Canon 350 XT Reviewed

8 Megapixel Canon DSLR for under $1000.

When Canon introduced the 6 Megapixel EOS Digital Rebel a few years ago at a price tag under $1000 the industry gasped with fear. Now Canon has introduced the 350XT and its popularity is not surprising.

The Canon 350 XT an 8 Megapixel APS (CMOS) sensor DSLR with an EF-S camera mount. The camera is not only cool due to its 8 Megapixel sensor but it is the lightest and smallest digital SLR from Canon. The cameras shoots at 3 FPS with a large buffer and is capable to shoot in RAW, JPEG, and RAW+JPEG formats. And the cameras’ image quality is on par with it’s bigger brother the Canon 20D.

The camera is available as body alone or lens and body kit. Buyers have the additional challenge of deciding which body color to get (Black or Silver).

The camera is priced in such a way (under $1000) that the serious amateur can afford the camera but with its high quality imagery professionals may like this camera as a backup to their higher priced Canon.

For a photographer familiar with Canon cameras they can easily use the camera right out of the box. Of course you do need to charge the Li-ion battery.

However there are some differences to the design.At first you will notice the top mono tone LCD screen has been move to the back of the camera. Second the popular Canon wheel design has been replaced with directional buttons. Third this camera is small height, weight, and hand grip. If you have large hands avoid this camera. As a result of the small size the camera has a much smaller than normal view finder. Sure the view finder is sharp and informative but when trying to focus an image manually (which I do on occasion) the larger view finder really does help.

The cameras menu system has changed when compared to the 20D or even the original EOS Digital Rebel. The display it self is okay but the change of colors, font, and layout have made it difficult to read outside in bright light and even inside under darker conditions. For what ever the reason we plead for Canon to change it back.

The camera features an impressive pop up flash system. The flash uses the Canon ETTL-II technology. In short the system does a great job at balancing multiple light sources with fill flash from the camera. However even with the raised position of the flash, it will cast a slight lens shadow with larger lenses.

A cool setting allows photographers to shoot black and white images as though you had a red or orange filter over the front of the lens. This mode is called Jpeg B&W.

Image quality like mentioned above is great. The cameras CMOS chip has little to no noise even at ISO 800. The camera ranges from 100 – 1600 ISO and noise is almost no existent at lower levels. Shadows start to block up like you would expect at ISO 1600 but other than that the highlights and mid tones hold together and provide accurate color information.

So how does the camera compare to others on the market? Well it is one of the best for the money. It is not a Canon 20D or a Canon 1Ds Mark II. But amateur photographers will love it. Professionals may be slightly frustrated with the design but all in all it is a great camera for under $1000.

Other cool features:


Posté par chad à 19:30, June 9 2005