Canon EOS 600D Digital SLR Camera (inc. 18-55 mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II Lens Kit)

Up until this camera came along I used an hd camcorder for my video and a dslr for my bird photography. This camera along with the 70-300mm lens means "one camera does all".The video is great but you need to work at it. Its certainly not as easy to use as a dedicated camcorder but the results can be better.You're thinking of getting the 650d, reading the reviews, comparing it to the 600d and countless others and pulling your hair out at all the pros and cons? Am I close. I'm a photographer and have used this, the 600d and its sony equivalent. I might be able to help. Let me start with an anecdote, (you've read enough technical jargon for now so consider this a breather)I film the eagles on Mull and the landlady I stay with was telling me about this other photographer who visits her little cottage (it's beautiful by the way, you should visit if you get the chance). So anyway, she is cooking tea , as she does if you ask her nicely. While it's cooking he shows her one of his photos, probably of a sea eagle catching a fish. Everyone wants to photograph one of those even though its on every other postcard in Scotland. Next to a highland cow looking over a gate its the top photo/cliche to get.. Anyhoo, she looks at the photo and says "wow that's great...you must have a brilliant camera" .So they sit down for supper a bit later and its delicious, she is a great cook. He says "This is lovely...you must have some great saucepans!" boom boom.But herein lies the real point of this camera. You know its the person behind the camera that takes the pictures but do you really know it? This and the 600d take pictures so good (if you have the skill) you could blow it up the size of front door but are you going to want to. The thing no sellers want to tell you is that for years, maybe 5 , all of the big names have been making great dslr. Since the nikon d40 perhaps. But you really want to know, if you bought this, would you be happy or buying a pup. Be reassured that neither canon, nikon or sony make chocolate teapots. They know how to make a great camera and this is one. It's biggest difference as you will have read ad nauseum , is the touch screen. is it worth it. It is if you like touch screens (I do). That's not flippant, it's how it is.So the photos will be great and its a great camera, you've read other reviews so I won't duplicate what you have already read but one thing you may not have read is about the video. All the makers have got dslr right. No pups in sight, but video is a relatively new feature and Sony have tbh been leading the way. This camera sets to rectify that by having autofocus. A lot of places on the net, say it's not needed, you should be using manual focus. Nonsense. Manual focus is ok at times but can be a pain. Filming your dog on the beach for example..The autofocus on the 650d is actually pretty good. Not as good as a camcorder but pretty good. The slowest part is for it to get going. But when it's locked on its sound. Well worth having. So thats sorted right..err no, not really. This is the 650d 's killer feature. Trouble is, they left out the killer feature on the 600d. The 3x zoom with "no loss in quality". So here is the choice if you are buying this for video.if you want you're 300mm zoom to be able to zoom to 900mm for filming sport or wildlife. It's the 600d for youIf you love the idea of autofocus (or hate the idea of doing it the old fashioned way) its the 650d for you.In my opinion if you're considering the other makes like Sony, it comes down to who makes the the lens you are likely to want. I know I have focused (blabbed on) about video but hey, there has been thousands of photo reviews already about iso , shutter speed etc etc. Nothing for me to add there!So if you are considering using it for video here are a few "must have" things you will need to go with it.Hoya 58mm UV FilterReplacement Battery for Canon LP-E8 / suitable for Canon EOS 550D / EOS 600D / EOS 650DOh and the one that should have gone top of my listMake better videos with your dslr or camcorderSo now I have spent ten minutes typing away, telling you how I like the 650d for video (I do) do me a little favour and click that you find this helpful. Unless you don't. Either way you will enjoy this camera but do consider the little brother the 600d also. We live in good times to take photos as there are so many great cameras and this is definitely one of them. One more thing I forgot to mention (and yes it is regarding the video) is that to get great video you need to use the right settings in the menu.Unfortunately these are counter intuitive and if you don't use them you may be under whelmed. If anyone wants them, comment and I will try to post a linkI have done lots of tests and made quite a few films with this camera just do a search on youtube for alex sally and you'll find my channel. I have also found what I think is the best setting to use to get a natural look.If you intend using it for video you will need a tripod for sure and probably an external mic. if you want to get the best from it.I'm joking that as a camera "it's ok" . The camera part has been reviewed fully on here and lets be honest no dslr in this price bracket by any make isn't capable of producing great results and this one is no different.Happy shooting..Since writing this review I have also added (written) a book on amazon kindle on how to get the best from its video capabilities...Make better videos with your dslr or camcorderalex sally

