Canon EOS 600D (aka Rebel T3i in America)
Well, it’s time to unpack the purchase and once the Open-Sesame
moment is over, this is what comes out of the box.
The Kit comprises of: A) Camera Body, B) Software CD, C)
Install CD, D) Battery Charger, E) Battery, F) AV Cable, G) USB Connector, H)
Strap, I) Kit Lens
There are a few good reasons why I bought this particular
Camera. Firstly, it was the cheapest one available. The cost keeps fluctuating,
so for current pricing, take a look at the Canon website or you might also wanna
visit your local showroom. For my first Camera, I wanted to go for an
entry-level piece. The plan was to get trained in photography, click some
photos and then, once I might start selling my photos, then buy more expensive
ones. Although, now that I’ve started studying Photography, I have come to
realize that, other than a coupla reasons, there’s not much need to upgrade the
Camera’s body. Just need to keep buying new lenses (Wide Angle, Prime,
Telephoto) and maybe a Tripod, eventually. I’ll be writing about the reasons to
upgrade the body below. Second, would be a question, Why Canon? Well, no
particular reason, I am sure all camera makers, be it Canon, Nikon, Olympus and
many more, put the best features into their Cameras. My decision was based on
the fact that most of the courses that I studied from used Canon Cameras.
Of course, I did find two reasons, in particular, that helped me
finalize the purchase. First being the fact that I can shoot 1080p Full HD
video and Second, Vari-Angle LCD monitor, meaning the LCD’s on a hinge which allows it to be swiveled in
almost any angle, great for viewing the frame while recording at crazy angles.
Following is a basic breakdown of the key features of my Camera:
Body Type
Well, so for sure, it’s a DSLR i.e., Digital, Single-Lens
Reflex, AF / AE Camera with built-in flash. Wow, that was a mouthful. It simply
means that it's a digital Camera and the body has a movable mechanical mirror system (Reflex Mirror), which is switched down (exact 45-degree angle) to direct
light from the lens to an optical viewfinder eyepiece and flicks up when the
picture is taken. Along with that, it has built-in Auto Focus and Auto Exposure
features.
It also comes with a Revised kit lens
- Canon EF-S 18-55mm F3.6-5.6 IS II and is compatible with Canon’s range
EF and EF-S lenses.
Combine the two and you get this piece of beauty.
In addition it has an SD Memory Card which happily sits on the side of the body, so that you can change
it without lifting the Camera off the Tripod.
The CMOS Image Sensor sits right behind the Mirror and its size
is approx. 22.3 x 14.9mm. Now this is the information that helps you decide
whether to upgrade the body or not. To get the best quality without any
compression one must have a Full Frame or 35 mm Image Sensor. This is basically
the size of the conventional Film reel. Smaller sensors will have lower picture
quality. With the advent of Digital Recording, the option to buy a full frame
or reduced sensor is now open to buyers depending on their spending capacity.
Most of the controls for clicking photos are on the top right
part of the body viz., Mode Dial, Display toggle, ISO button, Jog Dial and the
Shutter button.
The Mode Dial has the entire range of standard shooting
modes found in most DSLRs, starting from Manual, Shutter Priority, Aperture
Priority and Program mode for the professionals, to the very reliable Scene
Intelligent Automatic Mode for the novice, to a tonna Preset Modes for the
enthusiasts.
The rear side of the body has the unique vari-angle LCD
Screen, the Viewfinder, all the Controls for Camera & Shooting Settings,
Image Viewing and Post-Processes.
Recording System
The Camera allows me to record images in both JPEG and RAW
formats, in various sizes, along with the option to record both at the same time:
JPEG: Ranges from Largest being 18 Megapixels (5184 x 3456)
to smallest, approx. 350,000 pixels (720 x 480)
RAW: Approx.
17.90 megapixels (5184 x 3456)
Image size directly affects file size. Larger the size,
lesser the number of pics you can click. My advice would be, keep the size large
and invest in more storage. You could also learn photography properly and click
better photos…ha ha ha. No point in having a tonna low quality images you can’t
use anywhere as opposed to a few good ones you could probably sell later.
From post-processing point of view, it’s better to shoot
RAW. Although JPEGs can be edited to no end in an application like Photoshop,
Adobe’s Camera Raw allows you to do a tonna pre-processing before opening the
image in Photoshop. Although you can also open JPEGs in Camera Raw, the
range of controls is less. Hope that made some sense.
It also performs some amount of image processing during shooting
which involves choice of Picture
style, such as, Auto, Standard, Portrait, Landscape, Neutral, Faithful,
Monochrome. Along with a buncha White Balance settings according to the type of
lighting in the scene, like, Auto, Preset (Daylight, Shade, Cloudy, Tungsten
light, White fluorescent light, Flash), Custom White balance correction and
white balance bracketing features are also provided.
One of the most important features is the amazing NoiseReduction, applicable to long exposures and high ISO speed shots. Along with Automatic
image brightness correction and Auto Lighting Optimizer.
