Canon T3 Review

Overview

A major revamp to their previous Rebel XS entry-level SLR, the new Canon T3 is significantly more advanced than its predecessor, and looks to offer a great choice for both novices and enthusiast users on a budget. It's been about 18 months since the Rebel XS shipped in August of 2008, and although the Rebel T3 now has an even lower price, you get a lot more for your money.

Perhaps most significantly, the Rebel T3 has an increased sensor resolution of twelve megapixels, and also switches to a current-generation DIGIC 4 processor. Together, these allow a much wider ISO sensitivity range of 100 to 6,400 equivalents. There's also a new nine-point autofocus system with a single f/5.6 cross-type point at the center of the array, and a wider working range of EV 0 ~ 18.  The updated AF system sits alongside Canon's current generation 63 segment, dual layer iFCL metering chip, and the company has also gifted the Rebel T3 with an expanded +/-5 EV exposure compensation range, an adjustable Auto Lighting Optimization function, and its useful Highlight Tone Priority mode.

There's also a slightly larger 2.7-inch LCD display, a 720p HD movie mode, and a revamped version of Canon's image-stabilized 18-55mm kit lens. Not all the changes are entirely positive, though. The Rebel T3's pentamirror viewfinder has a narrower dioptric adjustment range of -2.5 to +0.5 diopters, along with ever so slightly decreased 0.80x magnification, and while burst shooting speed is barely changed at 3 frames per second, the manufacturer-specified burst depth has fallen to just 4-5 large/fine JPEG or two Raw frames.

The older Rebel XS model is currently still available on store shelves for a while longer with a discounted price tag that's $50 below the Rebel T3 kit, but we understand that will only be the case until stock runs out. Henceforth, the new Rebel lineup will start with the Canon T3, with step-up models being the Rebel T2i and T3i, both of which offer 18 megapixel resolution.

Canon Rebel T3 User Report

by Dave Etchells, Shawn Barnett and Mike Tomkins

More than two years after announcing the Rebel XS, Canon has upgraded its entry-level SLR offering with the new Canon Rebel T3. As you might expect given the amount of time that's passed, this is quite an upgrade. Virtually every aspect of the camera has been revamped and improved, while still retaining the compact styling that's made the Rebel models favorites with those looking for compact ease of use.

The Canon T3 is much more than just a compact SLR, though; it's a good quality camera with a rich feature set that just happens to carry an entry-level price. An enhanced menu guide system makes it perhaps the most approachable Canon SLR to date for novice users, yet there are more than enough advanced features to keep more sophisticated users happy. Offering exceptional functionality at an entry-level price, the new Canon T3 will be a great choice for anyone on a budget, whether the proverbial Soccer Mom or serious enthusiast.

Look and Feel. The Canon Rebel series have always been favorites as relatively compact models that provide the benefits of SLR shooting (image quality, fast focusing, low-light ability, etc.) without the bulk of many higher-end SLRs. They're thus favorites of women and others for whom the bulky grips of larger models are problematic, but even advanced shooters like them as an alternative to their larger cameras when faster frame rates or other features of full-sized models aren't needed.

The need to control costs means that entry-level camera models will be largely constructed of plastic, so it's easy to end up with a cheap feeling. The Canon T3 manages to avoid that, striking an excellent compromise between low-cost manufacturing and solid build quality. We always pick up an entry-level camera with a certain amount of apprehension, wondering if it will feel plasticky and cheap in our hands. The Canon T3 definitely doesn't have the solidity of an EOS 60D or 7D, and there's no question that you're handling plastic, but we're happy to report that there's no panel flex or creak, so it doesn't feel hollow or cheap.

The new Canon T3 is slightly larger than the earlier XS that it replaces, measuring about 4mm wider, 2mm taller, and a noticeable 16mm thicker. We don't think that the thicker body will be an issue even for users with smaller hands, and the slightly greater front-to-back distance may be more comfortable to other users. Changes in styling from the earlier XS model are subtle, but the Canon T3's overall look is sleeker and more rounded.

The grip is a bit less contoured than that on the XS, albeit with roughly the same amount of finger room. I find the camera more comfortable to hold with both hands, as my fingertips otherwise end up pressing against the body more than I like. My wife Marti had no such trouble, and found the Canon T3's grip quite comfortable. The top right corner of the camera's rear panel bulges out slightly to provide a thumb rest, making for a more secure feeling when holding the camera one-handed. The back of the camera and the grip area are covered with a smooth, slightly rubbery coating, which also contributes to a more secure feel in the hand. Note the lack of an infrared remote control port on the grip, something the T3i has, but that the XS also lacked.

The top view is really quite clean, as SLRs go. There are now no controls on the Canon T3's left side, where there used to be buttons for both flash-release and depth-of-field preview. The flash release button has been moved to the right side of the top panel, between the power switch and the Control dial. Moving it makes a lot of sense for the first-time SLR owner. Those of us who've owned many will first try the left panel, but it's really not an obvious place to begin with. Though we like the new position, they could have marked it a little more clearly, as it's hard to see in low light, the one place you're going to want to see it. There's no longer a dedicated depth-of-field preview button on the T3; something that Canon probably rightly assumes most consumer users wouldn't use anyway. You can, however, configure the Set button on the rear panel to serve as a depth-of-field preview button. Other controls on the top are the Mode dial, Power switch, Main dial, and shutter release button.

The most obvious change on the back is that the Menu and Display buttons that were on the left side of the viewfinder in the XS have been moved over to the right side, and replaced by the Canon logo. I have to say I'm not keen on this change, as I find it more convenient having those controls under my left thumb: the Canon T3's layout put too much functionality under my right thumb, making my control navigation a bit slower overall. I can see that the larger 2.7-inch LCD on the Canon T3 left no room for the logo under the screen, and sympathize with Canon's need to have a logo showing somewhere, but nonetheless regret this particular move.

Much more welcome is that the ISO button has returned to the rear panel, as a secondary function of the up arrow button, after having been banished to the top panel on the XS. This is a frequently used control, so having it right on the back is much more convenient. The location previously occupied by the dedicated ISO button is now taken over by the relocated popup flash release button.

Another obvious change is that the Canon T3 now has a dedicated Live View/Movie Record button on the back panel. (The earlier XS used the Set button to enter Live View, and had no Movie recording capability.) A Quick Menu button has also been added, for faster access to frequently-changed settings, and the Playback and Delete buttons have been shuffled around.

With two new functions added to the same number of rear-panel buttons, something had to give, so the metering mode and Picture Style settings have been relegated to menu access only.

The settings with dedicated buttons assigned to them (exposure compensation, ISO, AF, WB, and drive mode) are very fluid to use; you just press the button and then rotate the main control dial, which is to be found just behind the shutter button on the top of the grip. Alternatively, for all but exposure compensation, you can cycle through the available options just by pressing the button repeatedly, or by pressing the button and then using the left/right arrow buttons to make your selection.

Sensor and processor. The last Rebel with a 12.2-megapixel sensor was the XSi, and though the Canon T3's sensor outputs the same image size and resolution, its sensor is described as having a total resolution of 12.6-megapixels, a slight increase over the XSi's 12.4-megapixel chip. Perhaps of more significance is another upgrade in the T3's imaging pipeline, however. It uses a newer DIGIC 4 image processor, where the XS and XSi used DIGIC III, a difference that shows up in improved noise suppression and better detail in general (although it does squash fine detail in the difficult-to-render red leaf swatch of our test target, as you'll see in our image quality comparisons towards the end of this review). DIGIC 4 also allows capture of 14-bit RAW images, and the 8-bit JPEGs are created from 14-bit data.

The one area where the Canon T3 comes up noticeably short is in the area of continuous shooting speed and buffer depth. Our testing found the T3 to be capable of 2.94 frames per second when shooting in JPEG mode, 1.96 fps when shooting in Raw format, and a relatively glacial 1.35 fps for Raw+JPEG. That might seem limiting enough, but Raw shooters will find its very small buffer memory to be even more problematic than its shooting speed. Although the tested burst depth of 17 large/fine JPEGs with our hard-to-compress test target seems reasonable, when shooting Raws the T3 slows after only three frames, and for RAW+JPEG a single frame is enough to fill the buffer completely. None of this is likely to be any problem for casual snapshots or landscape photos, but if you expect to shoot a lot of fast-moving action, or are a dedicated Raw shooter, you'll want to look a little higher in Canon's SLR line.

Peripheral illumination correction. Vignetting, a darkening of the corners produced by some lens designs, is reduced via Peripheral Illumination Correction in the Canon T3. Using a database of lenses, the amount of correction is customized for each lens mounted. Selecting the item from the menu brings up a screen where you can see which lens the camera detected, and whether correction data is available. You can then choose to disable the correction if the wrong lens is showing (as sometimes happens with non-Canon lenses), or else re-enable it.

Autofocus. The Canon T3 offers nine-point focusing with a central cross-type f/5.6 focus point, with eight single-axis points. The focusing screen is of the etched variety, with boxes surrounding dots, which light up red to confirm focus.

Metering. The Canon T3 inherits Canon's latest metering system, previously seen in the EOS 7D, T2i, and 60D, but does not include a Spot metering option. It's a 63-zone iFCL sensor, which stands for Intelligent Focus, Color, and Luminance metering. The name hints at how the sensor works: the iFCL chip has a dual-layer design with each layer sensitive to different wavelengths of light, allowing subject color to be taken into account when determining exposure. Information on focusing points is also taken into account in metering calculations.

Auto Lighting Optimizer. The Canon T3's Auto Lighting Optimizer (ALO) option makes local brightness/contrast adjustments to give better shadow detail under contrasty lighting. Three levels are available, plus Off. It's not a strong effect, but worth remembering if you're faced with such conditions.

ISO. The Canon T3's ISO ranges from 100 to 6,400, with no expanded ISO (as is seen on the T3i), though this is still quite an increase over the Canon XS and XSi's maximum of ISO 1,600. Instead of offering exposure compensation from -2.0 to +2.0 EV equivalents, the T3\ offers a much wider +/-5.0EV exposure compensation range.

Creative Auto mode. CA mode gives the more novice user an easy way to adjust the exposure, flash, resolution, drive mode, and Picture Style. Setting aperture and shutter speed are converted to simpler concepts of background blur (blurred or sharp), and exposure level (darker or brighter) with a slider that's adjusted with the Main dial. The more complex exposure decisions remain under the Canon T3's control in CA mode. The exposure slider is the more useful, standing in as a more comprehensible EV adjustment.

Viewfinder. One of our frequent complaints about the lower end of the Rebel line has been their very tight viewfinders. The Canon T3 unfortunately continues this trend, with a viewfinder magnification of only 0.8x, actually just slightly tighter than that of the XS before it. It also has a narrower diopter adjustment range of just -2.5 to +0.5 diopters, down from -3 to +1 diopters in the Rebel XS. Coverage accuracy remains at about 95%, though, which is pretty typical for consumer SLRs. It's a pentamirror design, so isn't as bright as models using a pentaprism, but those are largely restricted to enthusiast and professional models.

The viewfinder status readout is a pretty standard one, retaining the full-time ISO display we saw on the XS, but now with an upgrade to Canon's current standard 9-AF point autofocus system, vs the 7-point one on the XS. The points are arranged in the traditional Canon diamond-shaped array, covering a good portion of the frame.

Feature guide. The Canon T3 is an entry-level model, but many novices might find the array of buttons on its back intimidating. To address this, Canon has implemented a Feature Guide that briefly displays text on the LCD screen describing the effect of an option you've just selected.

The new Feature Guide text appears whenever you select a Quick Menu item, explaining the function of that option. Feature Guide text also appears whenever you rotate the Mode Dial to a new position, explaining in plain English what each item does.

Other than the newly-added Feature Guide displays, the Canon Rebel T3's user interface very much follows the Canon standard, seen on all their SLRs from entry-level to high-end pro models. A tabbed interface provides quick access to four screens of record-mode settings, two for playback, three for setup, and a My Menu mode where you can collect frequently-used settings for quicker access. The left-right arrow keys select between menu tabs while the up/down arrows move the cursor within the page. Pressing the Set button chooses an option and ultimately selects your setting choice there as well. It's a very clean interface that manages a large set of options without seeming overly cluttered.

Live View. Of course, the Canon T3 offers Live View mode, something that will seem more familiar for the entry-level user accustomed to framing images on their digital camera's LCD display. As with many of the other features now included on the Canon T3, it seems pretty full-featured as Live View modes go. You can move the AF point around, switch between Contrast-detect and Phase-detect (Quick AF) modes, and even zoom in to 10x. Activating it is as easy as pressing the Live View/Record button on the back.

While it might be more familiar to point & shoot users stepping up to an SLR for the first time, I really recommend against using Live View as your default shooting mode with the Canon Rebel T3. Normal through-the-eyepiece mode is much more responsive, and you'll find it easier to hold the camera steady when it's braced against your face. Live View mode also gobbles battery life, typically cutting the number of shots per charge by more than half. Use Live View mode if you need to shoot from an odd angle, like holding the camera over your head in a crowd, or for determining manual focus precisely when using a tripod.

Video. The Canon T3 delivers good, basic video recording at 720p/30fps.

Movie mode. The Canon T3's video recording capability is a huge upgrade from the Rebel XS, which had no such option. By current standards, movie recording is fairly basic, in that the camera will only record 1,280 x 720 pixel high definition video, at either 25 or 30 frames/second, with no options for Full HD or VGA capture. Exposure and focus control capabilities are relatively limited. That said, it's a good basic capability, great for casual "video snapshots." Movie files are saved as .MOVs, using the MPEG-4 format.

By default, autofocus happens only before you start recording, however it's possible to configure the T3 to allow single contrast detection autofocus operations during video capture, albeit with visible hunting around the point of focus, and autofocus motor operation being clearly audible on the resulting video clip with the standard kit lens. Before capture commenced, I found myself using the phase detection-based Quick AF mode to set focus for movies, as this was far faster than Live or Face Detect focus modes, and didn't really interfere with my recording at all, since once capture starts the T3 will automatically restrict itself solely to contrast detection AF. In Quick AF mode, the camera briefly drops the mirror to set focus using its normal phase-detect AF system. Live and Face Detect modes determine focus using the much slower contrast-detect method. I rarely used Live AF mode before capture, but sometimes found Face Detect mode useful, as long as I had a relatively patient subject.

Movie mode. A few of the Live views, including Record, and the various Quick Menu options.

Video exposure control on the Canon T3 is entirely automatic; the camera sets shutter speed, aperture, and ISO automatically. There's one nice touch, though: While it doesn't let you adjust the video exposure settings (see the T3i for that), if you half-press the shutter button while you're recording, it'll show you the exposure values it's currently using for aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. Even if I can't change them, I really like knowing what the camera is using for exposure settings. If you've enabled autofocus with the shutter button during capture, you can configure the T3 to temporarily disable AF while holding in the Autoexposure Lock button, allowing you to view this exposure info without triggering an AF operation.

Like most Canon SLRs, the Canon T3's video exposure curve is weighted heavily towards shutter speeds proportional to the frame rate. That is, it will adjust the aperture and ISO as needed to maintain a 1/30 or 1/25 second shutter speed across a wide range of light levels. Only in extremely bright lighting will the shutter speed get much shorter than 1/30 second, and then only if the lens can't be stopped down any more. There are both pros and cons to this approach. The main reason Canon probably does this is that shutter speeds close to the frame rate produce much smoother-looking motion than do shorter ones. High shutter speeds will produce sharper-looking individual frames (because there's no motion blur), but the video will look very choppy to your eye when played back. Another positive consequence of the Canon T3's video exposure curve is that the camera will generally be using a very small aperture, so the greater depth of field will compensate quite a bit for the lack of live autofocus. On the other hand, you won't be able to use a shallow depth of field to isolate your subjects, and the very small apertures used in bright light can result in softer images, due to diffraction limiting.

Overall, the Canon T3's movie mode provides good, basic movie recording that's likely to meet the needs of most consumers for casual recording: If you need full manual exposure control or an external audio input jack, look to the T3i instead.

Flash. Like all Canon consumer SLRs, the Canon T3 has a pop-up flash, with an X-sync of 1/200 second and a guide number of 30 feet (9.2m). The Canon T3 also has a hot shoe, where you can attach accessory flashes, all the way up to the 580EX II.

The Canon T3's pop-up flash is in most respects similar to its predecessor's, but the button that deploys the pop-up flash head has moved to the right side of the T3's top panel, just behind the shutter button and command dial. We like this location a lot, as it's very easy to drop your index finger back to pop up the flash, and then back forward again to trip the shutter, all without taking your eye away from the viewfinder. With no screen-printed label, newcomers to the T3 may well miss the button's existence initially, though.

Adjusting flash exposure isn't very obvious, but not as bad as on some earlier models. The Quick Menu is the easiest place to make the adjustment; just hit the Quick Menu button, and use the arrow keys to get to the flash exposure adjustment option. This is dramatically better than the earlier Rebel XS, which required you to dive several levels deep in the Record Menu to make adjustments. The old method is still there, buried a couple of levels deep in the second Record menu screen, but the Quick Menu means you can ignore that now.

While it offers a lot of control options, we were disappointed to see that the Canon T3's flash has less range than that on the older XS or, for that matter, most of the rest of Canon's SLR lineup. Where most Canon consumer SLR models have a flash guide number of 43 feet at ISO 100, the Canon T3's is only rated 30 feet. You can of course boost flash range by shooting at a higher ISO setting, and the Canon T3's images at high ISO are clean enough to do this with some abandon. Still, we'd like to see this number more on par with Canon's other consumer SLR models.

