CANON EOS REBEL T3I REBEL T3I
Rich in features and no slouch in performance
Canon’s latest Rebel T3i offers a robust feature set, a staggering 18MP
APS-C sensor, good control over your photography, and an impressive
array of movie modes.
At just a little more than 18 ounces, the T3i feels very good in your
hand. The body design is balanced and textured rubber coats both front
and back. If you attach a lens larger than the 18–55mm kit lens, the bal-
ance does tilt forward, but the body still feels natural while using it.
Autofocus seems a touch slower than on the Nikon D3100 in dimly
lit conditions, but overall focus speed is good in most lighting. Auto
white-balance works well, even in ? ickering ? uorescent light, until
you start pushing to higher ISOs and shutter speeds, where that fa-
miliar yellowish cast will occasionally creep in. Fluorescent lights are
often a problem with auto white-balance schemes, but Canon seems
to handle it a bit better than most. There’s also a nifty “intelligent auto”
that sets most of the exposure but lets you play around a bit with depth
of ? eld and also control the ? ash.
At its maximum shooting speed of 3.7fps in raw image mode, the
buffer ? lled after six shots and took about seven seconds to empty.
That’s about average for a unit of this class, but you will want to man-
age your continuous shooting carefully or risk losing some of the action.
Video settings are very ? exible and include both 1080/30
and 720/60 HD modes, plus a plethora of others. At 1080/30,
the T3i generates large ? les with high bit rates—in excess of
40Mb/s—which is a testament to the video capture abilities
of the unit.
Where the T3i falls down a bit is in the user interface.
Take ISO settings, for example. If you want to push the ISO
beyond the maximum 6400, you need to navigate to one of
the top menu tabs, select Custom functions, click through
to the second custom function, and then enable ISO Ex-
pansion. If Nikon menus are too long vertically, Canon
menus have too many tabs, some of which contain nested
functions. Also, rotating the main dial while simultane-
ously pressing other buttons can be an interesting exercise
in frustration.
Once you’ve ? gured it all out, however, the T3i is a plea-
sure to use. Image quality is generally quite good, though
the T3i suffers from serious luminance and color noise at its
highest ISO setting (12800). Even at both ISO 3200 and 6400,
luminance noise is still somewhat distracting (although no
worse than the D3100 at ISO 3200), but color noise is mini-
mal at ISO 6400 and below.
The built-in ? ash can act as a master unit if you own
Canon external ? ash units, offering great ? exibility in
lighting. On its own, it’s a typical pop-up ? ash, mostly
useful for ? ll or when you’ve got nothing else.
In the end, the EOS Rebel T3i is a terri? c value at about
$850 with the 18–55mm f/3.5–5.6 image-stabilized kit
lens. And Canon’s rich array of lens choices gives you tre-
mendous options as you explore your own photographic
inclinations.
