Canon T4i Review

Canon Rebel T4i Review

by Shawn Barnett, Mike Tomkins, and Zig Weidelich
Hands-on Preview posted: June 8, 2012
Review posted: November 1, 2012

Offering video on an SLR was a neat trick, but the inability to autofocus while shooting like you can with most common camcorders was disappointing. Canon's latest digital SLR camera, the Rebel T4i, attempts to address the issue with a new Hybrid AF system and two new lenses designed to make shooting video more like consumers expect.

Canon's included a host of other improvements as well, bringing the Rebel T4i into closer contention with both compact system cameras and even smartphones. Those improvements include a faster frame rate of five frames per second, nine cross-type AF points, a stereo microphone, and a 3-inch articulating LCD with an integrated touch panel. And the best news about the touch panel is that it's capacitive, not resistive. That means it works more like current smartphones and tablets, requiring only a gentle touch with a finger. Easily my favorite change to the Canon T4i is the new quieter shutter mechanism, which operates without that Rebel winding sound that's always spoiled the camera for me.

Physically very similar, but not identical to its predecessor, the Canon T4i is just a little thicker front to back than the T3i, measuring 133.1 x 99.8 x 78.8mm compared to the T3i's 133.1 x 99.5 x 79.7mm. Weight is 20.3 ounces (1.27 pounds; 575g) including body, battery, and card, or 36.6 ounces (2.29 pounds; 1039g) with the 18-135mm STM kit lens added. With the 18-55mm kit lens, weight is 27.3 ounces (1.71 pounds; 774g), again including battery and card.

From the front, there's some minor restyling, but all major elements are in the same places. The infrared remote port, the shutter button, the self-timer lamp, the lens release button and below that, tucked against the side of the mount, the Depth-of-field preview button. The lens mount accepts both EF and EF-S mount lenses, as with all of Canon's APS-C cameras.

Shown mounted here is the new 18-135mm IS STM lens, and the Canon T4i is the first camera in the line to support the kind of live continuous autofocus that gives the lens significance. Where other lenses would seek noisily for focus, the new STM lens seeks more slowly and quietly to avoid introducing noise to captured video. Live view autofocus for stills is also less cumbersome, without the noisy seeking or flipping mirror. This is the only kit lens that's STM, however, and it comes at a higher price of US$1,199.00. The 18-55mm IS II lens is bundled for US$950, and it's available body-only for US$850.

Just in front of the hot shoe are the new stereo microphones, imitating other competing designs. Canon didn't mention it, but often the stated goal for putting the mics here is to reduce noise from hand and lens movements. Canon removed the Movie position from the Mode dial, instead placing it on the power switch. They also removed the Display button from the top deck; indeed from the camera entirely. One reason they were able to remove the Display button is that they added back the infrared proximity sensor that turns off the LCD when you bring your eye to the viewfinder. It used to reside below the viewfinder, but now it's above, and just below the hot shoe.

Most elements in the back are in the same positions; slightly different button shapes and icon locations, but it should otherwise be familiar to upgraders. The thumbgrip area is larger. The LCD is a ClearView II monitor with 1.04 million dots of resolution, and it's said to have a smudge-resistant coating, which will be important when using the touchscreen. In my use, fingerprints nevertheless collected on the screen, unsurprisingly.

What was surprising was how much I enjoyed using the touchscreen. When I first encountered the T4i's touchscreen, we'd just finished our review of the Canon 510HS, a pocket camera with a resistive touchscreen that was very difficult to use. Eventually we realized we had to touch harder to make it work, or else use the stylus. But when I started using the Canon T4i's new touchscreen I found it as responsive as I'm used to on my iOS and Android devices. Suddenly instead of being a pain, the touchscreen became more fun. There's just something enjoyable about technology when it works, and works well.

Changing settings via the Quick Menu is made a little easier with the touchscreen. You can either touch the physical Quick Menu button or its equivalent in the lower left corner of the screen. Then the screen becomes active and you can just press on any element to make adjustments. Swiping between photos in Playback is easier than I've seen on other cameras, and pinch-zooming is pretty easy too.

As for the LCD, naturally it does get fingerprints, but they're not as bad as usual. The screen is sharp and contrasty, quite good outdoors in bright sunlight, and its off-axis viewing is pretty impressive. Canon also minimized the blue sheen that was a little annoying on the T3i.