New flashes. At the same time as launching the Rebel T3 and T3i, Canon also announced two new flash strobes, both probably designed to appeal more to the Rebel T3i user than the T3 user. The 270EX II is an upgrade to the 270EX introduced with the T1i, and still zooms and tilts vertically for bounce flash. Changes include a more prominent LED ready lamp on the back, as well as a Slave setting, so it can serve as a small slave flash, activated by the Canon T3i's built-in flash, or by any other compatible flash in the Canon wireless flash system. (Unfortunately, the Canon T3 has no wireless flash system, but if you have a 580EX II mounted on the Canon T3, it will remote-control these flashes.) When used in wireless mode, the Canon 270EX II can only serve in A group, and responds to all channels. It comes with a small foot to hold the flash, as well as attach it to a tripod. The Canon 270EX II can also serve as a remote control for the T3i, but as we already mentioned, the Canon T3 doesn't have a infrared wireless remote port. Still, it's a nice little lightweight flash that doesn't make the Canon T3 into a cumbersome beast like some flashes can do. It runs on two AA batteries and retails for US$169.99.

The second new flash, the Canon 320EX, takes a retro approach to flash design, while simultaneously acknowledging a new need among the latest digital SLRs: It includes a very bright LED for shooting video, something the Canon T3 does have. The LED covers the area of a 50mm lens on a full frame sensor, or 32mm on an APS-C sensor camera like the T3. The color temperature range of the LED varies from 4,500 to 6,500 Kelvin, at 75 lux. It offers up to 3.5 hours of continuous shooting and has a range of 1 meter at ISO 3,200 with the lens at f/5.6.

The 320EX bridges the gap between the 270EX II and the 430EX II above it by also offering a manually zooming flash head that swivels and tilts for bounce flash. On the back, instead of a convoluted digital interface, you'll find analog switches for setting up the 320EX as a wireless slave flash. Just like the 270EX II, the 320EX can also serve as a wireless infrared remote trigger. The Canon 320EX runs on four AA batteries and retails for US$249.99.

Lens. Canon's EF-S 18-55mm lens included in the T3 kit is a revision of the last image-stabilized version. Now called the EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II, the new lens now claims up to four stops of stabilization effectiveness, and has a "leathertone" texture. The new lens is also available for sale separately, priced at around US$200.

Storage and battery. The Canon T3 can accept SD, SDHC, and SDXC memory cards, as well as Eye-Fi wireless cards. The camera uses a new LP-E10 battery which is CIPArated to 700 shots per charge. Unlike the Rebel XS, the Canon T3 can not accept a battery grip, so there's no way to extend battery life without exchanging battery packs, and nor is it possible to have duplicate controls for portrait-orientation shooting.

Availability. The Canon Rebel T3 with the 18-55mm IS II kit lens shipped in early March 2011, priced at approximately US$600.

Canon T3 Field Test

by Mike Tomkins

Having spent a couple of weeks with the Canon T3, I've found it to be quite an enjoyable camera to shoot with, bearing in mind that it's primarily a budget-conscious model aimed at the entry level photographer. Despite my larger than average hands--I'm a little over six feet tall--the T3's body was relatively comfortable whether shooting with a single- or double-handed grip. That said, I did find myself wishing for somewhat of a deeper handgrip, as my fingers felt a little cramped when shooting single-handed. That probably led me to shoot two-handed more often than I'd typically do, the better to avoid my fingertips being pressed into the body on the inside of the grip. Although there's no mistaking the plastic body for what it is, it feels impressively solid and free from panel flex or creak, and so I'd see the material choice therefore as a very acceptable tradeoff that has allowed a worthwhile savings in both weight and cost.

The main controls were positioned comfortably within reach of my forefinger or thumb, although for my own preference, the Main dial could use being angled forward rather more. As is, I felt it a little awkward to roll without adjusting my handhold, perhaps in part due to its very firm detents. The ISO button's new location on the rear panel makes a lot of sense to me, given that you must be looking at the LCD display to see the selected value, and I very much appreciated Canon's decision to vary the button shapes and sizes. Not only does this give the T3's body a more modern feel, but it also makes it much easier to identify buttons by feel alone, once you've learned the layout. (Although I didn't have the opportunity to try this, given that we're in the height of a sweltering Tennessee summer, it strikes me that the larger button sizes would make them easier to press with gloved fingers, as well.)

High ISO performance is much improved over the Rebel XS, but the best results are had when shooting raw. At ISO 2,000, this shot taken five minutes after sunset is quite clean, but the raw version shows that quite a bit of fine detail is lost to noise processing. (Pay attention in particular to the right-hand side of the "basketball", which is textured like the real thing.)

I wasn't quite so thrilled by the new viewfinder, however. Perhaps I've grown accustomed to shooting with enthusiast cameras, but looking through the T3's viewfinder feels a little bit like looking down a tunnel. While that's not surprising given that this is an entry-level camera, the fact remains that this is a new viewfinder design, and yet has taken a slight step backwards from that in the preceding Rebel XS model. Not only has magnification just slightly reduced, but perhaps more importantly, the dioptric correction range has also fallen. While that didn't affect me personally--my uncorrected eyesight is pretty good--it was an issue noted in our preview by IR publisher Dave Etchells, who found that the T3 couldn't quite compensate for his 20/200 nearsightedness, requiring him to keep his glasses on even when glare from ambient light would ordinarily persuade him to do otherwise. On a positive note, though, he also found that the smaller viewfinder and reasonably high eyepoint meant that he didn't have to mash his eyeglasses quite as much in order to see the whole field of view.

On a positive note, though, the Canon Rebel T3's low-light capabilities are much improved over those of its predecessor. The Rebel XS's maximum sensitivity limit of ISO 1,600 equivalent was on the low side even when that camera first shipped three years ago, and feels positively anemic by modern standards. The Canon T3's upper limit of ISO 6,400 equivalent, while it doesn't quite match the maximum available from its entry-level competition, no longer feels limiting. Personally, I found everything up to ISO 3,200 to be very usable straight out of the camera, and even up to the ISO 6,400 limit, good results were possible, although I generally preferred to shoot in raw and spend a little time in Photoshop for the best results. There's even more of an advantage when comparing the XS and T3 with each camera's standard kit lens mounted. While our sister site, SLRgear, has yet to complete thorough testing of the updated EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II lens as of this writing, subjectively I found its image stabilization capabilities quite impressive, letting me hand-hold shots that I'm not confident I could've achieved with the previous version of the lens.

Shooting low to the ground was the only way to get the framing I wanted for this golden hour shot. That wouldn't have been possible using the viewfinder, but the live view mode saved the day, even without an articulated LCD.

Newcomers to SLR photography will likely gravitate to the T3's live view mode, if they've grown up shooting at arm's length with a compact camera, and even without an articulated LCD I certainly appreciated it myself. I find myself using live view most frequently to shoot over my head or low to the ground, getting shots I simply couldn't manage with my eye to the viewfinder. The T3's LCD panel has wide-enough viewing angles that I can get at least an idea of my framing even from a fairly extreme angle. The 10x magnification function makes manual focusing pretty easy, despite the LCD's relatively low resolution. Unfortunately, while I found the Rebel T3's live view mode to be pretty reliable in terms of achieving a focus lock, except for extremely low-contrast subjects or in low ambient light, the contrast detection autofocus system felt slow enough that I generally ended up disabling it altogether in favor of phase detection and some extra mirror flipping.

While the T3's movie capture capabilities don't rival those available from enthusiast cameras, they're a huge step forward from the Rebel XS, which didn't offer video recording at all. For its target market, the ability to capture 720p high-def movie clips is likely enough to satisfy most customers, while the ability to control exposure, audio levels and the like would probably be overkill. I must admit I'm a little surprised that Canon didn't include the ability to record standard-definition video, though. With social media being such a big deal these days, it seems to me that the ability to record longer clips at lower resolution while retaining manageable file sizes conducive to online sharing would be a bonus. (And frankly, it would also help hide any slight issues with the subject moving away from the point of focus, given that the T3 doesn't provide continuous autofocus during video capture.) Single autofocus operations are available during capture if you enable the relevent menu option, and while I didn't find this to be very useful given the relatively slow speed, hunting, and intrusive autofocus motor noise with the kit lens, some consumer videographers will probably still welcome the ability. (If nothing else, it lets you quickly adjust focus without stopping recording, and then the AF operation can be excised from the video clip in post-processing.)

Lots of detail is available from the T3's sensor, even if it lags somewhat behind its more expensive siblings in terms of pixel count. In this shot of Knoxville's Federal Courthouse, each and every brick is clearly defined.

The most important issue for my money is the relatively slow burst shooting speed when shooting raw images, coupled with the T3's limited buffer depth. My reflexes aren't quite what they used to be, and I find a swift burst shooting function can be very helpful in making up for my deficiencies in this area. If you're shooting in JPEG mode, things aren't all that bad, with three frames per second for around 17 frames, but as soon as you switch to Raw shooting, the speed drops significantly to two frames per second, and the buffer fills after just the third frame. If you're a belt-and-suspenders type who favors Raw+JPEG, there's effectively no buffer at all -- a single frame fills the available memory, and you have to wait three quarters of a second until you can capture the next frame. From there, you can capture another frame every 1.5 seconds, effectively making Raw+JPEG shooting unusable for anything even moderately fast-paced. If you want to shoot sports in RAW mode, you'll want up to one of Canon's more advanced models, and family documentarians with hyperactive kids may also want to look towards a more sophisticated camera.

White balance was generally fairly good, other than indoors where it tended to be on the warm side, as shown in our testing. Shooting around sunset, though, I found it to yield rather erratic results. The images just seconds before and after this one had the same framing, but a much more neutral look. Of the three, this frame captured the golden hour look much better, in part thanks to a little negative exposure compensation.

There are a couple of other points that might persuade some users to look higher up Canon's model line, but at the entry level, I think that either is arguably of minimal importance. The Rebel T3 lacks spot metering, and more experienced shooters may mourn its absence, but I must admit that I don't find myself using it terribly often -- exposure compensation generally suffices, especially when I can immediately review my results alongside both luminance and RGB histograms. Of more concern is the lack of any mechanism for removing dust from the image sensor. The T3 does include an antistatic coating on the low-pass filter that attempts to prevent dust sticking in the first place, but should a stubborn dust particle adhere above the sensor's surface, the T3 lacks Canon's piezoelectric system that--in the company's other recent SLR models--shakes dust free with a burst of high-frequency vibration. Instead, the T3 relies solely on the ability to map the locations of dust particles, then retouch them from images in post-processing. I'm of two minds about this design decision. On the one hand, I'm sure it's helped Canon to hit its price-point with the T3, and many owners will likely never remove their kit lens, making dust reduction a moot point. If, on the other hand, you're purchasing the Rebel T3 expecting to take advantage of the ability to change lenses, then like any such camera dust is eventually going to become an issue, and you're going to end up having to clean the sensor manually. It strikes me that--for users really taking advantage of their camera--it's thus at the entry-level where a built-in dust removal system could prove of the most benefit, saving entry-level photographers from having to step outside their comfort zone to clean the sensor manually, or at least allowing them to go a little while longer in between manual cleanings.

With any camera, though, the most important feature has to be its image quality, and here I feel that Canon's done a pretty good job with the T3. There are some slight quirks, especially with indoor white balance, but they're easily worked around. With good glass, the Canon T3 is capable of great results, especially considering that it is, after all, an entry-level model. Even at its highest ISO sensitivity, it can yield quite usable prints at up to 11" x 14", and at ISO 800 or below you can expect to manage prints up to 20" x 30", or smaller sizes with generous room for cropping. Given that the Canon T3i kit costs half as much again as the T3, photographers who don't have the need for even larger print sizes--and who can live with the T3's sedate burst-shooting capabilities--will find much to love for an entry-level pricetag. For many consumers, the savings in cost compared to the T3i could bring a second lens within reach, providing an alternative to the kit lens. That could let them really take advantage of one of the main benefits of an SLR camera compared to compact and bridge models, and might well prove the smarter choice, rather than going for a more capable body with only one kit lens.

Canon Rebel T3 Image Quality Comparisons

Most digital SLRs will produce a reasonable ISO 100 shot, so I like to push them and see what they can do at ISO 1,600. Recent advances in sensor technology have made ISO 1,600 look a lot more like ISO 100, but there are still cameras whose quality starts to fall apart at this setting. I also choose 1,600 because I like to be able to shoot at this level when indoors and at night. Note that these crops have been updated from a production version Canon T3.

Note that these images are best quality JPEGs straight out of the camera, at default settings including noise reduction, and are shot using reference lenses so that image quality is directly comparable and not limited by kit lenses.

Canon T3 versus Canon XS at ISO 1,600

Canon T3 at ISO 1,600	Canon XS at ISO 1,600
Comparing the T3 to its immediate predecessor shows several interesting things. First, the top images shows how much more resolution the T3 has with its 12-megapixel sensor over the 10-megapixel XS, which you can see by the larger image size. Next you see how much more aggressive the noise suppression is, especially with the chroma noise in the background. The T3 still maintains good detail, even noticeably better detail in the mosaic image. But that noise suppression fairly destroys the detail in our very difficult-to-render red leaf swatch.

Canon T3 versus Canon T2i at ISO 1,600

Canon T3 at ISO 1,600	Canon T2i at ISO 1,600
The T3 has noticeably less resolution than the T2i, but detail and image quality are pretty similar. It's no surprise that the red leaf fabric looks a little better on the T2i, as that sensor has more pixels on the job of interpreting the data. Both do a pretty poor job on that target, but a very good job with the rest of the detail in the shot.

Canon T3 versus Canon T3i at ISO 1,600

Canon T3 at ISO 1,600	Canon T3i at ISO 1,600
Again, the T3 has noticeably less resolution than the T3i, but the T3 comes out looking pretty good, pixel for pixel.

Canon T3 versus Nikon D3100 at ISO 1,600

Canon T3 at ISO 1,600	Nikon D3100 at ISO 1,600
Shadow noise suppression seems about on par with the D3100, with a little more contrast. The mosaic image looks more contrasty too, with better detail. But the Nikon D3100 does better with the red leaf swatch.

Canon T3 versus Pentax K-r at ISO 1,600

Canon T3 at ISO 1,600	Pentax K-r at ISO 1,600
The Pentax K-r is a good price match with the Canon T3, and image quality is pretty similar. The T3 has more contrast and slightly greater detail. The K-r also has a tough time with the red swatch, and renders the pink cloth beneath it with more magenta than it should. Pretty comparable though.

Detail: Canon T3 vs. XS, T2i, T3i, Nikon D3100 and Pentax K-r

Canon T3 ISO 100 ISO 3,200	Canon XS ISO 100 ISO 1,600	Canon T2i ISO 100 ISO 3,200	Canon T3i ISO 100 ISO 3,200	Nikon D3100 ISO 100 ISO 3,200	Pentax K-r ISO 100 ISO 3,200
Detail comparison. Looking at the black and white detail crops at both ISO 100 and 3,200 shows us a little more about the various sensors. The relative difference between the T3 and XS in terms of resolution isn't as great as the difference between 12 and 18-megapixels, to be sure. While you get hints of the lines inside the letters on the label at both 12 and 10-megapixels, you can see them well-defined at 18 on the T2i and T3i. Bottom line, the T3 is more on a level with the K-r and D3100 than the T2i and T3i, and it has some pretty dramatic oversharpening when compared to the D3100 and K-r, especially around the red letters.

Canon T3 Print Quality

Excellent 20x30-inch prints at ISO 100; Good 16x20-inch prints at ISO 1,600; and even ISO 6,400 shots are good at 11x14 inches.

ISO 100 shots look great printed at 20x30 inches, with good color and sharp detail.

ISO 200 images also print well at 20x30 inches.

ISO 400 shots show similar detail at 20x30 inches, but start to soften in reds just slightly.

ISO 800 images are a bit soft at 20x30, but still quite usable. Reds are softer than other low-contrast detail areas.

ISO 1,600 shots finally break down the low-contrast red areas and other detail enough that it's time to reduce print size to 16x20 inches. The red areas don't recover enough with this reduction, but other elements do, as is common.

ISO 3,200 files look better printed at 13x19 inches, and though chroma noise is blotchy in the shadows, it's not too detrimental to the image. Reduction to 11x14 removes their influence.

ISO 6,400 images are quite usable at 11x14.

Overall, the Canon T3's images look quite good printed. The trouble with our red-leaf swatch is pretty common, so no surprise there. A camera that prints 20x30-inch images from ISO 100 to 800 is doing quite well, and even its top ISO setting produces a good quality image at 11x14! Not bad at all.

See below for our conclusion; be sure to check the other tabs for detail test results.

In the Box

The Canon T3 kit contains the following items:

• Canon T3 digital camera
• EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II lens
• Front and rear lens caps
• Body cap
• Eyecup Ef
• Wide Neck StrapEW-200D
• Rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack LP-E10
• Battery pack cover
• Battery charger LC-E10 or LC-E10E (varies by market)
• Power cord (if bundled charger is LC-E10E)
• Camera basic instruction manual
• Camera instruction manual CD-ROM
• Software instruction manual CD-ROM
• EOS Digital Solution Disk CD-ROM

Recommended Accessories

• Extra battery pack for extended outings
• Large capacity SDHC/SDXC memory card. These days, 8GB is a good tradeoff between cost and capacity, but if you plan to capture HD movie clips, look for larger cards with Class 6 or faster ratings.
• Speedlite 580EX II, 430EX II, 320EX, 270EX II, or 270EX flash strobe, ST-E2 Speedlite Transmitter
• RS-60E3 wired remote release
• HDMI cable HTC-100 or other compatible cable
• AC adapter kit ACK-E10 if you do much studio shooting
• Camera case

Canon T3 Conclusion

Although it occupies the entry-level position in Canon's SLR lineup, the Rebel T3 has a fairly rich feature set, and offers a significant step forwards from the earlier Rebel XS. Handling is good, with a comfortable grip, although those with larger hands may find the handgrip just slightly shallow for their liking. The main controls are well located, and an array of large buttons of varying shape make it easy to operate the camera by touch, once you've had a little while to familiarize yourself with the layout. As you'd expect of a consumer-oriented camera with what--by SLR standards, anway--is a relatively compact body, the number of external controls isn't excessive, and there's quite a bit of button-sharing going on, but the key exposure variables can all be adjusted without needing to enter the menu system. Friendly touches like the Quick Menu's Feature Guide help less experienced photographers build the confidence to leave their manual at home.

