Pros: High quality images, low noise, blazing performance, excellent battery life, value for money
Cons: Kit lens somewhat disappointing, no spot metering, sub-par incandescent performance at AWB
The Bottom Line: The Canon Digital Rebel XT offers amazing photo quality, great feature set, super-fast performance and a complete software bundle for a modest price. An incredible bargain!
Andrew_Lim's Full Review: Canon Digital Rebel XT / EOS 350D Digital Camera w...
A Note to the Reader: A considerable amount of time was spent debating on whether I ought to write another review. Most would agree that it is incredibly taxing to write a thorough review, especially on complicated things such as electronics. But with challenge comes fun.
First Days
Photography was never of any real interest to me till I bought the Canon PowerShot A40 back in December 2002. It was costly, but taking that plunge was worth it, and it was this camera that helped me build a burning passion for photography.
The functionality of the A40 allowed me a lot of room to experiment and ‘grow’. In the process, it put me out of the digital camera scene for over two years, the time during which many exciting developments occurred.
When the 6 megapixel Canon EOS 10D was released in late January 2003 it created a stir by breaking the $US2000 barrier just a year after the Canon EOS D60 was announced at a price of $US2199. In August 2003, Canon shook the world with the introduction of the Canon Digital Rebel/ 300D, a sub-$US1000 digital SLR (D-SLR) designed to cater to the prosumer market. Many would argue that the 300D was in reality a dumbed-down version of the 10D in a plastic body: it was crippled by pre-installed firmware which removed certain features originally found on its higher-priced sibling. Not surprisingly, users soon began to produce hacks that could restore these features on the 300D…a dark moment for Canon. But at a list price of $US899, the 300D was an incredible value for money to serious amateurs and semi-professionals.
With stiff competition from other companies such as Nikon, Olympus and Pentax on the horizon, Canon couldn’t afford to be outclassed and fought back with the release of the Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT/ 350D/ Kiss n Digital in February 2005 at a list price of US$899 (body only, and US$999 for the body and an EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens). It is available in both black and silver.
The powerful 350D and moderate price became very attractive to me. I decided to pronounce my A40 ‘retired’ and purchased the 350D, making it the second camera I’ve ever owned. With history out of the way, let’s get this thing on the road.
New and Noteworthy
- 8.0 megapixel, second-generation CMOS sensor: 22.2mm X 14.8mm
- DIGIC II processor: better color and detail rendition, faster processing times, consumes less energy
- 0.2 seconds startup time
- captures 14 JPEG frames (at highest quality) in a single burst at 3 FPS
- lightest D-SLR on the market, and almost the smallest (second only to the Pentax *ist DS)
- 7 AF points, manually selectable
- 9 custom functions, exposure compensation and flash exposure compensation
- mirror lockup: crucial for supertelephoto and macro shots to reduce vibration blur
- sRGB and Adobe RGB color spaces: for personal and industrial/ printing purposes, respectively
- can record separate RAW and JPEG images simultaneously
Package Contents
- 8.0 megapixel (effective) Canon Digital Rebel XT, eyecup, body cap
- EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II lens (kit only)
- battery pack
- charger (a power cord may be supplied depending on the charger model)
- USB 2.0 cable
- video cable
- camera strap eyepiece cover
- EOS DIGITAL solution disk
- ArcSoft PhotoStudio disk
- software instruction disk
- pocket guide
- full instruction manual, printed, 170 pages with labeled diagrams
- software guide
- battery pack instructions
- lens details and instructions (kit only)
- camera warranty card
Notice that a CF card is not included. Naturally, it is best to purchase a large capacity card, 512MB or better. High-speed cards are preferred because it can improve the burst function of the camera. Microdrives are also supported, and they have greater storage at the expense of speed and power consumption. Convince your dealer to throw in a free card (and maybe even a camera bag) for you to sweeten the deal.
Besides that, the package is, for all intents and purposes, complete. The software bundle is excellent, providing programs such as Canon’s very own ZoomBrowser EX (has a RAW converter), Digital Photo Professional 1.6 (allows for more complex RAW adjustments) and ArcSoft PhotoStudio. If you are keen on doing some serious processing work, the latest version of Adobe Photoshop will may suit you.
