!#5: Canon EOS T3i - Easy To Use, Easy To Recommend

!±8± Canon EOS T3i - Easy To Use, Easy To Recommend

With the 18-55mm lens attached, the T3i is very much lighter than some of the more professional models, yet, it looks good, and it will turn heads as you walk by with it strapped around your neck. As one looks at the camera, one can find the usual fare: an fast shutter button, a self-timer lamp and an IR remote port, all in close proximity. On its right is a flash release button, a lens release button and a depth-of-field preview button.

Features: The Canon EOS T3i has some very attractive features:

Excellent image quality Good grip Swiveling LCD Full HD video recording HDMI output Very fast autofocus.

Processor and Sensor

There is a little new about the Canon EOS T3i's processor and sensor combination. They are the same as that of the T2i. However, the gap between the micro-lenses has been reduced. According to Canon, the Rebel T3i's DIGIC 4 buffer and processor enables capture of about 34 large/fine JPEG images, four RAW+JPEG frames and six RAW frames. It also allows capturing 14-bit RAW images, and 8-bit JPEGs are created from 14-bit data.

Peripheral Illumination Correction

Darkening of the corners (known as vignetting), which is usually produced by lens design is reduced via Peripheral Illumination Correction in the Canon EOS T3i. Selecting an item from the menu brings up a screen from where one can see which lens the camera detected, and whether correction data is available. One can then choose to disable the correction if the wrong lens is shown or accept it by doing nothing.

Autofocus

It has a significant advantage that all its AF points are cross-type, which are sensitive towards both horizontal and vertical details. The focusing screen is of the carved variety, with boxes surrounding dots, which helps light up red to confirm focus. The fully-automatic 'green square' exposure mode has been updated to 'Scene Intelligent Auto' and a new 'A+' icon on the mode dial has been provided too.

Metering

The Canon EOS T3i inherits Canon's latest metering system. It is a 63-zone iFCL (Intelligent Focus, Color, and Luminance metering ) sensor. The iFCL chip has a dual-layer design with every layer sensitive towards different wavelengths of light, allowing required color to be taken into account when determining exposure and also in metering calculations.

ISO Expansion

The Canon EOS T3i has an expanded sensitivity range, from a minimum range of ISO 100 to a maximum range of ISO 12,800. One needs to enable ISO Expansion via a Custom Function setting. The EOS T3i offers a much wider +/-5.0EV exposure compensation range rather offering EV compensation ranging from -2.0 to +2.0 as do most cameras.

Picture Style Auto is a setting of its own, selected as one of the Picture Styles, which can be brought up either via the down arrow on the rear of the camera or from the Quick menu, or even through the main menu. With this new setting, the camera considers the scene and changes the Picture Style accordingly. Storage and battery. The Canon T3i accepts SD, SDXC and SDHC memory cards as well as Eye-Fi wireless cards. The camera uses the LP-E8 battery pack which is CIPA rated for 440 shots.

Cons: Some of the negative aspects of the camera include the frame rate being slower than some of its competitors, there is no micro-focus adjustment, a tendency to over-expose in bright sunlight, and Live View Auto Focus is fairly slow.

The Canon EOS T3i shares some features from higher-end cameras, namely the excellent image quality, creative filters and the ability for remote flash control. With Full HD video support, good quality optics and fast auto focus (when not in Live View mode), the Canon EOS Rebel T3i is easy to recommend.