The lack of a mechanical dust reduction system is initially somewhat of a surprise, but in some ways does make sense. While it's entry-level buyers who're most likely to feel out of their depth with sensor cleaning, they're also more likely than most to leave the kit lens on their camera at all times, buying a DSLR for its handling and large-sensor image quality, rather than for the ability to change lenses. Likewise, the rather anemic burst-shooting speed and depth in raw mode can to some extent be overlooked, given that typically consumer behavior will be to shoot JPEGs most of the time, if not exclusively. The T3's new viewfinder is a rather more significant disappointment. We don't like to see specifications being reduced in a newer camera, but that's what has happened here. To be fair, the decrease in magnification is only slight, but the same can't be said of the reduced diopter correction range, and this change may well cause some eyeglass-wearers to look to a different camera.

At the end of the day, however, SLR image quality is probably the main reason an entry-level buyer is looking to step up from a compact or bridge model, and here the Canon T3 does a pretty good job. With the exception of a rather warm auto white balance in indoor shooting, the T3's accurate color and good detail make for generally pleasing results. While the T3's sensor resolution might not rival that of more expensive cameras, it matches its main entry-level rivals, and offers plenty of opportunity for generous print sizes, or a fair degree of post-capture cropping to fine-tune your framing. Compared to its predecessor, the Canon T3 has also taken a very worthwhile step forwards in terms of high ISO performance, not to mention the addition of high-def movie capture capabilities.

Overall, the Canon Rebel T3 offers a fairly compelling package for amateur photographers looking to step up to their first SLR, and some existing Rebel owners may also find the T3 to be a worthy upgrade. More experienced shooters, however--especially those who tend to shoot exclusively in raw format--will want to look at alternatives with greater burst-shooting performance. To be fair to Canon, though, they're not really the target market for this camera. For the entry-level buyer wanting to step up to an SLR for the first time, the Canon T3 offers a pretty compelling package that earns it 4 out of 5 points and a Dave's Pick.

Design

Canon T3 Design

(Illustration courtesy Canon USA, with modifications © Imaging Resource)

Compared to the Rebel XS that it replaces, the Canon T3 has a new body design that features more gently rounded lines, especially towards the ends of the top deck. The beveled area surrounding the shutter button has been extended and angled slightly more, to provide improve finger comfort, and almost all buttons now have unique shapes that make them easier to identify by feel alone. The only remaining round controls are the shutter and set buttons.

Like that of the XS, the T3's body is constructed from polycarbonate panels over a stainless steel chassis, and isn't weather-sealed. Body-only weight is increased by 1.5 ounces (45 g) over the XS, and body size has increased in every dimension. Compared to its predecessor, the T3 has gained 0.1 inches (3.8 mm) in width, 0.1 inches (2.2 mm) in height, and a full half inch (16 mm) in depth.

Seen from the front, the most immediately obvious difference in layout between the T3 and XS is that the model number badge has moved near the top of the left-hand side (as seen from the rear). Directly above this is a new four-hole microphone port, hinting at the addition of movie capture in Canon's new entry-level SLR. While the rest of the front panel layout is unchanged, the small ridge beneath the autofocus assist / self-timer lamp is now shallower, and the ridge that lined the base of the front panel on the XS has been removed altogether in the Canon T3.

Moving to the top deck, the most significant change is the removal of the dedicated ISO button, which is now a secondary function of the up arrow button on the rear of the camera. The space freed up with this change is now occupied by a flash button that--being black on black--is barely noticeable just behind the main dial, if you're not looking closely. The power switch is now partially recessed into the camera body, and the mode dial now has two extra modes: Creative Auto, and Movie. (The Flash Off mode has also changed its position to become the second option in the Basic Zone group, rather than the last option as was previously the case.)

Looking at the left-hand side of the Canon T3, things are much simpler than in the XS. The flash button is gone, relocated to the top deck as mentioned previously. Also absent is the dedicated depth-of-field preview button, whose function can optionally be assigned to the set button located on the rear panel. There's still a small rubber compartment cover on the left-hand side of the camera, but the order of the connectors beneath has been changed. Top to bottom, these include a cabled remote release terminal, a USB 2.0 High-Speed data terminal, and a new Type-C mini HDMI output terminal compatible with the Consumer Electronics Control standard. The Canon T3 no longer provides for standard definition video output.

(Illustration courtesy Canon USA, with modifications © Imaging Resource)

Moving to the rear of the Canon T3, the changes are much more significant. As mentioned earlier, there is now only one round button on the T3's back face, where previously there were nine. This change makes it much easier to orient yourself without taking your eye off the viewfinder, and also provides room for the primary function of most controls to be screen-printed directly on the button itself, with only the secondary options indicated on the camera body adjacent to the button.

The Canon T3's 2.7-inch LCD display, while still smaller than average, now has just slightly greater area than the 2.5-inch panel on the XS. Since the total resolution is unchanged, the dot pitch is now slightly greater than in the earlier camera. Coverage has also slipped just slightly from a manufacturer-rated 100% for the XS, to 99% in the Canon T3.

Only a few controls on the T3's rear panel retain the same positions as in the T3. These include the AE/FE lock / index / reduce button, the AF point selection / magnify button, and the fout-way controller with its centrally located set button. The aperture / exposure compensation button also keeps to the same location, but now serves double-duty as a replacement for the earlier camera's dedicated delete button. The four-way controller's secondary functions for metering mode and picture style have been replaced with ISO sensitivity and white balance functions, respectively. The dedicated white balance button from the XS now serves instead as a quick control button, although it retains its secondary function as a direct print button. Finally, there's a new live view / movie record button located directly above the quick control button, and three other controls--the menu, display, and playback buttons--have all jumped to different locations to accommodate the new LCD display and other rear-panel changes.

The right-hand end of the Canon T3 body is now completely clean and smooth, with the memory card slot now relocated to share the same compartment as the battery, on the base of the handgrip. In other respects, the base of the Canon T3 is little changed from that of the Xs, although given that the T3 no longer accepts an external portrait / battery grip, the tiny alignment guide that helped fix it in place on the XS has been removed. Also note that the T3 now accepts an LP-E10 battery pack and ACK-E10 AC adapter kit, rather than the LP-E5 battery and ACK-E5 AC adapter kit of the earlier camera, so XS users planning to move up to the Canon T3 will want to budget to replace these items along with their camera body.

Operation

Canon T3 Operation

Like the Rebel XS before it, the Canon T3 relies on its modestly sized 2.7-inch color LCD screen for all user interaction. This makes for a clear, highly visible user interface, but probably does contribute to slightly shorter battery life, since the LCD has to be fired up any time you want to change anything beyond the most basic settings. (Exposure mode, aperture, shutter speed, exposure compensation, and exposure lock are the only things that can be configured without using the rear-panel display). One feature we miss from Canon's mode advanced models that's missing from the XS is the infrared proximity sensor that turns off the LCD screen when you hold the camera up to your eye. It would not only conserve battery life, but would also reduces glare from the LCD when using the optical viewfinder. The Rebel XS instead disables the LCD when the shutter button is half-depressed. (You can optionally leave it on until the DISP or Set button is pressed.)

Overall, the control layout places a few main controls (Power switch, Shutter button, Main dial, Mode dial, and Flash button) on the right side of the Canon T3's top panel, with most of the other controls on the back of the camera. Let's take a closer look at some of the user-interface elements:

Canon T3 Rear-Panel LCD Display

The image below shows callouts for all the information shown on the Canon T3's rear-panel display, by default. (Illustration courtesy Canon USA.)

There are four Screen color options on the Status display, adjustable in the first Settings menu, under Screen Color. The color choices--and indeed, the information layout--on the Canon T3 are pretty radically different from those on the XS. I found myself preferring the default color scheme (top left in the group of shots above) in the daytime, thanks to its strong contrast. Color scheme 4 (bottom right) was similarly useful for shooting at night, reducing the contrast just slightly so as not to tire my eyes.

Whatever exposure parameter is currently being controlled by the Canon T3's Main Dial is highlighted with arrows in the corners of its box, to indicate that it can be changed by rotating the dial. Here, we're adjusting the shutter speed, marked by the outlined box. Note the arrows. (They're pretty subtle; we would have liked to see them a bit more prominent.)

The rear-panel display on the Canon T3 is also used for Canon's Quick Control menu system, first introduced in the Rebel T1i. As with the later T2i model, though, nstead of using the SET button to enter the Quick Control menu, there's a Quick Control button dedicated to this purpose. Regardless of whether the LCD display was active or disabled, pressing the Quick Control button on the Canon T3 while in capture mode takes you to the Quick Control menu system, where you can adjust various settings shown on the rear-panel display. You navigate between the various setting options with the arrow keys, and the chosen setting will be highlighted as shown above. Once a setting has been selected, you can change it either by rotating the Canon T3's Main Dial, or by pressing the SET button, and then using the arrow keys to choose from the available options. The Quick Control menu is dismissed with a second press of the Quick Control button.

Pressing any of the arrow keys to the right of the Canon T3's LCD screen (if available in the current exposure mode), or the Set button while making changes in the Quick Menu, immediately brings up a screen for the exposure parameter associated with that button. Once the option screen is displayed, you can use either the arrow keys or the Main Dial to scroll the cursor highlight through the options presented. You can continue to press the same arrow-key button, or turn the Main Dial in the same direction, and the highlight will scroll through all the options, wrapping around when it gets to the end of the list. When you've made the choice you want, pressing Canon T3's Set button confirms it and returns you to the main shooting display or Quick Menu, as appropriate.

Canon T3 Playback & Record Review Displays

Like the Rebel XS, the Canon T3 shows each image as it's captured, though you can turn off this function through the Record menu. The display mode in Record Review defaults to the same as was last used in Playback mode, or you can hit the DISP button to cycle to a different mode. Likewise, in Playback mode, you can cycle between the available display options by pressing the Canon T3's DISP button repeatedly. (Display mode selection is persistent across both record and playback modes, no matter which mode you make the selection in.) You can also select between the normal luminance-based histogram and the RGB histogram option via a Playback-mode menu item. The screenshots below show the various displays and options available.

Canon T3 Image Display Options
This is the default display in playback mode. The folder and file number is displayed upper right, and the shutter speed, aperture, and exposure compensation (if applicable) in the upper left, while the file sequence number and quality are shown below left.	Pressing the DISP button cycles through the four available displays. This is the second option, which shows a histogram and more detailed exposure information. A setting in Playback Menu 2 lets you choose between a conventional luminance-only histogram, or the separate red, green, and blue displays. If there are any blown highlights, they'll blink in this mode.
The Canon T3's third playback display option shows both RGB and luminance histograms side by side, along with an intermediate level of exposure information. If there are any blown highlights, they'll blink in this mode.	The final playback display option is image with no overlay. Since the T3's screen doesn't match the aspect ratio of its images, this still leaves a bar at the top of the image with the shutter speed, aperture, exposure compensation (if applicable), folder numbre, and file number.
If you press the Zoom Out button while viewing a single image on the LCD screen, it'll take you first to a 4-image thumbnail display, and then to a 9-image one, if you press it once again. The arrow keys let you navigate among the thumbnail images. The text above the thumbnails displays the same basic exposure info for the currently-selected image as does the default single-image display. Pressing the DISP button in this mode overlays the image size/quality and file number for the currently selected image, as in normal playback mode.	You can also zoom in on an image, up to 10x at the highest resolution. The small navigator window in the lower right-hand corner shows you what part of the larger image you're currently viewing. The arrow keys let you navigate around the full image, and the zoom in / zoom out keys increase or decrease the magnification level. We like that you can step between images with the main dial while maintaining the zoomed display. This makes it easy to compare focus or other fine details from one shot to the next.
By turning the Main dial on the Canon T3 in Playback mode, you can "jump" through images in a variety of ways. An option on the Playback menu sets options of jumping through images 1, 10, or 100 images at a time, between shots captured on different dates or stored in different folders, between groups of movies, or groups of still shots. You can also jump between images by rating, either viewing only rated images, only unrated images, or only those with a specific rating. The jump menu setting only applies when you're in single-image playback mode. In thumbnail display mode, the Main Dial always jumps ahead one screen of thumbnails at a time, regardless of the menu setting for the Jump option.	Pressing the Delete button brings up this display, giving you the option to erase the current image, or cancel out of the delete option. The Delete display will show either the full image, a thumbnail plus histogram, or a screen of thumbnails with border highlighting the selected thumbnail, depending on the playback mode you've selected.

Optics

Canon T3 Optics

Kit Lens

The Rebel T3 is available bundled with the Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II lens. The suggested retail price for the bundle is US$599.99 while the lens is priced separately at US$199.99, making the bundle quite a good deal. The lens has a typical optical zoom ratio of about 3x, and is very similar in design to an earlier version that shipped with the Canon T2i, XSi, and XS. We believe it to be optically identical to the earlier model, though with improved image stabilization. According to Canon, version II of this lens "includes new IS algorithms to distinguish between normal photographing and when the camera is panning to automatically provide the optimal level of image-shake correction."

Optical construction consists of 11 elements in 9 groups, with a 6-blade diaphragm for aperture control. Minimum focusing distance is 25cm or 9.8 inches for a maximum magnification ratio of 0.34x or 1:2.9 at 55mm. The lens accepts filters with 58mm thread and the front element does rotate during focusing. Maximum length is 84.5mm or 3.33 inches, while maximum diameter is 68.5mm or 2.7 inches. Weight is about 200 grams or 7.1 oz. As with many kit lenses these days, the mount is plastic to reduce cost and weight. The lens features an AF/MF focus switch to switch between autofocus via the built-in DC motor and manual focus (this lens does not have a more expensive Ultra-sonic Motor or USM). There's also a Stabilizer On/Off switch.

While we've yet to run this newer version through our testing process over at SLRgear.com, the preceding lens was quite impressive when compared to those bundled with Rebel cameras preceding the XS, yielding improved sharpness and reduced chromatic aberration.

Lens Compatibility

Like other Canon DSLRs with sub-frame sensors (currently, the Canon Rebel XS, Rebel XSi, Rebel T1i, T2i, T3i, EOS 50D, 60D, and EOS 7D), the Canon Rebel T3 will work with pretty much any EF-mount lens ever made, as well as with the special EF-S lenses designed for cameras with APS-C size sensors. Designed with a smaller image circle (the area covered by the image on the film/sensor plane), EF-S lenses tend to be smaller and lighter than full-frame models with the same focal length and maximum aperture. EF-S lenses can't be used on full-frame Canon cameras, nor on their APS-H models with 1.3x crop factors, like the EOS-1D Mark III or Mark IV, but small-sensor cameras like the Canon T3 can use any full-frame lenses in Canon's arsenal.

The sub-frame sensor on the Canon Rebel T3 means that it has a smaller angle of view (by a factor of 1/1.6) than a full-frame camera with any given lens. While most properly called a "crop factor," the 1.6x ratio is more commonly referred to as the "focal length multiplier" since that's how it works in practice. Any lens used on the Canon T3 will have the same field of view as one with a 1.6x greater focal length would when attached to a 35mm camera. (For example, a 100mm lens on the T3 will show the same field of view as a 160mm lens on a camera with a 35mm frame size.) This means that the 18-55mm kit lens for the T3 has a coverage roughly equivalent to that of a 29-88mm lens on a 35mm camera.

The Canon T3 offers Lens Peripheral Illumination Correction, which corrects for lens shading (commonly called "vignetting"), producing uniform exposure across the frame by compensating for the light falloff seen with some lenses in the corners of the frame. Lens Peripheral Illumination Correction first appeared in the Canon 5D Mark II, and has since appeared across Canon's lineup, all the way from entry level to professional models. This setting is enabled by default, but can be disabled if desired.

Image Stabilization

As alluded to above, the "IS" in the new kit lens' name stands for "Image Stabilization." This is a handy and increasingly common feature of both lenses and some camera bodies. The idea is that a motion sensor, computer chip, and movable optical element are built into the lens barrel. The motion sensor detects camera movement that could lead to blurred images with long exposure times. This data is processed by the computer chip, which in turn moves the floating optical element in such a way as to counteract the motion of the lens, thereby keeping the image stationary on the camera's image sensor. The net result is that you can shoot at much slower shutter speeds than you'd otherwise be able to, without getting blurred images due to camera movement as a result.

Image stabilization technology generally works very well, and Canon has been making IS equipment longer than most competing manufacturers. The net result is that the Canon T3's IS-enabled kit lens does a great job of delivering sharp photos under dim lighting: In the case of the 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II lens, you should be able to shoot at shutter speeds up to 16x (4 stops) slower than you can normally hand-hold without IS.