First Impressions
Being an SLR system the EOS 350D is not pocket-sized but it is a midget compared to almost all other SLRs on the market. Weighing in at a tiny 485g (body alone), this camera is a pleasure to use and carry with me wherever I go. The body itself is made of polycarbonate, a heat and shatter-resistant material found in airplane windscreens. The surface has a sand-blasted appearence which may also make it scratch resistant.
Overall, the body is very solid, well-constructed and the parts are tightly held together. Although the CF door is flush with the rest of the body, it is still quite easy to slide open so do be cautious. Doing so will shut the camera down and any images that are being written from the buffer to the CF card will be lost. The rubber cover that protects the video, USB and remote control ports is also more flimsy than I’d expect.
Given the size of the camera, it is not surprising that the handgrip is narrower. However, it is still comfortable and I was able to conform to this within minutes of use.
Features
The controls at the back of the camera are clearly laid-out, with dedicated buttons for access to the menu, image playback, erasing and the LCD panel backlight. Each of the four buttons of the four-way switch can be used to quickly access ISO, light metering modes, white balance and the AF modes…a handy feature.
Another two buttons allow for changes to the drive mode, aperture values and exposure compensation (together with the main dial situated near the shutter release button). And let’s not forget the zoom-in and zoom-out buttons which are also used to select AF points and access the AE and FE lock features.
There is also a 1.8 inch TFT color monitor (115,000 pixels) and the LCD panel which can be lit by an orange backlight when shooting at night. The brightness of the monitor can be adjusted by +/- 5 levels. At the brightest setting it is still difficult to view in bright sunlight, even more so because its protective cover has no anti-reflective coating.
Above it all rests the optical viewfinder that has 95% coverage and is accompanied by a dioptric adjustment knob…it’s good news for the bespectacled folks, which I am sure most of us are! Through the viewfinder, it is also possible to see the shutter speed, aperture value, focus confirmation light and the number of shots left for burst firing.
A separate indicator acts as a red-eye reduction lamp-on indicator, displays the exposure compensation level (+/- 2 stops at 1/3 or 1/2 stop increments), exposure bracketing range and even an exposure level indicator!
The final one on that list actually shows how far you are from the 'standard exposure' when in full manual mode, and I was all-ears when the dealer explained this to me. This would mean less guesswork on exposure factors. In practice, this feature performed well in daylight, but almost always caused me to overexpose city skyline photographs at night. To work around this, I intentionally underexpose my night shots. But I must add that the impressions of over and underexposure are subjective.
This indicator might work well for you, but if it doesn’t, auto exposure bracketing is there to help. It will allow you to take three successive shots up to +/- 2 stops away from the standard exposure, at 1/3 or 1/2 stop increments.
Although the EOS 350D was produced for more serious hobbyists in mind, it remains intuitive and easy to use. The metal mode dial is divided into the basic and creative zone:
Basic Zone
- full auto
- portrait
- landscape
- close-up/ macro
- sports: a fast shutter speed is automatically chosen, and the focus mode is set to track the subject.
- night portrait: the flash fires to illuminate the subject and exposure time is lengthened to get the background correctly exposed.
- flash off
Creative Zone
- program: shutter speed and aperture values are set automatically but can be changed via the main dial while maintaining the same exposure.
- shutter priority
- aperture priority
- full manual
- auto depth-of-field: the camera spots near and far objects and produces the depth of field necessary for everything to be in focus; perfect for group photos.
The basic zone thus transforms the camera into a powerful point-and-shoot camera that is idiot-proof and requires very little learning on the user’s part.
Image Quality
Photo quality in SLR systems is greatly dependent on the quality of the lens. A poor lens on a top-notch body will still produce mediocre results. Being on a tight budget, I only have the kit lens, so this is what I’ll use for the purposes of this review.
When it comes to judging cameras, I feel that image quality is king, feature set and performance is queen, and value for money comes after that. And the EOS 350D does not disappoint. Image quality is, in a word, excellent. In sunny conditions, fine details are well-captured, with colors saturated and accurately rendered.
Some consumers may still find that the images lack that 'omph' they are used to receiving on their entry-level cameras. I believe Canon has chosen to err on the side of caution and avoid overprocessing their images. Besides, it is easy to tweak image settings as necessary on computer to achieve the desired effect, and I enjoy the flexibility that the 350D gives. Please note that higher-end D-SLRs will give results that are even more neutral than that of this camera.
