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Canon XTi at a glance
Front: Canon XTi with 18-55mm kit lens at Adorama attached.
Back: Overhauled design takes away extra B&W LCD to make room for much larger 2.5-inch color monitor.
Top: Hot shoe for external flash, creative and basic modes on dial, control wheel behind shutter release.
Key features
- 10.1 megapixel sensor
- 1.6X 35mm equivalent
- Lightweight and small
- 9 custom functions
- E-TTL II flash
- Flash exposure compensation
- Histogram in image review
- NB-2LH battery is small, light
- Depth of field preview
- 35-zone TTL full aperture metering
- 3 frames per sec drive mode
- RAW+JPEG
- Saturation, sharpness, contrast controls via "Picture Style" feature
User profile
- Hobbyist moving from film to digital
- Point-and-shooter considering a first DSLR
- Canon 20D or 30D owner looking for a backup body
- First-generation Digital Rebel owner looking for a resolution boost
Positives
- Lots of features for advanced photographers
- Great price
- 10MP is plenty of resolution
- Big, sharp LCD monitor
- Small and light for an SLR
Negatives
- Not built for heavy use in extreme climates
- No inexpensive image stabilized lens, no built-in stabilization
- No PC outlet for accessory flash
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Field report
Canon has replaced the 8MP sensor of the XTi's predecessor, the highly-regarded XT (guided tour of the Rebel XT) with a 10MP sensor, and upgraded the LCD finder from 1.8 inches to a now-standard 2.5-incher. The black-and-white LCD info panel is gone to make room for the larger color LCD--a wise move. Otherwise, with a few more minor tweaks, the XT and XTi are virtually the same...and that's good.
In the field, the XTi handles well, with the convenient 4-way toggle buttons and forefinger control wheel offering intuitive navigation for the camera's key functions. The viewfinder is bright for a camera in this class, and provides information such as location of focus points in a clear, easy-to-read format. The XTi has a polycarbonate body that will hold up well under normal use, but it's not meant for extreme weather or getting knocked around. (If you need a more durable camera, you'll need to pay more. Consider the Canon EOS 30D or EOS 5D.)
The camera is loaded with useful controls and features, as you'll see in the guided tour, but lacks built-in image stabilization, something that's becoming a competitive edge for Sony's A100 Alpha and the Pentax K10D and K100D. At the least, Canon would be well-advised to roll out an updated kit lens, and perhaps an inexpensive tele zoom, with stabilization built in.
Even without stabilization, however, the XTi is a winner thanks to the extensive feature set, high resolution, well-controlled noise even at ISO 800, and controls that are the result of three generations of fine-tuning. That's the XTi's competitive edge.
Basic Features: Outside controls
First-time DSLR users can start with the controls on the right side of the camera's top plate. Turn the camera on with the on/off switch adjacent to the main control dial. Begin shooting immediately (once you've charged and installed the battery and inserted the Compact Flash card, of course) by simply turning the control dial to "P" (Program mode)--the camera will deliver an accurate exposure in most cases.
The control dial is divided into a "Creative Zone," designed for experienced photographers who know their way around more advanced cameras, and "Basic Zone," which automatically sets optimum exposures for specific types of subjects, indicated by icons. Beginners should start with the Basic Zone.
Basic Zone
The Basic Zone begins with a green rectangle--simple auto exposure. This setting locks any exposure overrides, and does everything itself. It will deliver perfectly acceptable images and keep you from accidentally changing the camera's settings before you know how to get out of them. If you're a beginner, you can choose this mode, and start shooting. (Come back soon and learn about the more advanced features that give you creative control. For now, just go out and have fun with your new camera!)
Continuing counterclockwise, the basic zone settings tell the camera to choose ideal settings for: portraits, landscapes, close-ups, sports, and portraits at night or in dark rooms, and with the flash disabled. These are similar to basic Scene settings found on most point-and-shoot cameras.
Creative Zone
A-DEP: Claimed by Canon to be a simplified way to control depth of field. It measures the nearest and farthest items that you want in focus. But it's tricky. You need to press the shutter release halfway while simultaneously pressing the depth-of-field preview button, which is on the left side, at the base of the lens mount. This is simple? There's an easier way to control depth-of-field--read the Av description for details.