Some manufacturers build sensor-shift image stabilization capability into their camera bodies, rather than their lenses. The advantage of this is obvious: Every lens you put on a camera with body-based stabilization becomes similar to an IS lens. A body-based IS system makes for a much less expensive lens collection, since you don't have to pay for IS technology in every lens you buy. There is a downside to body-based IS, though. Because their IS systems only affect the captured image, body-based systems don't stabilize the image seen in the optical viewfinder. (Of course, this limitation doesn't apply when using a Live View camera that captures its viewfinder image from the camera's main sensor.) In extreme cases, having a stabilized view through the viewfinder, like you get with the Canon T3, can be a great aid to accurate framing and improving your own stability for sharper pictures.

So neither IS technology (lens-based or body-based) wins over the other on all points. If you plan on assembling a large collection of lenses, body-based IS will save you money, but at some possible cost in performance, and without the benefit of a stabilized view through the viewfinder. Lens-based IS can work better (not all IS systems are created equal), but will cost you more if you end up buying a lot of lenses. For the casual user who doesn't plan on acquiring a large lens collection, either approach will work, now that IS-enabled kit lenses are appearing as part of consumer-level SLR bundles.

Canon T3 Autofocus

The Rebel T3 has an upgraded autofocus system since that used in its predecessor, the Rebel XS, offering an additional two focusing points, and a slightly wider working range of EV 0 to 18, versus EV 0.5 to 18 in the XS. A total of nine points are provided in a diamond-shaped pattern, and with the exception of the center point, they're all linear, meaning that they're sensitive to detail in one direction only. (The center point is a cross-type, sensitive to detail in both directions). Most of the linear points are sensitive to horizontal detail, but the top-center and bottom-center ones are sensitive to vertical lines.

The T3 uses a similar AF sensor to that used in the Rebel XSi, T1i, T2i, and T3i, but lacks their enhanced precision at its cross-type center point. This AF sensor design hence doesn't provide any more precise focus when used with lenses with apertures of f/2.8 or larger, unlike those in its more expensive siblings. SLR autofocus accuracy is governed in part by how far apart you can space the sensor elements for a single AF point from each other. The wider this "baseline," the more accurately the AF point can determine focus. What limits the AF baseline spacing in a camera system is the lens aperture. You can build sensors with wider baselines, but that also restricts the range of lenses they can be used with. By and large, camera manufacturers have set f/5.6 as the minimum aperture their AF systems will work with. Lenses with wide-open apertures smaller than f/5.6 just won't focus. But once the baseline spacing is set, using a faster lens doesn't improve focus accuracy any, unless you add a larger baseline sensor. Across the board, the Canon T3's AF points are all conventional f/5.6 ones.

Autofocus modes include One-shot (also known as single-shot), Predictive AI Servo AF (continuous), and AI Focus AF, which automatically selects between the One-shot and AI Servo modes. Of course, there is also a manual focus mode.

AF-Assist Illuminator

Like previous digital Rebels, the Canon T3 uses the built-in flash head as its AF-assist illuminator, rather than a bright light built into the camera's body. This works well because the flash is quite bright, and probably has a greater range than do typical on-body incandescent illuminator bulbs. Following the lead of the T1i, you can disable the internal flash, yet still have the benefit of the flash-based AF-assist illuminator. You do this via the Flash Control menu, but note that this AF-illuminator-only setting for the flash head means you lose flash exposure capability until you explicitly turn it back on. If you attach a 550EX external flash unit to the Rebel T3, its internal AF-assist illuminator can be used instead of the flash head itself, providing a useful working range of about 50 feet with a less obtrusive light source. For non-flash photography, Canon's ST-E2 wireless sync transmitter can also be used for AF assist, a handy trick. The ST-E2's AF-assist light has a useful range of about 25 feet. (Note though, that we haven't tested the ST-E2 ourselves, so we can't verify this performance independently.)

Dust Reduction Technology

The Rebel T3 digital SLR camera forgoes the EOS Integrated Cleaning System that's featured in Canon's SLRs since the Rebel XTi camera. Those models use an active approach to fighting the ill effects of dust in images, shaking dust particles off the low-pass filter in front of the sensor using a piezoelectric element, but the Rebel T3 instead relies solely--at least, in terms of hardware--on an antistatic coating that attempts to prevent dust adhering in the first place. In terms of software, the camera can be triggered to map any spots where dust has adhered to the sensor, saving it as Dust Delete Data and subsequently subtracting dust spots from the final image during post processing with a compatible personal computer and the supplied Digital Photo Professional software. The only provision for physically removing dust once it adheres to the sensor is a manual sensor cleaning function which raises the mirror, and allows users to clean dust that may have stuck to the low-pass filter.

We haven't yet seen an automatic system capable of removing all dust, but with the T3 lacking even a basic cleaning system, its users are even more likely to have to either learn how to clean their sensor, or send the camera in for cleaning.

Everyone understands that lenses sometimes get dust on them and need to be cleaned, and there are a lot of lens-cleaning cloths, solutions and other accessories on the market that work well. But what do you do when your sensor gets dusty? Dust specks on the sensor tend to show up when shooting at very small apertures, appearing as dark blobs on your images. They're distracting at best, a terrible nuisance at worst, if you end up having to retouch every image to be rid of them.

Most of us are naturally leery of the idea of poking around inside the delicate innards of our DSLRs to wrestle with recalcitrant dust specks. Gently blowing the sensor surface (actually, the surface of the anti-aliasing filter) with compressed air gets rid of some dust, but there's invariably a lot that just stays stuck, no matter what. So what do you do?

If you've got dust specks on your sensor (and sooner or later you will), you're going to need to clean it. There are a lot of products out there intended to address this need, but a distressing number of them work poorly (if at all), and many are grossly overpriced. Advertising hype is rampant, with bogus pseudo-scientific jargon and absurd product claims. And prices - Did we mention prices? How about $100 for a simple synthetic-bristle brush?

So how do you know which product to use?

We don't pretend to have used everything currently on the market, we but can tell you about one solution that worked very well for us. The "Copper Hill" cleaning method is straightforward and safe, and in our routine usage here at Imaging Resource, very effective. Better yet, the products sold by Copper Hill Imaging are very reasonably priced. Best of all, Nicholas R (proprietor of Copper Hill) has put together an amazingly detailed tutorial on sensor cleaning, free for all.

Sensor cleaning is one of the last things people think about when buying a DSLR, but it's vital to capturing the best possible images. Take our advice and order a cleaning kit from Copper Hill right along with your DSLR, so you'll have it close at hand when you need it: You'll be glad you did!

(While they've advertised on our sister site SLRgear.com from time to time, we receive no promotional consideration from Copper Hill for this note. We just think their sensor cleaning products are among the best on the market, and like their way of doing business. -- We think you will too. Check them out.)

Canon T3 Optical Test Results

Kit Lens Test Results

Zoom
Good performance with the Canon 18-55mm IS II (Image Stabilized) kit lens.

As mentioned above, the Canon T3 is offered with an EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II kit lens, possessing a typical optical zoom range of about 3x. The 35mm equivalent range is about 29-88mm, because of the T3's 1.6x "crop factor". Sharpness is quite good at 18mm, however there's moderate chromatic aberration visible in the corners. We can't really comment on corner sharpness because of the proximity of the trees in this shot, though, so we've added a Multi Target shot at f/8 below. Results at full telephoto are quite good too, with good sharpness across the frame and lower levels of chromatic aberration.

Macro
A small macro area (for an SLR kit lens), with very good but somewhat soft detail. Flash throttled down well.

The Canon T3's macro performance will of course depend entirely on the lens in use. With the 18-55mm IS II kit lens set to 55mm, the Canon T3 captured a small (for a non-macro SLR lens) minimum area measuring just 2.23 x 1.48 inches (57 x 38 millimeters). Resolution was pretty good, but details were a bit soft, and corners had a small amount of additional softening. (Most lenses have some softening in the corners at macro distances, but this lens performed better than average in the corners.) The Canon T3's flash also throttled down for the macro area very well. There was no detectable shadow from the lens barrel, resulting in a good exposure with the flash.

Geometric Distortion
Slightly higher than average barrel distortion at wide-angle, but low pincushion distortion at telephoto from the 18-55mm IS II kit lens.

Barrel distortion at 18mm is 0.9 percent

Pincushion distortion at 55mm is <0.1 percent

The Canon EF-S 18-55mm IS II lens produced about 0.9 percent barrel distortion at wide-angle, which is slightly above average and noticeable in some of its images. At the telephoto end, there's just under 0.1% pincushion distortion, which is lower than average and hardly noticeable. Geometric Distortion is the tendency for the lens to bend straight lines outward (like a barrel -- usually at wide-angle) or inward (like a pincushion -- usually at telephoto). The Canon T3 does not apply any geometric distortion correction to its JPEGs, as uncorrected RAW files have the same amount.

Chromatic Aberration and Corner Sharpness
Moderately high chromatic aberration at wide-angle, moderate at telephoto telephoto. Slight to moderate softening in the corners wide-open. Sharper in the corners when stopped-down.

Aperture: maximum
18mm @ f/3.5: Upper left C.A.: Moderately high and bright Softness: Slightly soft	18mm @ f/3.5: Center C.A.: Low Softness: Sharp
55mm @ f/5.6: Lower right C.A.: Moderate but dull Softness: Moderately soft	55mm @ f/5.6: Center C.A.: Very low Softness: Slightly soft

Chromatic Aberration. Chromatic aberration in the corners with the Canon T3's 18-55mm kit lens is pretty evident (we'd call it on the high side of "moderate") at both wide-angle (18mm) and telephoto (55mm) settings.  At wide-angle, it's brighter and therefore more noticeable than at full telephoto. Color fringing is still somewhat evident in the center at wide-angle, but very low in the center at full telephoto.

Corner Softness. The Canon T3's 18-55mm IS II kit lens produced some soft corners in a few shots when shot wide-open (maximum aperture). At full wide-angle, corners were only slightly soft compared to the center, with the upper left showing the most softness, which wasn't much. The center of the image was quite sharp. At full telephoto all the corners were soft with the lower right the softest, but the center was also a bit soft.

Shading. Vignetting or corner shading was very low, but that's because the Canon T3 corrects for it by default. See the Peripheral Illumination Correction section below for a comparison between corrected and uncorrected JPEGs.

Aperture: f/8
18mm @ f/8: Upper left C.A.: Moderately high and bright Softness: Slightly soft	18mm @ f/8: Center C.A.: Low Softness: Sharp
55mm @ f/8: Lower right C.A.: Moderate but dull Softness: Slightly soft	55mm @ f/8: Center C.A.: Very low Softness: Slightly soft

"Stopped-down" to f/8, performance at wide-angle was similar to wide-open with perhaps slightly lower levels of C.A. Sharpness improved in both the center and corners at telephoto, as one would expect.

Overall, a pretty good performance for a kit lens.

Peripheral Illumination Correction
Like other recent Canon DSLRs, the T3 features Peripheral Illumination Correction feature to reduce vignetting or lens shading with Canon lenses.

18mm @ f/3.5
Disable	Enable

The Canon T3 provides what the company calls Lens Peripheral Illumination Correction, which corrects for lens shading (commonly called "vignetting"), producing more uniform exposure across the frame by compensating for the light fall-off seen with some lenses in the corners of the frame. Mouse over the Disable and Enable links above to see the effect with the 18-55mm kit lens at wide-angle at maximum aperture. Notice how the corners and edges brighten up with the center remaining roughly the same brightness. The default setting is Enable.

Peripheral Illumination Correction works with over 85 different Canon lens models, in both RAW and JPEG workflows. For JPEG shooting, the correction is made at capture time, while RAW shooters can access the function in Canon's Digital Photo Professional software, although Canon shooters should note that the latter approach offers the highest degree of correction. In-camera correction of JPEGs operates with somewhat reduced strength, especially when shooting at higher ISO sensitivities, given that the correction can make image noise more pronounced. From the factory, the T3 body ships with correction data for about 25 lens models. Canon's EOS Utility software allows correction data for lenses (including models as-yet unreleased) to be uploaded to the Canon T3.

The images above were taken from our standardized test shots. For a collection of more pictorial photos, see our Canon EOS Rebel T3 (EOS 1100D) Photo Gallery .

Exposure

Canon T3 Exposure

The Canon T3 adopts the same exposure system which debuted in the company's flagship APS-C format digital SLR, the EOS 7D. Dubbed IFCL -- which stands for Intelligent Focus, Color, Luminance -- the new metering system takes into not only account subject luminance, but also both color information and focus distance. Because silicon light sensors are significantly more sensitive to longer-wavelength light, unless an exposure sensor's response is substantially tweaked via a filter system of some sort (which naturally decreases sensitivity), it will tend to underexpose red-colored objects or scenes, and overexpose ones dominated by blue or green hues. To prevent this issue, the T3 takes advantage of color information provided by its dual-layer autoexposure sensor, with the upper layer being sensitive to Blue/Green light, and the lower layer to Green/Red light. The Canon T3 should hence be able to markedly improve exposure accuracy in situations where the subject is dominated by colors at one end or the other of the color spectrum.

The Canon T3's autoexposure sensor divides the frame into 63 separate zones, the data from which can be evaluated in a variety of ways, depending on the AE mode you're operating in. AE and AF zones are aligned, allowing exposure information to be associated with specific AF sensors and the area around them.

The T3's AE system also integrates distance information from the autofocus system into the exposure metering process, thanks to a rather clever assumption: If you've identified the subject as being located a certain distance away from the camera, nearby objects that are close to the same distance are most likely part of the subject, too. Thus, rather than simply relying on a spot AE reading centered on the primary AF point, or blindly combining exposure information from a cluster of AE points in some arbitrary geometric grouping around the active AF point, the Canon T3 instead gives stronger weighting to exposure sensor segments that lie beneath adjacent AF points showing a similar distance reading.

Although we've not had confirmation of this from Canon, we suspect that the color-sensitive capability of the new AE sensor plays a role here too: It seems highly likely that the T3's exposure system takes color into account and considers contiguous areas of similar color to be an indication of the extent of the subject as well.

Metering Options

The Canon T3's exposure metering options include 63-zone Evaluative, Center-weighted Average, and Partial (10% of viewfinder at center) options, but no spot metering mode is provided. Metering sensitivity range is specified at 0-18 EV (at 23°C/73°F, with EF 50mm f/1.4 USM lens, ISO 100).

The Canon T3's Exposure Compensation setting allows the user to increase or decrease the metered exposure by up to five stops positively or negatively, in one-third or one-half EV increments -- a much more useful range than the two stops either side of nominal exposure offered in the previous Rebel XS model.

In Live View mode, evaluative metering is always used, however Canon does not specify how many zones. The sensitivity range for Live View metering is specified at 0-20 EV (again, at 23°C/73°F, with EF 50mm f/1.4 USM lens, ISO 100).When Face Detection AF is enabled in Live View mode, the Canon T3 biases the exposure in an attempt to properly expose for a detected face.

ISO Sensitivity Options

The Canon T3 offers regular ISO equivalents of 100, 200, 400, 800, 1,600, 3,200 and 6,400. An Auto ISO mode adjusts the ISO as the camera deems necessary, from 100 to 6,400 in Creative Zone modes, or 100 to 3,200 in Basic Zone modes, with the exception of the Portrait mode, which is fixed at ISO 100. For flash photography the sensitivity is fixed at ISO 800 when set to Auto, but will throttle down as low as ISO 100 to prevent overexposure, and will range as high as ISO 1,600 for bounce flash When shooting in Creative Zone modes, it's possible to set an upper limit on the Auto ISO range. This upper limit can be set to any sensitivity between ISO 400 and ISO 6,400, but you can't specify the minimum shutter speed the camera should use before raising the ISO. Bulb exposures are fixed at ISO 800 equivalent when using Auto ISO.

Automatic Exposure Bracketing

An automatic exposure bracketing feature lets you set the Canon T3's total exposure variation (across three shots) at anywhere from +/- one-third or one-half EV, up to +/- 2 EV. The nice part is that the automatic variation is centered around whatever level of manual exposure compensation you have dialed in. Thus, you could manually set a positive exposure compensation of 0.7 EV, and then have the camera give you a variation of +/- 2/3 EV around that point. (This also means that the bracketed exposures can go outside of the standard exposure compensation range, allowing one shot as far as 7 EV from the metered exposure.) The number of shots in a sequence is fixed to three, and the sequence order also can't be changed from 0, -, + (default, under, over).

AE/FE Lock (" * " button)

The Canon T3 has the simplified AE Lock button from more recent models, which unbundles the AF Lock feature from the old button on the older EOS cameras like the 20D and 30D. Marked with an asterisk (*) symbol, the AE Lock button simply holds the exposure at one setting while you recompose the image. It's very useful when spot metering, but also when dealing with subjects where you want to draw your exposure from one place, while autofocusing on another. You may hold the AE Lock button down while depressing the shutter release multiple times to maintain the same exposure across multiple shots. Pressing the button with the pop-up flash activated or with an external flash mounted activates the FE Lock (Flash Exposure) function, which fires the flash and locks the proper exposure for the following frame.

Through the Custom Functions menu, the behavior of the AE / FE lock button can be changed. By default, a single press locks exposure until the shutter is released, or the T3's metering system powers down, while focus is locked with a half-press of the shutter button. There are three alternatives to this behavior. The first swaps functions so that the AE / FE lock button locks focus, and a half press of the shutter button locks exposure. The second alternative uses the AE / FE lock button to cancel continuous autofocus in AI servo mode, with the shutter button starting autofocus operation, but not locking exposure. Finally, you can opt to dedicate the AE / FE lock button to start autofocus operation while depressed, and the shutter button meters, but doesn't lock the metered value.