On overcast days (which are common in Singapore), colors appear more subdued, but even so the camera handles small color gradations well (as far as my eye can see).
There is very pleasing contrast on textured surfaces such as sand, animal fur and also amongst branches of small leaves. In addition to this, the images are silky smooth with no disturbances from noise. I noticed that photos tended to turn out looking a little soft despite the use of in-camera sharpening, but this can hardly be considered a flaw. Higher-end cameras apply less in-camera sharpening to their images than consumer point-and-shoot models, and let the photographer perform processing to their own tastes.
Speaking of in-camera processing, the camera contains 2 preset parameter sets and three others that are user defined. Contrast, sharpness, saturation and color tone can be adjusted independently by +/- 2 levels.
If you wish, the camera can also take B/W photographs, and there are several filter effects (yellow, orange, red and green) and toning effects (sepia, blue, green and purple) to complement this feature.
Performance
The 350D performs at blazing-fast speeds, especially for a camera of this price range. In the 300D, a user had to wait for closer to three seconds before it could be used. The startup time of this camera has now dropped significantly to just 0.2 seconds. The 350D is always ready to shoot way before I can get the lens cover off and frame my subject. In the event that the camera shuts off after a period of inactivity, it can be powered on again by pressing the shutter button halfway, and it is ready to go just as quickly.
The 7-point AF system works effectively and very quickly, locking focus in much less than a second. Even under dimmer conditions the camera is able to achieve focus in a second or less. Three focusing modes are available:
- One Shot: for objects that are completely still, or cooperative subjects.
- AI Servo: a nifty feature, it allows the camera to track a moving subject and keep it in focus continually. If the rate of movement is constant, the camera predicts the optimum focus at the time the photo is captured.
- AI Focus: the subject is initially focused in One Shot mode, but the camera will automatically switch over to AI Servo if the subject starts to move.
For difficult subjects, switch the kit lens to manual focus mode and adjust the focus according to your intentions.
The built-in flash is effective over 3.7m (wide angle) or 2.3m (telephoto). Increasing the ISO increases the effective distance, but the camera also supports external flashes via a hotshoe if you need a bit more flash strength. The camera incorporates the E-TTL II autoflash system which gathers information about subject distance to allow more accurate flash exposures. Like the older 300D, red-eye is not an issue on the 350D.
The camera also uses the flash as an AF beam, and it can be set to emit in low light conditions, but the flash unit must be popped up, and the final photograph will also be taken with the flash. This beam is only effective for a distance of 4 meters.
Being particularly keen about night photography, I took my camera to the streets, and once again, the EOS 350D proved itself to be a sound performer, capturing small architectural details from afar. Full manual controls and a wide range of ISO settings (100, 200, 400, 800 and 1600) gave me more flexibility than I ever had with my A40.
Noise levels are surprisingly low even at the higher ISO settings. At ISO 100, images are very clean and silky smooth. At ISO 200, I was hard-pressed to find any significant change in quality. Once we hit ISO 400, very fine speckles become visible in 100% crops in the shadow areas, but it’s amazing to see how well the noise level is controlled. The grain at ISO 1600 is still tolerable and the image is completely usable. If it’s only used to make smaller prints, the defects will hardly be noticed.
For the sake of completeness, a noise reduction feature is included and it kicks in at exposures of 30 seconds or longer at ISO 100 – 800. At ISO 1600, noise reduction is activated at exposures of 1 second or longer. Do be aware that the camera will lock up during the noise reduction stage, and this will last for as long as the exposure time itself.
Good high-ISO performance is extremely important. In situations where using a flash is prohibited, the increase in ISO will make a difference between a handheld shot and one that needs to be taken from a tripod.
Many shutter speeds are available from 1/4000 seconds to 30 seconds, and there’s a bulb setting that allows the camera to take in light for as long as the shutter release button is held down.
As a side note, aperture values will depend on the lens you are using. But with the kit lens, apertures go from f/3.5 down to f/36. There have been reports of obvious softening of images and ghosting when smaller apertures are used, and even more so at full telephoto. This is something I have not been able to verify yet, and I’ve had good results with f/10 in my night photographs.
But I had one solitary disaster photo. I have not been able to discern the cause for the softness, though I’m beginning to feel that it was the result of overzealous pressing of the shutter release button.
