Canon Digital Rebel XT/EOS 350D

Reviewed April 2005

Interface & Software

The user interface of the Rebel XT is composed of three areas: the information displayed in the viewfinder, the information displayed on the panel above the monitor, and the menu system. In the case of the displays, both are quite legible and provide enough detail.

In the case of the menu system, it is in appearance essentially the same as that of the original Digital Rebel, but with the addition of an extra section. The colours used for the menu make it very legible, and help quickly identify each of its three main parts: recording, playback, and setup. The Setup sections serve to configure basic camera settings, and access some of the settings that are less often needed:

• Auto Power Off: sets the delay before the camera shuts down automatically: 1, 2, 4, 8, 15, 30 minutes, or Off.
• Auto Rotate: On or Off. Automatically rotates vertical shots so they are displayed correctly on the monitor, or on a TV.

• LCD Brightness: to adjust the brightness of the LCD monitor over 5 increments.
• Date and Time: to set the time and date on the camera.
• File Numbering: allows files to be incremented continuously, or reset.
• Format: to format a memory card or a Microdrive.
• Shoot w/o card: On or Off. Allows the shutter release to work without having a memory card installed in the camera.

• Language, which sets the interface language: English, German, French, Dutch, Danish, Finnish, Italian, Norwegian, Swedish, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Russian, Traditional Chinese, Korean and Japanese.
• Video system: NTSC or PAL.

• Communication: PC Connection (Mass Storage Device), or Print PTP (Picture Transfer Protocol) which serves to connect the camera directly to a printer.
• Custom Functions (C. Fn): the access to the 9 Custom Functions of the Rebel XT (see the Characteristics section of the review).
• Clear settings: returns all camera settings to the factory defaults.
• Sensor cleaning: lifts the mirror so the sensor can be cleaned using a manual blower.
• Firmware Version: displays the version number of the current firmware.

Three discs are supplied with the Canadian Rebel XL kit examined here. The first is called EOS Digital Solution which contains ZoomBrowser 5.1, Canon's Digital Photo Professional 1.6, EOS Capture 1.3, PhotoStitch 3.1, PhotoRecord 2.2, and Twain drivers for older operating systems.

Of these, ZoomBrowser and Digital Photo Professional are the primary programs. Both these programs are able to read RAW images and convert them to a more common format such as TIFF or JPEG. However, only Digital Photo Professional 1.6 allows changing — editing — the "as shot" parameters.

Digital Photo Professional is a powerful program that provides a number of editing functions and provides for batch processing and use of "recipes" that serve to apply similar editing to images.

Using Digital Photo Professional, RAW images can be adjusted for brightness, white balance, dynamic range, colour and more. A scalable preview window is provided and modifications are reflected quickly.

ZoomBrowser is a program that is commonly included with Canon digital cameras and which serves primarily as an organizational tool, and as the access point for other digital imaging related activities:

• Acquire and Camera Settings: allows for downloading images from the camera or a card reader, uploading to the camera and controlling the camera remotely when it is connected to a computer via USB. Using the Remote Shooting function with the Rebel XT, a small control panel is displayed on screen, and every photo taken, either using the camera icon at the middle right of the window (see screen capture at right), or by the direct use of the shutter release, immediately imports and displays the image on the host computer.
• View and Classify: allows viewing images as slide shows, renaming multiple files, and organizing folders.
• Edit: serves to edit images (except RAW images), automatically process RAW images, or Stitch photos into panoramas. A movie edit function is also available, but the Rebel XT does not offer a movie mode.
• Export: allows exporting still images and movies, exporting their shooting properties, or exporting them as a screen saver or a wall paper.

• Print: serves to print photos in layouts, or contact sheets.
• Internet: is to adapt images to be used as e-mail attachments.

The second disc included with the Rebel XT contains the software manual, in PDF version and in a number of languages.

The third disc provides ArcSoft's Photo Studio for both Windows and Macintosh. Photo Studio, as its name implies, is a photo editing program which offers some powerful features such as layering (Photoshop files can be opened and edited), magic wand selection and feathering.