In Movie mode, there is similar functionality set through the Movie menu, but the last two options are subtly different, since continuous autofocusing isn't available for movies. Instead of canceling continuous autofocus in the second option, the AE / FE lock button pauses a single AF operation triggered by pressing the shutter button before movie capture starts, and focusing isn't possible during recording. In the final option, the AE / FE lock button performs a single AF operation and locks focus when pressed, rather than operating autofocus continuously.

White Balance Options

As you'd expect, the Canon T3 offers a full range of White Balance settings, including an Auto setting, six presets, and a Custom setting. There is however no direct temperature setting as there is on higher models like the EOS 7D. The six presets include Daylight (5,200K), Shade (7,000K), Cloudy (6,000K), Tungsten (3,200K), White Fluorescent (4,000K), and Flash. The Custom setting bases color balance on a previous exposure, meaning you can snap an image of a white card and then base the color temperature on that image.

A White Balance bracketing option snaps only one image, but then writes three successive files from that single capture. Bracketing steps are from -/+ 3 steps. (Each step corresponds to five mireds of a color conversion filter, for a total range of +/- 15 mireds. This corresponds to about a +/- 500K shift at a normal daylight color temperature of 5,500K.)

The Canon T3's WB Bracketing is set on the same grid as the now familiar White Balance Correction control. Fairly sophisticated, the white balance correction tool lets you shift the color balance toward more or less green vs magenta or blue vs amber, using a +/-9 step grid format. You move a highlighted square through the grid to adjust the color balance, and bracketing adjustments spread the single square into a cluster of three.

Picture Styles

As with other recent Canon DSLRs, the Canon T3 offers a Picture Style option through the LCD menu, which lets you select from Standard, Portrait, Landscape, Neutral, Faithful, Monochrome, or three User Defined settings. In each of the preset modes, the Contrast, Saturation, Sharpness, and Color Tone are set for specific conditions. For Monochrome, Saturation is replaced with Filter effect (options are: None, Yellow, Orange, Red or Green), and Color Tone is replaced with Toning Effect (None, Sepia, Blue, Purple or Green). The three User Defined options let you manually adjust each variable, based on any existing picture style, then save it as a custom style. Of course, you can also set the camera's color space to sRGB or Adobe RGB.

Auto Lighting Optimizer (ALO)

First seen on the Rebel XSi, Canon's Auto Lighting Optimizer (ALO) function lets you expose for the highlights, preserving detail there, while the camera adjusts the image to open up the shadows. This happens on the fly, as the files are being written to the memory card, so there's no post-capture intervention by the user required to take advantage of this function. We weren't terribly impressed with ALO on the XSi, however newer Canon models including the T3 offer four different settings for it, and the control on the T3 seems quite effective. The ALO setting is made via Record Menu 2, where you can select options of Disable, Low, Standard (the default), or Strong.

Highlight Tone Priority (HTP)

Also included on the Canon T3 is Highlight Tone Priority (HTP for short), a feature that's been on Canon SLRs for some time now, and it's one that works quite well when dealing with subjects with important detail in strong highlights. (Think of the standard wedding dress shot, and you'll get the idea.) Digital cameras normally expose more like slide film: Once you hit a certain exposure level, detail just vanishes. This really becomes an issue when you're dealing with contrasty lighting and a subject with lots of highlights in it.

HTP's action is pretty subtle, but the results are very evident when dealing with strong highlights under harsh lighting. The way it works is to set the camera's base ISO up one notch, to 200, so it's only half-filling the sensor's pixels with charge during the exposure. The Canon T3 then alters its tone curve, basically compressing the top half (that would normally be blown out) into a smaller range, thereby preserving the highlight detail. You can do this yourself when working from RAW files, you just need to significantly underexpose most of the scene, and then fiddle with the tone curve to drastically reduce the contrast, but only in the extreme highlights. If that sounds difficult, it is; it can be a real time-sink, and very difficult to make the end result look natural. Canon's HTP does this for you automatically, though, and the results look just great: You have no sense that the camera has been making radical adjustments to its tone curve; you just see all the detail in the highlights that otherwise would be missing. HTP is controlled via Custom Function setting II-5, giving you options to Disable (the default) or Enable it.

Noise Reduction Options

The Canon T3 offers two types of adjustable noise reduction. Long Exposure noise reduction can be performed for exposures one second or longer, and works by taking a second "dark frame" of equal duration with the shutter closed, and then subtracting it from the first frame. This reduces or eliminates most noise generated by the sensor during long exposures at low ISOs, but can make noise worse at higher ISOs (at ISO 1,600 and above). Available settings are Off, Auto and On, and are accessed from Custom Function II-3. The Off setting is the default.

The T3 also offers the user four levels of high ISO sensitivity noise reduction. Options are Disable, Low, Standard and Strong, with Standard being the default. Though the name implies this noise reduction is only applied at high ISOs, the Canon T3 applies it to all ISOs. This explains why the T3 exhibits minimal chroma noise in shadows and darker tones at low ISOs, when using the default Standard setting. These settings are accessed in Custom Function II-4. High ISO noise reduction is not applied to RAW files, and if set to Strong, reduces the T3's burst shooting speed and depth whenever JPEG images are being recorded.

Continuous Shooting Mode and Self-Timer

The Canon T3's Continuous Shooting mode is rated by Canon at 3.0 frames per second in high speed mode, for a total of 830 Large/Fine JPEG shots or two frames per second for 5 Raw frames before the buffer fills. When shooting Raw+JPEG together, the T3 immediately fills its buffer with the very first frame, and continues to shoot frames once every 1.25 seconds thenceforth.

The Canon T3's Drive setting also accesses three Self-Timer modes, which open the shutter 10 or 2 seconds after the Shutter button is pressed, giving you time to dash around in front of the camera. The third mode will take a programmable amount of shots (2 to 10 shots), after a 10 second delay. There is no separate Remote Control drive mode, as the T3 only supports the tethered RS-60E3 Remote Switch, which simply replicates the functionality of the camera's own shutter button, albeit with an additional plastic latch that can be used to lock the button down for longer bulb exposures.

The images above were taken from our standardized test shots. For a collection of more pictorial photos, see our Canon EOS Rebel T3 (EOS 1100D) Photo Gallery .

Not sure which camera to buy? Let your eyes be the ultimate judge! Visit our Comparometer(tm) to compare images from the Canon EOS Rebel T3 (EOS 1100D) with those from other cameras you may be considering. The proof is in the pictures, so let your own eyes decide which you like best!

Performance

Canon T3 Performance

Imaging

Canon T3 Image Quality

Color

Saturation & Hue Accuracy
Very good default saturation and excellent hue accuracy.

In the diagram above, the squares show the original color, and the circles show the color that the camera captured. More saturated colors are located towards the periphery of the graph. Hue changes as you travel around the center. Thus, hue-accurate, highly saturated colors appear as lines radiating from the center. Click for a larger image.

Saturation. The Canon EOS Rebel T3 produces images with near accurate saturation, particularly in the bright yellows, greens and cyans. Strong reds, oranges, dark brown, some greens and dark blues are pushed a little though. Overall saturation of 106.7% (6.7% oversaturated) is not too pumped yet not too dull, resulting in pleasing images. Most consumer digital cameras produce color that's more highly saturated (more intense) than found in the original subjects. This is simply because most people like their color a bit brighter than life.

Skin tones. Lighter flesh tones shot with the Canon Rebel T3 appeared quite natural, with appropriate saturation levels and accurate color, though slightly on the cool side. Darker skin tones show a small shift toward orange. Good results here. Where oversaturation is most problematic is on Caucasian skin tones, as it's very easy for these "memory colors" to be seen as too bright, too pink, too yellow, etc.

Hue. The Canon Rebel T3's hue accuracy was very good, quite a bit better than average. The usual shift in cyan toward blue was actually quite small, while red toward orange, and orange toward yellow shifts were also fairly minor. (The cyan to blue shift is very common among the digital cameras we test; we think it's a deliberate choice by camera engineers to produce better-looking sky colors.) Whites and grays were shifted slightly toward magenta as well. Mean "delta-C" color error after correcting for saturation was only 3.76, which is excellent. Hue is "what color" the color is.

Picture Style
The Canon EOS Rebel T3 offers six preset "Picture Style" options, plus three user defined ones. You can adjust Sharpness (0-7), Contrast (+/-4), Saturation (+/-4) and Color Tone (+/-4) for any of the settings. For Monochrome images, you can adjust Filter Effect and Toning Effect instead of Saturation and Color Tone.

Picture Style Options
Standard	Monochrome	Faithful
Landscape	Neutral	Portrait

Mouse over the links above to see the effect of the presets on our Still Life target. Click on a link to load the full resolution image.

Saturation Adjustment
As mentioned above, Canon EOS Rebel T3 offers a total of nine saturation settings, four above and four below the default saturation. This covers a very wide range of saturation levels, about as wide a range as you're likely to find photographically useful, apart from special effects that are arguably better achieved in software. As it should, the Canon T3's saturation adjustment affects only the saturation, leaving the contrast of the image more or less unaltered. (In some cameras, saturation tends to affect contrast, and vice versa.) The fine steps between settings mean you can program the camera to just the level of saturation you prefer. As usual for Canon, well done.

Saturation Adjustment Examples
-4	-2	0	+2	+4

The table above shows alternate settings including the default as well as the two extreme saturation settings. Click on any thumbnail above, then click again to see the full-sized image.

Sensor

Exposure and White Balance

Indoors, incandescent lighting
Auto and Incandescent settings both struggled with household incandescent lighting, though Manual white balance produced much a more neutral image. Slightly higher than average exposure compensation required.

Indoors, under incandescent lighting, the Canon EOS Rebel T3's Auto and Incandescent white balance settings both struggled, resulting in a strong, warm color casts. Unfortunately, this is quite common among cameras we've tested, but disappointing nonetheless. The Manual setting produced the most accurate results, though just slightly cool overall. The Canon Rebel T3 required a positive exposure compensation of 0.7 EV for this shot, which is slightly higher than the +0.3 EV average among the cameras we've tested. (Our test lighting for this shot is a mixture of 60 and 100 watt household incandescent bulbs, a pretty yellow light source, but a very common one in typical home settings here in the U.S.)

Outdoors, daylight
Color and saturation are very good, though a tendency towards slightly cool color balance and slightly high contrast under harsh lighting. About average exposure accuracy.

Outdoors, the Canon EOS Rebel T3 tended toward a slightly cool color balance, as you can see by the skin tones in the above left shot, though overall color was generally very good. The Canon Rebel T3 performed about average in terms of exposure, requiring the typical amount of positive compensation we're accustomed to seeing among digital cameras. The Canon T3's default contrast is a little high, producing some washed-out highlights and dark shadows under the deliberately harsh lighting of our "Sunlit" portrait test shown above left, though the camera's contrast and Highlight Tone Priority (HTP) settings do help tame the highlights quite a bit. See below for examples of this. The Far-field shot (above right) was also a touch cool, though exposure was pretty good, just a touch underexposed. That prevented blown highlights but produced some pretty dark shadows in the trees. The Canon T3's Automatic Lighting Optimization (ALO) feature came in handy here. (See below for more on ALO.)

See full set of test images with explanations
See thumbnails of all test and gallery images

Resolution
High resolution, 1,600 ~ 1,700 lines of strong detail from JPEGs, slightly higher from ACR converted RAW files.

Our laboratory resolution chart showed the Canon Rebel T3's images with sharp, distinct line patterns down to about 1,700 lines per picture height horizontally and about 1,600 lines vertically. Extinction of the pattern occurred just past 2,600 lines horizontally and at about 2,400 lines vertically. Adobe Camera Raw converted .CR2 files show slightly more resolution than the in-camera JPEGs, perhaps 100 lines, though complete extinction of the pattern was extended to about 4,000 lines horizontally, and about 3,000 lines vertically. While ACR was able to extract more detail, it also produced more color moire here than JPEGs from the camera when using default settings. Use these numbers to compare with other cameras of similar resolution, or use them to see just what higher resolution can mean in terms of potential detail.

See full set of test images with explanations
See thumbnails of all test and gallery images

Sharpness & Detail
Sharp images overall, though some edge-enhancement artifacts are visible on high-contrast subjects. Low to moderate noise suppression visible in the shadows.

Sharpness. The Canon T3 captures fairly sharp images overall, though some obvious edge enhancement artifacts are visible on high-contrast subjects such as the halos around the branches, pine cones, and the tips of pine needles in the crop above left. (The above crop is from our pine tree shot taken with Canon's very sharp 35mm f/2 lens at f/8 instead of the softer kit lens.) Edge enhancement creates the illusion of sharpness by enhancing colors and tones right at the edge of a rapid transition in color or tone.

In-Camera JPEG	RAW Default CNR
RAW Min CNR	RAW Max CNR

Detail. The crop above right shows visible noise suppression artifacts in the darkest areas of the model's hair, blurring and smudging individual strands together. There's also a little more chroma noise visible in the shadows than we're used to seeing at ISO 100. The camera's overall response here is a bit below average for an SLR, but not bad for an entry-level model. The chroma noise is still visible when converting RAW files with Adobe Camera Raw at default settings, but can be tamed by turning up ACR's chroma noise reduction (CNR) during conversion. Mouse over the links at right to see how ACR's minimum, default and maximum chroma noise reduction compare to the in-camera JPEG. Increasing the camera's high ISO noise reduction may also help even at ISO 100, but we didn't test that.  Noise-suppression systems in digital cameras tend to flatten-out detail in areas of subtle contrast. The effects can often be seen in shots of human hair, where the individual strands are lost and an almost "watercolor" look appears.

RAW vs In-Camera JPEGs
As noted above, the Canon T3 produces some visible sharpening artifacts in camera JPEGs at default settings. As is usually the case , more detail can be obtained from carefully processing RAW files, especially for natural subjects. Take a look below, to see what we mean.

Camera JPEG (Fine, default settings)	RAW via Canon DPP (default settings)	RAW via ACR (sharpened in Photoshop)

In the table above, mousing over a link at the bottom will load the corresponding crop in the area above, and clicking on the link will load the full resolution file. Examples from left to right include in-camera Fine JPEG, a matching RAW file processed through Canon's Digital Photo Professional (DPP) software using default settings, and finally, the same RAW file processed through Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) version 6.4, then sharpened in Photoshop using 250% unsharp masking with an 0.3 pixel radius.

Canon's DPP software produced images very similar to in-camera JPEGs, though they do contain a touch more detail than the matching JPEG. Images processed through ACR show noticeably more fine detail than the DPP conversion and far fewer sharpening artifacts with sharpening settings we used, but also show more noise at default noise reduction settings, though this is not unusual. You may want to experiment with ACR's noise reduction settings to find the detail versus noise trade-off you're looking for. Bottom line, though, the Canon T3's RAW images offer excellent detail when converted with a good RAW converter.

ISO & Noise Performance
Good high ISO performance for its class, with low to moderate noise to ISO 800, though chroma noise is a little high even at base ISO.

Default High ISO Noise Reduction
ISO 100	ISO 200	ISO 400
ISO 800	ISO 1,600	ISO 3,200
	ISO 6,400

The Canon Rebel T3 produced low to moderate image noise overall, however as mentioned previously, there is what looks like chroma noise and blurring in darker areas of the model's hair, even at the base ISO. At low ISOs, the "chroma noise" is likely caused by color moiré interference patterns, as there is no sign of it in darker regions that have less detail. Noise remains fairly low up to ISO 400, but more smudging and actual chroma noise is visible at ISO 800, though fine detail is still pretty good. ISO 1,600 shows a sharper increase in luminance noise, as well as a jump in blotchy chroma noise. ISO 3,200 actually looks a little cleaner than ISO 1,600 but at the expense of more detail loss to smudging. As you'd expect, ISO 6,400 shows more noise than 6,400, further reducing detail.

There are also what look to be demosaicing errors in areas of fine vertical detail and high local contrast, such as the strange horizontal bands in the strands of hair on the model's forehead at lower ISOs (see ISO 100 crop at right). We've seen these errors in our indoor portrait JPEG images from other Canon SLRs, as well as hints of it in JPEGs from other manufacturers, so they're not that unusual. The aberrations are very subtle to be sure, but they're something to be aware of if you plan to make very large prints of similar subject matter from JPEGs. They don't appear in RAW files processed with a good converter such as Adobe Camera Raw.

See the Print Quality section below for our evaluation of maximum print sizes at each ISO setting.

A note about focus for this shot: We shoot this image at f/4, using one of three very sharp reference lenses (70mm Sigma f/2.8 macro for most cameras, 60mm f/2.8 Nikkor macro for Nikon bodies without a drive motor, and Olympus Zuiko 50mm f/2.0 for Four Thirds and Micro Four Thirds bodies). To insure that the hair detail we use for making critical judgements about camera noise processing and detail rendering is in sharp focus at the relatively wide aperture we're shooting at, the focus target at the center of the scene is on a movable stand. This lets us compensate for front- or back-focus by different camera bodies, even those that lack micro-focus adjustments. This does mean, though, that the focus target itself may appear soft or slightly out of focus for bodies that front- or back-focused with the reference lens. If you click to view the full-size image for one of these shots and notice that the focus target is fuzzy, you don't need to email and tell us about it; we already know it. :-) The focus target position will simply have been adjusted to insure that the rest of the scene is focused properly.

Extremes: Sunlit, dynamic range and low light tests
High resolution with strong overall detail, but somewhat high default contrast and unremarkable dynamic range. Highlight Tone Priority and contrast adjustment options do a great job of dealing with tough lighting, though. Good low-light performance.

