Canon EOS 1100D review

The Canon EOS 1000D was a fantastic camera, giving frugal shoppers a foothold onto the esteemed EOS range for a breakthrough sub-£400 price. However, its 2.5in screen, lack of video capture and limited performance mean that it’s not such a tempting prospect in 2011.

The 1100D is designed to take Canon back to the top of the entry-level SLR podium. It’s a little bigger than its predecessor but also a little lighter. With its 2.7in LCD screen, 720p video capture and an HDMI socket, the 1100D addresses all the key areas where the 1000D was showing its age. The autofocus sensor is up from 7-point to 9-point and the battery life is up 40 per cent to 700 shots.

It’s pricier, too, although we suspect that it’ll come down a little as more stock arrives on these shores. However, those in search of a bargain should be careful to make sure the bundled lens is the Mk II IS version (where IS stands for image stabilisation). A Mk III lens without stabilisation brings the price down further but the stabilised lens is well worth the extra outlay.

The more expensive Mk II lens is worth getting

Spot metering is still absent, but it’s not something many people will miss. Continuous RAW performance remains more of a problem, though. It set off at 2fps and slowed to 0.8fps after just three frames in our tests. That doesn’t compare well with the similarly priced Pentax K-r which captured 13 RAW frames at 5.4fps before slowing to 2fps.

At least continuous JPEG shooting – which matches the 1000D’s 3fps performance – is now available at the same time as noise-reduction processing. Noise reduction was either (nominally) on or off on the 1000D, but now there are four strength levels. Selecting the maximum setting reduced continuous performance to 1.6fps, but the standard setting is strong enough for our tastes. Otherwise, performance was excellent, taking just 0.5 seconds to switch on and shoot, and the same time between subsequent shots. RAW shots were just under a second apart.

There are a few minor regressions. The card slot has moved from the side of the camera to beside the battery, making it inaccessible when using a tripod. There’s no AV out socket, although the HDMI output means it won’t be missed. The top-mounted ISO button has disappeared, too. The buttons on the back have been substantially rearranged, and Picture Styles has disappeared to make room for a new ISO button. Even so, quick access to the most important functions is maintained, and Canon’s tried-and-tested menu system presents other options in a logical, accessible manner.

We prefer the layout of the controls here to those on Nikon’s D3100

Video capture displays all the strengths and trappings that afflict most digital SLRs. Details were as sharp as the 720p resolution allows and colours were sumptuously rich, while the big sensor and resulting shallow depth of field gave clips a gorgeous film-like aura. The internal mono microphone is excellent, too, but that’s where the good news ends.

Clips are limited to around 18 minutes and stop without warning. The 30Mbit/s AVC encoding keeps compression artefacts to a minimum but that also means the files are pretty big, at around 230MB per minute. Autofocus is essentially locked for the duration of clips. It is possible to initiate autofocus while recording but it ruins the picture and sound quality for the three or more seconds it takes to refocus. That makes casual shooting tricky, especially as the shallow depth of field accentuates focus errors. Then there’s the issue of subtle moiré interference that appears on dense, repeating patterns – a by-product of the 12-megapixel sensor’s output being resized to the 1-megapixel 720p resolution. It’s also disappointing – but not surprising, given the price – that manual exposure control for video or an external microphone input aren’t included.

With so many flaws, it might sound like the 1100D’s videos are not worth bothering with. Keen videographers should definitely look elsewhere, but it’s still capable of shooting high quality clips as long as you can work around its limitations.

Photo capture presented far fewer causes for concern. Automatic exposures were impeccably well judged, with attractive colours and sensibly chosen shutter and ISO speeds. That’s fortunate, as the ability to customise this behaviour is limited to a maximum ISO speed setting in the menu, which isn’t as flexible as the sophisticated options in Nikon’s SLRs.

The 1100D can take some great-looking photos

The 12-megapixel CMOS sensor struck an excellent balance of detail against noise levels, with enough detail for A3 prints and usable results all the way up to the maximum ISO 6400 setting. In short, the maturity of the EOS range really shows; the 1100D’s images leave little to report other than exquisite quality.

The 1100D is undoubtedly impressive, and a welcome upgrade over the 1000D. However, the competition is much fiercer than that the 1000D had to contend with. The Pentax K-r is a much faster performer and its screen and live view operation are significantly better, although lens upgrade options aren’t as plentiful or affordable. The Nikon D3100 is faster than the 1100D in RAW mode, too, and it comes top for video with its 1080p resolution and marginally more successful video autofocus. It’s cheaper, too, at around £420. Its controls are a little cumbersome, though, and some functions such as exposure bracketing are conspicuously absent.

It’s hard to separate the three for image quality, with remarkably little noise, sharp details and excellent automatic exposures across the board. On balance we find the Canon’s JPEG colour processing to be the most flattering, but the Nikon’s automatic chromatic aberration removal gives it an advantage for sharpness and detail, particularly with their kit lenses.

Weighing up these pros and cons, the D3100 remains our top recommendation. Still, we have no doubt that many readers will go on to buy a 1100D, and that’s certainly far from a bad choice.