Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Its been a few years since I owned a Rebel. In 2004 I purchased the original Rebel 300D, it was my first digital SLR. I purchased it leaving my well loved film Minolta Maxxum 8000i behind. Since that first original Rebel which I later gave to a friend, I have purchased three (3) additional Canon camera bodies in the last 3 years. A Canon 40D, a Canon 7D, and my current pro body and first full-frame, the 5D Mark III. Unfortunately magnesium alloy bodies can get very heavy and too big and noticeable for just casual shooting. I wanted a smaller camera that I can have with me all the time but it seems like Sony has the best mirror-less camera as of the date of this writing (1/11/2014. The Sony 7r would mean not only buying an expensive new body, but new lenses. I'm to heavily invested in Canon L and prime lenses today. Along comes this little gem, the SL1 or 100D. It is not mirror-less, and if you connect a large lens it loses its size advantage quickly but with a smaller lens, you essentially have a mini t5i that you can fit into a small backpack and have with you all the time with very little or no compromises. Amazon's pricing during the 2013 Christmas holiday season made it even more irresistible -- a downright steal. It has most of the features its bigger siblings in the Canon EOS lineup has with wonderful full-time hybrid CMOS autofocus during video mode shooting. It has Multi-frame noise reduction, high resolution rear touch screen, shoots full HD 1080p at 30 fps, most of its intelligent and creative modes allow shooting in RAW, which If I remember correctly was not the case with earlier Rebel cameras; perfect for handing the camera off to friends and relatives to take a picture of you but yet still have some control over the exposure when you do, and have a high quality CR2 raw file for further editing in Photoshop later. It has amazing low light capability, up to ISO 25600, 14-bit per channel with highlight controls. This little camera can also serve as a second camera because its compatible with all Canon's EOS lenses. It has some creative filters, although the miniature effect is the only one I like, especially in video mode. Some of the special effects can be added later after the photograph has been taken and it will allow you to apply the effect on a copy, rather than the original photograph so you will have both the original photo and one with the special effect. This little camera has built-in lens aberration correction and in camera cropping just like its bigger brothers do and a programmable auto focus system like other Canon's do too. You can also program the asterisk button on the rear to detach auto focus from shutter release if you like this. I have this setup on my Canon 5D Mark 3 and after getting use to it, find it more useful than having AF and Shutter on a single button. It has a mirror lockup to reduce vibration with larger telephoto lenses. It has four metering modes, evaluative, partial, spot and center-weight metering modes. Full data display with RGB or combined histograms, Auto Lighting Optimizer, in camera HDR (3 frames) , touch screen LCD display that let you skip, zoom in or out with your fingers with familiar finger gestures like those used for iPhone and Android. What it does lack is a headphone jack for monitoring audio levels, the battery is small, so video recording time will not be as good as other Canon cameras, so have a charged up spare battery for recording video. Lenses with IS switched on and using the built-in flash will kill the battery quickly. But if you use a fast 50mm 1.8 or 1.4 or even the Canon 40mm f/2.8 STM lens, you should get the most battery life you can per charge. I think this is probably the best camera deal for dSLR photography, especially if you can get it with instant cashback or rebates so shop around. Update 1/18/2014: Just thought I pass on this tip to other photographers. The Opteka LP-E12 batteries make good additional batteries for the SL1. They give you slightly more life and 1/4th the price of the original Canon battery. Opteka LP-E12 2000mAh Ultra High Capacity Li-ion Battery Pack for Canon EOS-M & EOS Rebel SL1 DSLR Cameras So if you shoot plenty of video, the Opteka battery seems to be a good choice, and at one fourth the price of the original Canon part, you can have four times the battery life.