There's a built-in microphone on the front of the camera for mono recording, but sadly there's no socket for connecting an external stereo microphone, as on the 5D Mark II. For those times when you prefer to concentrate on great composition the EOS 500D also offers several Basic Modes, which control all the settings. It includes a faster Digic 4 processor offering better noise reduction at higher ISO's and continuous shooting speeds of up to 3. Just like the 5D Mark II, video recording on the EOS 500D is not the most user-friendly experience, with no handy one-touch recording, painfully slow autofocus that can't keep up with the action, inability to change the aperture or shutter speed, and the inherent handling quirks of the DSLR format.

So what does the new Canon 500D bring that is unique from the others, and has caused it to gain so much attention? You can't set the aperture from the camera in movie mode, so you will want to use lenses that have an aperture ring if possible.This has resulted in a much crisper display that is very usable, even in bright conditions, thanks to new anti-glare coatings. A larger aperture will provide a shallow depth of field - sharp in the foreground with a blurred background - where as a smaller aperture will give a sharp picture throughout.

The Canon DSLR 500D with it's huge CMOS sensor and it's capability to take HD Video will take some beating! The new 15 megapixel CMOS sensor and expanded ISO range thankfully haven't compromised image quality in any way, quite the opposite in fact. By offering video capture in a DSLR, Canon has made it possible for filmmakers to play with depth of field the way they never could, taking advantage of the relatively big APS-C image sensor and the wide assortment of Canon lenses.

The full range of Speedlite models can be attached via the hotshoe and works with E-TTLII to provide complete control. This is particularly useful when it comes to composition, as the rear screen can be used with LiveView mode.

Paraglider, greetings to you my friend, you are of course correct in what you say, it is a bit slow but also being a fully manual camera as well you could, on the occasions that it was a problem, play around with the ISO and shutter speeds to get the required result? Trickling all the way down from the professional 5D Mark II, the inclusion of HD video is sure to guarantee lots additional sales for the 500D, although how many of those people will still be regularly using it after the initial excitement has died down remains to be seen. The new third method, Face Detection AF, uses the same contrast auto-focus system as Live AF, with the addition of being able to detect human faces and set the largest face closest to the center of the frame as the AF point. In Live View Function you can action two Auto Focus (AF) modes: Quick mode, which uses the camera's standard AF system (great for capturing action or for shooting in low light) and Live mode, which is a contrast-based AF system that reads the sharpness of subjects right from the imaging sensor, and can be overridden by pressing the AF mode selection button.Raw files are so named because they are not yet processed and therefore are not ready to be printed or edited with a bitmap graphics editor. There are seven preset, auto and custom white balance options, and Canon have included a Spot mode, covering 4% of the viewfinder, along with the other three metering modes, which is a very useful addition for more experienced photographers. Indeed, Canon is the only camera manufacturer to produce their own sensor and years of imaging experience are borne out by the results - a range of sensors designed to perfectly match the performance requirements of each specific EOS model and superb clean detailed images with minimum noise. The only function missing is the ability to plug in an external microphone, but otherwise this appears fairly comprehensive. You also get the lovely 920,000 dot VGA monitor that has been slowly working its way down most manufacturer's DSLR line-ups.