Rebel XS | Photo Geek

August 2008
S	M	T	W	T	F	S
« Jul		Sep »
	1	2
3	4	5	6	7	8	9
10	11	12	13	14	15	16
17	18	19	20	21	22	23
24	25	26	27	28	29	30
31

EOS Rebel XS

9 August, 2008 (15:06) | Canon, Jim Dicecco, Opinion, Photography, Review

I received my Rebel XS this week so I’ve been out having some fun with it. As much as I like the high end equipment from Canon, it’s always a pleasure taking out the entry level camera for a spin. It’s refreshing to work with something light weight and easy to handle.

Compared to the XSi it pretty much looks and feels the same. It’s slightly smaller but really not noticeable unless you put on the vertical grip (BG-E5) where it hangs out just slightly. Apparent Canon was thinking ahead in the design because the end of the grip is tapered as to hide this visually.

Of course there are other differences. The XS has the smaller 2.5″ screen and does not have the sensor to turn off the screen when you bring the camera up to your eye. I simply hit the display button to turn off the screen.

Looking through the viewfinder you will notice it has only…

7 focusing points similar to the Rebel XT. However, the focusing is good all the same. I pitted the focusing system up against the 1D Mark III (guess which one won out!) and it did pretty good. More on that later.

A few option missing on this that I really like on the Rebel XSi is the 14bit processing, spot metering and the Highlight Tone Priority. Mind you I shoot enough that I can tell the difference. However, I think the entry level user purchasing this camera would have trouble telling the difference and will be more then pleased with the quality of the images.

The most fun I had with this was the the Pacific Speedway shooting 4 gigs of motorcycle images. I was amazed at the speed of the servo mode. Although I did have to have a few minutes of practicing after shooting with the 1D Mark III, I soon got the hang of how the camera performed and pulled off some very acceptable images (however, far less the then Mark III). I would love to tell you the light weight of the XS over the Mark III was refreshing, however, both were on a 500mm f/4 L lens so the camera weight was really moot.

Still, for an entry level camera it has plenty of horse power and flexibility for a first time DSLR user to learn on. It’s a great price and comes with the outstanding Digic III processor and a Canon made CMOS senor.

Below are some of the photos I posted to my flickr account.