Canon EOS 450D (EOS Digital Rebel XSi / EOS Kiss X2) review

Overexposure issues but great image quality and seemingly accurate focus

Problems:

I recently bought a Canon 450D and had to return it because it always overexposes by 0.17 to 0.666 of a stop when compared to my factory calibrated 350D which has correct exposure. Most of the time it overexposes by 2/3 of a stop even in simple lighting conditions.

The 450D has the latest 1.1.0 firmware. Samples here (shot in RAW, center point AF only, converted in DPP with sharpness 4, contrast -1, saturation -1):

1) users.on.net/~wren26/450d%20overexposure%20(one%20half).zip

2) users.on.net/~wren26/450d%20overexposure%202%20(two%20thirds).zip

3) users.on.net/~wren26/350d%20vs%20450d%20exposure%20(18-55%20non%20IS%20lens).zip

Apparently there are many reports of the 450D overexposure issue in forums like dpreview including one in the official review shown here.

dpreview.com/reviews/CanonEOS450D/page22.asp (2nd last paragraph):

"There's a second reason I'd recommend sticking to RAW+JPEG mode: my experience shooting with the EOS 450D in very bright conditions was that its metering was far from 100% reliable, and whereas its predecessor had a tendency to underexpose, the 450D commits the far greater sin of tending to over expose very contrasty scenes, resulting in clipping of highlights (not helped by the rather contrasty and vivid default Picture Style). There's enough headroom in raw files to pull back any shots like this, but if you're shooting JPEG you'd better be careful to check your exposures with every shot once the conditions get challenging (I had one day of shooting where every single exposure was at -0.7 to -1.3 EV)."

Last weekend I bought a second 450D after testing three of these and comparing shots with my 350D (using the same lens and shooting positions) and found it too had the same issue. I also noticed when using Liveview the exposures will always be less overexposed and more accurate.

So far I have tried 4-5 different 450Ds in stores and have come to the conclusion that the problem exists in most if not all 450ds.

I also noticed something really strange... In some situations where there is a bright light source around you the camera will record a slightly faster exposure when you dont bring your eye to the eyepiece (stray light must be getting in and affecting the light meter). Perhaps that is a side effect of the larger, brighter viewfinder. I confirmed the 500D also does this but my 350D does not.

I hope it is possible to get the over exposure issue fixed at a Canon factory service center. I have read stories about people with 400Ds (which are known to have underexposure issues) and they got theirs fixed by Canon.

My email is jhellier[at]gmail.com if you want to discuss this.