Canon EOS 400D / Rebel XTi Digital SLR Camera with 18-55mm Lens

I wanted to get the Canon Digital Rebel XTi ever since it was released. I bought a silver Xti with lens (black one is more expensive). The Canon Digital Rebel XTi with an 18-55 mm f/3.5-5.6 lens is very impressive and especially so for its price ($760).

What is Canon Digital Rebel XTi with Lens Kit?

The Digital Rebel XTi is a digital SLR (Single-Lens Reflex) camera with 10.1-Megapixel resolution. The camera is also known as Canon EOS 400D. The stead progression of Canon’s consumer-level digital SLR cameras included the original Digital Rebel with 6 MP of resolution and the Digital Rebel XT with 8-Megapixel resolution. The XTi supports interchangeable lenses of Canon EOS series. The kit also includes the 18-55 mm f/3.5-5.6 EF-S USM lens, which is 28-90 mm equivalent (the APS-C Size CMOS sensor warrants 1.6x conversion factor).

The camera has a 3:2 aspect ratio APS-C size CMOS sensor, which is perfect for 6x4 prints and very close to other formats people usually choose for printing. The sensor in the new model is self-cleaning and uses ultrasonic vibrations to remove dust from its low-pass filter (EOS Integrated Cleaning System).

The camera stores the images on inexpensive Compact Flash memory cards and is powered by a rechargeable proprietary battery pack (same battery as the previous model). The XTi features fast Digic II processor and in addition to JPEG can record images in RAW format.

The camera has a built-in flash as well as the hot shoe for external flashes. The camera has automatic modes as well as manual ones. The camera has a large 2.5-inch LCD screen with 230,000 pixels and an optical through-the-lens viewfinder. The camera uses a CMOS sensor instead of a CCD that most other cameras use.

The lens features manual and automatic focusing and a solid construction. The camera supports ISO 100-1,600 and features USB 2.0 connectivity.

Improvements over Digital Rebel XT

The improvements over its predecessor include smaller and lighter body, higher resolution, larger LCD screen with higher resolution, dust removal system, Display Off sensor, 9-point AF (vs. 7-point) and faster focusing.

Getting Started

The camera and the lens arrived in one box. I did not bother even opening the manual, but was able to attach the lens to the camera, charge and insert the battery and the CF memory card that I have and was ready to shoot. You should also attach the supplied shoulder strap to the camera (I was just too eager to try the camera out).

The manual is obviously worth reading; especially its part that pertains to attaching the lens. It describes how to align marks on the lens and the body. Also, make sure there is no excessive dust present where you are attaching the lens, because the dust is a big problem and a headache if it gets on the sensor (CMOS), even though the new camera has dust-reduction technology.

In the Box

The camera comes with its lens (if purchased as a kit), battery pack, battery charger, strap, video and USB cables, manuals and software.

Usage

Once I opened the box, I immediately noticed how well constructed the camera and the lens are. The camera is pretty light for a digital SLR and rather compact. The lens has the zooming and focusing rings that require just enough effort to rotate to have solid feel.

The memory compartment lid is solid as is the door of the battery compartment. The camera came pre-set to its automatic mode and I was able to take pretty good pictures in that mode by switching the lens into automatic focus mode (the switch is on the lens itself) and just pointing and shooting. The camera even pops its flash up when there is not enough light. This mode is obviously designed to let even people who are not familiar with photography take good pictures.

If you have used a compact digital camera before, you might be surprised that you cannot use the LCD when composing the shot. The screen stays blank until you take the picture. Aside from this kind of review, the screen is also used for menus and control functions. You use the viewfinder to compose the shot, confirm the focus in manual focus mode or the focus points in the automatic focus mode. The new IR sensor turns the LCD screen off when you are composing the shot so that the light from it does not interfere with you looking into the viewfinder, especially at night.

The camera no longer has a separate LCD for shooting parameters and therefore uses its 2.5-inch LCD screen for this function as well (basic shooting information like shutter speed, aperture and exposure compensation). This is probably more energy consuming, but better from the packaging standpoint.

