Canon Digital Rebel XT/EOS 350D Baltimore MD

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Originally published at Internet.com

When the Canon EOS Digital Rebel/EOS 300D was first released, many non-professional film SLR aficionados polished-up their film cameras, and then put them away neatly as future collector's items, as they made the switch to digital. Now, with the release of the Canon Digital Rebel XT in North America and the Canon EOS 350D in the rest of the world, Canon is pushing the consumer Digital SLR into the next generation, shrinking its size while increasing its resolution.

The Rebel XT is quite a bit smaller than the original Rebel. When placed next to its older brother, the XT is not as tall, not as wide, and its grip is considerably smaller, making the Rebel XT better suited to a smaller hand.

The Rebel XT's smaller grip reduced the physical space available for controls on top, and one of the buttons that is there on the Rebel has been moved to the back on the Rebel XT.

The shutter release occupies the front part of the grip, tilted slightly towards the front and right. The Main Dial is directly behind it, protruding sufficiently so it can be rotated easily with the index finger, and is used mostly to adjust photographic settings. The Mode Dial, with its underlying power switch, are the remaining controls on top of the body. As always, Canon divides the Mode Dial into 2 main zones: the Creative zone, and the Basic zone. The Basic zone includes the Auto mode and the modes contained in the Image zone, an area of the dial that provides the Scene modes. The Auto mode of the Rebel XT handles everything. The camera uses its 7-point wide area autofocus, and when the shutter release is pressed halfway the camera automatically picks the closest subject at one of the 7 AF points. With the Auto mode, the camera sets most photographic parameters and controls the opening of the flash as well.

The other shooting modes of the Basic zone include the 6 Scene modes that are part of the Image zone, shooting modes that offer instant photographic parameters that are optimized for specific subjects. As with the Auto mode, the camera controls all parameters including CCD sensitivity which can range from 100 to 400 ISO depending on the mode and the available light: Portrait mode selects a wide aperture to blur the background of the subject. The pop-up flash is automatically controlled. Landscape mode selects small apertures to maximize depth of field. This mode prevents the release of the flash. Close-up mode works to balance the depth of field and the shutter speed, but with an overall preference for depth of field. This mode also controls the release of the pop-up flash. Sports mode tries to optimize for the fastest shutter speed possible to freeze action. The pop-up flash cannot be released, and the continuous shooting mode is activated, tracking the subject using the centre AF point. Night Scene mode uses a longer exposure and flash to capture a well-lit foreground and a visible background. The flash is automatically opened and only the Single or Self-timer/Remote control drive modes are available. Flash Off mode prevents the flash from being opened automatically and can be used for interior shots, or long exposures (15 second maximum exposure time, controlled by the camera).

The Creative zone starts above the Auto mode, beginning with the Program mode:

The Rebel XT's Program AE automatically chooses the most appropriate combination of shutter speed and aperture, and displays it in the viewfinder's display. If desired, the selected combination of aperture and shutter speed can also be changed, using the Main Dial. With this mode, unlike with the Auto mode, all camera settings can be accessed. Similarly, the flash is manually controlled, and released if needed using a small button on the front left side of the camera. Tv, Time Value, is the Shutter Priority AE mode. The mode allows setting the shutter speed, using the Main Dial, from 1/4000 second down to 30 seconds while the camera matches it to an appropriate aperture according to the lens in use. Av, Aperture Value, is the Aperture Priority AE mode. It allows selecting the aperture, using the Main Dial, and the range depends on the lens in use. Depth of field preview is available by pressing on a button located on the lower left side of the lens mount of the body, beneath the larger lens release button (see further). Manual mode provides complete control over the camera. Shutter speeds are selected directly with the Main Dial, while aperture selection requires that the button be held in while the Main Dial is turned. Automatic Depth of Field AE works to achieve the greatest depth of field by measuring focus at all 7 focusing points available to the camera, and selecting aperture and shutter speed settings that will capture a sharp image for both the nearest and farthest selected points measured in the frame. Moving to the back of the Rebel XT, the LCD Panel is positioned directly above the 115,000 pixel, 1.8 inch LCD monitor. The panel indicates all the most important camera settings — aperture and shutter speed, white balance, image format and size, exposure compensation, etc. — and can be lit up at night using a little button on the right []. The LCD Panel and LCD monitor below are bracketed by controls. Starting on the left, a column of 5 buttons serve for: Displays the menu, always starting by showing the section of the menu that was last on screen. The Rebel XT uses a single menu composed of 5 distinct sections, each of which is identified at the top of the screen. (For more information on the contents of the menu see the Characteristics section of the review.)

In the Capture mode, the next button displays a screen that summarizes all the current camera settings, providing a much greater level of detail than is available on the LCD Display.

Starting with the date and time, the display provides the current settings for the auto exposure bracketing, the white balance shift and bracketing, the colour space, in which memory the current settings are stored, the image review time, the flash compensation setting, the auto sleep time, the auto rotation, the memory card's remaining capacity, and the ISO speed.