The Canon EOS Rebel T3 produced moderately high contrast with some washed-out highlights and deep shadows under the deliberately harsh lighting of the test above. The mannequin's face was too dim at the default and +0.3 EV settings, so we preferred the image with +0.7 EV exposure compensation. Oddly, the +1.0 EV exposure showed very little difference compared to +0.7 EV. Using +0.7 EV exposure compensation resulted in more clipped highlights in the shirt and flowers than we're used to seeing from an APS-C sensor lately, indicating unremarkable dynamic range compared to the best of recent competitors. Shadow detail was however pretty good. Bottom line: while dynamic range isn't bad, the Canon T3 struggled a bit with this difficult shot compared to other recent competitive offerings.

Because digital cameras are more like slide film than negative film (in that they tend to have a more limited tonal range), we test them in the harshest situations to see how they handle scenes with bright highlights and dark shadows, as well as what kind of sensitivity they have in low light. The shot above is designed to mimic the very harsh, contrasty effect of direct noonday sunlight, a very tough challenge for most digital cameras. (You can read details of this test here. In actual shooting conditions, be sure to use fill flash in situations like the one shown here; it's better to shoot in open shade whenever possible.)

Dynamic Range
A key parameter in a digital camera is its Dynamic Range, the range of brightness that can be faithfully recorded. At the upper end of the tonal scale, dynamic range is dictated by the point at which the RGB data "saturates" at values of 255, 255, 255. At the lower end of the tonal scale, dynamic range is determined by the point at which there ceases to be any useful difference between adjacent tonal steps. Note the use of the qualifier "useful" in there: While it's tempting to evaluate dynamic range as the maximum number of tonal steps that can be discerned at all, that measure of dynamic range has very little relevance to real-world photography. What we care about as photographers is how much detail we can pull out of the shadows before image noise becomes too objectionable. This, of course, is a very subjective matter, and will vary with the application and even the subject matter in question. (Noise will be much more visible in subjects with large areas of flat tints and subtle shading than it would in subjects with strong, highly contrasting surface texture.)

What makes most sense then, is to specify useful dynamic range in terms of the point at which image noise reaches some agreed-upon threshold. To this end, Imatest computes a number of different dynamic range measurements, based on a variety of image noise thresholds. The noise thresholds are specified in terms of f-stops of equivalent luminance variation in the final image file, and dynamic range is computed for noise thresholds of 1.0 (low image quality), 0.5 (medium image quality), 0.25 (medium-high image quality) and 0.1 (high image quality). For most photographers and most applications, the noise thresholds of 0.5 and 0.25 f-stops are probably the most relevant to the production of acceptable-quality finished images, but many noise-sensitive shooters will insist on the 0.1 f-stop limit for their most critical work.

JPEG. The graph at right (click for a larger version) was generated using Imatest's dynamic range analysis for an in-camera Canon Rebel T3 JPEG file with a nominally-exposed density step target (Stouffer 4110). At default camera settings and base ISO, the graph shows 9.96 f-stops of total dynamic range, with 7.56 f-stops at the "High" Quality level. These are decent numbers, though somewhat lower than some recent competitors. Compared to the Canon T3i which uses a higher resolution sensor, the T3 scored slightly better at the High Quality level (7.56 vs 7.31 f-stops), and about the same in total dynamic range (9.96 vs 9.95 f-stops). Note though that this measurement has a margin of error of about 1/3 f-stop, so differences of less than 0.33 can be ignored.

RAW. The graph at right is from the same Stouffer 4110 stepchart image captured as a RAW (.CR2) file, processed with Adobe Camera Raw using the Auto setting. The Canon T3's RAW file scored over two f-stops higher in total dynamic range (12.1 vs 9.96 f-stops) but the score at the highest quality level increased only 0.3 f-stops from 7.56 to 7.86, which is not much of an improvement and below average these days. Results are similar to those of the Canon T3i at the High Quality level (7.86 vs 7.63 f-stops), though the total dynamic range score was markedly better at 12.1 vs 10.7 f-stops. The higher quality numbers are below average for an APS-C sensor these days, though not bad for an entry-level model. It's worth noting here is that ACR's default noise reduction settings reduced overall noise somewhat (see the plot in the lower left-hand corner) relative to the levels in the in-camera JPEG, which would tend to boost the dynamic range numbers for the High Quality threshold. Also, the extreme highlight recovery being performed by ACR here would likely produce color errors in strong highlights of natural subjects.

Contrast Adjustment
We really like it when a camera gives us the ability to adjust contrast and saturation to our liking. It's even better when those adjustments cover a useful range, in steps small enough to allow for precise tweaks. As was the case with its saturation adjustment, the Canon T3's contrast setting meets both challenges very well.

Minimum Contrast
Contrast set to lowest, +0.7 EV	Contrast set to lowest, 0 EV

At its lowest contrast setting, the Canon T3 did an excellent job of preserving highlight detail, maintaining fairly natural-looking skin tones, while holding nice detail in the shadows. Overall, very good results here.

Contrast Adjustment Examples
-4	-2	0	+2	+4

The Canon Rebel T3's contrast-adjustment control offers a very broad range of control in usefully fine gradations, and does a good job of adjusting contrast without affecting color saturation in the process. (As noted earlier regarding saturation adjustment, something that not all cameras manage to do.)

Highlight Tone Priority
The Canon EOS Rebel T3's Highlight Tone Priority (HTP) option did a good job of preserving highlight detail, as shown below. (Mouse over the Off and On links to load the corresponding thumbnail, histogram and crops.) 

Highlight Tone Priority
HTP Setting: Off (default) On
Highlights
Shadows (Levels boosted to reveal noise.)
Histogram

Both shots above were captured at the same exposure, the only difference being that HTP was enabled for the second shot which necessarily increases the ISO to 200; part of how HTP works. The result is evident in the histograms and crops above, clearly showing the superior highlight preservation when HTP is enabled (even though few highlights were clipped to begin with at default exposure), while shadow brightness is left relatively untouched. As you can see from the shadow crops, an increase in noise is however the price you pay when ISO is boosted from 100 to 200. (Note that levels were significantly boosted in the shadow crops to reveal the increase in noise.)  Except in the very deepest shadows, though, overall noise is low enough at ISO 200 that this is really a negligible trade-off for all but the most critical applications.

Automatic Lighting Optimization
Like the EOS 60D and Rebel T3i, the Canon Rebel T3 offers three selectable levels of Automatic Lighting Optimization (ALO), plus Off. In fully automatic and Creative Auto exposure modes, ALO is automatically enabled. All four shots below were taken with the same default exposure settings. Mouse over the links below to load the associated thumbnail and histogram, and click on the links to load full resolution images

Automatic Lighting Optimization
ALO Setting: Off (Default) Low Standard High

As you can see above, ALO has the effect of shifting shadows and mid-tones in the histograms to the right, brightening shadows and indeed most of the image without clipping too many additional highlights. ISO is not boosted for ALO so increased noise is not an issue, though it may be slightly more visible in shadows that have been boosted significantly.

Face Detection
Aperture Priority Face Detect: Off 0 EV	Aperture Priority Face Detect: On 0 EV	Portrait Scene Mode 0 EV

Face Detection
Just like most point & shoot cameras these days, the Canon EOS Rebel T3 has the ability to detect faces in Live View mode, and adjust exposure and focus accordingly. As you can see from the examples above, it works well, as the center image with face detection enabled is better exposed for the face (though still slightly dim) than the left image where face detection was not employed. Portrait Scene mode (right) did even better, producing the best overall exposure. Portrait mode also selected a much wider aperture (f/2.8 in this case), making the depth of field shallower to help isolate the subject from the background, though the camera backfocused a bit in this case, resulting in very soft detail in the face.

Because digital cameras are more like slide film than negative film (in that they tend to have a more limited tonal range), we test them in the harshest situations to see how they handle scenes with bright highlights and dark shadows, as well as what kind of sensitivity they have in low light. The shot above is designed to mimic the very harsh, contrasty effect of direct noonday sunlight, a very tough challenge for most digital cameras. (You can read details of this test here.)

	1 fc 11 lux	1/2 fc 5.5 lux	1/4 fc 2.7 lux	1/8 fc 1.3 lux	1/16 fc 0.67 lux	1/16fc No NR
ISO 100	2 s f2.8	4 s f2.8	8 s f2.8	15 s f2.8	30 s f2.8	30 s f2.8
ISO 200	1 s f2.8	2 s f2.8	4 s f2.8	8 s f2.8	15 s f2.8	15 s f2.8
ISO 400	0.5 s f2.8	1 s f2.8	2 s f2.8	4 s f2.8	8 s f2.8	8 s f2.8
ISO 800	1/4 s f2.8	0.5 s f2.8	1 s f2.8	2 s f2.8	4 s f2.8	4 s f2.8
ISO 1600	1/8 s f2.8	1/4 s f2.8	0.5 s f2.8	1 s f2.8	2 s f2.8	2 s f2.8
ISO 3200	1/15 s f2.8	1/8 s f2.8	1/4 s f2.8	0.5 s f2.8	1 s f2.8	1 s f2.8
ISO 6400	1/30 s f2.8	1/15 s f2.8	1/8 s f2.8	1/4 s f2.8	0.5 s f2.8	0.5 s f2.8

Low Light. The Canon EOS Rebel T3 performed well on the low-light test, capturing bright images at the lowest light level (1/16 foot-candle), even with the lowest sensitivity setting (ISO 100). As is often the case, the T3's auto exposure system struggled to produce a good exposure the lowest light levels, so we used manual mode for these shots. As expected, noise increases as ISO goes up and light levels go down, but noise remains fairly low up to ISO 1,600. At ISO 3,200 and above, noise is higher and a few bright pixels appear. Color balance was pretty neutral with Canon Rebel T3's Auto white balance setting (just a touch cool), even at high ISOs, though at lower light levels there was a reddish or magenta tint. There were a few hot or bright pixels at higher ISOs where you'd expect them, but nothing unusual. We didn't notice any significant banding at any ISO or light level we tested.

When using the optical viewfinder and phase-detect AF, the Canon Rebel T3's autofocus system was able to focus on the subject down to between 1/4 and 1/8 foot-candle unassisted with the kit lens at f/3.5, and in complete darkness with the AF assist enabled. In Live View mode using contrast-detect AF, the Canon T3 was able to focus down to just below the 1/4 foot-candle light level.

As always, keep in mind that the longer shutter speeds here demand the use of a tripod to prevent any blurring from camera movement. (A useful trick is to just prop the camera on a convenient surface, and use its self-timer to release the shutter. This avoids any jiggling from your finger pressing the shutter button, and can work quite well when you don't have a tripod handy.)

How bright is this? The one foot-candle light level that this test begins at roughly corresponds to the brightness of typical city street-lighting at night. Cameras performing well at that level should be able to snap good-looking photos of street-lit scenes.

NOTE: This low light test is conducted with a stationary subject, and the camera mounted on a sturdy tripod. Most digital cameras will fail miserably when faced with a moving subject in dim lighting. (For example, a child's ballet recital or a holiday pageant in a gymnasium.) Digital SLRs like the Canon T3 do much better than point & shoots, but you still shouldn't expect a quick autofocus lock with moving subjects.

Output Quality

Print Quality

Excellent 20x30-inch prints at ISO 100; Good 16x20-inch prints at ISO 1,600; and even ISO 6,400 shots are good at 11x14 inches.

ISO 100 shots look great printed at 20x30 inches, with good color and sharp detail.

ISO 200 images also print well at 20x30 inches.

ISO 400 shots show similar detail at 20x30 inches, but start to soften in reds just slightly.

ISO 800 images are a bit soft at 20x30, but still quite usable. Reds are softer than other low-contrast detail areas.

ISO 1,600 shots finally break down the low-contrast red areas and other detail enough that it's time to reduce print size to 16x20 inches. The red areas don't recover enough with this reduction, but other elements do, as is common.

ISO 3,200 files look better printed at 13x19 inches, and though chroma noise is blotchy in the shadows, it's not too detrimental to the image. Reduction to 11x14 removes their influence.

ISO 6,400 images are quite usable at 11x14.

Overall, the Canon T3's images look quite good printed. The trouble with our red-leaf swatch is pretty common, so no surprise there. A camera that prints 20x30-inch images from ISO 100 to 800 is doing quite well, and even its top ISO setting produces a good quality image at 11x14! Not bad at all.

Testing hundreds of digital cameras, we've found that you can only tell just so much about a camera's image quality by viewing its images on-screen. Ultimately, there's no substitute for printing a lot of images and examining them closely. For this reason, we now routinely print sample images from the cameras we test on our Canon Pro9000 Mark II studio printer, and on the Canon Pixma MP610 here in the office. (See the Canon Pixma Pro9000 Mark II review for details on that model.)

Viewfinder

Canon T3 Viewfinder

The Canon T3 features a digital SLR design, so the optical viewfinder offers a true, through-the-lens (TTL) display. A dioptric adjustment dial accommodates eyeglass wearers, letting them adjust the viewfinder optics between -2.5 to +0.5 diopters, a rather shorter range than with most of Canon's DSLRs. Coverage is rated the same as the preceding Rebel XS model at 95%, but magnification is just a touch lower, at 0.8x for a 50mm lens and -1 diopter, versus the XS's 0.81x magnification. The viewfinder eyepiece has an eyepoint of approximately 21mm from the eyepiece lens center, unchanged from the XS.

Like the Canon XS, the T3 viewfinder uses a pentamirror design. The advantage of a pentamirror is that it is lighter and less expensive; however, it also delivers less light to the viewfinder eyepiece, thanks to less efficient internal reflection than can be achieved with an all-glass pentaprism design. As a result, the Canon T3's viewfinder image is not as bright as the EOS 50D, which at around $1,100 is Canon's lowest-priced model to use a true pentaprism.

The illustration below (courtesy Canon USA) shows all the elements in the Canon T3's viewfinder. The extensive information available appears beneath the image area in a small strip, and reports all of the major camera settings, such as shutter speed, aperture, flash mode, EV compensation, etc. The information display is similar to that of the Rebel XS, with the exception of the addition of indicators for highlight tone priority and white balance correction.

Viewfinder Test Results

Accuracy
Average accuracy from the optical viewfinder; good accuracy from the LCD in Live View mode.

The Canon EOS Rebel T3's optical viewfinder was a little tight, showing just under 95% coverage. The resulting image also appears to be vertically shifted and tilted slightly compared to the sensor which is unfortunately quite common with this type of optical viewfinder. Live View mode coverage using the LCD monitor on the other hand was pretty accurate, at just over 99%.

Live View

Canon T3 Live View

Like most SLRs these days, the Canon T3 features a Live View mode for its rear-panel LCD monitor. The Live View mode lets you use the LCD monitor as a large viewfinder, and offers an exposure simulation function which attempts to display the expected outcome of your chosen exposure settings. A dedicated Movie / Live View button is used to activate or disable Live View mode on the Rebel T3, and the function is available in all still image shooting modes. (In Movie mode, the live view feed cannot be disabled, and the same button instead acts to start or stop movie recording.)

The Canon T3's Live View mode feature set is comprehensive, and the display offers a lot of information such as current settings, exposure, and composition aids (see illustration below, courtesy of Canon USA). The Canon T3 groups settings related to Live View shooting in Record Menu 4, a much more logical location that that used by older Rebel-series models, which hide these options in a separate Live View / Movie menu accessed through Setup Menu 2. There's still a little possibility of confusion though, since several options are duplicates of those in the Movie menus, and so if they're changed in one menu, the equivalent variable will have changed on return to the other menu. A nice feature of Canon's Live View mode is that it doesn't immediately stop the live view feed when you enter the camera's menu system, or switch between operating modes. Some rival cameras will immediately terminate the live view stream and drop the camera's mirror in either instance, causing unnecessary wear and tear on the mirror and shutter mechanisms if you were intending to immediately continue live view shooting.

The Live View mode also includes a greatly abbreviated equivalent of the Quick Control menu screen that's available when shooting using the viewfinder, accessed using the rear-panel Quick Control button. Instead of filling the screen, it is shown as a single column of icons at the left of the LCD display, and allows adjustment of AF mode, Drive mode, White Balance, Picture Style, Auto Lighting Optimizer, Image Quality / Size, and ISO Sensitivity, as well as selection of the active AF point if using Quick mode autofocus.

The T3's Live View mode offers three autofocus modes, selected through the Live View function settings screen or Quick Control menu: "Quick mode," which employs the camera's dedicated phase-detection sensor, as it would when using the optical viewfinder, plus two contrast-detection autofocus types--"Live mode" and "Face Detection Live mode"--which both operate on data streamed from the image sensor itself. Face Detection Live mode can detect multiple faces in the frame, but only selects (and indicates) one face on which the camera will set focus and exposure. The selected face can be changed by pressing the left and right arrow keys to jump through the detected faces in either direction. The contrast detection modes are slower than phase-detection focusing, but don't require the mirror briefly drop to redirect light to the phase-detection AF sensor, which interrupts the live view display in Quick mode. The contrast detection modes can also be more accurate, and allow the AF point to be positioned anywhere within the image frame (except for the extreme edges), rather than being limited to the T3's nine fixed AF points. On the flip side, Quick mode AF can be noticeably faster, even when taking account of the time to cycle the mirror, especially when shooting in low-light or with low-contrast subjects. Quick mode is also better suited to moving subjects, which can make it challenging to achieve a focus lock using contrast detection AF.

The point(s) at which a focus lock was achieved in Quick mode AF are indicated on the live view feed with a green focus point indication immediately after the live view feed resumes, since the feed must be briefly interrupted during focusing. Alternatively, you can bring your eye to the viewfinder during the AF operation. Even though you're framing images using the LCD display, the viewfinder becomes visible with the mirror dropped for focusing, and the active AF point(s) are still indicated for the brief time that the optical view is available, perhaps letting you judge whether to trip the shutter just slightly earlier. Manual focus is also supported in live view mode, and includes either 5x or 10x image magnification to assist.

In Live View mode, evaluative metering is always used to determine correct exposure, though exposure compensation is available. The Exposure Simulation function will attempt to recreate the exposure level that would be obtained with your current settings on the LCD display. This may raise noise levels of the live view feed beyond what could be expected in the final image, since it must operate with a fast enough shutter speed to achieve its required refresh rate. The aperture also remains open by default, and so the exposure simulation doesn't indicate the areas in focus unless you configure the Set button to provide depth-of-field preview, and then hold it down during live view. Exposure Simulation will attempt to continue even with depth of field preview active, though this may raise the live view noise levels even further. If you pass outside the range where the live view feed can simulate your exposure, the "Exp. Sim" icon near the bottom right of the LCD will blink, as a warning. Unlike in more sophisticated Canon SLRs, you can't disable exposure simulation, and so there's no way to obtain a clear live view feed with which to judge focus and framing, without being shown the effect of your exposure variable choices.

You can enable one of two different overlays, which divides the screen with either a 2x2 grid, or a 5x3 grid, useful for precise image framing. You can also specify how long the camera's metering system should remain active without user interaction, within a six-step range from four seconds to thirty minutes. It's overruled by the Auto Power Off function, so whichever timer is shorter will apply. Also, Live View shooting can be disabled altogether if you don't use it, preventing the mode being accidentally triggered by bumping the Movie / Live View button.

The EOS Utility software (included with the camera) allows you to shoot remotely via USB connection while viewing the Live View image on your computer. You can also display the Live View image on an HDTV with an optional HDMI cable, but not on standard-def displays, since the T3 lacks any provision for composite video output.

The Canon T3 comes equipped with a temperature sensor, and if the internal temperature exceeds an undisclosed threshold, Live View will be disabled to protect internal circuitry from overheating. A high temperature icon is displayed on the LCD monitor to warn the user that image degradation may be occurring, and that the camera may disable Live View until normal operating temperature is restored.

Like a larger version of the optical viewfinder display, the Live View display reports the exposure information along the bottom of the screen, with additional settings and information overlaid to the left and right, as well as the selected focus area(s). The amount of information displayed can be varied by pressing the INFO button, toggling through four display modes -- image only, image plus basic exposure information, image plus detailed exposure information, and finally image plus detailed exposure information alongside either an RGB or luminance histogram.

Canon T3 Live View options
The Canon T3 offers a comprehensive set of options for Live View mode, enough to warrant its own page in the Record menu.	Varying amounts of information can be displayed in Live View mode. Pressing the INFO button adds information in stages, starting with no information, a display with minimal information across the bottom, another (seen above) with more info overlaid on the left and right sides, and finally one with an added RGB or luminance histogram, depending on which is selected in Playback Menu 2. (Unfortunately the histogram isn't movable, and so unfortunately obscures most of the top right quadrant of the display.)
A 2x2 grid can be overlaid to aid composition or alignment.	An alternate 5x3 grid overlay option (Grid 2) is also available.
The T3's Live View mode offers an abbreviated equivalent of the Quick Control menu, accessed using the same Quick Control button as when shooting with the optical viewfinder. The vertical arrow keys select which option to adjust, while the Main dial or the horizontal keys makes the adjustment. The set key will call up a menu showing all available selections for one specific option.	Here, the effect of changing exposure by adjusting the shutter speed is simulated. (Note that this particular animation comes from our Rebel T2i review, but the function operates similarly on both cameras.)
A white box at the center of the live view feed. indicates the area that can be enlarged to aid in manual focusing or confirmation of precise autofocus, and can be moved around the image frame (except to extreme edges). Pressing the zoom button magnifies what's in the magnifying frame by 5x. Pressing the zoom button again zooms in to 10x, great for checking critical focus, or for manually focusing. Once zoomed in, you can move the magnified area around in the box, using the legend at bottom right as a guide. If "Face Detection Live AF" mode is enabled, magnifying the image is not possible, though you can always check critical focus by magnifying the captured image, or temporarily switching to Manual focus mode. Note that this screenshot was captured on the T3's HDMI port, and hence the layout has been changed to move the panning guide outside of the image area, since the HD output has a wider aspect ratio than the LCD panel.

Video

Canon T3 Video Recording

High-definition video capture has become a must-have feature in this year's digital SLRs, with essentially all the major manufacturers now providing some form of video capture in their DSLRs, and Canon's Rebel T3 extends video capture right to the entry-level in its own lineup. Being positioned as an entry-level camera, the Canon T3 forgoes more advanced features such as Full HD recording, manual or priority-mode exposure control, and external microphone connectivity that are typically found on enthusiast or professional models. For its target market, though, these features are likely overkill.

A couple of other omissions may cause some potential customers to look further up Canon's model line. The T3 lacks continuous autofocus capability during video capture, something that's still relatively uncommon, but is an attractive feature for consumer videographers not accustomed to manually pulling focus. Perhaps more surprisingly, the Canon T3 lacks the ability to adjust video resolution at all. There's no standard definition VGA mode, something that's pretty commonplace across the board in competing models. Of course, if you're planning to shoot exclusively in HD, this will be of little importance, but if you'll occasionally need standard-def video, transcoding after capture will be your only option with the Canon T3.

Still, the addition of high-def video capture in Canon's entry-level camera is definitely welcome news, and we're sure many consumer videographers will be more than happy to live with its limited scope, in order to obtain HD capture in an affordable, entry-level model.

Canon T3 Basic Video Specs

• 720p (1,280 x 720) HD recording at 29.97 or 25 fps
• MPEG-4 / H.264 AVC compression, .MOV container
• Single-servo contrast detection autofocus is optionally available during recording, albeit with actuation noise levels depending on the lens used
• Phase detection or contrast detection AF are available before capture starts
• Manual focus also possible
• AF point position can be manually controlled
• Programmed-auto exposure (no shutter / aperture-priority or manual)
• Exposure compensation and lock are available both before and during recording
• Picture style selections provide creative options
• Monaural audio recording via built-in microphone
• Image stabilization during video capture, if offered by lens
  

Canon Rebel T3 Video: Image Size, Frame Rate, and Encoding

Video capability. The Canon Rebel T3 offers only one resolution level and two frame rates for video recording.

Individual movie clips captured by the Canon Rebel T3 are limited to a maximum of 29 minutes, 59 seconds, thanks to European tax regulations, although as it turns out, the 4GB limit on video file sizes will in practice restrict you to shorter movie clips anyway . The Canon T3 records its movies as MOV files using variable bitrate MPEG-4 AVC / H.264 compression, which is much more conservative of memory card space than the Motion JPEG format used by some cameras, and avoids some of the severe image quality loss suffered by AVCHD cameras when faced with significant amounts of change in image content between frames. (AVCHD uses a subset of the H.264 standard, among other things mandating a limit in recording bandwidth, which translates into a lesser ability to convey rapidly-changing detail.) The choice of H.264 comes with the requirement of greater processing power, though -- not only from the camera when recording, but also when playing back or editing videos. The more sophisticated encoding used in the H.264 standard requires quite a bit of processor power to pull it apart and put it back together again, so frame-accurate editing of H.264 requires a fast processor and capable editing program.

Here's a list showing what to expect for file sizes with the Canon Rebel T3's video recording:

Canon recommends using an SD card with at least a Class 6 rating to capture and playback movies.

Here are some examples of video from the Canon Rebel T3, showing typical results under daylight conditions.

Canon T3: Video Samples (shot with EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II kit lens)
1,280 x 720, 30fps View on Vimeo | Download Original (12.4 seconds, 46.7 MB)	1,280 x 720, 25fps View on Vimeo | Download Original (13.1 seconds, 46.3 MB)
1,280 x 720, 30fps View on Vimeo | Download Original (13.2 seconds, 45.3 MB)	1,280 x 720, 25fps View on Vimeo | Download Original (17.1 seconds, 65.4 MB)

Canon Rebel T3 Video-Mode Focusing

Unlike some other video-capable digital SLRs, the Canon Rebel T3 offers autofocusing during video recording -- but only in single servo mode. You can trigger either a phase-detect or contrast-detect AF cycle either before recording, or a contrast-detect AF cycle during recording, by half-pressing the shutter button. When focusing during video capture, depending on the lens and microphone in use, and the degree of focus adjustment required, AF noise is likely to be picked up on the audio track. (With the 18-55mm kit lens, and the T3's internal microphone, AF noise is picked up very clearly as a high-pitched whine.) You can also manually focus the lens during a recording, and the true manual operation of AF on Canon's lenses means you can do this more or less silently, simply by being careful about turning the focus ring. (Some interchangeable-lens cameras we've tested use "fly by wire" focusing, whereby the focus ring only instructs the camera to move the lens elements rather than moving them directly via a mechanical coupling, which can mean that small clicks can be heard on the audio track every time the focus setting is changed, regardless of how slowly you turn the focus ring. With true manual operation of its lenses, the Canon Rebel T3 doesn't have this problem, although it's possible that a third-party or older Canon lenses might produce audible noise while their focus was adjusted.)

As we've noted in other SLR reviews, the good news with focusing for video is that you can get surprisingly good depth of field in video mode if the lens is stopped down, thanks to the relatively low resolution of the video image. With a pixel resolution of only 0.9 megapixels in the Canon Rebel T3's 720p HD video mode, images that would be unacceptably blurred as 12 megapixel still shots look perfectly fine as video frames. This not only provides greater depth of field at any given aperture, but is also more forgiving of diffraction limiting at very small lens apertures. Diffraction at small apertures means you'd usually want to avoid f/16 or f/22 for still images, but again, the results generally look perfectly fine at video resolutions. Unfortunately you can't manually specify the aperture, but assuming you're shooting under fairly bright conditions, the Rebel T3 tends to default to fairly small apertures by default, so you may be surprised by how little focus adjustment is needed during daytime video recording.

Canon Rebel T3 Video Exposure Control

Many video-capable SLRs these days offer either aperture-priority, shutter-priority, or manual exposure in their movie modes, but the Canon Rebel T3 limits you to solely automatic exposure. This means that the camera adjusts the shutter speed, aperture, and ISO sensitivity as needed for a correct exposure, keeping things simple, but prevents you from biasing the camera towards a wide aperture for shallow depth of field effects in bright lighting conditions, and from trading off noise levels to gain more depth of field in low light. On the positive side, a reasonably generous 3.0EV of exposure compensation is available in 1/3 or 1/2 EV steps, to ensure exposure is as intended, and you can use the T3's autoexposure lock function to prevent exposure levels changing as you pan across a scene with varying ambient light levels.

Canon Rebel T3 Video: Audio recording

Like most competing SLRs with video recording capability, the Canon T3 sports an internal monaural microphone that can record an audio track. Canon doesn't publish specs for the T3's audio recording capability, though video players report monaural 16-bit PCM audio at 48 kHz. Subjectively, audio recorded with the camera's internal mic seemed clear, although we don't currently test frequency response or sensitivity, and wasn't particularly directional, picking up noise from behind the camera as well as in front. While we noticed some audible hiss in audio tracks recorded with the in-camera mic in quiet environments, it didn't seem as significant as in some cameras we've tested, and fortunately, we didn't hear any audible "breathing" from the auto-gain system adjusting sensitivity as sound levels got louder or softer.

Internal mics are somewhat problematic, though, in that they're prone to picking up noise produced by autofocus operation, control actuation, or even just moving your hands while recording, and unfortunately the T3 lacks any provision for an external microphone with which to reduce the degree to which video clips capture these untoward noises. While we haven't noticed pronounced differences in how much camera-handling noise various models' internal mics pick up, they do vary significantly in terms of how much noise there is during autofocus operation, and with the kit lens, the Rebel T3's autofocus motor noise is extremely clear indeed. Of course, if AF noise is an issue, you can disable autofocusing during video capture to prevent accidental operation, or use a dedicated audio recorder and replace the audio track in post-processing. The Rebel T3 also allows audio recording to be disabled entirely through an option in Movie Menu 2.

As you'd expect from an entry-level model, the Canon T3 doesn't have any provision for manual audio level control. This isn't a particular strike against the T3, though, as manual level control is a feature found on only a few digital SLRs, and those are well above the T3's price range. To sidestep this limitation, many amateur videographers simply use a separate, inexpensive digital audio recorder to record a separate soundtrack, which they then synchronize with the audio from the camera in their editing software. Software synchronization of audio tracks gives essentially perfect alignment of the video and externally-recorded video with relatively little effort.

Canon Rebel T3 Movie Recording User Interface

The Canon Rebel T3's video mode is accessed via a dedicated position on the camera's mode dial. A dedicated Live View / Movie button to the right of the LCD panel is used to start and stop recording when the Mode dial is in the Movie position, and acts as a Live View button in other modes. Setting adjustments in movie mode are made via three dedicated Movie menus, which are only available when the camera is in Movie mode, although some items are shared with the Live View menu in other modes. Optionally, half-pressing the Shutter button can be configured to trigger a single autofocus cycle during movie capture. Pressing the shutter button also shows exposure variables, so if you have enabled autofocusing during video capture but want to check these variables, an option in the Movie menu allows autofocusing to be temporarily disabled by holding the the * button.

In Playback mode, the Canon T3 allows you edit out or trim the first and/or last scenes of a movie, in one second increments. You can save the trimmed movie to a new file (if there is space on the card), or choose to overwrite the original. Movies can be played back at normal speed, or in slow-motion, with adjustable playback frame rate. There are "VCR" like controls for advancing to the next or last frame, or playing from the previous or first frame.

Rolling Shutter Artifacts ("Jello Effect")

Canon T3: Rolling Shutter Artifacts (shot with EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II kit lens)
1,280 x 720, 30fps View on Vimeo | Download Original (6.6 seconds, 24.1 MB)	1,280 x 720, 25fps View on Vimeo | Download Original (5.7 seconds, 20.1 MB)

Essentially every video capable digital SLR currently on the market exhibits motion-related distortions called rolling shutter artifacts. These are caused because the image data is captured and then read off the chip sequentially by rows, rather being captured all at once. In the case of the Canon T3, with its variable frame rate, this means that image data for the last row of a given frame is captured and read out anywhere from 1/25th to 1/30th second after the data for the top row was captured. The effect on moving objects is similar to that of a focal plane shutter in an SLR, but more pronounced, because the video frame is read out much more slowly than the slit of a focal plane shutter moves across the sensor.

For a camera that scans video frames vertically (as all do that we're aware of), rolling shutter artifacts will be most noticeable for subjects that are moving rapidly side to side, or when the camera itself is being panned horizontally. Verticals in the scene will appear tilted to the right or left, depending on the direction of camera motion. As an example, consider the case of a camera being panned from left to right, with a flagpole or other vertical object in the middle of the scene when recording for a particular frame begins: If the top of the object was centered horizontally when the first line of the video frame is acquired, by the time the last line of the frame has been captured, the bottom of the object will have shifted to somewhere left of center: As a result, the vertical object would appear to be leaning to the right.

Computer Requirements for Viewing HD Video

A typical computer these days has little trouble dealing with still images, but high-definition video can be another matter. Depending on the file format involved, it can take a pretty beefy computer to handle HD-resolution video playback without stuttering or dropping frames. The AVC / H.264 image compression used by the Canon Rebel T3 is one of the more compute-intensive formats, but its fixed 1,280 x 720 pixel (720p) resolution means there's less data in each frame to deal with than with cameras offering Full HD capture. The net result is that most reasonably recent computers should play the T3's high-def video files just fine, but you will need a relatively powerful machine for video editing.

You can of course view your movies on a high definition TV via the HDMI output. If you're still on a standard-def TV, though, you're out of luck, as the T3 doesn't offer any form of standard-def video output connectivity.

Flash

Canon T3 Flash

The Rebel T3's built-in flash has a guide number rating of 30 feet (9.2 meters) at ISO 100, translating to a range of about 8.6 feet at ISO 100 with the kit lens at wide-angle (at f/3.5) and about 5.4 feet at telephoto (at f/5.6) . The Canon T3 gives you a lot of control over flash exposure, allowing you to adjust flash and ambient exposure independently of each other, in one-half or one-third EV increments. This makes it easy to balance flash and ambient lighting for more natural-looking pictures. The Rebel T3 also uses E-TTL II control for both the built-in and compatible external flashes, a standard that promises, and seems to deliver, better, more balanced exposures. (TTL refers to "Through The Lens" metering.)

Another nice touch is the Canon T3's Flash Exposure Lock function, which fires the flash under manual control before the actual exposure, to determine the proper exposure setting. This struck us as very handy, akin to the more conventional autoexposure lock function for handling difficult ambient lighting conditions. A Flash Exposure Compensation feature controls the flash exposure +/- 2 stops in 1/2 or 1/3-stop increments.

As you'd expect, there is a dedicated flash hot-shoe on the Canon T3's pentamirror housing, for use with external flash units. Like most consumer SLRs, the Canon T3 offers no PC-Sync connector for triggering studio strobes, etc. Maximum flash x-sync speed is 1/200-second.

