Review: Canon EOS Rebel SL1

By Niall Donnelly

Being a fan of all of the flagship cameras makes it painful for me to say that this is an unexciting offering from Canon’s lower end consumer camera into the DSLR game. With Nikon and Sony releasing much more advanced consumer offerings, I often wonder what Canon is going to do to get out of this slump in which they constantly repackage the same camera sensor in a similar body.

They make a slight change in the model name with little to no advances in its technology. Don’t get me wrong; the Canon SL1 is an easy to use, decent quality, small and lightweight entrance camera into the DSLR photography and video game, but is not offering anything new and exciting except for a smaller body. 

It was announced by Canon in March 2013 as the smallest DSLR on the market. Being over a year later, that makes this camera slightly out of its prime. Funnily enough, the newer offerings from Canon, such as the Canon Rebel T5i, still use the same processor as this camera. The Canon Rebel T5i is also not at the top in this market as far as technology and features. 

The camera has an 18mp APS-C CMOS sensor with ISO sensitivity between 100 and 12800. This means the camera is capable of shooting in low light situations and after testing out its ability, I would say it shoots reasonably well in low light. The image quality from low light pictures is pretty good and as long as you are not printing too large, noise should not be an issue. The camera has a 3-inch touch screen, so you aren’t jumbling around with too many buttons. The camera shoots a decent 4 frames per second, so you can capture those exciting action shots and find the perfect capture afterwards.

After testing the camera’s functionality on manual mode, I was not too happy with the functionality and set up for changing aperture/shutter speed on the fly while shooting. I know many people using cameras are in auto mode, but if you plan on expanding your skills and removing ‘newbie’ status, manual control is necessary.  

The camera offers fairly good HD video at 1080P (24/25/30 fps) and 720P (60/50 fps, giving you a better ability to slow footage down in editing). A large plus for video shooters is its 29-minute continuous video record time and its continuous auto focus in video mode. A majority of DSLRs up to this time could only shoot approximately 12 minutes of video before stopping. Rarely could you find a DSLR with continuous auto focus in video mode as the video technology on DSLRs was rather new and required manual hand focusing with the lens, which can prove very difficult even for professionals.

BOTTOM LINE

This camera is made for the user stepping up to their first DSLR. It gives you the ability to use manual mode to sharpen your skills, while giving you the safe auto mode should you want to rely on it for those must capture moments when you cannot afford to fumble around. Its discreet size is one of its largest benefits (for some) and it holds a lot more power than most may believe in such a small body. Many people will like its lightweight design, but many will find it too small to comfortably hold unless you have incredibly small hands. I would definitely recommend you take it for a test drive in store, as I became quite irritated after using it for a long period of time with my baby finger hanging in the air as if I were drinking tea at a tea party. Using the camera in auto mode was as easy as you would expect, but when I went to use it in Manual mode, I was not overly impressed. 

This camera does not contain the top of the line technology in this price range at this current time. Sony’s newer Compact Interchangeable lens A5000 costs less than $500 with a kit lens, has a superior sensor, better dynamic range (colours) and Wi-Fi. Even Nikon’s offering further back in 2012, the D3200, has a better price tag and offers a 24.2mp sensor, Wi-Fi and has 11 points of autofocus. If you are dead set on an entrance into the DSLR market with Canon, it may be more cost effective to find the older Canon T4i Rebel on clearance as they are quite similar. I love the Canon brand and love all their products; I am simply looking at it open-mindedly with the competition in mind in the consumer camera market. You probably wouldn’t believe me, but I own three Canon DSLR cameras. 

PROS

Reasonably Affordable Price

Small body at 4.6” (w) x 3.57” (h) x 2.74” (d)

Lightweight at approximately 13 ounces

Touch Screen

Constant Auto Focus tracking in Video mode (requires Canon STM lenses)

9 points of Auto Focus

Continuous Video shooting up to 29.9 minutes

CONS

Same DIGIC 5 processor as aging Canon Rebel T4i 

4 Frames per second Burst mode

Approximately 380 shots battery life

No flip out Screen 

Why a DSLR?

Why buy a DSLR? It’s simple. A point and shoot camera tends to have a smaller sensor than a DSLR. This is not to say that many big name camera companies, such as Canon, Nikon and Sony, have not released point and shoots with the equivalent size sensor as this (some have released point and shoots with even bigger sensors), but they tend to be at a higher price point and you are stuck with the lens built into the camera. The larger the sensor, the more information the camera creates while reducing noise to the image, offering more sharpness and adding a more cinematic depth to your images. If you want to learn how to take your own photographs using manual, nothing does that better than a DSLR.