You can point & shoot great pictures with this camera (Canon EOS 350D)

Member Name: tconnor

Product:	Canon EOS 350D
Date:	15/09/08 (87 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: quite brilliant people shots, foolproof presets

Disadvantages: small viewing screen

I have 2 cameras; a take to the pub don't really care if its broken/stolen/lost point & shoot & then what I call my real camera.

My real camera is probably the most popular amateur SLR in the world the Canon 350d.

I don't want to do some vast technical review because to be honest I haven't used the camera in that way and I wouldn't have the faintest idea what I was talking about either! I bought this camera as I wanted to have the option to learn about real photography; the kind that involves playing around with settings. Yet at the same time I wanted to be able to take better photos than was possible with a compact camera but just as easily.

What do I use this camera for? To be honest I use this as a point & shoot! The camera comes with a good set of Preset options that I find take quite amazing photographs compared with any other camera I've owned.

Where it blew me away was with its close up pictures of people - my photos look professional! (to me anyway!). I have some stunning pictures of my friends kids either posing or where I've captured them intently playing with one of their toys. I also have some stunning pictures of quite drunk friends but that is another matter! It is easy to take great pictures of people with this camera.

The other type of photo I take is of scenery. I am regular visitor to the Highlands of Scotland so am desperate to attach to "film" the scenery I see with my eyes. This is much harder to do & although I have had some success I don't quite know what I have done to get that photo; guess thats where the lessons would come in! No doubt this camera is capable of taking fantastic scenery shots - I just haven't found a way of doing it regularly.

I did buy a zoom lens for this camera - 70-300mm primarily for scenery shots. To date I haven't been that impressed, but then I did buy the cheapest lens. The pictures are quite grainy. Where I did have really good success was in the cameras sports function. A friend of mine is swimming the English Channel this year (how crazy?!) and during one of her training sessions up off Ardnamurchan I tried to take some shots of her swimming. As she was a long way off I had to use the full 300mm zoom. The results were straight off some fancy sports mag! Despite having the full zoom on which makes the camera harder to hold steady I managed to get crystal clear shots. There was a trail of crystal clear perfect sea droplets coming off her arm & I had a cracking snapshot of her gasping for air. Really impressive.

The only downside to this camera for me is that the viewer on the back is quite small, it is only when you transfer these photos to your computer will you get an idea as to how good/bad your photos are. The updated 400d has solved this problem though

If you are daunted by the complexities of SLRs but still want a camera which will give you a step up in picture quality from a normal point & shoot then I would really recommend this camera. You have all the presets that a regular camera has & then the option to switch them all off & go as manual as you want!

The camera is comfortable to hold & easy to take photos. My friends 4 & 5 year olds with the help of the neck strap had no problems taking pictures with this camera even if it was not far off the same size of them! So literally child's play!

Cost wise you can pick these up from £250 for a refurbished model

Summary: Versatile first time SLR

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