Hands-on Review of the Video Feature on the Canon EOS Rebel T1i

Since its spring release, the Canon EOS Rebel T1i has elicited praise from the reviewers and joy from the users. Because it is the first Rebel to implement video capability, this feature has received a lot of attention. I recently purchased the Rebel T1i, and a few days after purchasing, I took a major overseas trip to put the camera through the paces. Here are some of the stand-out (and maybe some not-so-standout) features of the T1i video capabilities that helped (or hurt) my photography on the trip.

A Note About Durability
Due to the rugged nature of my journey and the on-the-go mobility of my travel, I wasn’t able to give my new toy the TLC that a camera of its price probably deserved. More often than not, it was freely swinging on its strap or making unintentional contact with objects, walls, or other people. Other times, I was forced to stuff it quickly in my backpack or camera bag, and then quickly tear it out of the bag to snap a quick shot. Despite nearly four weeks of constant abuse, the camera looks almost brand new. If you look at the display in just the right light, you may see a hint of a scratch or two, and a trace of dust has accumulated in the flash mount. Other than that, the camera withstood my terrorizing amazingly well.

First off, it is nice to have a DSLR that is fully integrated with a video feature. The video specs aren’t too bad (1080p HD, 20fps or 720p HD, 20fps) and fit my purposes perfectly. Even the onboard microphone records decent sound. In action, I found the automatic lighting adjustments were flawless. Color came out perfectly, even without any enhancements. Depending on the lens and filter, you are nearly guaranteed to have pleasing quality to your video from that perspective.

Unfortunately, the video feature gave me a few complaints: First, the image stabilizing lens seem to do precious little during video mode. Either bring your tripod along (for me, impossible, since I was shooting from a helicopter) or make sure that you practice your steadying skills.

Secondly, make sure you’re using a high-capacity (HC) SD card. The standard SD cards will not due, since they are incapable of recording video fast enough. Thankfully, I was equipped with a couple 16GB SDHC cards, which performed exceptionally well for all the videos that I took—with one notable exception. During one hair-raising helicopter swoop toward a waterfall, I was eagerly taking video. Since the camera is capable of taking still shots and video simultaneously, I snapped a couple quick ones as we rushed toward the waterfall. Unfortunately, the still shots dragged memory away from the video processing, meaning that several split-second chunks were eaten from the most critical part of my video. Quite disappointing.

Focusing the video is cumbersome. In order to auto-focus the video, you must hold down the focus button until the camera finds that sweet spot. Unfortunately, this means that it must cycle through the entire lens movement, regardless of where it was originally focused. The whole focus process takes about five seconds, which can be a lot of time in a situation where you want to take a quick video.

Finally, video capture is only available using live display. The eye viewfinder shuts off in video mode. nearly all my photography was outdoors, the screen display wasn’t bright enough for me to see what was going on. This created problems on several occasions, specifically when I wanted to make sure that the video was focused on the right object. Usually, I would switch the camera to a manual setting, focus the camera, then switch back to video and commence recording.

For its few shortcomings, Canon has done us all a favor by finally including video with the Rebel. Although it’s not perfect, we can probably expect some notable upgrades in the next generation of cameras.

On today’s Internet, video is king and still photography has taken a backseat. More people are getting their news from the Internet as opposed to subscribing to the print newspaper. Many newspapers are in trouble because of this trend. They’ve been forced to cut jobs and to do more with less thus requiring their photographers to now double-duty and become videographers as well as photographers.

Now not only do photographers have to carry multiple lenses, bodies, flash, spare batteries, and compact flash cards for their still cameras, they have to tote a video camera as well. While shooting for a local high school football team a few weeks ago, I spoke with a photographer from our local newspaper about this. He said that it was a huge burden in that he had to learn how to use the video camera to produce a quality video that would be used on the paper’s site. He then had to learn how to edit the video and get it uploaded to the paper’s web site in a timely matter. Oh yeah, he still had to get stills from the game as well. He also gave me a little inside information saying that there was light at the end of the tunnel, as major players in the world of digital SLR cameras were about to make his job easier.

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I was shooting a Babe Ruth League baseball game a few of weeks ago and a parent friend of mine came up to me with her brand new DSLR camera. She had been using an entry level DSLR for a couple of years and she thought it was time to invest in a newer more up-to-date body. I asked her how she liked her new camera and she told me that most of her photos weren’t much better than what she was getting with her old camera and that she was a little disappointed.

Over the years she had purchased several photos from me and she thought because she bought this new camera that her photos would look more like mine. I noticed that the camera was sporting a kit lens (a lower cost lens sometimes sold with new cameras). I asked her about the lens and she said she bought it because it was cheaper and allowed her to also purchase another zoom lens with longer reach. The money she spent on these two inferior lenses would have been better applied to the cost of one good lens.

To greatly increase the quality of photos, invest in good glass and not camera bodies.

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In February 2007 Canon introduced the EOS 1D Mark III the successor to the EOS 1D Mark II N, it was to be Canon’s new flagship camera. With its phenomenal 10 frames per second, new and improved auto focus, 10.2 megapixel images and the ability to shoot at high ISO’s with little noise, this was the camera of dreams.

Shortly after the camera found its way into photographer’s hands, the photo blogs and messages board began to light up with news of a possible major flaw with the camera’s auto focus system. Under certain conditions the camera would not focus on, or track a moving object. This was a major ordeal as many photographers and photojournalists rely on this camera to put food on the table.

It was early August 2007, with high school football season rapidly approaching. The number of shutter actuations of my three-year-old EOS 20D was pretty high, and I wasn’t sure if it would make it through another season. I needed a new camera.

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Whenever I purchase a lens, I always check to be sure that it comes with a hood. Hoods reduce flare in the images that you take. There are different sizes of hoods for different lenses and sometimes they can be quite expensive.

Well not anymore.

I was just sent a link to a site that offers pintable lens hoods that you can trace onto posterboard and stick on your camera. They have all kinds of shapes and sizes. Now that is neat.

Link: Paper Lens Hoods

Flickr has posted a page titled “Camera Finder” that shows themost popular cameras used on Flickr. I was happy to see the Canon Digital Rebel XT with a large margin of victory. (That is the camera I use andrecommend.)

They offer additional graphs showing the most popular “Point and Shoot” cameras and the most popular cameraphones. As you click thru on the different brands and models, it will show you the images that were taken with that camera and also give you pricing on the camera. If you’re looking to get a camera for Christmas, this is a great site to do some research.

Link: Flickr’s Camera Finder

If you are planning on buying any Canon products, be sure to bookmark this page. Canon recenly released a whole list of items that they’ll offer a rebate on. This includes some SLR’s and a bunch of lenses.

So, find the best deal you can and then be sure to make it a little sweeter by sending in this rebate. (If you buy two products, you can double the rebates.)

Link: List Of Available Canon Rebates

In a week from now, Canon Australia will be hosting the Canon Find Your Shot photo competition. I wasn’t able to find a lot about the competition itself, but the prizes are clearly shown. They are giving away 500 random cash prizes, 8 of the new 400D (Rebel XTi), 8 “photography kits”, and a trip for two anywhere in the world. On this trip, you’ll be accompanied by pro photographer Tim Clayton.

But the grand prize will be a “dream trip” valued at $25,000.

I signed up to be alerted when the contest starts. Might as well throw a few shots in there. Anyone can enter.

Read More: Canon Find Your Shot photo competition