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).
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.
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Introduction
button be held in while the Main Dial is turned.
].
indicates that the LED on the side of the button lights up
when the Rebel XT is connected directly to a printer.
