Canon eos 100d
For those who feel that size really does matter, the small-but-perfectly-formed 100D is refreshingly diminutive
Dispelling the myth that SLR cameras are big and bulky by nature, the 100D is something of a downsized delight. It’s the outright smallest digital SLR that Canon has ever made, and shaves about 10mm off the height and depth of other cameras on test, and about 15mm off the width. Weighing in at just over 400g, it’s also only about two-thirds as heavy as the 700D, which was simultaneously launched back in early 2013. Like the 1300D, beginner-friendly scene modes include a ‘food’ setting, while other options are more far-reaching, with additional modes for candlelight, kids and HDR (High Dynamic Range), as also featured in the 750D. The HDR setting, available in all the cameras on test apart from the 1300D, is particularly useful. This enables automatic blending of multiple, exposure bracketed shots of very high-contrast scenes, to produce a single image that retains excellent detail in both very bright highlights and dark shadows.
Build and handling
Despite being an older design than the 1300D, the 100D has a latergeneration DIGIC 5 processor and a more advanced autofocus system, in which the central cross-type point (able to resolve detail in both the vertical and horizontal planes) offers greater accuracy when using lenses that have an aperture rating of f/2.8 or wider. More crucially for movie capture, the ‘Hybrid CMOS AF II’ system enables continuous autofocus to track moving objects, and it’s much quicker and more effective when shooting stills in Live View mode.
While the reduction in size and weight might be good news for
travel photography, there’s an adverse effect on handling. The control buttons at the rear feel a quite cramped, and the usual dual functions of the cross keys (four-way pad) are lacking. There’s therefore greater dependence on the Quick menu system, but at least the touchscreen facilities make this easier to use than in the 1300D. The relatively small and shallow hand grip disappointingly feels much less than a handful.
Performance
With essentially the same image sensor and processor as the 700D, there’s practically no difference in image quality between these two cameras. We’ll discuss this further in the following review. However, unlike in the 700D, only the central AF point is cross-type, rather than all nine points, so it can be best to stick to the central point for greatest accuracy.
For continuous shooting, the 100D falls between the 1300D and 700D, with a maximum burst rate of 4fps. Although it’s one frame per second faster than the 1300D, the 100D can only keep firing for up to 28 JPEG images, compared with the 1300D’s 1110 shots. This is despite adding UHS-1 (Ultra High Speed) memory card compatibility, which is featured in all the other cameras on test except the 1300D.