lens is silent. You will not
hear the focus motor and you will be able to pull smooth zooms. The Eighteen to One
Thirty Five is what I used ninety percent of the time for run and gun on the 70D. This
should be your first lens. It is more expensive, but if you go with the 18 to 55 kit lens,
you’ll regret the purchase before the year is out. The eighteen to One Thirty Five is
my travel lens, go anywhere lens. If you can only have one lens, and you are not doing
youtube work, this should be it.
For Youtube or studio work, I have two lenses. The 50 One Point Two is the lens that I use.
I love the quality and the wide open aperture, but it is expensive and you need a large room
or you will be too zoomed in. I am shooting with it right now and the camera is ten feet
away from me. A much more affordable lens is the 24 millimetre F Two Point Eight. It
can be had for $175 or less. It’s better for small studios and still produces a decent
background blur.
Both cameras can use EF and E F S glass. So if you buy the Rebel, you can migrate your
glass to the 90D when you upgrade, or even the EOS RF system. Canon has a deep inventory
of EF glass so take time to review what is out there. However, if your roadmap does include
you moving to the RF system some day, try to stick with the EF lenses as they will work
much better on the RF system.
BREAK. If you are starting out, developing a roadmap can put you over the edge with a
particular brand. Lenses are more important than chasing the right body. So is the direction
of the manufacturer. Both the rebel and the Ninety D are DSLRs. Canon is focusing its
development on the RF system. They have stated that they will no longer be developing the
EF mount unless there is sufficient demand. They will continue to make existing lenses,
but have no intention to develop new lenses like the RF 28 to 70 or the RF 100 to 500
for the EF mount. There are plenty of EF and EF-S glass available, but the RF system is
where exciting things are happening. Canon has released Ten RF lenses since Twenty Eighteen.
They have plans for another Eight in Twenty Twenty with two extenders. This does not make
the Ninety D or the rebel bad choices. Just do your own research and build your own roadmap.
The Ninety D with the eighteen to one thirty five costs fifteen hundred ninety nine. You
can also get the eighteen to one thirty five in a kit form for the rebel as well. Pricing
is not available for the Tea Eight Eye yet, but the Tea Seven Eye kit is available for
Ten Forty Nine.
Both cameras feel good in the hand. The 90D and Rebel are comfortable to hold, having
a deep grip. Good for people with large hands. But it you have never had a dedicated camera
before, this will feel heavy at first. I stopped noticing the weight once I started seeing
the results, and I shoot with a heavier lens than the 18 to 55. But if One Point Five pounds
seems a little heavy for the body alone and two pounds or more with the lens, consider
the rebel instead. It’s almost a pound lighter, or Two Hundred and Fourteen grams.
The Ninety D beats out the rebel when it comes to operating in the weather. The body is weather
sealed. We are often caught shooting in the rain or snow. Weather sealing gives us the
confidence that our hard earned investment will not be destroyed by some moisture. However,
while the 90D is weather sealed, the EFS lenses are not. And all the kit lenses, including
the ones I recommended in this video are E F S, except for the Fifty F One Point Two
that I recommended against. But you should be okay so long as you are not in a torrential
down pour. I have been shooting outside with my 70D for seven years. Most recently I shot
this video at -11 centigrade, or X Fahrenheit. The wind was around Forty Kay. The snow melted
when it touched the camera. I did not stay outside long because the moisture would eventually
find its way inside. But this is not the only time I have shot in harsh conditions. There
was this time…. and this…. and then this time. These cameras are built well and hold
up well. Just take precautions. Before going out in the cold, cool the camera down slowly.
And when you bring it back inside, warm it up slowly and keep it off for about 30 minutes.
Warming it up quickly can lead to condensation forming and shorting it out.
Same with rain. I have taken my 70D into some pretty harsh conditions. I have taken it to
up to Niagara falls. You can see the rain hitting up against the camera. We were all
getting soaked. It felt like we were at the outer edge of a hurricane so I took some precautions.
I wrapped the camera in plastic only exposing the outer part of the lens, which had a lens
protector. I did this several times. I never had any breakdowns. While I wish had a weather
sealed body, it is possible to protect your gear and minimize the risk of damage. How
will you use you camera? Do you need weather sealing, or are you willing to take your chances
like me? If you’ll be shooting outside a lot, if this is your go anywhere, general
purpose camera, and you have the budget, consider the Ninety D over the rebel.
Battery life is excellent for both of these cameras. A single battery is usually enough
to get through the day, but I like to keep a few spare in case I end up shooting a lot
of video. Battery placement is good for both cameras allowing the battery to be changed
without having to remove the camera from the tripod. The Rebel uses the LP E Seventeen
battery, while the 90D uses the LP E SIX N. I love the LP E SIX N. This battery is used
everywhere. It’s used by the EOS R, 5 D, 6 D and many others. Upgrading to the EOS
R of RP later. No problem, your batteries will follow you. I wonder what battery the
R5 and R6 will have.
BREAK. The 90D has digital image stabilization as does the Rebel. Do not use this. Just don’t.
I don’t want to tell you I told you so. In Body Image Stabilization and Lens stabilization
use hard ware to stabilize the video. Digital stabilization uses in camera software. It
can work well, but when it doesn’t, it creates a warping effect which is very unpleasant,
and there is no way to fix this. If you are going to use this feature, check you video
after shooting. The biggest reason not to use it is that most editing software provides
image stabilization. Do it in post. If the video messes up, you can undo and try to adjust
the settings for a better result. I am not going to get into the crop produced when using
digital stabilization or even enhanced stabilization because you just should not use it. Stay away.
You can still stabilize your video, just use lenses with stabilization and other techniques
found in this video like using a tripod or bracing to reduce camera shake. The use of
a tripod adds extra weight to the camera body causing it to be less jerky.
I had my hands on the 90D yesterday. I was shooting some B roll for this video, and I
almost bought the camera even though I plan to get the EOS R5 or R6 when they come out.
I may still get one later this year or next year, and use it primarily for my channel
and use the R5 as my general purpose run and gun camera.
The Ninety D is not an entry level camera. The Rebel is, but Canon has put so much into
it, that as an ordinary filmmaker or photographer, it will take you years before you will outgrow
the camera. You can run a youtube channel. You can film run and gun work in all sorts
of weather. The Rebel T8i is a great camera, but this is just that much more. If saving
for six more months means you’ll have the 90D over the Tea Eight Eye, you won’t be
disappointed. But don’t let me get you hyped up. Do your own research and come up with
your own roadmap, and also consider what other APS-C cameras not his class have to offer
like the X Tea Four, or the A Sixty Four, or even consider full frame cameras.