Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 21
 A Great Upgrade (coming from an XSI) April 17, 2010
Robert Stone (Midwest / Ohio)
62 out of 63 found this review helpful
I just got this camera today (finally an available body only since I have no use for the kit lens) and I am awed. I had done a lot of research on this before buying it so I knew what to expect in terms of both the big upgrade issues as well as the little tweaks they have done, some of which turn out to be really terrific. If you are coming from another Canon the menus and interface will be second nature. Based on another very positive review just posted, coming from Nikon it's also an easy step. Here are some early observations:
The Best:
A huge bump in ISO. This was one of the two main reasons I upgraded from my trusty (and still good) XSI. I have made some test shots and despite going up to an 18 MP sensor the noise is not much of an issue and I shot several pics at ISO 3200 which look quite good. I then shot some in 6400 which did start to show some noise in the low light but still made for serviceable pictures. I am looking forward to seeing what it will do around a campfire at an upcoming camping trip with my daughter! My XSI despite a F/2.8 lens could not do much with that in the past.
The other main draw for me was video. I dream of being able to bring just one camera to, say, Disney and have it do double duty and I think this one may do it. So far, I have only shot a couple scenes in fairly low light and focus is a bit of a challenge but by zooming in and allowing the camera to come to focus before the shot it is manageable. I expect this to not be as much of an issue in brighter light. Be sure to enable auto focus during video in the menu - I suspect it is disabled by default due to the noise many lenses make with focusing as that would be recorded as well. I have two USM / "L" lenses so that should not be a problem for me but your milage may vary. I also plan to try some manual focusing. Keep in mind that video clips for full 1080P 30 FPS are limited to about 12 minutes - I worried about this a bit until I realized that when I edit my videos shots are rarely longer than 4 minutes (and of that I usually keep just 2 or less). That said, this camera is not the one to choose to record, say, a stage production. For that a dedicated video camera able to record an hour or more at a time is a must.
The Good:
Better Live View - Live view mode is now much more accessible and in more modes.
Sensor Size - 18 MP sensor is nice for cropping and taking full advantage of "L" glass if you have it. Other than that, this is not a major draw from my perspective. I would actually have preferred this be a 12 MP camera allowing low-noise great pics to, say, over 20000 ISO.
Memory Type - This camera uses SD type cards including the new ultrahigh capacity cards. I know it is a small matter but I like being able to use the cards I have rather than having to but some expensive CF cards (such as used by the 7D). Keep in mind that they recommend Class 6 or higher cards for video (I got a couple 16 GB Class 10 cards for about $40 each which should fit the bill). I'll use my older cards just for stills.
Stereo Mic Input - This allows the option of using a better mic than the built in mic. I may never take advantage of that but I suspect I will, actually. Of course, inclusion of a stereo mic would have been even better!
Misc - A lot of little things about this camera already impress me. For example, they moved the "no flash" setting on the main dial to right next to full auto and my most used setting "portrait" mode and away from the far end since they realized a lot of people use it (that's according to a video I saw online with a Canon employee). There are a lot of little touches like that which I have already noticed.
The Bad: (really not so bad in many ways)
The build quality is not 7D (which I have just handled at a store). The magnesium body on that bad boy just makes it feel very solid and by comparison the T2i does feel not cheap but does feel light. On the other hand less weight is good (especially at places like Disney) and this camera is appropriately being labeled a "baby 7D" in terms of sensor chip, etc. Of course, having an extra $1000 in your pocket (or not on your charge card) is another huge advantage over the 7D.
It is not a full frame camera. This means there is a "crop factor" due to the chip size which effectively multiplies by 1.6 the focal length of lens you are using (as compared to 35 mm film cameras or full-frame cameras like the 5D Mk II. Since I was coming from an XSI which of course is also a smaller sensor for me there is no transition to make here.
In summary, I am VERY pleased with this purchase and expect this to be my camera body until my ultimate camera is released (full frame, stereo mic, uses SD cards, useable ISO to >100,000 all for under $1000 - I know, I know this is a pipe dream now but an (old) kid can dream, can't he?)
UPDATE: I have had this camera for a couple weeks now and have had the opportunity to shoot hundreds of pictures and quite a few videos. I am still very impressed. Stills are great and the focusing is markedly improved over the XSI. The only blurry shots I get are when panning to follow my dogs running among trees - to the sensor the trees seem to be moving and are deemed the subject - stopping down the lens to increase DOF (or just taking a whole bunch of pictures) is the easy fix.
Now, regarding video. It is more challenging than I thought to use a DSLR camera for video. This is more an ergonomic issue with the form factor for the camera than any issue with the T2i itself. Video is of course composed by looking at the LCD screen and so the camera must be held out a bit - and with the weight of a good lens it gets pretty heavy in contrast to typical small camcorders of today. Thinking about it, modern video cameras have gotten to this stage of evolution after over 20 years (anyone remember the old VHS camcorders?), so I guess it is to be expected there would be a difference. Focus is not quick like it is with a good video camera but seems best achieved to me anyway with manual focus. The large, bright LCD screen helps in this regard. The quality of the resulting video is excellent. Although I don't see this as replacing my Sony HD video camera for day-to-day and holiday recording I do think that it will be useable to take the role of both still and video camera during an upcoming trip to Disney. I also suspect as I get more used to it that the ease of use will increase further and perhaps one day it will be my only video camera. Overall, this is a great product and I remain very pleased.
As a side note, if you happen to have any 16 GB Class 10 SD cards from AData (as I did) please check out reviews before trusting them with the recording of any important pictures / video.
 A solid camera!...with one caveat April 17, 2010
Just another reviewer (USA)
29 out of 32 found this review helpful
Just got my T2i/550D. Tested it with a few shots using my trusty 28-135mm IS lens. Other people have already highly praised this camera. For those looking to decide whether not to upgrade from XSI (or any other camera), here's a run down:
1) AUTOFOCUS:
the T2i's autofocus beats the XSI hands down. I've had the xsi for two years and while i was happy with it overall, there were often moments of soft shots. Do a search for "front-focus"...it'll show a lot of threads that was problematic of the XSI. No such issues with the T2i. It locks on focus quickly and effortlessly and pictures turn out very sharp using my 28-135mm IS lens. I can get quality shots even at 1/10s handheld and 3200 iso in low light, but that's also dependent on the IS of the lens.
2) METERING
The T2i inherits the 7d's metering system. I like it. color tones are more accurate and appropriate to reflect how an object really looks. One thing to consider, if you accidently set white balance to incandescent light while u take shots w/o flash and happen to use flash on the image, the end result will be a picture w/ a heavy blue cast. If it's shot in raw, easily edited in dpp.
3) EXPOSURE
I have a gut feeling that the T2i's sensor is a tad bit over sensitive causing pictures to be slightly over-exposed compared to my XSI. I think i'll learn with time. On a typical shot, I think the XSI has a color that's a tad bit richer/pleasing in jpeg. Haven't tried out raw. Still tweaking the settings of my t2i.
4) BATTERY LIFE
Haven't tried it long enuff and will comment later. The charger has a cord. I suspect it might be canon's way of saving money to allow for different cords to be shipped w/ different units depending on the country. On first charge, i got out 400 shots w/ about 20 being flash shots when battery meter was at half. I had another event to go to so I recharged it at that point. Took about 1-2 hrs to recharge. For those looking to generic batteries, there's discussions on dpreview of generic batteries from ebay that last 600 shots while battery meter still being full. After that, it sharply goes down in half and empty so a little more unpredictable than the canon ones but battery life still terrific.
5) BUILD QUALITY
Seems almost as sturdy as the XSI. However, noticed battery door on T2i seems a bit loose and not snug like XSI. The little knob on the right next to the shutter (that you use to adjust the AF points) seems more sturdy on the xsi than the T2i. i.e. on the T2i, if u apply a bit of pressure, it rocks a bit but doesn't do the same on my old xsi.
6) LCD
The t2i's lcd screen is amazing. Very vibrant and lots of pixels. Much better than XSI's. I'd recommend getting an lcd protector (plastic film) to add here. I'd recommend you get a 3.5 to 4" lcd protector and cut it out to fit the LCD screen. The ones on ebay that advertise "T2i screen protector" tend to be 1-2mm smaller than advertised since the LCD borders itself slightly curved.
7) VALUE
At $799 for camera alone, this is the best value u can get right now for a camera that does 1080p video. The technology is here to stay. Best thing about this camera are 1) video at 1080p 2) 7d's metering system 3) usable iso 3200 that looks better than iso 400 on my canon point and shoot. Getting the camera alone is hard if you already have a set of lenses for this camera. If you decide to get the kit lens instead (18-55mm IS), you can sell the kit lens for around $90-100.
8)SOFTWARE
The main thing I use is DPP to process RAW. One major fault with it is that you need 1024x768 screen to install/run it. As a result, it won't run on my netbook unless I attach a hdtv or external monitor to it. I have the Lenovo S10-2. Works fine on my regular laptop. You can also use EOS Utility to added your name/contact info to all the images taken.
9) VIDEO
To be honest, video recording isn't very intuitive the first time I tried it. You have to turn the knob to the video recorder icon. Then you pressure the button for live view/red dot to record. It doesn't say the amount of time you've recorded unless you press the DISP button. You can also take photos during the recording by pressing the shutter button but that will add noise to video. Now that I've gotten used to it, not a major problem and makes sense. The AF mechanism of the 28-125 mm IS lens constantly makes noise during this time.
10) MEMORY CARD
I use a Sandisk Extreme III Class 6 SDHC 8 gb/4gb card. Takes all my videos w/o problems even at 1920x1080 at 30 fps.
SOME CONCERNS:
A) WHITE DOTS
For those new to this camera, at high ISO i.e. 3200+, you will see intermittent white dots that appear out of nowhere. It's like white speckles. This can be seen on dpreview's review of the t2i on 3200 ISO and even on the 7d. These are noise/hot pixels, and not dead pixels. You can either remove them in photoshop using the dust/scratch removal w/ radius 1 and threshold 10. Or, you can turn on high ISO noise reduction. You don't need to send the camera to manufacturer for this issue.
B) OVEREXPOSURE
I have the gut feeling that this camera's ultra sensitive senors tends to overexposed. Outdoors, I'd have to change the exposure compensation a bit up to -1 to get the desired exposure. Of note, where the focus points are centered also determines what metering is done for the image.
C) SLOW AUTOFOCUS WITH CONTRAST DETECT
AF using the contrast detect method w/ Liveview is slow and noisy. However, it's improved over XSI and easier to engage. Just press the Live view icon and start shooting.
D) NO MINI-HDMI CABLE IN BOX TO STREAM TO TV
I didn't find an mini-HDMI cable in my camera to stream to tv. Ordered one through ebay for $5. For $900, you would think they'd include this.
E) RED AUTOFOCUS POINTS APPEAR BLURRY:
When you look through the viewfinder, you'll sometimes notice that the AF points are blurry, particularly the lower ones which has appearance of reddish halo around them. This is likely due to diffraction and should not affect the ability of camera to focus properly.
F) POSSIBLE FRONT FOCUS ISSUE:
One poster on dpreview claims that the camera front focuses on fast lenses such as the 50mm f/1.4 lens. Read the thread for details. Personally, I've used the 28-135mm IS lens w/o focusing issues.
[...]
Love it!!! April 14, 2010
Luke D. Neumann
17 out of 19 found this review helpful
T2i is amazing. Whether you want a nice HD camera for fun, to take some pictures, to start a Photo/Video business or to produce an Indie Film...the T2i is a great option for the price. If used correctly the Video can come out looking VERY Cinematic. Slap on a nice L Series lens, shoot in 24p and use a Glidetrack for some dolly shots and you won't believe the results.
I loved it so much I bought a second one. My only gripe is the sound and the lack of manual control in that area...but I record all of my audio on an external device anyways so it's not THAT big of a deal. It's just that, every once in a while I'd like to go out and throw on any old mic and get some decent audio...and I have yet to really do that.
