Home > Consumer Reviews > Canon EOS 400D Digital SLR Camera (incl. EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 Lens Kit)

I've had this camera for a few weeks now and am blown away by it. I've upgraded from a Sony DSC-V1 which was a pretty handy 5mp compact but the Canon is in another league entirely as you'd expect from a 10mp SLR.

I'll give a brief rundown of some of the key features:

1. Built in sensor cleaning
2. EOS system compatibility
3. 2.5 inch LCD
4. 0.2 second start up time
5. 27 frame buffer at 3fps
6. 9 point auto focus
7. Various auto picture modes and full auto

In the box you get the body, an 18-55mm lens (more on the lens later), a full suite of software for downloading and editing pictures on your computer, battery + charger, camera strap and usb cable - a pretty comprehensive starter pack. Note there is no CF card but if you buy before the end of December 2006 you can apply for a free 256mb CF card direct from Canon.

I find the 400D a compact but comfortable camera to use. I think some with bigger hands have had trouble with it being a bit small but for me its fine.

After switching on the camera it's ready to use in around 0.2 seconds - that's a massive plus for me after moving from a camera that took a good few seconds to wake up. If you're moving up from a compact digital you'll love this feature!

On peeking through the viewfinder you'll see the nine-point AF system which gives good coverage around the centre of the frame. Various weighting methods are available and you can even select any one of the AF points to focus from so if the subject is off centre it's not a problem to focus on. Pressing the shutter release halfway will bring in the AF and exposure system. A bleep will notify the user that the system has locked on and achieved focus. Press all the way and the shot is taken. Simplicity itself. Once you get going the Canon can take shots pretty much as fast as you can press the shutter release.

Now onto the lens and really the only thing I can criticise. The provided 18-55mm lens is disappointing. It's basically just not that sharp for discerning photographers and it certainly does not let the 400D show its true potential. I would strongly recommend buying the 50mm 1.8 Canon lens for around £70. It is plasticky and built cheaply but please don't let this put you off - believe me this lens is S-H-A-R-P!!! I bought this lens after messing around with the 18-55 for a while and there's no comparison - the 50mm is a much faster lens and produces great pictures.

By all accounts the self cleaning system is a revelation and whilst I've never had a digital SLR before and therefore never suffered from dust problems on the sensor Canon has taken a positive step by making the sensor cover literally shake off dust particles on each power-up and power down operation!

The LCD is large and easily viewable and the camera is also very responsive to button presses and selections when reviewing shots for example. The button layout will take a bit of memorizing but that's purely down to the variety of adjustable options available!

I should mention battery life which I feel is very good. Unless you are taking shots left right and centre I can't imagine you having a problem on a day's photography - the manual states something around 360 shots with 50% flash use and I think this is reasonably accurate.

I could sing the 400D's praises all day but to summarise I'd say if you're new to digital SLR's or a seasoned pro this is a very solid camera with all the features you'll need. It will inspire your confidence too with its ease of use and excellent picture quality and hopefully spur you on to new creative exploits! Buy it - you won't be disappointed!

I remember, back in the day, buying a 2mp Minolta camera, and just how disappointed I was trying to get it to take a decent photo. So, since then I've not been that enthusiastic about digital cameras/SLRs. Until I bought the 400D. What an amazing camera! It's everything I always wanted in a camera (although I'm relative newcomer to photography).

It does everything I could possibly expect from a camera and there may be a reason why you would want to buy a more expensive than this one, but I honestly cannot see why you would want to!

It's so quick at everything. Which is what you need when you really urgently need to take a photo. It takes less than a second to boot-up, the focusing speed is usually phenomenally fast, and it can continuously shoot 3fps for about twenty seconds. The menu system is great, and all controls are sensibly laid out. The camera feels rock-solid. It's quite weighty, so it may not be so good for people of slight frame, but it's a small complaint for such as awesome peice of kit. The built-in flash is powerful (more than enough to annoy and blind my brother) and even on the auto settings you get great daylight shots that require very little, if any, touch-up in Photoshop. I would say buy a decent lens, because the 75-300 Canon lens I bought suffers from a bit of blur, and chromatic abberation, especially on full zoom (that blue tinge you see around high contrast subjects). You can sort these things out in Photoshop, but really you'd be better of buying a decent lens to avoid these problems in the first place.

The battery life is excellent, and you can pick up cheap replacements or spares.

I'm not sure whether the sensor cleaning thing works, but I assume it does beause all my shots have been noise free.

