Canon EOS 250D
The addition of 4K video at this price point makes this a new breed of beginner-friendly DSLR
The beginner-friendly DSLR with 4K video
Canon’s DSLR range seems to be going through a phase of consolidation rather than technological advancement – which is a polite way of saying that it hasn’t done anything especially new for a while. The new EOS 250D (branded the Rebel SL3 in the US) fits in that category, with Canon using technologies we’ve already seen in other Canon cameras to refresh the existing EOS 200D (Rebel SL2).
Beginners won’t care about any of this. They’ll only care about what this camera costs, what it does and whether it’s right for them. And regardless of what you might think about Canon’s technical progress (or lack of it), it’s judged the EOS 250D pretty much to perfection.
Beginners and new DSLR users don’t need the latest tech: they just need an affordable camera that’s easy to use and delivers the goods – and Canon has pretty much got that nailed.
Features
Despite the debate around DSLRs versus mirrorless cameras, the DSLR design still has a lot going for it. DSLRs are chunkier and easier to grip than most beginner-orientated mirrorless cameras; they have clear optical viewfinders, which many still prefer over electronic versions; and the batteries last a lot longer, because they’re not continually powering a digital display.
Canon is going for the same entry‑level market as mirrorless models, though, with a combination of point-and-shoot simplicity,
a Guided UI (user interface) to walk new users through the basics of photography, and a Creative Assist mode for more adventurous photographic effects. Underlying all this is all the manual control you’d expect in a DSLR, so that when you’re ready to move on to more manual techniques, the EOS 250D can stay right with you.
Inside is a 24.1-megapixel APS-C sensor of a type we see in lots of Canon cameras: it’s similar in size and resolution to those used by the likes of Nikon’s D5600, Sony’s A6400 and even Canon’s own mirrorless EOS M50. Here, it’s matched up with Canon’s latest Digic 8 processor, which gives the new camera better image quality at high ISO settings than the older EOS 200D, more advanced Live View autofocus and – for the first time in a DSLR at this price – 4K video.
If you’re using the viewfinder, the Canon offers a basic but effective nine-point autofocus system. That’s not much by today’s standards, but the focus points are spread evenly across more than half the width and height of the frame, and are clearly marked. It’s
a simple setup for novices to get used to autofocus techniques.
The Live View autofocus is much more sophisticated. It uses Canon’s own Dual Pixel sensor technology, which it’s faster than the conventional ‘contrast AF’ used by many sensors in Live View. In the 250D, there are no fewer than 3,975 user-selectable AF
points covering up to 88% of the frame width and 100% of the height, depending on the lens used.
Build and handling
The EOS 250D is very small for a DSLR, especially in width and weight. The body does have a slightly plasticky feel, but that’s offset by
high-quality knobs and dials – especially the main mode dial and power on/off switch.
The vari-angle screen on the back is excellent. You can use its touch control to set the focus point and change camera settings. It’s sharp and colourful, and the touch response is first-rate. While many people are commenting on how mirrorless cameras are becoming better than DSLRs, Canon has designed a DSLR to match mirrorless cameras at the very thing they’re designed to do best: Live View shooting.
Performance
If you were shooting sports and tracking fast-moving objects, you’d need a more sophisticated autofocus system than the 250D has: although it can keep up a reasonable five frames per second continuous shooting speed, it’s not that kind of camera. For everyday photography, the autofocus system is fine. It’s even better in Live View mode, where Canon’s latest Dual Pixel CMOS AF system feels faster.
4K video is a big selling point on this camera, but there’s a significant ‘crop factor’ in 4K mode, which means your lens’s angle of view effectively becomes narrower. The other limitation is that you can no longer use the Spot AF and Zone AF modes, but the Subject Tracking and Single Point AF are arguably all you need anyway, and the camera does a great job of following subjects around the frame once the autofocus has locked on.