M: Manual exposure. For those of us weaned on all-manual SLRs, this control should feel familiar. It lets you manually set aperture and shutter speed. Twirl the dial right behind the shutter release to change the shutter speed. Turn the same dial while pressing the AV (EV control) button to change the aperture. Check exposure accuracy in viewfinder or on LCD panel.
Av: Aperture Priority Auto exposure. Change the aperture by twirling the control dial. The camera will automatically set shutter speeds. Choose your aperture, focus, and then check depth by pressing the depth-of-field preview button, which is on the front left side of the camera. See? Wasn't that easy?
Tip: Use AV mode when you want to control depth of field.
Tv: Shutter Priority Auto exposure. Change the shutter speed by twirling the control dial.
Tip: Use Tv when capturing action or showing a sense of motion is more important than focus control.
P: Program Auto exposure: Basically the same as auto exposure, but it also lets you take advantage of all of the menu-driven camera functions, such as flash exposure compensation, image recording settings (RAW or JPEG), ISO speed settings, Color balance, metering modes, and sensor cleaning, to name just a few.
Back of camera controls
 In image preview modes, use the two buttons shown in the photo above left to zoom in and out when looking at an image. In shooting mode, the right button controls the active focus zones. The focus zones are in a cross formation, and you can select all of them or just one. So if you want to focus on something on the far right, just activate that focus zone. The left button, marked with an asterisk, is the autoexposure lock button. Aim at what you want exposed properly, press the button, recompose and shoot.
Tip: I prefer shooting with just the middle zone selected. I center what I want to focus on, press and hold the shutter release halfway down to focus, re-compose, and shoot.
The AV +/- button works with the control wheel (located right behind the shutter release). In Manual mode, you press the top button and turn the wheel to control aperture settings. In any Creative Zone mode except M, simply press it and turn the dial to set exposure compensation. This lightens or darkens the image.
The second button down controls the Drive--self-timer/remote control, single- and multi-shot (3 frames per second) mode. An icon in the LCD panel shows you which mode you're in. If you want to use remote control, you'll need the Remote Controller RC-1, which are an additional purchase. Right below this button is an LCD illumination button. Press it and you'll be able to read the information in the LCD info panel in low light.
When in any picture-taking mode except auto, the four-way, circular array of switches access: (clockwise from top) ISO speed setting (100-1600), autofocus mode, white balance setting, or metering mode (evaluative--the camera's default setting--or 9 percent spot, or center weighted).
In image preview mode, the right and left buttons scroll through images, and use all four buttons to scroll through magnified images; in Menu mode, use all four buttons to navigate through menu items. The "set" button in the center sets chosen settings.
Tip: Check focus by zooming in on your subject in preview mode, and use the arrow buttons to scroll around. If your subject looks blurry in the LCD screen at top magnification, it will likely look worse when printed, and you should re-shoot if possible.
In earlier versions of this camera, the modes accessed via the four-way buttons were also menu items, which was redundant. In this version the menu has been pared down, and you can only access ISO, AF, Metering and White Balance through these buttons.
 ISO: Choose the shown ISO speeds; note that the camera does not show you which ISO you've chosen unless you check this screen. Remember that you have a shortcut button that will access this information quickly.
 AF (Autofocus mode): One Shot is best for portraits and other still subjects; AI Servo AF is designed for capturing moving objects, especially those moving towards or away from your camera, using Predictive Autofocus. Predictive Autofocus follows a moving object and assumes that it will keep moving at the same speeds and changes focus to keep pace while you're shooting.
 WB (White Balance) lets you choose the appropriate color balance for the scene: Auto, Daylight (approx. 5200K), Shade (Approx. 7000K), Cloudy (Approx. 6000K), Tungsten (approx. 3200K), White fluorescent light (approx. 4000K), flash, and custom white balance.
