azielce's Full Review: Canon Digital Rebel XT / EOS 350D Digital Camera w...
Bought the 350D (Rebel XT in the US, I believe), as an upgrade to my Canon S70. I felt restricted by the S70's (and other point-and-shoots) because I could not easily autofocus on moving targets. This situation was a particular problem trying to photograph fish in an aquarium. The S70 provided a pushbutton manual focus mechanism, but this in no way compares to the agility a manual focus lens offers.
The 350D was a pleasant upgrade. I got it refurbished, which made it a great deal. I got the 18-55mm kit lens, thinking it would be nice to have to start out with. I was wrong.
The kit lens has a minimum f-stop of f/3.5, which is slow for a medium lens. To compare, the Canon S70 was f/2.8. The kit lens also added a brownish tint to all my pictures, which I could not stand. I quickly upgraded to the 50mm f/1.8 (only $75 at the biggest online camera retailers), and discovered the real capabilities of an SLR.
Since the f/1.8, I was hooked. I continued to try new lenses: longer, faster, heavier, more expensive. The Canon 350D was good to me during this experimentation period.
The 350D is relatively cheap, being less than $600 for the body at the time of this writing. It is also small and light, which worked well for my hands. Maximum shutterspeed was 1/4000 s, and maximum ISO 1600. Pictures are still usable at ISO1600 with a fast lens, so it is great for low light photography.
As for accessories, the wireless shutter control (bought separately) was nice in that it attached to the neck strap and was compact. It had a short range being an IR remote, but it worked well for hands-off tripod shooting. The fact it attaches to the neckstrap makes it easy to bring along wherever one brings the camera.
What I disliked about the 350D was the 1.6x crop factor. Most camera lenses are built for 35mm film. The sensor inside the 350D (and other cheaper DSLRs) is not 35mm wide. It is only about 22mm wide. This means you are cutting out about 22/35 of the whole picture every time you shoot.
The crop factor is a good and bad thing for me. My telephoto lens worked well with this crop factor. The final image "appears" to be an image produced by a lens that is 1.6x longer than the one mounted on the camera. I.e. a 100mm lens will appear to give results of a 160mm lens. Filling the frame with birds from a distance is much easier on a crop body, with great results.
The crop factor is also a blessing in hiding the flaws of cheaper lenses. The center of the lens is usually the surface with the highest optical quality. The edges of the lens are usually where lenses get sketchy (vignetting or chromatic aberrations). In most situations, especially shooting with wide open aperture, the non-ideal portions of the image produced by the cheaper lenses are cropped out of the final image on a crop body.
The bad part of the crop factor shows itself on medium and wide lenses. A 50mm lens, on 35mm film, will produce images similar to what you see with the naked eye. A 50mm lens on a 1.6x crop body will give a "zoom" effect, requiring one to step further away from the subject to acquire a similar framing, and thus losing bokeh potential. Wide angle lenses are less dramatic, as the corners of the lens are not seen in the final image.
I couldn't stand not seeing the "full image" I would see if I would be using 35mm film. So, I upgraded a full frame DSLR. I'm keeping the 350D though as a backup and long-range body.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 600 This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Flexible Enough for Enthusiasts
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