My other gripe is that the lens is slow at a range f/3.5-5.6, and my earlier photographs were plagued by motion blur and camera-shake. To compensate for this, I bumped the ISO up to 200. Now I’m even tempted to push for ISO 400 since the noise levels are so low. Apart from those issues, the kit lens is a natural choice for those on a budget. It adds a small cost to the body-only package, is lightweight and yields a useful effective focal range of 29-88mm, equivalent to a 3X zoom.
The EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM would make an excellent companion to the EOS 350D but it is costly.
The camera features three standard light metering modes: evaluative, partial and center-weighted average metering. Unfortunately, there’s no selective spot metering mode. Moving on, there are plenty of white balance presets available, including a customizable white balance feature. For more discerning folks, there’s also a function to correct white balance and a white balance auto bracketing feature which will take 3 photos with varying hues.
The automatic white balance function does well under most conditions but I’d use tungsten under incandescent light to get more accurate color reproduction.
Last but not least, let's touch on battery life. The EOS 350D uses the rechargeable lithium-ion NB-2LH battery pack, which Canon claims will deliver 600 shots without flash or 400 shots if the flash is used 50% of the time.
But as with some things in life, 'your mileage may vary', and it is difficult to comment accurately on battery performance. Battery life is affected by it's age, how long it was left unused, whether it was conditioned (discharged and recharged a few times when first purchased) before testing, and also by temperature. Using the LCD monitor and LCD panel backlight more regularly will drain battery life. Burst shooting, use of the AI Servo mode and long exposures will also add more strain.
Even so, it might be comforting to note that I've managed close to 400 photographs so far on a single charge, and the battery life indicator has only dropped a notch. The flash was used infrequently during this time, but 24 of these were night photographs, taken with exposure times as long as 15 seconds. The LCD monitor was also used very often since I'm still in the learning phase.
A battery grip is sold separately for travellers who spend a lot of time away from home. It can hold two NB-2LH battery packs or 6 AA batteries. In addition to providing added stability, it also hosts the vertical grip shutter button, AF point selection button, aperture setting button and more.
Some Observations
Chances are high that you are an advanced amateur or semi-professional who has gained much experience after using point-and-shoot cameras for a period of time, and you are ready to jump into the market for a faster and more capable camera. If this is the case, there are a few things to consider before jumping into D-SLRs.
The LCD monitor on D-SLRs cannot be used to compose an image, and it is there for the purposes of reviewing images or changing camera settings. The optical viewfinder must be used instead, but since this will not cover 100% of the actual scene, some allowances in composition must be made.
The effect of focal length and aperture on depth-of-field is much more pronounced in SLR systems than casual cameras. A short focal length and small aperture are preferred for greater depth of field. Do check these factors especially before taking landscape photos because many details will be out of focus with a small depth-of-field.
Some of the higher-end point-and-shoot cameras have features that challenge those of D-SLRs, and at a lower price. The Canon PowerShot Pro1 and the Sony DSC-F828 are two examples. They are both 8 megapixel cameras featuring 7X zoom lenses, which are also faster than this kit lens. On top of that, they are smaller, lighter and have a movie mode.
D-SLRs have the edge in terms of image quality, responsiveness and ISO performance but are going to be more expensive than these fixed-lens cameras in the long run. In my opinion, today’s buyer on a moderate budget should also take the high-end fixed lens cameras into consideration, compare the features side-by-side, and then decide what would best suit his/ her needs.
Conclusion
The Canon Digital Rebel XT proves that good things do come in small packages. It is an outstanding performer in terms of image quality, and it is also responsive, operating very quickly. The near zero startup time, zero shutter lag and fast focus means that I will never miss a shot again. The little quibbles that I have with this device are very minor, and the strengths far outweigh its weaknesses.
I find it difficult to fault the camera for its built quality, for in my opinion, it is solidly constructed. It may feel cheaper to professionals who prefer handling cameras with magnesium bodies. But given the choice between the diminutive EOS 350D and a heavy, expensive killing machine, I’d know which one to take during my long photography walks. Both will get the job done, but the Digital Rebel XT will do it in style, and with a greater degree of comfort.
Revised 17-6-05
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1000 This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Flexible Enough for Enthusiasts
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