Canon EOS 2000D
£469/$549 with EF-S 18-55mm IS II lens Decent image capture at an affordable price, but a couple of crucial flaws spoil the party
There is a new budget DSLR is in town – but does it offer value for money?
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The EOS 2000D (known as the Rebel T7 in North America) is essentially a 24-megapixel replacement for Canon’s previous cheapest camera, the EOS 1300D (Rebel T6). It’s also one step up from Canon’s new ultra-cheap EOS 4000D, reviewed last issue.
Apart from the extra six million pixels, though, not much has changed compared with the 1300D. The EOS 2000D’s specs are still pretty basic, featuring Canon’s long-running entry-level nine-point autofocus system, an ISO range of 100-6,400 (expandable to ISO 12,800), continuous shooting at three frames per second and a non-articulating rear screen. You do get Wi-Fi and NFC connectivity, though, for linking wirelessly with other devices. This is all very basic by today’s standards, although for beginners on a budget, the 2000D still offers a solid start in ‘serious’ photography.
Build and handling
The external controls are basic but effective. The EOS 2000D looks
simple enough not to intimidate novices, but has enough controls for more experienced users to start experimenting with settings, without having to go searching through menus, with buttons on the back for white balance, ISO, drive mode and autofocus settings.
The autofocus is a disappointment. It’s not the fact that you only get nine AF points for viewfinder photography – that’s probably fine for this camera’s intended audience – but that the sensor doesn’t use Canon’s Hybrid CMOS AF or Dual Pixel CMOS AF autofocus technology. This means that focusing in Live View is a slow and jerky business, especially since the 2000D’s kit lens does not use Canon’s quieter (and presumably more expensive) USM or STM autofocus actuators.
Performance
The EOS 2000D’s image quality is very good for a camera at this price, and it’s worth paying a little extra to get this camera’s 24MP sensor rather than the 18MP sensor in the cheaper EOS 4000D. Canon has cut quite a few corners in the hardware to get the EOS 2000D to this price, but it doesn’t show in the images.
However, the sluggish autofocus and the poor quality of the bundled kit lens do detract from a camera that’s otherwise quite nice to handle. To get something with a better lens and better specifications, though, means paying extra to move further up the Canon range, leaving buyers with a tricky question to answer: the EOS 2000D is certainly cheap enough, but is it good enough?