In common with almost all Canon SLRs (the exceptions being the EOS 7D and 60D), wireless remote flash is only possible when using an external Speedlite 580EX II (or the now-discontinued 580EX) flash strobe, or the Speedlite Transmitter ST-E2, mounted on the camera. Canon's Speedlite 270EX, 270EX II, 320EX, 430EX II, and 580EX II (as well as certain of its historic flash models) also enable advanced features such as true FP (focal plane, referred to as HS) flash sync, flash exposure bracketing with external flash units, flash modeling, and E-TTL II exposure control. FP sync requires a flash unit to provide uniform light output for a relatively long period of time, long enough for the focal plane shutter curtain to fully traverse the sensor plane. Uniform, long-duration flash pulses like this permit use of shutter speeds as high as the 1/4,000-second maximum that the Canon T3 is capable of. This can be invaluable when you want to exclude ambient light from the exposure.

Flash Test Results

Coverage and Range
A somewhat weak built-in flash for an SLR, with narrow coverage. Above average positive exposure compensation required.

Coverage. Canon rates the EOS Rebel T3's internal flash coverage at approximately 17mm, though as you can see in the top left shot, we've found manufacturers' coverage ratings are usually quite optimistic. Since Peripheral Illumination Correction was enabled by default for these shots, most of the corner shading you see is from the flash and not from the lens. Flash coverage is much more even at full telephoto.

Exposure. Indoors, under incandescent background lighting, the Canon Rebel T3's flash struggled a bit with exposure. The indoor portrait test image with +0.7 EV flash exposure compensation was dim, and raising it to +1.0 EV (as shown above) did not make any difference. The camera's slow-sync flash mode only required +0.3 EV exposure compensation for bright results, though the longer shutter time results in a warmer cast from the ambient background lighting.

Flash Range: Wide Angle
6 ft	7 ft	8 ft	9 ft	10 ft	11 ft
1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 100	1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 100	1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 100	1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 100	1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 100	1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 100
12 ft	13 ft	14 ft	15 ft	16 ft
1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 100	1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 100	1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 100	1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 100	1/60 sec f3.5 ISO 100

Flash Range: Telephoto
6 ft	7 ft	8 ft	9 ft	10 ft	11 ft
1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 100	1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 100	1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 100	1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 100	1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 100	1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 100
12 ft	13 ft	14 ft	15 ft	16 ft
1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 100	1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 100	1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 100	1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 100	1/60 sec f5.6 ISO 100

ISO 100 Range. At the 18-55mm lens' maximum wide-angle setting, our flash range test shots started out a bit dim at 6 feet, but became brighter with distance, peaking in brightness at around 9 feet. Brightness gradually reduced from there, though flash exposures were still usable to about 12 or 13 feet. At full telephoto (55mm), flash intensity started out just a touch dim at six feet, and fell-off rapidly from there.

Manufacturer-Specified Flash Range
Wide Angle	Telephoto
8.6 feet ISO 100	5.4 feet ISO 100

Manufacturer Specified Flash Test. The Canon Rebel T3's built in flash has a rated Guide Number of 9.2 meters or 30 feet at ISO 100. That works out to 8.6 feet at f/3.5 and 5.4 feet at f/5.6, the maximum apertures of the 18-55mm lens. In the shots above, we can see that the Canon Rebel T3's flash roughly performs to specification at wide-angle and telephoto, producing just slightly dim images which are underexposed by less than 0.25 EV compared to the ideal exposure.

Note: Our standard test method for flash range uses a fixed setting of ISO 100, to provide a fair basis of comparison between cameras. We've now also begun shooting two shots using the manufacturer-specified camera settings, at the range the company claims for the camera, to assess the validity of the specific claims.

High ISO Noise Reduction

Canon T3 Noise Reduction

The Canon Rebel T3's four noise reduction settings provide good flexibility in choosing how you want to make the trade-off between subject detail and noise levels. Options are Disable, Low, Standard and Strong, with Standard being the default. The Canon Rebel T3 applies noise reduction to its JPEGs at all ISOs, so we've included crops at all ISOs in the tables below, though as you will see, the camera's noise reduction is quite subtle below ISO 400.

See for yourself how the noise reduction works under daylight-balanced lighting. Click on any of the crops below to see the corresponding full-sized image.

Noise Reduction Comparison Daylight-balanced illumination
	NR = Disable	NR = Low	NR = Standard	NR = Strong
I S O 1 0 0
	NR = Disable	NR = Low	NR = Standard	NR = Strong
I S O 2 0 0
	NR = Disable	NR = Low	NR = Standard	NR = Strong
I S O 4 0 0
	NR = Disable	NR = Low	NR = Standard	NR = Strong
I S O 8 0 0
	NR = Disable	NR = Low	NR = Standard	NR = Strong
I S O 1 6 0 0
	NR = Disable	NR = Low	NR = Standard	NR = Strong
I S O 3 2 0 0
	NR = Disable	NR = Low	NR = Standard	NR = Strong
I S O 6 4 0 0

The above crops show what we would expect: As noise reduction is increased, noise decreases at the expense of fine detail at higher ISOs. The combination of shooting high ISO images with NR turned down to the "Disable" setting and using a good noise-filtering program after the fact can produce very clean images with lots of fine detail in them. Consider starting from RAW files if you want total control over the noise versus detail trade-off.

RAW Files

Canon T3 High ISO RAW Image Quality

We often convert our Still Life RAW files with dcraw, an excellent freeware raw converter. dcraw usually offers timely support for the latest cameras, but more importantly, it does not apply any noise-reduction, sharpening or other corrections such as geometric distortion correction to the output files. (We found that some other RAW converters still apply limited noise-reduction when their NR settings are set to zero, and they often also apply other corrections depending on the make and model of the camera). There will always be differences between RAW converters, in terms of the sort of demosaicing algorithms they use (the processes by which they convert the separate Red, Green, and Blue data sets to an array of full-color RGB pixels), but dcraw seems to use a fairly generic algorithm that delivers good sharpness with relatively few artifacts, and can be counted on to not apply any noise reduction if you don't want it to.

Below are crops from Canon T3 high ISO RAW files compared to RAW files from other entry-level SLRs from Nikon, Pentax, and Sony.

High ISO Image Quality Canon T3 vs Nikon D3100, Pentax K-r, and Sony A560 RAW Comparison RAW files converted with dcraw, no NR, no sharpening Simulated Daylight
	Canon T3	Nikon D3100	Pentax K-r	Sony A560
I S O 8 0 0
	Canon T3	Nikon D3100	Pentax K-r	Sony A560
I S 0 1 6 0 0
	Canon T3	Nikon D3100	Pentax K-r	Sony A560
I S O 3 2 0 0
	Canon T3	Nikon D3100	Pentax K-r	Sony A560
I S O 6 4 0 0
	Canon T3	Nikon D3100	Pentax K-r	Sony A560
I S O 1 2 8 0 0	N/A ISO 12,800 not supported
	N/A ISO 12,800 not supported
	N/A ISO 12,800 not supported

Here, we can that the 12-megapixel Canon T3 closely matched the 14-megapixel Nikon D3100's noise performance, though the Nikon showed less noise in the red leaf fabric. The 12-megapixel Pentax K-r produced the cleanest RAW files of the group, but as you can see by the blurring at ISO 3,200 and above, the K-r applies noise reduction at high ISOs which is something we'd rather not see in RAW files. (When working from RAW files, users typically will want all available information in a image, which is why perceptual noise reduction applied to RAW files is generally frowned upon.) The 14-megapixel Sony A560 produced RAW files with the most noise in this group. The story is similar with the Sony A290 and A390 (not shown), which use an older CCD sensor design versus the A560's CMOS sensor. They produced even higher levels of noise.

Menus

Canon T3 Modes and Menus

The Mode dial on the right side of the Canon T3's top panel lets you select various exposure modes, and most options are the same as on the earlier Rebel XS model, although the order has been changed slightly, and there are two additions: Creative Auto, and Movie. Canon divides the dial into "Creative" and "Basic" zones. The Creative zone includes settings for Program Auto-Exposure, Shutter Priority AE (Tv), Aperture Priority AE (Av), full Manual exposure, and Automatic Depth-of-Field AE. The Basic range includes the Full Auto, Flash Off, and Creative Auto modes, and the five Scene modes in what Canon refers to as the "Image" zone Finally, there's one Mode dial position that's not considered part of either the Basic or Creative zones: the Movie mode.

Here's a description of each of the shooting modes:

Program AE: This is the first mode in the Creative Zone of the Mode dial. Using Program AE works, the camera selects both aperture and shutter speed (from 1/4,000 to 30 seconds) are automatically selected by the camera, but you can bias the exposure to larger apertures and faster shutter speeds (or vice versa) by turning the Main dial. This function, known as Program Shift, will change the combination of aperture and shutter speed so as to maintain the same exposure value, but with a different combination of aperture/shutter speed. While the overall exposure is controlled automatically, Program AE mode allows quite a range of functions such as white balance, focus servo mode, ISO sensitivity, exposure compensation / bracketing and the like to be accessed, unlike the full Auto modes.

Shutter-Priority AE: This mode allows you to manually set the shutter speed anywhere from 1/4,000 to 30 seconds, while the camera chooses the best corresponding aperture setting. You have control over all other exposure variables.

Aperture-Priority AE: The opposite of Shutter-Priority mode, Aperture-Priority AE allows you to set the lens aperture (with available apertures depending on the lens in use), while the camera selects the most appropriate shutter speed. Again, you have control over all other exposure variables.

Manual Exposure: This mode provides the same range of exposure control as the other Creative Zone exposure modes (except for exposure compensation), but lets you control both shutter speed (from 1/4,000 to 30 seconds) and lens aperture independently. A display in the viewfinder reports whether the camera thinks your settings will result in under, over, or correctly exposed photos. Manual exposure mode also provides access to the T3's bulb shutter function, which keeps the shutter open for as long as the shutter release button is held down. Bulb exposures are best controlled with an external remote release, to prevent camera shake.

Automatic Depth of Field AE: This is the final mode in the Creative Zone, and is meant for taking pictures of large groups of people, landscapes with foreground detail, or any subject with elements of interest at varying distances from the camera. This mode puts the camera in control of both the shutter speed and aperture values, but you can adjust the other exposure variables. (If the lens focus mode is set to manual, A-DEP mode acts similarly to Program AE, but without the Program Shift function.) When shooting in Automatic Depth of Field AE, the camera sets both the lens aperture and focus distance to achieve a sharp focus over a wide depth of field. It uses the autofocus system to measure the distance to the subjects covered by each of the nine autofocus zones, and then attempts to set the focusing distance and lens aperture so as to render all subject areas in sharp focus. Areas that should be in focus in the final image are indicated with a red AF point, and if a focus lock can't be achieved, the shutter release won't fire.

Full Automatic Mode: The first mode in the Canon T3's Basic Zone, Full Automatic is indicated on the Mode dial by a green rectangular outline. In this mode, the camera makes all exposure decisions with the exception of image quality. Autofocus mode is set to AI Focus. Drive mode choices are Single Shot, 10-second Self-timer, and Continuous Self-timer. ISO is set to Auto with High ISO Noise Reduction enabled, the white balance mode is set to Auto, and the metering mode is set to Evaluative. The flash pops up and fires automatically if needed.

Flash Off Mode: Flash Off mode disables both the internal flash head and any external flash unit connected. Focus is set to AI Focus mode, the AF assist lamp disabled, drive mode choices are Single or 10-second Self-timer, or Continuous Self-timer, and metering is set to Evaluative. The camera controls ISO sensitivity and white balance automatically, as well.

Creative Auto Mode: Canon has added a variation of its Creative Auto (or "CA") mode to the T3, making it available even in its entry-level model for the first time. We saw Creative Auto first on the 50D, and it made its Rebel-series debut in the T1i. The CA mode is something of a cross between the Program and Full Automatic modes. When set to CA mode, the Canon T3 allows the user to select from a subset of the flash and drive modes. You can also choose from nine Ambience styles, with user-friendly names such as "Vivid", "Intense, or "Monochrome". All but the Standard and Monochrome ambience styles have a three-step control over the strength of the effect, while Monochrome allows either black and white, blue-tinted, or sepia-tinted images.

Unlike in earlier models with a CA mode, exposure compensation is not available in the T3's CA mode. Program Shift is available, but with a friendlier name -- "Background: Blurred <-> Sharp". You can also select between Raw, JPEG (including several image size/quality options), or Raw + Large JPEG file formats. Through the menu system, you can also enable or disable Peripheral Illumination Correction. The rest of the more complex features remain under automatic control. The Canon T3's rear-panel LCD display offers text help for each setting while in CA mode, for example prompting the user as to whether they want to blur the background with program shift, etc.

Portrait Mode: The first mode in a subset of Basic Zone modes dubbed the Image Zone, this mode uses a large aperture setting to decrease the depth of field, which blurs the background to emphasize the subject. ISO and white balance are set to Auto, metering to Evaluative, and AF mode to One Shot. You can, however, coax the look of images in your desired direction using ambience and lighting / scene type selections. Drive mode choices are Continuous Shooting, 10-second Self-timer, and Continuous Self-timer, and the flash pops up and fires automatically as necessary.

Landscape Mode: Landscape mode combines slower shutter speeds with smaller aperture settings to increase the depth of field when shooting broad vistas and sweeping landscapes. This mode is also good for night scenes without people in them. The Canon T3's built-in flash is automatically disabled, even if it's already raised. Because this mode uses slower shutter speeds, a tripod may be needed in less-bright lighting conditions. Focus is set to one shot, the AF assist lamp is disabled, and drive mode choices are Single, 10-second Self-timer, and Continuous Self-timer. Metering is again set to Evaluative, both white balance and ISO are set to Auto, and ambience / lighting selections are available.

Close-up Mode (Macro Mode): Turning the Mode dial to the macro flower symbol sets the camera for capturing smaller subjects such as flowers, jewelry, and other small details. The autofocus mode is automatically adjusted to One Shot, the drive mode choices are Single, 10-second Self-timer, and Continuous Self-timer, and the metering mode is set to Evaluative. ISO and white balance are set to Auto, and ambience / lighting selections are available. Close-up mode takes advantage of the current lens' minimum focal distance. However, an EOS-dedicated macro lens and the Macro Ring Lite MR-14EX are recommended for better close-up photography. Note that unlike the macro mode on most consumer digital cameras, Macro mode on the Canon T3 has no effect on lens focusing range, as that parameter is entirely determined by the lens being used.

Sports Mode: This mode uses a faster shutter speed to capture fast-moving subjects. The autofocus mode is automatically set to AI Servo. Drive mode choices are Continuous Shooting, 10-second Self-timer, and Continuous Self-timer, white balance and ISO are set to Auto, and metering mode is set to Evaluative. Ambience / lighting selections are available. The onboard flash isn't available in this mode (since it can't cycle fast enough to keep up with the continuous exposure mode).

Night Portrait Mode: This mode is for taking pictures of people at sunset or at night, letting the flash illuminate the subject, while the longer exposure provides a brighter view of the surroundings. The autofocus mode is automatically set to One Shot. Drive mode choices are Single, 10-second Self-timer, and Continuous Self-timer, white balance is Auto, and metering mode is set to Evaluative. Ambience selections are available, but not lighting / scene type selections, since they're implied in the choice of a night mode. Since slower shutter speeds will be used, a tripod is recommended to prevent movement from the camera. The built-in flash is automatically enabled and synched with the slower shutter speed, so subjects will need to remain still for a few moments after the flash fires to avoid ghost-like after-images. ISO is automatically adjusted by the camera. (For night exposures without the flash, Canon recommends shooting in Landscape mode.)

Movie Mode: When Movie mode is selected, the camera's mirror and shutter open, as in Live View mode, but the Live View / Movie button on the camera's back functions as the start/stop button for movie recording. The Canon T3 can perform single autofocus operations during movie operation, albeit with focusing noise very clearly picked up on the audio track using the EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II kit lens. (Like many digital SLR video modes, continuous autofocus isn't available in Movie mode, though.) Unlike some cameras, the T3's movie mode doesn't allow fully manual control over aperture, shutter speed, or ISO sensitivity, although exposure compensation and lock are available. The T3's internal microphone is monaural, and there's no support for external microphones. Movie recording capacity varies based on the size of memory card you're using, but is in all cases limited to a maximum of 29 minutes and 59 seconds. (That's thanks to European tax regulations, but as it turns out, the 4GB limit on video file sizes will in practice restrict you to shorter movie clips anyway.)

Playback Mode: This mode is entered by pressing the Play button on the back panel. Playback mode lets you erase images, protect them, or set them up for printing on DPOF compatible devices. You can also view images in an index display, enlarge images to 10x, view a slide show of all captured images, or rotate an image. The Info button activates an information display, which reports the exposure settings for the image and graphs the exposure values on a small histogram.

Canon EOS T3 Menu Details

Below are T3 menu options and their descriptions. The precise selection of menus and their available options varies depending on the camera's operating mode. Click on the image to see a matrix of screen shots showing the full menu layout.

Movie Menu 1:

Movie Menu 2:

Movie Menu 3:

Record Menu 1:

Record Menu 2:

Record Menu 3:

Record Menu 4:

Playback Menu 1:

Playback Menu 2:

Setup Menu 1:

Setup Menu 2:

Setup Menu 3:

Custom Functions Menu:

My Menu:

Comparison

EOS 1100D / Rebel T3 vs other Canon consumer SLRs

The chart below compares the Rebel T3 with other recent Canon cameras. What we've done below is presented something of a hybrid comparison between these three models. A red cell means that a given camera performs below the other two, a green cell means that it performs better than the other two, and a yellow cell means it falls between the other two. In cases where two cameras share a capability, both cells will be colored green or red as appropriate.

Pricing and availability

The Canon Rebel T3 shipped from early March 2011, priced at US$599.99 with the 18-55mm IS II kit lens.