Canon EOS 550D
The Canon EOS 550D is an 18.0 megapixel digital single-lens reflex camera, announced by Canon on 8 February 2010. It was available since 24 February 2010 and to US dealers from early March. It is known as the EOS Kiss X4 in Japan, and as the EOS Rebel T2i in the Americas. It is part of Canon's entry/mid-level digital SLR camera series, and was the successor model to the EOS 500D. It was succeeded by the EOS 600D (Kiss X5/Rebel T3i), but remained in Canon's lineup until being discontinued in June  2012 with the announcement of the EOS 650D (Kiss X6i/Rebel T4i). Bundled software. The 550D comes with following image processing and camera operating software: ZoomBrowser EX / ImageBrowser Image Processing, Digital Photo Professional, PhotoStitch, EOS Utility and Picture Style Editor. Optional accessories. The Canon 550D has available accessories such as: Firmware updates. In July 2010, Canon released firmware 1.0.8 that fixed a phenomenon in which the set aperture moves unexpectedly when shooting movies in manual exposure mode using some Canon lenses (such as macro lenses). On 25 December 2010, Canon offered firmware version 1.0.9 which fixed tone jumps in some  images, depending on the shooting scene and when shooting with the Auto Lighting Optimizer settings (low/standard/strong). Custom firmware. Magic Lantern is an open source (GPL) firmware add-on for Canon DSLR cameras, which has enhancements for video and still photography without replacing the stock firmware. The Canon T2i is compatible with Magic Lantern firmware. Reception. The "British Journal of Photography" was impressed by the 550D and said "the EOS 550D is a good match for the 7D at half the price". On "Digital Photography Review", it got overall score of 77%. For most of its product life, alternative  cameras included the Nikon D5000, Nikon D3100, Canon 500D, Nikon D90, and Pentax K-7. Immediately before it was discontinued in 2012, the main competitors of the 550D were the Nikon D3200 and D5100 (respectively the replacements for the D3100 and D5000), Pentax K-r (replacement for the K-x), and the Sony Alpha 57, one of the company's SLT cameras. (The replacement for the Nikon D90, the D7000, is positioned upmarket from the 550D.)