In Playback the INFO button controls the way in which an image is presented. By default the Rebel XT presents an image with some basic information that includes the aperture and shutter speed, the number or position of the image in the series and its file name. Pressing the INFO button presents the image as a thumbnail, placing to its right its histogram and all the shooting data below.

Should the image contain an area that is overly bright, it is shown as flashing. Pressing the INFO button once more clears all the superimposed information from the screen, leaving only the image.

Worth noting, whatever view is selected is the view that the camera returns to until it has been changed. The next button, JUMP, serves to jump images in groups of 10, 100, or by date either forwards or backwards when the camera is in Playback. Starts the playback mode. Deletes one or all images at one time.

Moving to the right side of the monitor, the Rebel XT provides another series of controls. Starting at the upper right, two buttons which have functions both in capture and playback are mounted on a raised area and which are labelled both on top of the camera, and on the back. In the capture mode, the buttons serve to:

Auto Exposure or Flash Exposure Lock (AE/FE Lock). Serves to lock in the current exposure parameters while the image is re-composed. Serves to switch between automatic focus point selection using one of 7 AF points, or manual AF point selection, using the Main Dial. In Playback, the right side button serves to display thumbnails of the images, or zoom out of a photo that has been magnified for a closer look. While the left button magnifies an image under review up to 10X.

The remaining back controls of the Rebel XT are aligned on the right of the monitor:

The upper button serves to set exposure compensation, possible over a range of ±2 EV in either 1/3 or 1/2 EV increments.

In addition, when the Rebel XT is set to the Manual shooting mode, the button serves to adjust the aperture by holding it in while rotating the Main Dial.

The next button down is to cycle through the Drive modes: Single shooting mode captures one photo every time the shutter release is pressed.

Continuous takes up to 14 consecutive Large/Fine 8.0 megapixel JPEG's or 5 RAW images at a frame rate of up to 3 shots per second storing the frames in the camera's buffer. Self-timer/Remote Control activates the Self-timer which provides a 10 second delay; or allows the use of the optional Remote Control unit (RC-1 or RC-5) to release the shutter from a distance of up to 5 m (16.4 ft) from the front of the camera.

The next button down, , controls the light for the display panel and indicates that the LED on the side of the button lights up when the Rebel XT is connected directly to a printer.

Completing the controls on the back of the Rebel XT, the round 4-direction control is referred to with this camera as the Cross Keys. As usual, the buttons are used to make selections in the menu pages, while the centre button, marked SET, confirms them. In addition, each of the 4-directional controls immediately accesses specific options found in the menu, thereby acting as shortcuts: Sensitivity provides settings for 100, 200, 400, 800 and 1600 ISO.

Accesses the AF Mode selection, offering a choice of: One Shot, suited for still subjects; AI Servo, which tracks a moving subject; and AI Focus which works for still subjects but switches to AI Servo if the subject starts moving. White Balance displays the options: Auto, Daylight, Shade, Cloudy (also Twilight and Sunset), Tungsten, White Fluorescent, Flash, Custom (set on the spot using a white object). Metering Mode serves to choose one of the three metering patterns: Evaluative, Partial metering, Centre-weighted.

The Rebel XT is equipped with a pop-up flash that is designed to accommodate the field of view of a 17mm lens. The flash is either automatically released in some shooting modes, or manually opened using a small button on the left side of the viewfinder housing.

The Rebel XT is also equipped with a flash shoe, compatible with Canon EOS Speedlite flash units and E-TTL II Auto flash, a new autoflash exposure system that has improved flash exposure control and which makes use of distance information. While with third-party units the Rebel XT is able to synchronize at 1/200 second or slower. The TTL optical viewfinder of the Rebel XT is much the same as that of the original Rebel, but uses an APS-size mirror unlike the first digital Rebel's 35mm-size mirror, one of the features that allow a smaller body size.

The viewfinder has a soft, rubber-trimmed eyepiece that can be removed to attach the eyepiece cover that should be used during long exposures. Moreover, it has a dioptric adjustment (-3 to +1 dpt) dial on the right side of the exit pupil so that the image can be adjusted to one's eyesight.

Seven AF points are clearly identified by black rectangles, and the AF point, be it automatically selected by the camera or by the user, is identified with a tiny but bright red LED when the focus locks. Regrettably, unlike dSLR cameras from some other manufacturers, the Rebel XT does not offer the possibility of displaying grid lines to help with composition. Below the viewfinder's image, a display area provides instant information to the user — shutter speed and aperture, exposure compensation, focus lock, and more depending on the conditions.

Considerably smaller than the original digital Rebel/EOS 300 D, the Rebel XT/EOS 350D should be very attractive to those tempted by the image quality and lens interchangeability of a digital SLR, but who find most of these cameras too bulky. Indeed, to date only Pentax's *ist DS is comparable to the Rebel XT in terms of size, and the new Rebel XT, building on the excellent reputation of the first digital Rebel, could well become the new yardstick for non-professional digital SLR's.