Canon
I have had the XSi for about 3 months now and I am thouroughly impressed with it. This is my first DSLR and I was a little wary about going with a brand-new and untested camera, but I have always like Canon (I used an ELAN II in High School and I bought a SD600 about 2 years ago to take snapshots of my son). Overall, I have not been disappointed with the quality of the photos that the XSi produces. The IS lens works great and I have taken some pretty amazing photos (for me at least). I do have just a couple of issues, both good and bad, that I think those who are looking at buying this may want to know.
Battery life — Great battery life. I should say, AMAZING battery life. I have taken over 5000 photos and I have only had to charge the battery twice.
Live View — LiveView is not for beginners. It is not a replacement for your Point-and-Shoot. You can’t use it in the AUTO mode (Green Square). This isn’t that big of a deal for me, I prefer full manual myself, but the whole point of this feature, I thought, was to make it more user friendly for the Point-and-Shoot photographer. My wife can’t use Live View in it’s current form (I specifically bought a DSLR with a live view function so she could still use the camera). So, if Live View is a big selling point for you, You may want to look at some others (If it isn’t that big of a deal to you, then this is still an amazing camera — added 4-23-2008). If you do studio work, though, you can hook the camera up to your PC and use it as a remote viewer. But it is not a point-and-shoot camera in Live View. In my earlier review, I said that it would be nice if Canon fixed some of the Live View issues with a firmware update, I was mistaken. Live View is a nice feature once you figure out it is not meant for beginners. Studio and landscape photographers will find Live View a great tool.
Image Quality — I have had some great success shooting in a studio setting as well as some great outdoor shots. In the studio, I used tungsten “hot” lights with the subjuect against a white background. The photos turned out great. Skin tones are perfect and there is very little, if any, chromatic abberation at the edges. It shoots great outdoor shots as well. We just got into beekeeping and I was able to get some AMAZING shots of our bees up-close outdoors. The bees looked dirty and not very interesting from a distance, but the macro photos I got up close are beautiful and full of wonderfully crisp details. The lens is a little short, the image quality you get from it is pretty good considering it only costs $100. I do plan on buying a longer lens in the near future.
Overall, the camera is solid and feels nice in the hand. It isn’t too heavy, yet still feels sturdy. If you can afford the higher price, I don’t think you will be disappointed. If you can’t, the XTi is still a great camera. And if you can afford to wait a few months for the price to drop a little (LIKE IT ALREADY HAS!!) I would. I was able to work a few extra weekends so I could afford to get this, and I can tell you, I don’t mind it a bit, because the quality of photos I am getting has been totally worth it.
Once you learn the layout of the camera and you load the MyMenu with the tools you use most often, the camera becomes an absolute delight to use. I have taken over 5000 photos with it so far and now I need an extra hard drive to put them all on.
I was able to rent a Canon EF 24-105 IS L lens and a 580 EX II Speedlite for my sister’s wedding. WOW! What great photos. The camera interfaced with the flash flawlessly and I am more convinced than ever that much of the quality of your photos comes from the glass you use and not as much from the camera itself (I think it is about 65% lens to 35% camera body give or take a few points– I know there will be those who disagree, but that is my take on it, and I am sure if I had a 1Ds MkIII I would think that there wasn’t a peice of glass good enough for my camera).
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For years, I have been using my 28-70 f:2.8 Canon zoom as my “normal” lens. It is sharp (Oh baby is it!) and at 2.8,fast enough for just about any pro or serious amateur. But there were plenty of times I needed a little more coverage than the 28MM focal length provided. Since most of my work is with long-lens and fast (and expensive) zooms, I couldn’t pony up the bucks for Canon’s superwide f2.8 zoom. When I saw the price on the 17-40MM lens and the fact that it was the “L” flavor with pro glass, I bought it immediately. I’ve had it for about a year and I have already sold several pictures – published in glossy magazines with picky photo editors. And I trust it to give me sharp pictures, even at the extreme settings – wide open and at the 17MM end. You have to remember to always use the weird looking but effective lens hood to control flare and as with any very wide lens, look at the edges of the frame (your feet could be in every picture!) It’s light, good enough to use as your normal lens and with their new 70-300 IS DO lens could make for an amazing and compact travel kit. So while Canon’s lens experts probably built this one for the growing digital crowd, as a film user I think it’s the bargain of the year and is in my camera bag every time I go on assignment. I suggest that you get a good quality “thin” UV filter and polarizer and you will be set to explore the exciting world of ultra-wide photography.
Important update: I recently returned from an assignment to Monte Carlo to test drive sports cars. Part of the deal was to get thrill rides from a pro driver up and down the French mountains above Monaco. Armed with my 17-40MM an EOS 1V, 540 flash, and Velvia 50, I clicked off a whole roll of film during my turn in the passenger’s seat. The magazine editor called me when he saw the slides and said that the shots in the car were the “strongest images” in the shoot.
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This remote uses a small infrared transmitter to trip the shutter of many of the EOS line of cameras (EOS 10, Elan, Elan II/IIE, EOS IX and possibly others). I bought one 5 or 6 years ago and I haven’t had to change the battery yet. Unlike wired remote shutter releases, the RC1 doesn’t require the user to set anything up — just point the remote at the camera front and press the button. The RC1 clips onto a holder that can be threaded through your camera strap so it’s always nearby when needed. It measures (inches) 2.25 x 1 x .5 (length x width x height) and weighs not much more than one ounce.
The RC1 as two controls on it: a small slider switch and a larger button to trip the shutter. If you’re wearing gloves, the slider switch is near impossible to adjust but the shutter button is easy to hit. The slider offers three settings: Lock (disables the shutter button), regular and 2-second delay. The regular setting works just like the shutter release on your camera although you can’t press it halfway to autofocus. The 2-second delay locks up the mirror when you hit the shutter button and then trips the shutter 2 seconds later. This is very useful for longer exposures or shooting with telephoto lenses.
I’ve found the RC1 to be plenty sturdy (I shoot mostly outdoors and tend to be pretty hard on my equipment) and easy enough to unclip and operate with one hand. I have only two complaints with it: you need to point the remote at the front of the camera — the IR sensor is right next to the shutter release — which can be tricky when using wide angle lenses as you don’t want to include your remote in the picture, and the RC1 doesn’t provide any feedback that the shutter had been tripped — I often find myself peering back through the viewfinder to see if the mirror is up or keeping my ear near the camera to listen for the film advance. This is a far simpler remote than the ones Canon offers for their top-end camera but it’s also far less expensive and heavy. I only wish the RC1 worked for the EOS3!
