Canon Digital SLR Cameras

Before you hunt down the best Canon digital SLR to satisfy all of your photographic needs, ask yourself this: how much are you willing to pay?

Canon digital SLR cameras fall squarely into 4 groups: consumer, semi-professional, professional and über-professional.

As you jump to the next level of cameras, the price jumps accordingly.

With the jump in price, you also get a lot more features that the pros expect but can be overwhelming to beginners and even intermediate photographers. It makes no sense to pay for a slew of features that you'll never use.

With a clear budget in mind (and a sense of your skills as a photographer), you'll substantially limit the number of Canon digital SLR cameras you have to compare.

A Brief History of Canon Digital SLRs

The first Canon digital SLR was the D30, released in 2000.

It was a 3.1 megapixel camera that had its quirks but produced fantastic photos.

The biggest issue with the D30 was its low megapixel count, which meant that print sizes were limited.

Canon addressed this with the D60. This Canon digital SLR was very similar to the D30, but it featured 6.3 megapixels for larger prints.

Breaking the $1,000 Barrier

First-generation digital SLR cameras cost anywhere from $1,500 to $2,500. The technology was so new and advanced that you just couldn't find a camera for anything less than that.

Enter the Canon digital Rebel.

The Canon EOS Digital Rebel (also called the 300D) was the first digital SLR camera to be offered for less than $1,000.

Canon used the same body style as their popular line of Rebel film cameras, and gave it a digital interior. It was a huge breakthrough, and made the digital SLR accessible to many people on limited budgets.

The Latest Canon Digital SLR Cameras

There's no denying it: Canon's digital SLR cameras are immensly popular.

Canon is a definite leader when it comes to the digital SLR camera market, and each new model they release always generates a lot of buzz in the professional reviews and user forums.

Canon's dominance in the digital SLR market started with the EOS Digital Rebel, and Canon continues to upgrade their line of digital Rebel cameras.

Today, the Rebel legacy includes the Rebel XT (350D), Rebel xTi (400D), Rebel XSi (450D), Rebel T1i (500D), Rebel T2i (550D), Rebel T3i (600D), Rebel XS (1000D) and the Rebel T3 (1100D).

Canon EOS Rebel T3 (1100D)

Release Date: March 2011
Key Features	12.2 megapixels, dust control, live view LCD
Uniqueness	Inexpensive
Great For	Snapshots
Level	Beginner
Competitors	Nikon D3100
Basic and beginner are the two words that leap to mind to describe the Rebel T3 1100D. Canon has kept the feature set on this camera limited in order to keep the price down, but this camera can still out-perform many compact digital cameras. It even includes an HD movie mode, if you want to use the camera for both stills and video.
Price (With Lens): $500 USD Available at Amazon, Adorama and B&H Photo Video

Canon EOS Rebel T2i (550D)

Release Date: March 2010
Key Features	18 megapixels, dust control, live view LCD
Uniqueness	HD Video Capture
Great For	Families
Level	Beginner to Intermediate
Competitors	Nikon D5000
The Rebel T2i 550D builds upon the HD video feature offered with its predecessor - the T1i. A new, wider, high-resolution LCD screen is paired with the ability to control video exposure manually, use autofocus during video capture and capture better audio through the use of an external microphone input. The T2i is also the first Rebel that is compatible with high-capacity SDXC memory cards, so you can shoot longer video segments.
Price (With Lens): $650 USD Available at Amazon, Adorama and B&H Photo Video

Canon EOS Rebel T3i (600D)

Release Date: March 2011
Key Features	18 megapixels, flexible live view LCD, HD movies, creative filters
Uniqueness	Only Rebel with flexible LCD
Great For	Snapshots, Creative Images
Level	Beginner to Intermediate
Competitors	Nikon D5000
The sequel to the Rebel T2i 550D adds on Canon's new favorite feature: a 3 inch LCD screen that flips out from the camera body and rotates. The T3i also has creative filters that can be applied to any image you take, a new Basic+ mode to take better shots in full AUTO mode and the ability to capture images in different aspect ratios (including 3:2, 4:3, 16:9 and 1:1). And yes, it's still got the HD video mode (now with manual exposure and audio level control) available on the previous Canon Rebel.
Price (With Lens): $770 USD Available at Amazon, Adorama and B&H Photo Video

Canon EOS 60D

Release Date: September 2010
Key Features	18 megapixels, 1080p video mode, flexible LCD, wide ISO range
Uniqueness	First Canon DSLR with flexible LCD
Great For	Action, Low light, Portraits
Level	Intermediate to Advanced
Competitors	Nikon D7000
The Canon EOS 60D really is a do-it-all sort of a camera. Action photographers will take advantage of the 5.3 photo-per-second speed and 9-point autofocus while portrait photographers can leverage the live view mode to maintain eye contact with their subjects. Photographers of all types will get to use Canon's first flexible LCD screen on a DSLR: the 3-inch screen flips out from the camera body and rotates in all directions. This flexible LCD can all be used to capture Full High Definition 1080p movies — hard-core videographers can add an optional external microphone for improved audio quality.
Price (With Lens): $1,120 USD Available at Amazon, Adorama and B&H Photo Video