 Metering: Lets you choose (from top) evaluative metering, the camera's default, which divides the entire image into 35 zones and automatically sets exposure; semi-spot metering, which meters the central 9 percent of the image; or center-weighted metering, which places the most emphasis (but not all) on the center area of the image when determining exposure.
Tip: The best mode for general shooting is evaluative metering, which will handle all but the trickiest light. Spot metering's great for photographing spotlit performers on a stage. To use spot metering on off-center subjects, first aim directly at the subject, press the shutter release halfway, hold and recompose, then shoot.
Finally, there's a tiny light to the right and at the bottom of the LCD monitor, which indicates when an image is being written to a CompactFlash card. When it's shining, you may not be able to take a photo.
| Preview and info screens on the LCD monitor |
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| Clockwise from top left: General info screen shows main camera settings at a glance; plain image preview; image preview with basic info; image preview with expanded info, including histogram. |
Above the LCD on the left side you'll find the Print/Share button. This button transfers images directly from the CF card to a computer via PictBridge, and lets you order prints and specify quantities and sizes from a photo lab using DPOF.
 The five control buttons to the left of the LCD screen are, from the top: Menu button (we'll look at menu items in detail shortly); Info, which brings up histograms and exposure information for images in preview mode, and details about current camera settings; Jump, which navigates quickly through stored pictures by date or by skipping forward or backward through preview images 10 or 100 at a time; Image Preview button, which accesses images stored on the CompactFlash card; and the Delete button.
Tip: Don't rely on what the image looks like in the camera's LCD screen to determine if your exposure is correct; viewing conditions and the monitor's intensity settings will affect what you see. Instead, use the Info button and check the histogram--one of the most powerful features on any digital camera. If you see a "mountain" in the center of the histogram, or the mountain is spread fairly evenly through the graph, your exposure is good. If it's bunched on either side of the screen, your exposure is either over- or underexposed and you should re-meter and re-shoot.
The left side of the camera has a rubber door that protects the connectivity outlets. From the top, these are: Video Out, for viewing images on a TV screen; a remote control terminal (you'll need to purchase the Remote Switch RS-60E3 to take advantage of this option); and a digital terminal, which tethers your camera to a computer or PictBridge-enabled printer via USB cable. (You will need to supply the USB cable, since one is not packaged with the EOS Rebel XTi.)
Tip: Downloading images directly from camera to computer may be convenient, but it's not especially fast. Consider buying a FireWire CompactFlash card reader--they are not very expensive, but can download a gigabyte's worth of image files in about a minute. USB transfers take longer.
 Finally, there are three more buttons on the left side of the camera: The flash button (press it to pop up the flash), the lens release button, and the handy depth-of-field preview button. The latter is a rarity in entry-level SLRs, and is an added value for this camera.
Tip: Use the depth-of-field button to see what will be in focus when you shoot. Otherwise, what you see in the viewfinder is not exactly what you get, since by default the lens remains at its widest aperture until the moment of exposure.
Advanced Operation:
Modes and menus
The camera's menus are divided into five sections: Two shooting menus, preview, and two sets of set-up menus.
 The Shooting 1 menu controls shooting settings that you may need to change occasionally. Some modes are for fine-tuning image quality. It has been streamlined, and controls the following features:
Quality: Choose from RAW+JPG at 8MP , or one of eight settings that range from high-quality L (Large) to lower-quality smaller images, which are best for email only.
Red-eye On/Off: Activates or deactivates pre-flash pulse that reduces the size of subjects' irises, which reduces the likelihood of red-eye.
Beep on/off: Turns off those annoying beeps the camera makes when it focuses or takes a picture.
Shoot w/o card: Do you really want to do this? If you do, the camera will keep shooting but won't record images if there's no card. If you choose no, the camera will lock up if the CF slot is empty. We recommend the "no" option.
Shooting 2 menu
 The Shooting 2 menu offers an incredible selection of advanced image quality controls. For serious hobbyists--especially those with a film background--this is where the fun begins.
AEB stands for Auto Exposure Bracketing. Set this and every time you press the shutter release, the camera will take three pictures in rapid sequence--one overexposed, one underexposed, and one at the metered exposure. Use AEB to control the exposure range, up to two stops, in 1/3-stop increments.