Canon T4i Field Test

by Shawn Barnett

The Canon Rebel T4i is just my kind of camera. Before the Canon T4i was announced, I routinely grabbed the T3i for important family events, shooting with it for nine months after the review was completed. I have access to many cameras, obviously, and often shoot family events with cameras I'm reviewing, but when I wanted to make sure I got the shot, I picked the T3i. When the T4i arrived, it supplanted the T3i most of the time in those same situations. (They look so similar, I often grabbed one when I thought I was grabbing the other, which was a little frustrating.) Another reason I choose these two cameras so often is because I'm already reasonably invested in a few Canon lenses whose glass I love, as well as a flash and a few accessories, so it's familiar territory.

For commercial work, I recommend higher-end cameras for several (obvious) reasons, but the Canon T4i now serves even better as a backup camera for pros thanks to its more serious-sounding shutter mechanism. I know that seems silly, but sounding and looking professional is important when the client is spending some money. And when someone is spending money, you want a backup camera. Also, when I'm shooting any event, I like to have two cameras, one with a wide angle or medium prime, and the other with a telephoto zoom. The Canon T4i is an ideal choice.

What differentiates the Canon T4i from its predecessors is its new Live View autofocus system, whose primary purpose is to support autofocus when shooting stills in Live View and when shooting video. As have several manufacturers, Canon integrated phase-detect autofocus into the T4i's main image sensor. Phase-detect autofocus is generally faster -- certainly faster than Canon's contrast-detect autofocus. We've seen its effectiveness proven in the Nikon 1 cameras as well as Sony's recent NEX-5R, NEX-6, and A99 cameras. But so far, Canon's implementation is quite a bit slower than those designs, and only marginally faster than the contrast-detect system in the T3i.

Since it's the major feature of the camera, though, I felt obligated to test it. I couldn't draw conclusions from my earlier tests with the 20mm f/2.8 lens, primarily because they'd told me it might not work as well, despite its STM designation. And they were right. So this review largely waited for the 18-135mm STM kit lens to arrive.

What I learned was that it's still not great, but if you learn its limitations, you can make use of the camera's Movie Servo AF mode, which lets the Canon T4i adjust focus just like a camcorder (default mode for most SLRs is to only focus when you half-press the shutter when recording movies).

I asked my boys to play out in the field behind our house -- coaxing them with a chance to shoot my old Rebel XTi -- to approximate an average family play scenario, and the results were mixed. Most often when framing them head-to-toe, the Canon T4i focused on the grass behind them rather than the boys themselves. If their face was large enough in the frame, the camera would begin tracking them, placing a box around their faces onscreen, but not always with accurate focus. The 18-135mm STM lens was indeed better at acquiring focus than the 40mm f/2.8 prime, but still sometimes quite slow and stubborn.

As with anything, once you learn what a system requires of you, you can adapt to it. But having to choose your framing to serve the needs of the autofocus system is less than ideal. It's also not something I've had to do with modern compact system cameras, even those with contrast-detection only. I got it right with the video below, and the Canon T4i did well enough.

Filling your frame with the subject seems to be the best strategy for making the system focus on the subject; it's also good strategy for interesting composition, but when someone is standing in a field, there's not much you can do to make them fill more of the frame than the grass.

Visit our in-depth video page for more details on the Canon T4i's movie capture capabilities.

Multi-shot Noise Reduction. Another major new feature is the Canon T4i's new Multi-shot Noise Reduction, which captures, combines, and micro-aligns four images into one. It seemed to exhibit considerably lower noise than the camera's high ISO settings alone.

I set the Canon T4i to ISO 6,400 and made two handheld shots, one with no noise reduction and one with MSNR on. In this shot, I was most interested in the lunar rainbow effect seen in one of the clouds, in the area I've cropped. While the first image has quite a bit of chroma noise, the Multi-shot Noise Reduction image maintains the rainbow colors while getting rid of the noise. The only drawback to shooting in Multi-shot Noise Reduction is that you have to first turn off RAW capture; switching to the mode doesn't automatically turn it off for you. As one who always shoots raw, it's a hassle to say the least.

HDR. Shooting a High Dynamic Range image is a lot easier than before, and it's even easier than the Multi-shot Noise Reduction mode, because it has its own position on the Mode dial. Just turn the dial all the way to the right and you're in HDR Backlight Control. The camera will automatically capture three images and combine them into one, effectively extending the dynamic range available in an image.

