Simple review of Canon Rebel XTi / 400D

My son now uses my T1i and has taken excellent photos with it. It's never missed a beat, no lockups, and fewer out-of-focus photos than my T3i. What's up with that? Hopefully the new T6s will remedy that.

Mike Jacoubowsky wrote:

My son now uses my T1i and has taken excellent photos with it. It's never missed a beat, no lockups, and fewer out-of-focus photos than my T3i. What's up with that? Hopefully the new T6s will remedy that.

Hard to say Mike.  Sometimes my 60D and 70D miss focus.  Not noticeable until you view it at the pixel level.  But rarely anything really bad.  The 70D DPAF seems to do almost perfect using live view.  When using the 70D on a tripod with live view with touch focus and touch shutter every shot was tack sharp.  Better performance than I expected!

The new Rebels sure look good.  Especially the T6s!  You will love the 19 point AF!!  And 24 MP too!  

Patrick

Mike, with your Canon T3i (600D) camera, are you using the center AF point? When I use that point so that I control the focus, I rarely have any problems with the AF. If there's problems from my experience, it's usually the photographer's fault (unless the camera is defective).  I've showed hundreds of photos taken from the Canon T2i (550D) and Canon T3i (600D) and taken about 50,000 pictures from them.  The autofocus works fine for me...and it's fast.

Thanks for the review.  When this camera first was available, it was approximately the time I was using my 10mp Olympus E-510 camera.  I think the specs were similar to the Canon XTi (400D) camera.  I could use up to ISO800, but ISO1600 was normally too noisy unless there was a lot of bright sunlight.

Digirame wrote:

Mike, with your Canon T3i (600D) camera, are you using the center AF point? When I use that point so that I control the focus, I rarely have any problems with the AF. If there's problems from my experience, it's usually the photographer's fault (unless the camera is defective). I've showed hundreds of photos taken from the Canon T2i (550D) and Canon T3i (600D) and taken about 50,000 pictures from them. The autofocus works fine for me...and it's fast.

As a matter of fact I frequently use a different AF point, typically center-low or center-left. And yes I've been aware that dead-center is better, but you just can't get the bike racing shots I want using just the center AF point. And while aware that I've been getting better focus on the center, it's never really occurred to me to stick with it. Thanks for the reminder of the obvious!

(This also explains why I was able to get some bird-in-flight pix in Africa that I really didn't think I had a chance at)

The 400plus project extended the lifespan of this camera for me. The project adds features that don't exist on even the latest Canon DSLRs. Not only does it activates spot metering (disabled in the menu by Canon), but it adds multi-spot metering. The 400D did not have auto-ISO, but 400plus implements an auto-ISO feature that is more sophisticated than on any Canon camera. Feature listing here:

https://code.google.com/p/400plus/

There is a comprehensive user manual here:

https://code.google.com/p/400plus/wiki/UserGuide

Any XTi/400D user that's not or wasn't aware of 400plus is missing/has missed out on lot of improvements added to the camera.

That's good to know!  Glad you added the info!

Thanks!!

Patrick

Mirfak wrote:

The 400plus project extended the lifespan of this camera for me. The project adds features that don't exist on even the latest Canon DSLRs. Not only does it activates spot metering (disabled in the menu by Canon), but it adds multi-spot metering. The 400D did not have auto-ISO, but 400plus implements an auto-ISO feature that is more sophisticated than on any Canon camera. Feature listing here:

https://code.google.com/p/400plus/

There is a comprehensive user manual here:

https://code.google.com/p/400plus/wiki/UserGuide

Any XTi/400D user that's not or wasn't aware of 400plus is missing/has missed out on lot of improvements added to the camera.

Lemming51 wrote:

Mr Low Notes wrote:

Good camera for it's time. Not perfect. No spot metering. S L O W flash recycle time. Missing info LCD found on the back of previous two Rebel Cameras. Large (2.5") color LCD. 10mp.

Photos would sometimes be dark for no reason. Built in Flash exposure compensation never worked right even in manual. It would always tone down the flash to keep from blowing out the highlights no matter what the settings. This was a problem when something reflective was in the shot that you knew would be blown out to get the correct exposure elsewhere in the frame. Even with exposure lock *. Manual.... It didn't matter. Not a problem with an external flash.

Some comments:

• All EOS bodies with built-in flash have slow flash cycling. Not unique to the 400D, I think (could be wrong) it's by design to protect the tiny flash from overheating and not draw power from the camera's image and other processors working at the same time.
• ETTL I metering was overly sensitive to "hot spots" where ever they occurred in the frame. ETTL II (2004 and later bodies like the 400D/XTi) was not so sensitive. Still the flash auto exposure metering of the 400D could be changed to Average to avoid that (C.Fn-8, p. 105)
• The built-in flash is pretty weak. Dialing in additional FEC doesn't do anything if the flash is already firing at its maximum level. Could explain why external flash (much more powerful) could be seen to respond to +FEC.

From Mr. Low Notes:

• I do agree with you for the most part on flash recycle time. And it was slowest when it fired at full power which is to be expected. The 60D and 70D are noticeably recycle faster with a full discharge. Almost twice as fast. And Canon states the upper models do recycle faster. The battery capacity is much more too. The Xti was rated at 550 or so shots and the 60D over 1500... 1700 or so I think. Without the flash used.
• Thanks for the other info. It's nice that modern cameras have so many options on them. The XTi was a very good camera and I got a lot of use out of it.

Good camera other than that. Used it several years before getting the 60D. Sold it to a friend who still uses it as far as I know.

Untouched full size (10mp) JPG with kit lens (18-55mm) & built in flash.

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Unapologetic Canon Apologist