To be fair, there isn't a great deal of difference between this and the 550d, but I went for it for the articulated screen.This has proved useful for taking shots of small children as you can place the camera down at their height and compose the shot without laying on the floor. Rather than looking through the view finder you can switch to 'live view' where the photo you take will be shown on the lcd panel. This is also good for taking photos of flowers in meadows etc, you can get some quite fresh looking viewpoints.I got this camera to take me to the next level, from a Canon Ixus 800 point and shoot (which in itself is a very good camera).As I wanted to really step up the quality of my photos I didn't get the kit lens, but instead started off with the Canon 50mm 1.8 II lens, which is around £85. This lens is notorious for taking very high quality photos for little money. (Be aware that serious lenses for these cameras are usually hundreds of ££ each). I also got a Trascend 16GB class 10 memory card which can handle photos and video capture very quickly.I took the camera down to family and friends and took plenty of photos inside and out. To begin with I just used the Scene Intelligent setting and let it do it's thing. Well the photos the camera / lens combination took were outstanding, much better than I have taken before. The sharpness and detail is really amazing when you zoom in to look at the detail. The photos look professional quality, whereas I am an amateur, so very pleased. Shots inside the house, which was not well lit look brilliant even without using the inbuilt flash.The 50mm lens is really a bargain, but is probably best used as a portrait lens, as on this body it is more like an 80mm. This means you can't really get group shots in a confined space. I have just ordered the 15-85mm EFS lens which will cater for wide angle and mild telephoto, and be a good general walkaround lens. But I will keep the 50mm, as it's low light performance is brilliant, being a 1.8 lens.I had a quick go at videoing with the 50mm lens, but the result wasn't great, because it is a bit of a telephoto, the results were jerky handheld - but I've no doubt with some practice/tripod and a different lens the results will be great (especially one with inbuilt image stabilisation like the 15-85). But my gut feeling is this isn't going to be as convenient to use as a mini camcorder - but I don't mind I bought it for the photos.In terms of weight, this is a very light camera to walk around with and fairly small. With the 50mm lens on it was quite inconspicuous and I carried it around on my neck all day without any neck-ache problems. I think the Canon bigger brothers are more like bricks to carry.There are an array of different modes to use apart from the simple point and shoot mode. I have been learning about things I never knew about with my Ixus, for example varying the depth of field by changing the aperture. In fact, this is probably one of the reasons why the photos I took of people are so good, the 50mm lens allows just the face to be in focus while the background is soft and fuzzy - really makes a difference to the quality of the shot.These other functions bring a lot more creativity to taking photographs and I feel that this camera will give me a lot of pleasure as a hobby for many years. You can be confident that with a good lens or two the quality of the photos will never disappoint. I think with 18 megapixels, this is honestly as much, if not more than enough detail I will ever need. Photos can be printed at a large size at top quality. Also, with a sharp lens and 18 megapixels, you can easily crop the photos quite hard and still have a great result.For even more creativity, you can shoot photos in RAW mode. This means no processing is done in the camera. For this, you can use the included Digital Photo Professional software. This allows you to set the colour balance, saturation etc AFTER the photo is taken, rather than you being stuck with the settings you chose when you originally took the photo. Cleverly, you can tell the camera to take both a normal photo and a RAW photo at the same time. The RAW files are very large, but if you do happen to take a really fantastic shot you can edit it just how you like it, while deleting all the RAW files for the average photos to save space.I think that the 600D is capable of taking photos as good as it's bigger brothers, but at a fraction of the cost. However, it isn't built like a tank or weatherproof etc, so will need to be looked after.