Unlike other Canon EOS models, though, the HDR in the T4i is fully automatic, so you have no control over ISO or the amount of exposure compensation applied to the three shots, nor how aggressive the camera is in applying the merge. The camera also crops substantially when shooting HDR, as you see in the two shots above, taken from the same position. This results in some softness likely caused by interpolation back to full image size.

Pancakes. I'm also really pleased Canon's finally produced a small pancake lens, a 40mm f/2.8 STM lens, equivalent to a 64mm lens on a full-frame camera. That's a little more telephoto than I'd like, but still close to a "normal" lens. Here's hoping they also produce something like a 30mm pancake lens, which would be equivalent to a 48mm. It felt strange to hold a Canon camera with a pancake lens mounted. I liked it, though. Note that the lens is too small for image stabilization as well. It's not an essential feature at 64mm equivalent, but would still be handy for movies.

We reviewed the Canon 40mm f/2.8 on SLRgear.com, and I also went out and shot with it in July. You can read my Shooting the Canon 40mm f/2.8 story here, and see the SLRgear review here.

As a brief summary, though, the Canon 40mm f/2.8 STM lens is a nice little prime lens with good sharpness. It's slower to focus than USM lenses, and there is some sound when it focuses. It's also slower to focus in video mode when using Movie Servo AF. The shot above would not have been possible focusing in Live View mode, either. I tried. It wasn't until I abandoned Live View mode -- something I use all the time by default with compact system cameras -- and switched back to using the optical viewfinder that I got action shots like this.

September rush. Because of its reasonably small size, reliable image quality and ability to remote control a few Canon 580EX flashes from its pop-up flash, the Canon T4i ended up joining me in my September rush, including three trips to NYC to cover new cameras. Most of the cameras you see in our Hands-on previews were photographed with the T4i and the 17-85mm f/3.5-5.6 or the 60mm f/2.8. It's small enough to travel well, controls the 580EX flashes without wires and minimal setup, and serves multiple purposes. You can also set the T4i to not contribute to the exposure, but just signal the other flashes to fire, as I did with the D600 shot here.

I have yet to light portraits with the Canon T4i in concert with the 580EXs, but it's trivial to do so, requiring only a few light stands or even a chair or two to achieve. I demonstrated the feature in my Canon 7D review, but the T4i's pop-up remote-control capabilities are a little more limited by comparison. Whereas the 7D can control up to three groups of flashes, the T4i is limited to one group, plus the built-in flash itself.

I made the above shot just after the Sun went down, but I was able to bring it back thanks to the Canon T4i's remote-flash capability. I had a friend hold my 580EX about six feet to my left, onto which I'd attached the same LumiQuest ProMax bounce reflector I mention below. The gold reflector combined with the off angle makes the flash look more like evening sunlight, a nice effect considering we're all about to head out for Trick or Treating.

Most people won't go to such efforts to make a picture. But it's surprising just how easy this was thanks to the Canon T4i's straightforward approach, and the photo turned out just how I wanted.

High speed. A higher frame rate is a welcome improvement to the Rebel line, with the T4i topping out at five frames per second, capturing 19 frames before the buffer fills. It doesn't seem like five frames, and in Large/Fine JPEG mode it's actually 4.84 fps. Switch to RAW or RAW+JPEG, though, and things speed up to 5.05 and 5.56 fps. The buffer only holds six and three frames respectively.

I don't use fast frame rates that often, but it was fun to try it out on this brief action sequence. This wouldn't have been as interesting at three frames per second, but five frames captures just about enough action to make it fun to review after capture.

Portraits. As I mentioned earlier, I used the Canon T4i extensively through the Summer and Fall of 2012. Capturing portraits is one of my favorite pastimes, and I frequently grabbed the T4i for these as well, attaching a single 580EX and my LumiQuest ProMax reflector for quick and dirty fill flash with a softer light.

I captured these two seasonal shots with the gold LumiQuest insert, both to better match the late afternoon light and to give it that Fall look. At first the kids were sitting on the pumpkins, but it wasn't until I thought to place a pumpkin in my youngest son's lap that the smiles came more naturally. It's easy to see it was my other son's idea to throw the leaves in the air; that big smile tells it all. The images are a tad overexposed, unfortunately, but a quick tune in Lightroom improved them over what you see here (these are JPEGs straight from the camera).

Overexposure. Particularly with Auto ISO on, I experienced a lot of overexposed images, not always flash shots. All of my shots of my daughter's high school band were too bright, blowing out their white caps and feathers while trying to compensate for the black uniforms. I had to dial the camera back a full stop to get this shot. I didn't get any decent shots that night, but this is an example of how far I had to back down to keep from losing the feathers and shirts. Yes, it's a little too far, but the meter wasn't consistent, so I chose to overdo it by 1/3 stop just to be safe.

Other portraits like this standard Homecoming shot were also affected by the black dress and tuxedo. It's not too bad in this shot -- some of the other shots were worse, with the suit going gray -- and it's certainly not uncommon. Since I shot raw also, I was able to fix this in Lightroom with no trouble at all. I've had better luck with Canon's matrix metering in the past, though. Just like the T3i, the Canon T4i overexposes a little too often, so watch your highlights and compensate as needed.

Overall, the Canon T4i is a reliable digital SLR for stills, a deluxe package for the price, with a gorgeous high-resolution, swivelling LCD, an excellent sensor, as well as a fast frame rate (without all that winding noise). Movie Servo AF mode isn't quite as mature as I'd like to see, but I still think of this camera primarily as one for stills, so it doesn't bother me too much. Before recommending a Canon consumer SLR for family video capture, we'll need to see some improvements in responsiveness. Until then, it's probably best to prefocus and shoot short snippets of video. Otherwise, the Canon T4i's image quality is quite good, save for occasional overexposure. I recommend shooting RAW+JPEG most of the time to guard against this.

Canon Rebel T4i Technical Info

by Mike Tomkins

The Canon T4i's healthy selection of exposure modes includes Scene Intelligent Auto (aka 'Green' mode), Program AE , Shutter priority AE, Aperture priority AE, Manual, No Flash, Creative Auto, Portrait, Landscape, Close-up, Sports, Night Portrait, Handheld Night Scene, and HDR Backlight Control. The latter two are new, and we'll come to them in a moment. Scene Intelligent Auto mode was introduced on the T3i, and differs from the typical Auto mode in that it uses scene recognition technology to determine an appropriate scene type, and then not only controls exposure, white balance, and focus automatically, but also tweaks the picture style and tone curve appropriately to your subject.

Metering modes in the Canon T4i include 63-zone AF-linked evaluative, 9% partial, 4% center spot, and center-weighted average. The metering system has a working range of EV 1-20 (23°C with 50mm f/1.4 lens, at ISO100). Shutter speeds range from 1/4,000 to 30 seconds, plus bulb. White balance modes include Auto, six presets, and custom, along with a +/- nine step white balance adjustment on blue/amber and magenta/green axes.

Canon Rebel T4i Overview Video

We had Canon USA's Derek Simmons-Tobias, Technical Specialist, Camera and Video Marketing Division, Imaging Technologies & Communications Group, run through some of the high points of the Canon T4i, ranging from the new lenses to the touchscreen to the quiet AF system. Click the Play button to check it out!

Canon T4i Image Quality

The crops below compare the Canon T4i to the Canon T3i, Pentax K-30, Nikon D3200, Olympus E-M5, and Sony A65.

Most decent cameras produce very good results at base ISO, but the T4i is interesting enough we wanted to show how it did at ISO 100 compared to similar cameras at their base ISO. We also like to see what they can do at ISO 1,600 and 3,200, and finally we'll compare high-contrast detail at base ISO, 3,200, and 6,400.

Note that these images are best quality JPEGs straight out of the camera, at default settings including noise reduction. Each camera was shot with one of our very sharp reference prime lenses.

Canon T4i versus Canon T3i at Base ISO

Canon T4i versus Pentax K-30 at Base ISO

Canon T4i versus Nikon D3200 at Base ISO

Canon T4i versus Olympus E-M5 at Base ISO

Canon T4i versus Sony A65 at Base ISO

How images look at 1,600 is also of importance.

Canon T4i versus Canon T3i at ISO 1,600

Canon T4i versus Pentax K-30 at ISO 1,600

Canon T4i versus Nikon D3200 at ISO 1,600

Canon T4i versus Olympus E-M5 at ISO 1,600

Canon T4i versus Sony A65 at ISO 1,600

Today's ISO 3,200 is yesterday's ISO 1,600 (well, almost), so below are the same crops at ISO 3,200.

Canon T4i versus Canon T3i at ISO 3,200

Canon T4i versus Pentax K-30 at ISO 3,200

Canon T4i versus Nikon D3200 at ISO 3,200

Canon T4i versus Olympus E-M5 at ISO 3,200

Canon T4i versus Sony A65 at ISO 3,200

Detail: Canon T4i vs. T3i, Pentax K-30, Nikon D3200, Olympus E-M5, and Sony A65

Canon T4i Print Quality

Good 24 x 36 inch prints at ISOs 100/200; ISO 3,200 shots are better at 8 x 10; and ISO 12,800 makes a good 4 x 6.

ISO 100 shots are very nice at 24 x 36 inches, with sharp detail across the board except for our hard to please (er, render) red fabric swatch.

ISO 200 images also look quite good at 24 x 36.

ISO 400 prints nicely at 20 x 30 inches.

ISO 800 shots are slightly soft at 16 x 20 inches, with minor noise in a few shadowy areas, but are still quite good.

ISO 1,600 prints are quite good at 13 x 19. At 16 x 20, noise suppression has started to affect reds, and some luminance noise affects the shadows.

ISO 3,200 shots are better printed at 8 x 10.

ISO 6,400 images are a bit rough at 8 x 10, but are reasonably nice at 5 x 7.

ISO 12,800 images are decent at 4 x 6, although with a slight loss in color fidelity.

ISO 25,600 prints are not usable.

Overall, a pretty impressive performance from the Canon T4i, especially up to ISO 1600.

Testing hundreds of digital cameras, we've found that you can only tell just so much about a camera's image quality by viewing its images on-screen. Ultimately, there's no substitute for printing a lot of images and examining them closely. For this reason, we now routinely print sample images from the cameras we test on our Canon Pro9000 Mark II studio printer, and on the Canon Pixma MP610 here in the office. (See the Canon Pixma Pro9000 Mark II review for details on that model.)

See below for our conclusion; be sure to check the other tabs for details and test results.

In the Box

The retail package contains the following items:

• Canon EOS Rebel T4i digital camera
• EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM lens or EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II lens (if bundled)
• Front and rear lens caps (with lens kit)
• Body cap
• Eyecup Ef
• Wide strap EW-100DBIV
• Battery charger LC-E8E
• Battery pack LP-E8
• USB Interface cable IFC-130U
• EOS Digital Solution Disc & Software Instruction Manual CD
• Warranty card and manuals

Recommended Accessories

• Extra battery pack
• Protective case
• Large capacity, high-speed SDHC/SDXC memory card. 8-16GB or larger makes sense if you plan on shooting lots of HD video. Look for a speed grade of at least Class 6 for HD video capture.

Canon T4i Conclusion

When a company touts a new feature that turns out to be, well, not so hot, it casts a pall over the entire product, sometimes unnecessarily. This is one of those cases. Most people still don't think of SLRs primarily as video cameras, so that the on-sensor phase detect isn't as responsive or accurate as we'd like doesn't take away from the Canon T4i's excellence as a still camera. That low speed in Live View mode does mean that for any kind of action, you're better to shoot through the optical viewfinder -- which is why you bought an SLR in the first place, right?

As a still camera, the Canon T4i is a joy to use. It does everything you'd expect, and opens new possibilities with its wireless flash control and multiple exposure modes to reduce noise and create high-dynamic-range images. Its new touchscreen is also easy to use, working just like the smartphones people are so familiar with, and the articulating LCD is convenient when you need it. The razor-sharp image on the LCD is very good, and easy to use in sunlight.

Of the two kit lenses, the new 18-135mm STM answers most photographic needs with one lens, so it's a good choice if you can afford it. Options like the 40mm pancake are a real plus, and of course T4i owners have access to Canon's very large selection of EOS lenses. So far, though, only these two lenses offer the stepper-motor technology necessary to use the new phase-detect autofocus smoothly.

Thus the latest flagship Rebel remains one of the top choices for family SLRs on the market. It's a little faster, has a few more modern features, and still offers the beautiful articulating LCD. Most importantly, it still produces great images with relative ease. It's a Dave's Pick!

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