Canon EOS 400D > Reviews > Canon value an entry level digital SLR

Author's product rating:   

Picture Quality	Excellent
Range & Quality of Features	Diverse
Ease of Use	Easy
Overall Look & Design	Good
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	Excellent auto functions, good handling, excellent image quality
Disadvantages:	Kit lens poor at wide apertures

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

**** Introduction

After using my compact digital camera for a couple of years I realised that I was still serious about my old hobby of photography. I could therefore justify an upgrade to a digital SLR (Single lens reflex) camera.

I set myself a budget of £500 including "kit" lens and went on line and read magazines to research what there was. Most cameras require an additional purchase of a memory card so I allowed that addition to the budget.

At the £500 mark there were two new additions to the market in late 2006 - the Canon EOS 400D and the Nikon D50. In my view, these eclipsed virtually all of the other offerings by being bang up to date and having some really useful features. (Many photography reviewers agree).

After trying these two in the shops I found that they were remarkably similar in picture quality and handling. The deciding factor was the vast range of Canon EF/EFS lenses to suit all pockets against the more limited and more expensive Nikon lenses. The Canon won!

**** Buying

In January 2007, shops and internet produced a price range from £487- £530 or more delivered, the average being about £497. John Lewis (JL) were offering the camera at £499 (delivered free if you could not get to a shop), and because of their exceptional service I chose to buy in person from them.

The camera has no memory card included. JL wanted £40 for a 1GB Compact Flash (CF) card so I decided to wait a couple of days to get a 2GB SanDisk Ultra CF card delivered for £37.

**** EOS 400D main features

- 10.1 Mega pixel sensor
- Supplied with 18-55mm zoom lens (equivalent to 28-88mm 35mm lens).
- 3 frames-per-second shooting with 27-frame burst and a 0.2 second start-up time.
- Strong, lightweight body with metal chassis
- Integrated Cleaning System including a Self Cleaning Sensor Unit
- Picture Style settings for a broad range of control over colour, contrast and sharpening.
- 2.5 colour LCD screen
- High-precision 9 point AF system
- Digital Photo Professional RAW processing software
- Fully compatible with all Canon EF and EF-S lenses

**** Getting started

The camera can be used for practice without a memory card, so whilst I was waiting for the card I could practise with the camera once the battery was charged (about 4 hours).

The printed instruction book is extremely comprehensive and well cross-referenced. I worked my way through the quick start section and within 30 minutes felt confident about taking pictures. A couple of hours more made me familiar with the advanced features. The menu system proved to be quite a job to work round, but such is the result of versatility.

Once the memory card arrived I was taking and printing top quality picture in minutes.

**** In use

The first thing some may notice is that the grip feels too small to be comfortable. However, I was aware of this before I bought the camera and had checked in the shop that it was suitable for my hands.

When you switch the camera on or off the display tells you that the camera is self-cleaning the sensor. However, you do not have to wait for it to finish before you take a picture.

A large dial on top of the camera selects the various exposure modes form fully automatic to totally manual and a selection of subject settings such as landscape and portrait.

The most important functions such as ISO, auto focus, and white balance have their own buttons that are used in conjunction with a selection wheel for quick setting. Less used functions are selected by a menu button and various items on the menu are selected by the joy-pad on the back of the camera or the wheel on top.

A slight snag with the control wheel is that when in manual mode you have to use it for both aperture and time setting, which means switching between both functions. Other cameras have two separate controls for this.

Everything you select is displayed on the 2.5" colour display on the back of the camera. The display is comprehensive, clear and bright.

When you raise the camera to your eye a sensor turns the display off to avoid distraction. If you use the camera on a tripod, there is a cover for the eyepiece on the camera strap to avoid upsetting the metering. In this case the display turns off after a preset time. The viewfinder also clearly displays essential metering and flash information. There is a dioptre control on the viewfinder and I found it easily adjustable for use with my glasses.

The plastic bodied 18-55mm kit lens is generally not rated very highly, but what do you expect from a lens that retails at about £70 compared to the equivalent Nikon D50 lens at £150? However, it is a very compact and light lens for day-to-day use, especially if you know its limitations. The twist to zoom control is smooth, but the manual focus is less than 1/4 turn, has no distance scale and is coarse to use. On my lens I found no colour fringing or vignetting on the image and the sharpness was satisfactory right to the corners in normal use (f8 upwards) even if not as good as more expensive lenses at wider apertures. The focus does however get a bit soft when the lens aperture is wide open. The auto focus is versatile and works really fast and well. In poor light there is a "focus assist" using a strobe produced by the built in flash.

The flash is adequate for casual situations but more serious flash photography would benefit from an add-on ring flash for more power and better light distribution.

**** Conclusion

Overall I am quite comfortable with the camera and have already added a Sigma 55-200 zoom telephoto lens to the kit.

Despite the kit lens not being the best quality, it is certainly not a reason to reject the camera at its £500 price tag - if you don't like it you can always trade up to a lens giving better performance at wide apertures. My ratings take this into account.

I would recommend that the EOS 400D Kit is certainly worth short-listing up to £500.