Canon EOS 7D

Release Date: October 2009
Key Features	18 megapixels, HD video, 19-point autofocus
Uniqueness	Speed
Great For	Action, Low light, Portraits, Video
Level	Advanced to semi-professional
Competitors	Nikon D300s
Nothing is really left out of the 7D: it can rip through 126 JPG images at 8 per second and can instantly lock on to skittish subjects with a new 19-point autofocus. Add an ISO range that goes up to 12800, and a bright, clear 3-inch LCD and you've got a noteworthy camera. But wait: the 7D can also capture Full High Definition (1080p) video clips, and you can autofocus AND adjust exposure settings while capturing video. Photographer / Videographers should definitely give this camera a look.
Price (With Lens): $1,600 USD Available at Amazon, Adorama and B&H Photo Video

Canon Über Professional Digital SLRs

Picture this: you're on a white sand beach on some tropical island, shooting an upcoming photo spread for New York's hottest fashion magazine.

Find that difficult? Then this category of Canon digital SLR cameras is probably not for you.

The sheer number of megapixels that they offer makes them ideal for magazine and advertising photographers, but fairly impractical for all the rest of us.

Since this web site is all about CONSUMER digital SLR cameras, I don't include information about these professional models. If you'd really like to see what they have to offer, knock yourself out: find out more about the Canon EOS 1D Mark IV (list price: $5,000 USD).

Discontinued Canon Digital SLRs

The technology of today would not be possible without all the development and research that has come before.

The cameras listed below can no longer be purchased new, but that doesn't mean that they aren't great cameras - they are just the elderly grandparents of the cameras above.

If you decide that there are some modern features that you could do without, then see if you can grab one of these older cameras form someone upgrading to the latest and greatest.

CAMERA	RELEASED	DESCRIPTION
Canon 5D	Oct. 2005	The key feature of the Canon 5D is that it is a full-frame digital SLR, which means that this camera has no crop factor. This Canon digital SLR captures the same field of view as a similar Canon film SLR camera.
Canon Rebel xTi (400D)	Oct. 2006	The Rebel xTi includes a 10 megapixel sensor and a dust control system. The intuitive control layout on this camera make it very easy to use and it takes very high-quality photos when paired with the right lens. The xTi was one of the least expensive10 megapixel digital SLRs.
Canon 40D	Sept. 2007	The Canon 40D can take 6.5 photos per second up to a maximum of 75 JPG images or 17 RAW. In addition to this blazing fast speed, the camera includes a completely updated 9-point autofocus, a fast image processor (to transfer photos to the memory card), Canon's dust control, and the addition of a live view mode on the camera's large 3 inch LCD screen. With a rugged frame and weather-resistant seals and gaskets, the 40D is designed for aggressive use.
Canon Rebel XSi (450D)	April 2008	The Rebel XSi is the first Canon digital SLR to make the switch from Compact Flash cards to the smaller and lighter SD memory cards. The standard kit lens offered with the Rebel XSi is the EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 Image Stabilized lens. This means that the XSi has the three top digital SLR features: dust control, live view and image stabilization.
Canon Rebel T1i (500D)	May 2008	The Rebel T1i follows a trend that began late in 2008 - digital SLRs with video. The 15.1 megapixel sensor can capture High Definition (HD) video that can be played on a widescreen TV via HDMI. The T1i also steals some features from the more advanced 50D, including face detection autofocus, Canon's Auto Lighting Optimizer and the "Creative Auto" mode.
Canon Rebel XS (1000D)	Aug. 2008	The Rebel XS is Canon's simple alternative to all the feature-packed cameras available. Designed for photographers making the transition from point-and-shoot to digital SLR, the basic feature set on the XS lets you take great-looking pictures, without a lot of additional frills. The basic feature set kept the price of the camera low, making the XS one of the least expensive digital SLRs available.
Canon 50D	Oct. 2008	The Canon EOS 50D is a digital SLR priced with amateurs in mind and packed with enough features satisfy the needs of professional photographers. The main enhancements over the 40D come in the form of a faster image processor (DIGIC 4), a wider ISO range (100 to 12800), an LCD with 4x more pixels than the 40D (for enhanced color and clarity) and a face-detection autofocus option. If you'd like to share your images at home, the 50D has an HDMI port that allows you to connect the camera to a flat screen TV.