Canon EOS 350D Digital Rebel

"Sunlit" Portrait:
(This is my new "Outdoor" Portrait test - read more about it here.)

Very high resolution and strong detail, with great color. Contrast is nicely held in check, with strong detail at both ends of the tonal scale.

• Exposure compensation: +0.3 EV, less than average.
• Contrast/Tone: Amazingly good, considering the deliberately harsh lighting. (I set the XT's contrast adjustment to its lowest level.) Just holds onto the strongest highlights, with excellent midtones and great shadow detail. A really excellent job.
• White Balance: Manual is best overall. Auto is good but slightly cool, and Daylight is just a hint warm. All are well within acceptable limits though.
• Color accuracy: Very good, blues are almost dead on, reds are a bit oversaturated, but excellent color overall.
• Skin tones: Very nice, natural.
• Resolution/sharpness: Great resolution and a lot of fine detail, good overall sharpness.
• Shadow detail: Really excellent, with very low noise

To view the entire exposure series from zero to +1.0 EV, see files EXTOUTMP0.HTM through EXTOUTMP3.HTM on the thumbnail index page.

Contrast Series:
The Rebel XT has an excellent contrast adjustment control, providing very broad-ranging control over contrast in usefully small steps, and with little or no affect on color saturation. At the low end of its range, it did a nice job of taming even the extreme contrast of the deliberately horrible lighting in this shot.

Contrast Series
Lowest	Low	Normal	High	Highest

Saturation Series:
Here again, a good control, with nice-sized steps across a photographically useful range of adjustment. The saturation adjustment does seem to have some effect on contrast as well, but it's very slight. A good job...

Saturation Series
Lowest	Low	Normal	High	Highest

Excellent resolution and detail, though details are slightly soft. Slightly bright exposure, though good detail in highlights and shadows.

• Exposure compensation: +0.7 EV, about average.
• Exposure/Tone: Nicely balanced exposure with the contrast control at its low setting. Good skin tones and only slight loss of the strongest highlight detail.
• Detail: Lots of fine details, but slightly soft overall. Takes unsharp masking in Photoshop(tm) unusually well though.
• Distortion: None noticeable, zoom lens prevents distortion in close-ups.
  

 To view the entire exposure series from zero to +1.0 EV, see files EXTOUTFACAP0.HTM through EXTOUTFACAP3.HTM on the thumbnail index page.

Normal Flash +1.0 EV

Slow-Sync Flash +1.0 EV

Good exposure with the flash in the normal setting, as well as in Slow-Sync mode. Pretty good color.

• Exposure: Good results at +1.0 EV, but exposure is quite dim at the default exposure. Slow-Sync mode also fairly bright, with more even coverage at +1.0 EV.
• Flash balance with room lighting?: Very good in both normal and Slow-Sync modes. The Slow-Sync sample is slightly warm overall, but there are no harsh highlights from the flash, it seems to match the color of the room lighting quite well.
• Color: Slightly pale, but very good considering the light source.
  

To view the entire exposure series from zero to +1.7 EV in the normal flash mode, see files EXTINFP0.HTM through EXTINFP5.HTM on the thumbnail index page.

To view the same exposure series in the Slow-Sync flash mode, see files EXTINFSP0.HTM through EXTINFSP5.HTM on the thumbnail index page.

Auto White Balance

Incandescent White Balance

Manual White Balance

Auto and Incandescent settings have trouble, but good color with the Manual white balance setting, about average exposure compensation required.

• Exposure: Good exposure at +1.0 EV, about average.
• White Balance: Manual setting by far the most accurate, though slightly cool. Auto and Incandescent settings both too warm.
• Color: Skin tones pretty good, blue flowers a little purple and dark, others flowers pretty good. (About average, given the tough light source.)

To view the entire exposure series from zero to +1.3 EV, see files EXTINMP0.HTM through EXTINMP4.HTM on the thumbnail index page.

ISO Series:
The Canon Digital Rebel XT showed really excellent image noise characteristics in all my testing. Noise was pretty much undetectable at ISO 200 and below, and could be seen at ISO 400 only by scrutinizing the blue channel in isolation. At ISO 800, noise crept up somewhat, and increased again at ISO 1600, but the ISO 1600 shots looked great, even when printed at 13 x 19 inches on our Canon i9900 studio printer. This is a camera that you'll be able to shoot at ISO 1600 with relative impunity, unless you're a dyed-in-the-wool "noise fanatic." Even if you fall into that tortured cohort, you'll be hard pressed to find any fault whatsoever with shots captured as high as ISO 400.

