Excellent SLR for beginners (Canon EOS 450D)

Member Name: magicalfrog

Product:	Canon EOS 450D
Date:	08/05/09 (90 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: light, wide variety of modes, liveview available

Disadvantages: screen isn't always that clear, liveview doesn't focus as well as viewfinder

Having never used an SLR before, I bought the 450D and was hugely impressed with how easy it was to use. It features a wide range of automatic modes (portrait, sport, landscape) for the beginner who doesn't always have time to adjust settings, producing excellent images. And then it also features the standard manual modes (aperture priority, shutter speed priority, full manual control etc) which are easy to adjust and also produce excellent quality pictures.

The camera has a speed of 3.5 fps when using the continuous mode, I found this more than enough, very helpful when taking pictures of moving subjects. The ISO settings range from 100 to 1600, and although image quality does suffer at the higher ISO ranges, it is not at a huge extent, and the camera itself has a mode built in that attempts to reduce any noise in your pictures. Although I've not had huge need to use the higher end of the ISO range, on the few times I have I have still been more than happy with the final image.

I purchased it as a bundle with the kit lense, 18-55mm. I find this lense quite good especially for a beginner SLR, though sometimes I get a bit frustrated with the lack of zoom due to being used to a super zoom compact. The autofocus works well and the images produced are very sharp, there is also an image stabilization mode to avoid any camera shake.

The camera body itself feels well built and is quite light for an slr, again good for a beginner such as myself who does not want to carry a massively heavy camera around. It features a 3" LCD screen which is relatively good quality to review pictures, and can also be used as a liveview mode when using the manual modes of the camera. This is pretty useful, although when coupled with the kit lense the autofocus doesn't seem to work anywhere near as well on liveview, so I tend to use it just to place images when I'm working at difficult angles, and then revert back to the viewfinder so the camera will focus well. This is a minor niggle, as I prefer to use the viewfinder anyway, but others who might have preferred to use the liveview may find this annoying unless willing to purchase a higher quality lense.

There is a wide variety of lenses and accessories available for the camera, being a canon - it is largely compatible with the huge back catalogue available for older slrs i.e. the 400D which obviously is a huge bonus.

I purchased this camera at an absolute steal, buying it at £430 whilst there was a Canon cashback offer for £50 on, making my total price £380. Absolute bargain, however I would definitely have spent £100 more on this camera as I love it and truly think it is worth that much.
Saying that, Canon cashback seems to vary on and off quite often, so if you're looking to purchase an SLR, it may be worth waiting until they come back on - especially if you're looking to buy extra lenses.

This camera is compatibly with SD and SDHC memory cards - the latter is especially useful as the 12.1 megapixels like to eat up whatever storage you provide, especially if you're on the continous shooting mode, therefore I would recommend at the smallest a 4gb card if you plan to shoot a lot of images with this camera.

Overall, as my first slr I couldn't be happier, it is easy to use, light to carry, and produces excellent quality pictures on any mode even with a complete beginner behind the controls. What else do you want from a camera?

Summary: Well worth the money for a excellent SLR

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