The shooting parameters are also shown in the viewfinder, under the frame. The camera lets you adjust the shooting parameters (aperture on aperture priority mode or shutter speed in the shutter priority mode) by rotating the thumb-wheel on the top of the handgrip. Overall, the controls are mostly carried over from the previous model, which is a good thing since the ergonomics are excellent.

Ergonomics and Ease of Use

The XTi is convenient to hold. The handgrip has good surface texture and configuration and the lens lends itself to being held by your left hand, SLR-style. The viewfinder is slightly dim with the supplied lens (the lens has a maximum aperture of f/3.5 at wide angle or f/5.6 at telephoto) but adequate for most situations.

The major controls are within easy reach. As with any SLR camera, you have to remember that you zoom using the ring around the lens and manually focus (should you decide to forgo autofocus) by rotating the outer barrel of the lens as well.

The camera shows you where it focused in the automatic mode by briefly illuminating the selected focus points within the viewfinder, which is convenient. The tripod mount is located well and the camera is stable when mounted on a tripod.

The menu system is easy to use and some functions are called directly by a push of a designated button (e.g. ISO).

The supplied (kit) lens has an outer barrel that rotates when focusing, which may make using a polarizer difficult. The zooming ring has clearly marked focal lengths, but the focusing ring has no distance markings. It is difficult to expect a non-rotating barrel on a cheap kit lens though.

Parameters

The camera lets you adjust a wide range of parameters. The resolution goes up to 10 MP. There are also two modes of RAW shooting: RAW and RAW+JPEG Fine, where the JPEG file is the largest and best quality. Very convenient. The RAW files that I got were larger than 10 MB in size! Also, take note, the 8MP Fine JPEG images can be up to 5 MB in size.

You can also adjust the ISO (100-1,600), white balance, sharpness, contrast and other shooting parameters using the menus. The menus are quite easy to use and appear fast.

Performance

The camera would power on or off instantaneously, but the sensor cleaning takes time and takes about 2 second with sensor cleaning. The focusing is very fast at under a second, even in the dim environments (the camera has an autofocus-assist light that is engaged when the built-in flash is engaged). Automatic focusing now uses 9-points and has improved speed.

The shutter lag is virtually absent when pre-focused or when using the camera’s manual focus. The camera can take pictures at about 3 frames per second. In RAW mode it does it for 9 consecutive frames, then slows down to 1-2 seconds per shot. In JPEG mode, takes 9 frames at 3 fps, then slows down to about 1 fps.

Image Quality

I mostly used the camera in its RAW mode, adjusting white balance, contrast and other parameters in Adobe Photoshop CS2. The JPEG pictures were very pleasing in color, had good white balance and color saturation. All images had very low noise levels, excellent detail level and dynamic range.

The kit lens produces generally sharp results with slightly soft corners at full wide angle and full telephoto ends. There is some purple fringing (chromatic aberrations) at wide angle, but nothing visible at telephoto. The lens makes corners softer at widest aperture settings, but behaves better stopped down.

I discovered that the JPEG files could use better automatic white balance. The automatic white balance made photos taken in incandescent light too warm and photos taken in sunlight slightly too cold. Still, the colors were pleasing and worked well in full auto mode.

The noise levels are very low. There is no noise visible at ISO 100-400. At ISO 800, there is some noise, but it has fairly fine pattern. And there is more noise at ISO 1600, but not as much as what consumer-level compact digital cameras produce at ISO 400 (except for Fuji SuperCCD cameras).

The camera produces 10-Megapixel images that can be printed as large as 13x19 at pretty much any ISO up to 800 and ISO 1600 photos will look great at smaller sizes. Heavy cropping with smaller-size prints is an option as well.

Battery Life

The battery that comes with the camera should be being able to produce 360 shots with partial use of flash or 500 shots with no flash use. I took about 120 photos with no signs of battery depletion.

About the Kit Lens

The supplied lent is solidly built and works well enough for an inexpensive kit lens. For general photography it will be sufficient. But if you are going to crop extensively and print resultant crops rather large, you might need a better lens (e.g. fixed lens or a more expensive zoom).

Bottom Line

I am very pleased with the Canon Digital Rebel XTi and its kit lens. Not only the camera and the lens are solidly built and feature-rich, they perform very well too. The excellent image quality, low noise levels and great battery life make it an excellent choice. I highly recommend it.