Auto White Balance

Daylight White Balance

Manual White Balance

Accurate color, with high resolution and strong detail.

• Sharpness/Detail: Strong detail, pretty good sharpness. (Really reaching the limits of this poster.)
• Sharpness in Corners: Will vary with the lens. (None at all in this shot, captured with the Canon 100mm f/2.8 macro.)
• Color: Auto and Manual white balance settings both good, Auto best. Daylight is slightly warm.
• Detail lost to anti-noise processing?: A very small amount in the shadowed brick patterns.

High resolution and strong detail, with good dynamic range.

This image is shot at infinity to test far-field lens performance, and to present a near-infinite range of detail to the camera. NOTE that this image cannot be directly compared to the other "house" shot, which is a poster, shot in the studio.

• Sharpness/Detail: Very high resolution, strong detail.
• Sharpness in Corners: Again, will vary with the lens in use, but good sharpness in this shot, captured with the "kit" lens.
• Color: Good. (Here's a Black & White shot, too.)
• Dynamic Range: Very good, just loses detail in the strongest highlights, but excellent detail in the shadows, with very low noise.
• Detail lost to anti-noise processing?: Little or none in this particular shot.
  
  

Resolution Series:

ISO Series:

Sharpness Series:
A nice range of sharpness adjustment, although the lowest setting doesn't appear to completely disable the in-camera sharpening, and the high setting could perhaps stand to go a bit further in that direction. Lowest setting takes unsharp masking very well (try 300%, 0.3 pixel radius).

Contrast Series:
As before, an excellent range with nice-sized steps, and very little effect on color saturation.

Contrast Series
Lowest	Low	Normal	High	Highest

Saturation Series:
Likewise a good range with good-sized steps, and only a little effect on contrast.

Saturation Series
Lowest	Low	Normal	High	Highest

Lens Zoom Range

The Digital Rebel XT accepts a wide range of Canon lenses. The following were shot with the 18-55 mm "kit" lens, which gives a range of coverage equivalent to a 29 - 88 mm lens on a conventional 35mm camera. (A nice wide angle, but a little lacking at the telephoto end.)

	Wide Angle
	3x Telephoto

Auto White Balance

Daylight White Balance

Manual White Balance

Good color with the Daylight setting. Very high resolution and strong detail.

• White Balance: Daylight setting good, Auto and Manual settings both cool.
• Color: Good skin tones. Blue robe a little greenish, but overall color is pretty good.
• Sharpness/Detail: Very good. (Well beyond the limits of the poster though.)

Macro Shot

Macro

Macro w/flash

• Minimum Macro Area: 2.75 x 1.83 inches (70 x 46 millimeters), about average.
• Softness in corners?: Some, but not too bad. (Most cameras get fairly soft corners in macro mode.)
• Flash performance in macro mode?: OK, flash throttles down well, but the lighting is a little uneven. Probably best to use external lighting for critical shots.

Auto White Balance

Daylight White Balance

Manual White Balance

Accurate color, and good exposure.

• White balance: Manual setting produced the best results. Auto and Daylight both slightly warm.
• Color Accuracy: Very good overall color. Reds are a bit oversaturated, but not as much as is common with consumer digital cameras Greens and blues are also slightly hot, and the yellow swatch is a bit undersaturated, but overall accuracy is very good.
• Shadow detail and noise: Very good detail in the briquettes, very low noise.

Now, for the REAL technoids, Imatest!

I've recently begun using Norman Koren's excellent "Imatest" analysis program for quantitative, thoroughly objective analysis of digicam test images. When I first received a production sample of the Rebel XT to test, I took a close look at its image quality with Imatest, and also prepared a number of 1:1 crops so readers could see exactly what the camera was doing at high ISO, and just how good its dynamic range was. I've now updated this page to include precisely measured dynamic range data, as determined by Imatest and a Stouffer 4110 density scale. (It's pretty darn good.) See my in-depth image analysis page for all of this information.

The images series below duplicate examples of various camera controls we've already covered above. I include them here though, for our more analytically-minded readers, who'd like to see the effect of various camera controls with a well-known target like the MacBeth Color Checker (tm).