Small gripe for me personally. You may need to invest in a Rode Shotgun mic to get some decent audio if you don't record externally.
My First DSLR and love it! If you love hiking don't pass this camera up. April 19, 2010
R. Oden
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
For a person who has never touched a SLR/DSLR in his life I must say I am learning fast. This is also only my 12th day with the camera. Out of the box its in Auto mode which I used for my first coupe hundred hiking shots (almost all my photography is done while hiking in the great northwest.) I quickly moved to P mode and now am using a Tamron 18mm to 270mm lens (heavier but much better than the kit lens) with a Polarized Circular filter. The image quality is truly amazing and the camera + lens was much lighter than I thought it would be. Hiking a 10 mile day with a lowpro hip back (or attached to my Osprey hip belt) I hardly notice the camera is there. I spent months looking for a good camera to weight ratio as it matters on my extended hikes. After looking at several of the 4/3 camera's such as the Olympus EP-1, Panasonic GF1, as well as the Canon G11(not 4/3's) I realized that the T2i was not much more weight. Yes, when you include the Tamron lens on top of the Camera body you are looking at aprox. 2x the weight of the Panasonic GF1 but you are dealing with a much better sensor, its cheaper when you look at comparable lenses, and (not that I have gotten to test it first hand) but I hear that the image stabilization is much better. So, for the 12th day owning this camera, being a complete amateur with DSLR's I have to hand it to Canon for building an awesome camera that will keep me entertained for years.
**Don't forget your local camera shops** -I picked mine up from Kenmore Camera (body only) for the same price as all the online prices plus I got to speak with real photography geeks who know there stuff and let me try 5 different camera's and a TON of different lens combination's. After 45 minutes of trial and error this was the camera for me. They even threw in a free 3 hour training session.
great camera, 1080p video, RAW, 18mp, CRAZY ISO FOR THE PRICE!!! April 13, 2010
Fotoflix (USA)
10 out of 12 found this review helpful
NEGATIVES: well, Nikon RAW works on my computer, why doesn't canon RAW??? i'm running win7 x64 professional. why canon is oblivious to release an x64 working codec is beyond me. WTF???? come on Canon? come on Adobe?
DOES ANYONE HAVE A SOLUTION??????????????? PLEASE HELP???????? I MISS RAW
- not really a negative, but plan on upgrading your computer. my 3.4GHZ Intel Q6600 quad core w/ 4GB of ram seems to stutter when working with these HUGE images... the HD video from this camera makes my computer cry. The core i7 extreme is looking better and better everyday.
- if you are shooting with a 2006 camera like I was, be prepared to look at your computer (that might seem fast) and wonder what happened? you are now looking at 24mb RAW files, compared to RAW files < 5mb (i.e., Nikon D80 anyone?).
POSITIVES:
Everything is suburb, and excellent quality. I'm coming from a Nikon D80 and the controls and UI are a lot more efficient and effective with the t2i. The screen on this thing is crazy goood, best i've seen yet...everything is just so intuitive.
IF YOU BUY, get the largest and fastest SDHC cards you can afford. 8GB seems like the new 2GB. i'm not looking at anything less than 32GB. Seriously.
I can't speak for video yet, but check this out: [...]
yeah I know a crew worked day and night to get that done, but it was on this body..
This Rebel and I are both waiting until the new 5Dmk3 comes out, but until then we are having a fabulous time shooting everything we see in RAW through the kit lens, 50mm 1.8, 24-70 2.8L USM, and the new 70-200 2.8L MK2 IS USM. This is a great camera.
O, btw, I swtiched from Nikon. I'm finding the UI of Canon's bodies better than that of Nikon. Everything is easy to get to and change, unlike Nikons where you have to dive into menu after menu just to change something simple like ISO or WB. maybe i'm biased because i've only worked with the Nikon D80 before this camera.
I was first skeptical about the build quality, but upon further analysis, this thing is a tank for a little DSLR.
... i'm glad I switched to Canon! I'll be even more happy when the 5dmk3 comes out (in like 1-2 years)... and really take advantage of my glass collection.
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