Having last year launched its first mirrorless-system camera – the tiny EOS M – Canon seems determined to shrink its DSLR range, too, starting with the EOS 100D. This, Canon claims, is the smallest DSLR on the market.
Such claims sound specious when you consider that adding even the stock 18-55mm lens to the EOS 100D eliminates almost all the benefit of shaving a few extra millimetres off the body – you certainly aren’t going to be slipping this DSLR into a jacket pocket like you could with the EOS M. That said, Canon has made impressively few compromises to get the 100D down to size, and it’s much lighter than Canon’s other new consumer DSLR, the 700D, weighing 407g (body only) compared to the 700D’s 580g. Even the supplied camera strap is thinner than normal.
The 100D adopts the touchscreen that has now become standard on Canon’s consumer DSLRs, although unlike the 700D, the 3in display on the 100D isn’t articulated. The ability to quickly adjust settings on the touchscreen compensates for the buttons that are sacrificed to get the body down to size. There are no dedicated D-pad buttons to adjust white balance, shooting mode, or autofocus for example: the downsized D-pad merely acts as a cursor controller. You do get a dedicated ISO button alongside the jog wheel at the top of the camera, though, and the number of options on the mode wheel on top has been sensibly pared back from recent Canon models.
At first we feared the shrunken body would make the 100D awkward to hold, but that isn’t the case: the rubberised front grip protrudes just far enough so you can get a firm grip on it with a forefinger resting naturally on the recessed shutter button. There’s also enough space for the right thumb to rest on the rubberised grip on the rear without accidentally triggering the surrounding buttons. Only those with basketball-player-sized hands need worry the 100D’s too small.
The 100D shares much the same specifications as the pricier 700D. Both use Canon’s DIGIC 5 processor, and an 18-megapixel CMOS sensor. The autofocus system is different: only the 100D’s central autofocus point is of the more sensitive cross-type, although in real-world use we found very little difference in autofocus performance between that and the 700D, which has nine cross-type points. Only in dim situations did the autofocus start to wander. The 100D has a maximum burst speed of 4fps, a little slower than the 5fps of the 700D.
Picture quality is up to Canon’s normal high standards. Images deliver plenty of detail, even with the 18-55mm kit lens, and we were particularly impressed by how the 100D handled difficult exposures with areas of bright sunlight and shade, almost always managing to deliver a balanced exposure. Even at the maximum ISO of 6400, images aren’t battered by noise and can be easily rescued with a little judicious adjustment in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, making the 100D well suited to flash-free party or wedding snaps. That’s just as well, because the built-in flash is weak, and the 100D doesn’t have the integrated Speedlite transmitter that’s found on the 700D.
Video performance – recorded at Full HD at up to 25fps – is decent, too. The ability to tap the screen to focus while shooting in live view is handy, and although video autofocus is still horribly slow, taking a second or two to lock onto a new subject, the AF motor on the new 18-55mm kit lens is now all but silent. We’re also fans of the Miniature Effect shooting mode, which creates a fake tilt-shift effect, then accelerates the captured footage to either 5x, 10x or 20x speed to create a time-lapse movie. It’s brilliant for capturing busy crowd scenes, with people bustling around like ants.
There are novelty shooting modes for stills photography, too, including presets for shooting fast-moving kids, and another for making food photography look more vibrant by cranking up the saturation. There’s also the option to apply creative filters after the event, replicating the Instagram-style filters you generally associate with smartphone photography: effects such as fisheye, watercolour and soft focus. The filters are hit and miss, but give those who don’t want to spend hours fiddling with photos in Picasa or Photoshop something to play with.
Overall, we’re won over by the EOS 100D. The smaller body may have few practical benefits, but little has been sacrificed to achieve this compact shape, and the weight saving is significant if you’re merely throwing the DSLR into a bag with other stuff, instead of carrying around a full camera bag. More serious photographers will probably be better off spending the extra on the 700D for the fold-out screen and slightly improved specification, but for those who just want a DSLR to pick up and go, the 100D is a tempting proposition.
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