Canon EOS 350D / Digital Rebel XT 8.0 MP Digital SLR Camera - Black (Kit w/ EF-S II 18-55mm Lens)

I am writing this review on 350D now, in 2009, when 500Ds are no longer considered new. It seems not to make any sense, to recommend anyone to invest in a camera, possibly 2nd hand, released 4 years ago. However, having played with each of these cameras from 350D to 500D, I insist that I should write something to defend the value of this old model, even among its newer and "cooler" brothers.

The 350D was the very last camera in the consumer series of DSLR which still contains a hint of taste from the Rebel film series. Starting from the 400D, the monochrome LCD display above the review monitor was taken away, one of the major thing that I disliked most about the new models. The LCD shows in very simple letters the shooting conditions you have chosen, and a button right next to it lights up the orange backlight. It is something that is simple, straight-forward and easy to understand. The whole process of taking a picture involves absolutely no fanciness, its clean, fast and straight to the point. When you cannot afford to miss a moment, this truly matters.

It was then on the 400D they started displaying all the numbers on the colour LCD screen, introduced a beautiful animation everytime you clean the sensor, added detectors to shut off the LCD when you look through the viewfinder etc etc. I heard numerous reports that the 400D dries up the battery faster than the previous models, and even though I didn't verify this statement, I would not be surprised if its true. The whole point of a camera had twisted a bit.

The story goes on with later models enlarging the LCD screen continuously until they ran out of spaces to put the buttons in, and randomly squash them into somewhere else. Also Live-View becomes a "must", completely forgetting what a DSLR is designed for; making movie modes as a feature of the camera, while you have camcorders for this purpose.



I am not saying that any of these features are poor or not worthy to have, but you can see how the basic functionality of the camera is being compromised to make way for other features which a real photographer would not care about.

I certainly appreciate that a lot of people buy DSLRs for daily use, as a High Quality point and shoot camera, but for those who really seeks to progress to a higher level in photography, they are just paying all the extra to get that one feature they wanted. A Victorinox is good in every camper's pocket, but when what you really need is just a knife, then buying (literally just) a knife would possibly do the job best for you.


One may argue that at the time of release, the price of a 300D is not very different from that of a 500D, which is quite true, with 300D being more expensive. Yet we are currently looking into a world of 2009, in which 350D costs you 200 quid only, half of what a 500D would cost. You could say then, the extra cost you paid is for that bit of unnecessary extra features and the meaningless race of mega-pixel quantities.
And at the end of the day its more about the lens rather than the camera body. If you could spare 200 quid for lenses, I am sure you get more fun than a HD movie mode.


I had a 350D since 2005, and it was lately when I realized I need another camera to reduce lens swapping time. Naturally you would look into all these options out there - from 1000D to 50D - but I rested on the same old 350D finally. Not just because I know this camera by heart, its also because this camera in turn knows a photographer by heart.

I purchased this camera to upgrade from a cybershot 4.1 megapixel as I wanted to improve the quality of plant portrait photographs. I am very much an amateur, try to avoid complicated processes and just enjoy trying to take that rather interesting or special photo. Though a slightly lesser model than the Rebel XT/ EOS400D this buy was within my price range, has proven to be simple to use in auto settings and I am slowly but surely getting to grips with the more complex manual setting processes. In addition to the main user guide there is a very basic simplified fold up pocket version. To date I have taken about 120 photos some forty of which are plant portraits which have definitely much improved detail definition than my cybershot. For anyone wanting to progress to SLR from the simple small digital camera, the EOS 350D is not a bad starting point. I am sure there are other brands and models which experts would recommend but as a non expert I am certainly enjoying using my new acquisition and have no hesitation in commending it to other folk who may be looking to upgrade to SLR to improve their enjoyment of photography.

Key Positives: Ease of use 8 / 10; quality and feel of camera 8 / 10; quality of results by first time amateur 8 / 10; Overall comfort / confidence 8 / 10
zone. Ease of transfer to computer and /or printer 10 / 10. Price on the high street was out of my price range, at e bay,(there were at the time of my purchase about 8 sellers), I found a good auction price with very reasonable postage and packing and a very quick turn round.

Key Negatives: Getting used to the need to plan photographic outings ( no longer slip a cybershot into the jacket pocket for those possible photo shoots): Though the instruction manual is well put together it is small 15cms x 10.5cms and is therefore small print for those with not so good eyesight.

I bought one to upgrade from an Olympus E-20P and finepix 4900Z a while back...no it didn't really. Bought it new from High St. retailer. I've used just about every SLR/TLR over the years including the A1, original EOS (both bought new)and sadly, like these other two, I only owned the 350D for about 3 weeks...no I really don't like Canon...sorry (wish I did I've spent a fortune.)Why? I'm a big guy and it's small, cramped, plastic feeling with a dim and unpleasant viewfinder (always feel fine in the shop for some reason?). The pictures (and I did many tripod comparisons)are soft and not really too sharp, my E550 (6MP) is much better. With an old Nikkor-H lens fitted on an adapter ring (bought on ebay)I got much better images. Needed to clean the sensor more than I would have liked (why it attracts dust so I don't know. Other features while good don't make up for these shortfalls in my opinion. Perhaps it's just that Canon has it's lens design US biased (atmosphere wise)while Nikon is more Leica (German/Europe.) Now I use a Finepix S2 and have for a while now.
Whatever, I strongly recommend you hold/use one before you buy and do compare it against other brands in your hand first. As an ex-pro and photography lecturer of many years I think I'm qualified in my opinion. They obviously suit many, many people...but certainly not all.

camera dead easy to use and good it takes all canon non digital lenses.
however what u see through view finder and what you get on the picture is not the same! I have cut off a few heads ubtil I got the hang of it. It is worst with the non dig lenses.only other issue for me is the screen on the back of camera is small but I had read that was a downside with this camera before I bought it.Overall it takes fantastic photos and great value for the money!

I have been keeping an eye on digital SLRs for about 2 years and reviews have shown the Canon EOS to be up there with the best. It also seemed like these cameras were good for amateur enthusiasts, which I am.
I couldn't ask for better. The camera is easy to use and has a reasonably accessible manual to explore, when I have time, but in the meantime, the automatic settings are producing amazing quality shots and some accidental surprises.
To get the most out of this I will probably enroll on a digital photography course, as I think the camera has far more potential than the operator at present.
Those with more knowledge will have more to say in their reviews but if you don't know much about photography and want to be able to take photographs which will astound and amaze friends with digital 'snap' cameras, go for this.
The package I got through ebay included a bag and lens cleaning kit, a 4gb SD card and card reader, although the card reader isn't needed if you link the camera directly to the pc.
Software is easy to load and use (I have Windows XP) but haven't played around with image editing, so can't comment on that.
My only regret is wishing I had more time to explore its potential, as I know it can do so much more, but the digital photography course should help with that.