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Overall I found the weight to be easy to handle and holding the camera for extended periods of time was achievable without any strain so the EOS 1000D gets my thumbs up here too.

 

Memory Card

I know this might seem like a small point to bring up, but it is one that users new to Digital SLR cameras will find of great benefit. Many modern digital cameras (excluding SLRs) use SD (Secure Digital) cards as their memory source. Up until recently Digital SLRs have often used Compact Flash cards (at least in the case of the Canon Series of Cameras). However as Canon has marketed the EOS 1000D towards first time users of digital SLR cameras SD cards are used rather than Compact Flash which means for those first timers taking the leap up to an SLR, there is less chance you will need to by new memory. This also provides the added benefit that the SD cards can be used interchangeably between your compact camera and the EOS 1000D as well.

 

Picture Quality

After taking over 7000 photos with the Canon EOS 1000D since receiving it (can you tell I am a shutterbug) I have gone through my fair share of bad photos. Mostly this is related to my lack of knowledge of the relationship between the ISO, shutter speed and aperture and using these each of these incorrectly with one another.

When I took my time and really “listened to what the camera was telling me” or in other words, intently paid attention to every setting on the camera and every flashing light, the pictures came out really well and I have taken some rather stunning photos (which I will showcase at the end of this post). I found the easiest photos to take were in broad daylight but after a bit of a learning curve I managed to start taking some great indoor shots and low light shots as well.

Some things I have noticed are that at really high ISOs (1600), the image can get quite grainy. After doing some research on this I have found out that by the pure nature of using a high ISO, the image will tend to get grain, so although I am unable to comment on the exact technical details of this I did feel that I should bring it up.

As a final note on that, shots taken at an ISO of 800 had a little bit of grain, but not to the same levels that I observed at 1600.

 

Problems I have found

No review would be complete without a bit of an insight into some of the issues I have found with this camera (and I am pleased to say there are not all that many).

The first would be something I mentioned in post with my initial thoughts. The scroll wheel for changing settings (such as shutter speed) can sometimes feel a little stiff. I am aware that it needs to have sufficient resistance so that a simple tap will not change the settings, however I would welcome a teeny weeny bit less resistance.

The second issue I found was with the battery compartment. While using the camera I sometimes found that the it would become unresponsive and after some troubleshooting, discovered that the battery compartment was not clipping closed properly. I suspect this is just due to a lot of use and after consciously checking that it was locked in each time I replaced the battery I had no further issues.  To be honest I really do not think this would be common to the model, as I mentioned above the camera appeared to have been used previously so I am guessing it was a well used “loaner” but once again I thought it should be mentioned.

I really hate to say it, but other than that I could not find fault with the camera, it really was a dream to use (and still is, for a little while longer).

 

A Suggestion for Future Models

Part of Canon’s Blogger Product Review Program is to gain not only reviews of a product but to also gain feedback about the features and suggestions that could possibly be adopted in future. I have been having a think on this and have come up with one feature and a couple of ideas that I really think would enhance a camera such as the Canon EOS 1000D to make it just that little bit easier for first timers.

As I was starting to use this camera, one thing that has caught me out time and time again was that I would keep forgetting to read the light metre and ensuring that the camera was set to the correct exposure. I would have LOVED for the camera to have a “Beginners Mode” which would beep at me if one of the settings was not “ideal” such as the resulting image would be over or under exposed.

I guess it was just something that I found difficult to get used to, and just thought that something like that would really help any person just to remind them that the light metre was there and sometimes needs some attention and tender loving care.

In addition to the aforementioned feature, a couple of other things that I would have loved to see were some more resources for first timers. Things like a DVD containing a few how-to step-by-step guides and perhaps another for jargon busting and explaining ISO, shutter speed and focal length (and so on). Also I thought would be great would be something like a  little A5 sheet of paper with a few “where to find more information” links. These could be something like community forums, or even pointing to some of the extra information on Canon’s own site. This stems out of the problem nowadays of there being so much information on the internet, it can often be hard to find the right information. I know from experience, as a beginner finding that information can be even more difficult due to a lack of knowledge on exactly what to search on, so a push in the right direction would be great and I believe a very welcome addition to those first timers.

 

Roundup

The EOS has been (and continues to be) a dream to work with. As someone starting out with digital photography and having never picked up an SLR in my life the Canon EOS 1000D seems to push all the right buttons for me.

The manual that it comes with is extremely comprehensive and guided me through the camera and features that I needed to get started, although all the technical information did overwhelm and confuse me a little. After some additional reading from more sources I began to find more solid footing. I did however feel that the manual was far to overwhelming for someone just starting out as it seemed to jump straight into the technical terminology, which is why I thought that a few videos on an accompanying DVD would bridge that gap wonderfully.

I really have no reason that I could not recommend this camera to any new budding photographer and could not more highly recommend it. For any person that desires to really have a greater level of creative control over their photos, than they can achieve with a point-and-shoot camera the EOS 1000D seems to me like a great first step.

Other than that, I would just like to take this chance to once again thank Canon Australia for providing me with this opportunity and I hope that if they continue the program in future, I can be a part of it once again.

 

The Photos

Now for some photos, as I know that is what you all want to see most.

As always if you wish to get the full quality examples of the above photos you can download the zipped file here (~48MB).