Great budget DSLR (Canon EOS 1000D)

Member Name: chucklingMonkey

Product:	Canon EOS 1000D
Date:	12/08/09 (54 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap...

Disadvantages: ...but not underpowered

I managed to pick this up reasonably cheap from Argos. For the full specs I'd recommend looking this up on amazon or the canon website. The review will focus on why this is a good camera for the beginner. If you are used to millions of scene modes and point and shoot style compacts but want to gain more control over your photography then this is a pretty good place to start.

The camera has a large dial on the top right where you select your mode, you have access to full automatic mode where the camera will do everything for you and you just have to shoot. You'll be wanting to move away from this soon.

Next step up are the scene modes, although these offer nothing new over a traditional compact.

After a while the semi manual modes can be used. Here you can choose the aperture size (which affects the depth of field), or exposure time using a rolling switch. On these modes and the full manual modes you can easily with a single button modify some of the more advanced settings, like metering, ISO setting, white balance etc. The trick is to play with one setting at a time and see how your photos are affected.

Beyond these standard DSLR features you also have live view, drive modes for fast shooting of multiple shots, auto aperture depth mode and extensive control over flash.

One intriguing feature is the ability to use a laptop, attached to the camera via usb as your live view and control the shutter from there. Possible use for for that could be training it onto a bird table and retiring to the comfort of your kitchen to take some stunning shots.

So to summarise if you are looking towards taking more creative photos than your current little compact can but don't want to splash more than 350 quid on an expensive DLSR then this may be the camera for you.

Summary: Perfect for the budding photographer

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