Feature-laden
Because Canon appropriated most of the EOS 10D’s guts for the design of the Digital Rebel, it has most of the higher-end camera’s features. Metering modes, white balance options, shooting modes, and most every other feature from the 10D are included in the Digital Rebel.
The camera offers a fully automatic mode, in addition to Program mode, Shutter and Aperture priority, or full manual mode. In addition, Canon’s usual assortment of pre-defined “creative modes” (Sports, Landscape, Portrait, etc.) are also included. These modes offer all of the exposure control you’ll most likely ever need.
Though the Digital Rebel body costs $600 less than the 10D body, Canon has kept most of that camera’s high-end features including:
- Histogram display after shooting;
- ISO settings of 100, 200, 400, 800, and 1600 (the 10D’s 3200 ISO is not supported);
- Three light metering modes, though unfortunately, a spot meter mode is not included;
- The ability to shoot RAW files, or RAW and JPEG simultaneously;
- Auto white balance, white balance presets, and fully manual white-balance;
- An excellent auto-focus system that is much improved over Canon’s pre-10D offerings. The Digital Rebel can focus in almost total dark.
Simply put, the Digital Rebel has all of the features that you’d expect from a good digital SLR. Though it lacks some of the features of all-in-one cameras at this price point (you can’t use the LCD as a viewfinder, you can’t record QuickTime movies) for the user who appreciates the feel and flexibility of a true SLR, these features won’t be missed.
Image Quality
Ever since the EOS D30, Canon’s D-SLR image quality has been exceptional. Using the same 6-megapixel Canon-made CMOS chip as the 10D, the Rebel delivers images with excellent color reproduction and detail. The most noticeable characteristic of Rebel images is their profound lack of noise, even at ISOs up to 800. Images from Canon’s D-SLRs are silky smooth and stand up to long exposures without hardly any visible increase in noise.
Figure 2: Like its more-expensive brethren, the Rebel performs extremely well in low-light, offering excellent color reproduction and very low noise, all the way up to 800 ISO. And, though noise becomes more prominent at 1600 ISO, this setting is much smoother than the same speed on the Rebel’s predecessors.
With the D30, Canon opted to be very conservative on the amount of in-camera sharpening applied to the images and the Rebel continues this tradition. However, the camera has two sharpening presets: one that mimics the EOS 10D, and one that is a little more aggressive (the camera defaults to the latter). If you don’t want to hassle with sharpening your images by hand, the camera’s more-aggressive sharpening will produce a slightly sharper image with no recognizable artifacts, while the less-aggressive setting will ensure that the camera is not creating any sharpening artifacts, giving you total control of the sharpening process.
Simply put, the Rebel’s image quality is startling for a camera at this price point.
Granted, image quality is only as good as your camera’s lens, but even with a lesser lens, the camera’s lack of noise and excellent color reproduction handily ups the bar for “$900-digital-camera” image quality.
New! Improved! Shorter Lenses
The Digital Rebel can use all of the same EF- and L-Series lenses as Canon’s other digital (and film) SLRs. However, with the Rebel, Canon has also introduced a new S-mount. This mount places the rear element of the lens a little farther back than on EF- or L-series lenses. This lens placement creates a more favorable lens/sensor optical relationship than Canon’s other mounts, which were designed for the larger size of a 35mm frame.
This system also means that lenses can be a trifle shorter, since the back element actually sits a few millimeters inside the mounting ring on the camera.
Along with the Digital Rebel, Canon has introduced two EF lenses: an 18-55mm lens and a 55-200mm lens. As with the 10D, because of the Rebel’s smaller sensor size, all lens focal lengths get multiplied by 1.6, so the two new lenses equate to 28-88mm and 88-320mm in 35mm terms. We shot with the 18-55mm and were very pleased with the results (see Figure 3). Though not as sharp as some of Canon’s more expensive zoom lenses, the lens was light, bright, and distortion-free.
Figure 3: Both of Canon’s new lenses offer very good quality with no distortion and very good sharpness.
10D or Rebel?
Canon has had to balance a number of features and qualities to keep the Rebel from competing with their existing $1,500 SLR, the EOS 10D. In addition to the plastic body, Canon has also removed some of the EOS 10D’s features from the Rebel.
Missing from the Rebel are such features as: Exposure Flash Compensation; full manual control of focusing mode (the Rebel will sometimes automatically decide to use AI Focus mode); a different optical viewfinder that results in a slightly dimmer viewfinder; slower continuous shooting speed (the Rebel manages four frames at a rate of 2.5 frames per second for four frames (a slower camera might shoot 4 frames at 1 per second); fewer custom function settings. Finally, the Rebel is a little smaller than the 10D, and roughly half a pound lighter.
Whether the Digital Rebel lacks $600 worth of features compared to the EOS 10D depends upon the type of shooting you do. For most users, the missing features will not be noticed. For certain, if you’ve been shopping in the sub-$1,000 market, the Digital Rebel’s existing feature set and image quality more than outweigh any missing features possessed by its higher-priced sibling.
On the other hand, if you’ve already been considering the EOS 10D, then the Rebel might be a little underpowered.
Conclusion
With its $899 price tag, the Digital Rebel enters a market segment inhabited by all-in-one cameras like the Nikon Coolpix 5700. Though the 5700 is a good camera, it doesn’t offer interchangeable lenses and can’t compare to the Rebel in terms of image quality. Until the Digital Rebel, the cheapest D-SLR was Canon’s own $1,500 EOS 10D.
What’s more, Canon has been offering the Rebel body and 18-55mm lens for only $999 (some vendors are pricing the package as low as $930). For the extra $100 over the price of the body alone, it’s silly to pass up this lens unless you already have a collection of EOS-compatible lenses.
But at $899 for the body alone, the Digital Rebel is parked squarely in the price range of what was traditionally the “prosumer” camera.
In one stroke, Canon has not only reduced the entry price point for a digital SLR, they’ve also upped the bar for what you should expect from a $900 digital camera. If you’ve got $900 to spend on a camera, you owe it to yourself to consider the Digital Rebel. It is currently the best digital camera value.
This article was last modified on January 18, 2023
This article was first published on January 20, 2004
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