I love the fact that you can leave the shutter open for as long as you want. That's great for night time shots where there is little light, or when you want to do a bit of Astrophotography. I got some fantastic photos of the Orion constellation, and of a huge halo around the moon. Although I would recommend a tripod and definitely recommend buying a remote control so that you can take shots without the camera shake from pressing the button.

Well, for the last five minutes I've been enthusing about the 400D, but I think it really is that good. Believe all the reviews you see here and elsewhere. It is an amazing camera for the price.

I come from a traditional SLR background, as well as using a few DSLRs, and have found this to be the easiest to use camera yet. The menu systems are very nicely organised, and newcomers to DSLRs will have no problems learning how to use it.

It has a very nice array of features for a consumer-end DSLR, some of which have been taken from the top-end models.

There are lots of negative posts on the internet proclaiming the 18-55mm kit lens bad, and that is simply not the case. The lens responds fast, and outputs high quality images - the colours are especially accurate in all the photos I've taken so far.

In response to other complaints about the grip size, I have had no problems (although I don't have the biggest hands). It's a compact, lightweight (for a DSLR) camera, that you won't be dragged down by on long hikes, for example.

I highly recommend this camera to both amateurs and professionals, as it provides many high-end features and quality photos in an easy to learn and operate design.

The 400D is excellent and will produce great shots. It's a bit plasticy when compared with the Nikon DSLRs, but if you look after it, it will provide years of service. The one thing which lets it down is the extremely poor 18-55 lens -- you'd be better off with the bottom of a milk bottle on the front of your 400D. It amazes me how Canon can produce a fabulous camera and then stick a cheap lens on the front which produces very soft, low contrast results and lets the camera down. With any camera, the most important part is the lens, do yourself a favour and buy the body only version and then get a better lens. Sadly the superb Canon L range of lenses are very expensive, much more than this camera, so a compromise is something like the Sigma 18-50mm or Tamron 17-50mm f2.8. They'll set you back about 280 pounds but the difference will be huge. Just to reinforce things -- don't skimp on the lens, it's the most important part of a camera!!

The 400D is an absolutely cracking camera body which is capable of producing great quality, razor sharp images. So why do I give the 400D/std lens combo as measly 2 star rating? Because of the std kit lens I'm afraid. (I'd give the body alone 5 stars.) What bugs me here (on behalf of other consumers) is that the buyer of this std combo just will not be getting the true potential out of the 400D body because of the particularly poor quality of the std lens.

I stress that the body is brilliant in my view - I love it - please see my separate review on the 400D body for more on that. But sadly the same quality does not extend to the standard 18-55 kit lens, either mechanically or optically.

For example...
- The inner lens tube wobbles all over the place, which makes you wonder what is actually holding it in position.
- Accurate manual focusing is impossible due to the amazingly poor design and build.
- The front element rotates during focusing which makes it next to impossible to use a polarising filter.
- The lens mount is plastic.
- The optics are shockingly poor. Don't expect sharp images, esp at the tele end. If you compare the optical performance of this lens to the Nikon std 18-55 kit lens, you could be forgiven for thinking that Canon are having a bit of a laugh. You can make up your own mind if you check out the "Reviews" section of the Photozone site (comes up via any of the search engines). Try opening two web browser sessions and size them down width ways so you can compare the two lenses side by side. I think you'll be shocked at what you see.

So why does Canon ship such a poor lens as standard with its 400D? Beats me - its reputation is widely reported in mags and online. The sooner Canon discontinue the std 18-55 lens the better - it's absolute pap and has no place on a current day DSLR, especially one as good as the 400D.

My recommendation to anyone buying the 400D is to buy the body and choose the lens separately. If you must have a Canon lens then the IS version of the 18-55 is infinitely better than the std (non-IS) 18-55 kit lens (in terms of the image quality it delivers anyway - mechanically it's not much better). I note that the IS lens is very reasonably priced these days at around 120 quid or so online. Or, if you don't mind going down the third party lens route, you could opt for the Tamron 17-50 F2.8 - a cracking lens that really does justice to the superb quality and design of the 400D. Which to choose? The Canon IS 18-55 is cheaper (and represents very good value in my view), while the Tamron 17-50 is faster and significantly better in terms of image quality. The Tamron is sharper into the image corners and sharper at the tele end too, although you might notice chromatic abberations in your image borders and corners when using the Tamron at the 17mm end with wide apertures (but these are easily taken care of by raw converters in any case).

In a nutshell, the 400D teamed up with either the Canon IS 18-55 or Tamron 17-50 will produce razor sharp images that will make your eyes pop out. You can't go wrong with either combination. But to say that the std kit lens (non IS) is best avoided would be the understatement of the year.

Happy hunting. :-)

PS: Please vote for my review if you found it helpful. :-)