Home > Projects > Canon EOS 350D

Canon EOS 350/XT Short Report

Just went to Jessops at Canary Wharf today (17 Mar 2005) and had my hands on the pretty little 350D! It wasn’t very busy so I asked for a test drive with my own CF card. My first impression upon holding the camera was what I have expected it to be after reading up on the internet - small, well built, light (just nice), textured surface plastic (intending to mimic metal body like its elder brother 20D). Found fingernail marks between the lens and the grip (just like the 20D) probably due to the textured surface and shallow grip. Camera is nicely balanced with the 18-55mm lens. Larger lenses would certainly look disproportional but would be great with smaller lenses such as the 50mm or 35mm! I examined the doors and body parts carefully and cannot find any faults or creaks, in short, very nice finish given it is plastic.

Start up was immediate as I have expected. I took some random shots with and without flash around the shop interior. My first impression with taking the pics was that the shutter sounded very quiet but seems a bit ‘immature’ kind of sound compared to 20D or D70. It simply sounded funny and almost ‘fake’ to me! Just my impression.

I was VERY impressed with the flash pics although it looks slightly underexposed. It seems to control exposure really well to my opinion (I can only compare to my S1 for this matter). Not that I am a huge fan of flash photography, I would certainly use the flash more often with the 350D given its ability to meter correctly.

Autofocus seems rather quick and spot on. Optical viewfinder (OVF) seems to be slightly ‘tunnel vision’ to me although it was bright and sharp. Again, coming from the S1 with LCD as my viewfinder, I find that the OVF is somewhat small comparatively. But then again, I am comparing LCD to OVF, not a valid comparison. So small that I do not remember if there are any other shooting information within the OVF!!

ISO1600 seems to shift the WB (see samples)! I am not sure this is a common problem or specific to this camera. Anyway, the noice is visible but certainly useable.

Below are the samples (resized and compressed) taken during this hands on experience. Pics are all in either ISO 100 or ISO 1600, shot in P mode. Due to bandwidth problem, please let me know if you need any original pics! Hope you enjoy.

UPDATE:
I have finally bought the 350D (23rd March 2005)!! Have been very pleased with it so far except that I have experience a small fault with the DOF preview button. It doesn’t work!! I am going to have the body exchanged soon. In the meantime, I have bought the 50mm F1.8 lens to go with my 350D and have been testing out various other lenses in shops. Check out the samples for 10-22mm, 17-85mm, 18-200mm and 70-300mm here..