Flash Exp. Comp lets you fine-tune flash exposure as it relates to your subject and the ambient light in a scene. While Night Portrait does this too, Flash Exp. Comp lets you adjust the flash output up to 2 stops in either direction, in 1/3-stop increments.
Tip: Use Flash Exposure Compensation in concert with exposure compensation and you can have full control over the ratio of flash illumination to ambient light level.
WB SHIFT/BKT is the most precise white balance setting this camera offers, and is really for situations where color reproduction quality is critical--and will rarely be needed. Using the four-way arrow control buttons, move a cursor around a grid pattern (see photo) to shift the image's color balance. And you can bracket color balance by turning the control wheel while in this setting--the camera will shoot three images at three color biases.
Tip: Make sure the cursor dot is on the thick horizontal or vertical lines. On the horizontal line, the camera will shoot one blue-biased, one neutral, one red-biased image; on the vertical line, the camera will shoot one green-biased, one neutral, and one magenta-biased image. The wheel controls the range of each color bias. (If you didn't follow that, you probably don't need this control.)
Custom WB is simple, and very useful: Photograph a white object in the same light that you want to shoot in, then select the image in this mode. Hit the "set" button, and all of your images will reflect this balance. Then go to the WB menu and choose and set the bottom right setting to save the setting for future use. Don't forget to go back to auto WB when you're done.
Hint: This is a good approach if you know you'll be shooting a lot of pictures in one place.
The Color Space setting is mainly for commercial printing purposes. Leave it alone unless you anticipate that your photos will be published in a book or magazine.
 Picture Style is another way the Rebel XTi lets experienced photographers fine-tune their images in camera and even approximate the look of classic film emulsions. You can set four parameters--contrast, sharpness, saturation, and color tone. Want the look of Kodachrome? Pump up the saturation and shift color tone to the right for a warmer skin tone. Want more flattering portraits? Lower the contrast, sharpness, and saturation while keeping color tone neutral.
Picture Style is a great place to experiment with image characteristics. (If you've been shooting with a Rebel XT, note that this is similar to the XT's "Paramaters" feature.)
 A well-hidden, hobbyist-engaging features of this camera is the B&W filter effect. To get to it, select the Monochrome option. Now your images will be black and white--but there's more. Hit the Jump button on the left side of the camera to access controls for contrast, sharpness, and control of relative grey tones by selecting a filter effect (yellow and red filters darken blue skies; blue filters cause skin to appear lighter in black and white portraits.). In this deeply-hidden mode, you can also choose between neutral, sepia, blue, purple and green overall image tones). Go here to read more about using these effects.
If you're a serious hobbyist and have ever used black-and-white film or have printed your own images in a conventional darkroom, I think you'll love experimenting with Picture Style!
Tip: Try shooting the same subject while changing the Picture Style settings.
Dust Delete Data works in tandem with Canon's Digital Photo Professional image processing software to map and digitally remove stubborn dust that remains on the sensor after it's been cleaned. Simply photograph a white sheet of paper and follow the on-screen instructions.
Image preview modes
 The third menu is the arrow (Image Preview) menu, which handles images that are stored on your memory card.
Protect prevents you from accidentally erasing protected images, even when you hit the "erase all" option.
Rotate automatically turns vertical images so you don't have to when viewing them in the preview mode.
Print order and Transfer order let you select images to send to a PictBridge-enabled printer for printing direct from the camera. The camera is DPOF-enabled. See the manual for extensive directions for printing directly from the camera or CompactFlash card.
Auto play shows the images on the memory card in sequence--you can plug your camera into your TV and watch the slide show.
Review time sets how long each picture stays up during the slide show, as well as immediately after you've taken a picture.
Histogram: This changes what kind of histogtram is shown when in Histogram screen mode in image preview. The choices are a standard brightness histogram, which simply shows levels of gray, or RGB, which shows three smaller histograms each showing the histogram curve for each of the primary red, green, and blue colors.