ISO Series:

Contrast Series:

Contrast Series
Lowest	Low	Normal	High	Highest

Saturation Series:

Saturation Series
Lowest	Low	Normal	High	Highest

Low-Light Tests

Excellent low-light performance, with fairly low noise and good color. Very good for average city night scenes and a good bit darker. Excellent low-light focusing ability.

• Exposure limit: 1/16 foot-candle at all ISO settings. (About 1/16 as bright as typical city street lighting at night.)
• Autofocus Limit: ~1/16 foot-candle without the AF assist light, total darkness with the AF assist.
• White Balance: Good, though slightly warm-toned at the darkest light levels.
• Noise Levels: Excellent overall, though higher at the 800 and 1,600 ISO settings. The basic performance of the camera is so good that the noise reduction setting seemed to make little difference, at least at the limits of this particular exposure test.
• Detail loss to anti-noise processing?: Very slight at one foot-candle, slightly more at the darker light levels.
• General Notes: The Canon Rebel XT is a really excellent low-light shooter. Its autofocus system will work (albeit slowly, make sure the camera doesn't move the least bit) at light levels as low as 1/16 foot-candle, about four stops darker than typical city street lighting. With the camera's flash pressed into service as a (very bright) AF assist light, it can focus and shoot in total darkness. (Note though, that it's focusing for available light shots is limited to 1/16 foot-candle because the flash must be enabled for the AF assist to operate. That is, you can't focus darker than 1/16 foot-candle unless you turn on the flash.) Image noise is excellent as well.

(Note: If you'd like to use a light meter to check light levels for subjects you might be interested in shooting, a light level of one foot-candle corresponds to a normal exposure of two seconds at f/2.8 and ISO 100. The Digital Rebel XT is getting by with shorter exposures here, so it seems that it's a bit more sensitive at ISO 100 than its ISO scale would indicate.)

	1 fc 11 lux	1/2 fc 5.5 lux	1/4 fc 2.7 lux	1/8 fc 1.3 lux	1/16 fc 0.67 lux	1/16fc No NR
ISO 100	1.3 sec f2.8	2.5 sec f2.8	5 sec f2.8	10 sec f2.8	20 sec f2.8	20 sec f2.8
ISO 200	1/1 sec f2.8	1.3 sec f2.8	2.5 sec f2.8	5 sec f2.8	10 sec f2.8	10 sec f2.8
ISO 400	1/3 sec f2.8	1/1 sec f2.8	1.3 sec f2.8	2.5 sec f2.8	5 sec f2.8	5 sec f2.8
ISO 800	1/6 sec f2.8	1/3 sec f2.8	1/1 sec f2.8	1.3 sec f2.8	2.5 sec f2.8	2.5 sec f2.8
ISO 1600	1/13 sec f2.8	1/6 sec f2.8	1/3 sec f2.8	1/1 sec f2.8	1.3 sec f2.8	1.3 sec f2.8

Flash Range Test

Slightly underexposed with the kit lens at eight feet, but about the same brightness level all the way to 14 feet.

• Flash range at telephoto lens setting: 14 feet, though slightly dim. (This with the "kit" lens, which has a maximum aperture of only f/5.6 at the telephoto end of its range.)

8 ft	9 ft	10 ft	11 ft	12 ft	13 ft	14 ft
1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 100	1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 100	1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 100	1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 100	1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 100	1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 100	1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 100

ISO-12233 (WG-18) Resolution Test

Good resolution, 1,600 lines of "strong detail."

• Resolution: 1,600 lines both vertically and horizontally. (Some reviewers may claim higher numbers, but artifacts and aliasing swamp the target lines beyond 1,600 lines.)
• Artifacts begin at: ~1,300 lines.
• Extinction point: ~2,000 lines.
  
  (The following measurements are based on the 18-55mm "kit" lens that is sold in bundled configurations of the Canon Digital Rebel)
• Barrel/Pincushion distortion: 0.85 percent barrel at wide angle, 0.14 percent at telephoto (four pixels' worth).
• Chromatic Aberration: Low to moderate at wide angle, low at telephoto.
• Corner Sharpness: Much sharper than average at wide angle, averate to a bit softer than average at telephoto.

Resolution Series, 100mm f/2.8 macro lens (very sharp optic)

Resolution Test, Zoom Series (18-55mm "kit" lens)

Sharpness Series: