EOS 100D – in the hand

When I saw the specifications and diagrams showing the size of the EOS 100D I had it in my mind that it was too small, certainly for my hands. Today I had the chance to touch and try the camera and my fears are largely unfounded. The mixture of textures and feel of the rubber grip on the front and rear of the body makes it feel comfortable; in fact I really love it.

EOS 100D with EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM in my hands

Having been used to the size and feel of my EOS 5D Mark III, and often feeling the EOS 6D a little cramped or less instinctive in feel the EOS 100D was surprisingly good. Also the new Hybrid CMOS AF II system covers almost 80% of the image area, you can pretty much touch the rear LCD touch screen with the camera in Live View mode and take pictures. The camera focuses absolutely silently with the new EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM kit lens. The lens also feels a much higher quality lens – past 18-55mm kit lenses never felt this good or of such high material or manufacturing quality.

EOS 100D with EF 50mm f1.2L USM

Keen to see how small the camera could be made to look I put on the EF 50mm f/1.2L USM lens, with it fitted the front of the camera is lifted off the table! However even with the weight on the front it still felt good in the hand and focussed swiftly.

EOS 100D in the hand – rear view

From the rear the camera LCD is close to the base of my thumb, but not obscuring the LCD at all. Those corner frames give you an idea as to how far out the Hybrid AF II system is active, much more than that found on the EOS 650D.

EOS 100D with EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM and Speedlite 600EX-RT

It wouldn’t be right if I didn’t try a Speedlite on the camera, so here it is with the Speedlite 600EX-RT on the hotshoe. It’s a bit of a handful and actually balances better with the EF 50mm f/1.2L USM lens and Speedlite. However the lightweight Speedlite Transmitter ST-E3-RT is an ideal way to control off-camera flash with this little camera.

The EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM lens also has a non-rotating front element, filters don’t rotate as the lens focusses – particularly important for graduated and polarising filters.

EOS 100D photographing EOS 700D

Since I had the EOS 100D and the EOS 700D to hand I took this picture of the EOS 100D taking a picture of the EOS 700D fitted with the new EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM lens.

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EOS 700D – more than I expected

Having had the chance to study the details of the EOS 700D specifications it’s clearly more than a re-badged EOS 650D. For a really useful start the 9-point AF system has a cross-type AF point at each point – more accurate AF even if you use the outer points.

Update 26-March-2013: Thanks to Gordon from www.cameralabs.com for picking me up on some errors in my airport terminal created post. Actually the EOS 650D already had the full set of cross-type AF points that I had noted as new. Among the few updates – not much left to add to the excellent EOS 650D in my view – thee’s been a few design and feature updates. The new mode dial now rotates all the way round like the one on the EOS 6D, plus the Creative Filters effects can be previewed when shooting with the Live View mode.

EOS 700D with EF 40mm f/2.8 STM

The EOS 700D will take some more study to fully explore it’s capabilities, however it does provide the integrated Speedlite transmitter, which the EOS 100D doesn’t. You can trigger a slave Speedlite just by popping up the built-in flash and selecting EasyWireless flash from the camera menu. Better photographs with interesting light are made by taking Speedlites off-camera!

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