Set-up 1
The Rebel Xt has two Set-up menus. These control the camera's operation, how images are displayed and numbered, and let you update the firmware, clean the sensor, and set custom functions. While most of the tool menu items are set 'em and forget 'em, there are a few deeply embedded features that may be indespensible for advanced shooters.
 Set-up menu 1 controls basic functions that affect general camera use.
Auto power off turns the camera off after one minute if it isn't being used as a default, but you can change that to as long as 30 minutes.
Tip: Auto-off is a handy way to save battery power so unless you have a pressing need, keep it set at the default.
Auto rotate turns your vertical images so you don't need to flip the camera to view it. The disadvantage to this option is that to fit the vertical image in the horizontal frame, it appears smaller.
LCD brightness helps you avoid eyestrain when looking at images in different light. Pump it up to full brightness if you're in direct sunlight, but if you're viewing in a darkened room you may want to dim the finder.
LCD Auto Off turns off the LCD when you bring the camera to your eye. Sensors underneath the eyepiece detect when a face (or any other object) is within an inch of the camera, and turns off the LCD. You can disable this feature.
The date/time setting controls the part of the meta data field that travels with your image that indicates the time and date it was taken. Set this when you get your camera--then forget about it.
File Numbering assigns each image shot its own number. These are sequential, but can be reset to 0 if you want.
Tip: Continuous is the best setting for most users because as the images are loaded onto a computer, there would be no overlap of image numbers which might lead to older images being overwritten by newer ones if the camera's on auto reset.
Format is used to reformat your CF card. Doing this will erase all of the card's contents, so do this only if you have already backed up all of your images. You can also select this setting to see how full your CF card is.
Tip: Do not erase images from your card by deleting them on your computer; Erase them in camera by reformatting your card on a regular basis.
Set-up 2
 The second Tools menu accesses less frequently needed or "set once" settings.
Language: You can choose from 15 languages, including Mandarin and Cantonese. On the XTi, the default language is English.
Video system: The default is the US standard NTSC; PAL is available for other countries.
Custom Functions is another well hidden but extremely useful feature. It accesses 11 different camera functions; while most users will be happy with the default settings, advanced photographers may want to change them to suit their shooting habits.
You can change which keys control certain functions, change from front to rear-curtain flash; allow noise reduction for long exposures; adjust flash sync speed in AV mode; turn the shutter button into an autoexposure lock, autofocus lock, both, or neither; turn on or disable the Autofocus beam; change exposure compensation adjustment increments from 1/3 stop to 1/2 stop; enable mirror lockup; and change E-TTL flash from evaluative to average metering.
Tip: If you want to show a moving "ghost" plus frozen image effect with the frozen part of the image at the front of the "ghost", choose Custom Function 9 and select option 1, second curtain flash sync.
Clear Settings does just that: it clears all the custom functions and camera settings that you may have forgotten about. Use this if you want to quickly return to the camera's default settings.
Sensor cleaning: Auto: Little known fact: every time you turn the XTi on or off, it automatically runs the sensor self-cleaning unit. You can disable this feature, or set it to clean when you want it to. Choose the "Clean Now" option and the camera will--surprise--clean the sensor now.
Sensor cleaning: Manual prevents the auto sensor cleaning from working while the camera is turned on or off.
Tips: If you're seeing light grey circles on your images, you've got dust, and it's time to clean your sensor. Make sure your battery is fully charged before you do this (the camera won't let you start if there's insufficient juice). Dust is most likely to enter the camera while you're changing lenses. To prevent dust, change lenses in dust-free environments if possible, and keep the rear elements and the camera body cap dust-free. Hold the camera facing down whenever you change the lens.
Firmware: Sometimes, the manufacturer will provide a firmware update that addresses a camera malfunction or (even better) adds new functions or improves performance. Check the Adorama News Desk Archives Firmware Updates category to see if there have been recent updates for this camera.
That's it for our guided tour. If you've gotten this far and carefully followed along with your camera, you have mastered your Canon Rebel XTi's controls. Now, go out and take lots of great pictures...and if you need some help getting ideas or learning about exposure and composition, be sure to visit the Adorama Academy.
© 2006 Adorama
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