DSLR Reviews

Canon EOS Rebel T5i DSLR Review

Edited by George Schaub | Jan 10, 2014 | First Published: Nov 1, 2013

The Canon EOS Rebel T5i (700D) is the replacement of the EOS Rebel T4i but in many ways is quite similar to its forerunner. Just like the T4i it uses an 18MP APS-C-sized sensor, has a compact body, a swivel monitor, Full HD video recording, and numerous helpful functions for beginners.

The new Canon EOS Rebel T5i is the follower of the EOS T4i. It uses an 18MP APS-C-sized sensor, sports a slightly revised body design, and offers handy features like the touchscreen controls.

The Canon EOS Rebel T5i offers numerous interfaces on the left-hand side. It has a combination interface (USB/TV), an HDMI port, a 3.5mm jack for external microphones, and a special interface for a remote control, which is offered by Canon as an optional accessory.

The camera has a large mode dial on the top to change exposure modes or to activate scene modes. The on/off switch is also used to toggle between photo and video mode. A status LCD on the top is missing.

The camera offers a touchscreen with high resolution (1,040,000 RGB dots), a four-way control field for menu navigation, and a “Q” button for activating the “Quick” menu.

The swivel LCD is fully articulated and can be flipped upward, downward, to the side, and to the front, an especially useful feature for video recording.

There are some minor enhancements of the body and design. The T5i has a different finish and a new surface material, which allows for better and more comfortable handling. All settings on the top mode dial are now allocated to different functions. The image processor has a slightly changed “bias,” which causes some differences compared to the test images of the T4i; for example, sharpness and color are a bit more intensified.

The camera offers all standard exposure modes, like P, Tv, Av, and M. It also offers the four most important scene modes (portrait, landscape, macro, and sport) on the mode dial, plus additional scene modes in the menu revealed when the dial is set to “SCENE.” In addition, it offers iA mode, which detects the “necessary” scene mode automatically.

The camera is able to record Full HD video with different frame rate settings such as 24, 25, and 30 fps. It allows the user to change exposure settings in video mode and to set up the sound level manually. A microphone jack allows for use of external stereo microphones to enhance sound quality. When used in combination with Canon STM lenses the camera is able to focus very quickly, continuously, and silently, even while recording video.

The Canon EOS Rebel T5i created nice skin tones in our tests, which are a little optimized in processing (enhanced magenta). The automatic white balance system showed a slight tendency into cooler colors under certain lighting conditions, but overall showed very good performance.

Image Quality
Color: The camera reproduced “live” test images and the test charts with natural-looking colors. Just like nearly all Canon cameras, it showed some enhanced skin tones (with a slightly higher magenta rate) and high average saturation (108 percent).

The automatic white balance system showed a slight tendency toward cooler colored areas. The standard test box shot shows this very slight shift in gray areas. The shift is also visible in the bright background in our portrait shot. The red nuances of the T-shirt are boosted quite highly, although it should be stated that the level of color errors is very low.

The camera created images with high sharpness. Dynamic range is very high at ISO 100; even the very dark toy in the lower left is rich in detail.

Sharpness: The camera showed a very good performance in our resolution tests and reproduced the ISO 12.233 chart with 3149 lines in picture height (nominal sensor resolution in picture height: 3456). The T5i enhances image sharpness by an intense filtering when creating JPEGs. The result chart showed a clearly visible overshot effect (20.5 percent) and the graph for the black-and-white contrast transition showed clearly visible peaks caused by that artificial sharpness effect.

These oversharpened elements are also visible in the standard test box shot. This may cause an artificial look in fine details, like in the hair of the model in the portrait shot and in other real-life images. The differentiation of red colors could be better, caused by the high saturation of red nuances.

Noise: The new Canon offers silky smooth images even at higher ISO speed settings. Luminance noise stays on a good/low level in images taken with ISO 100 to ISO 1600, while color noise is filtered out in a very efficient way. Color clouds in homogeneous-colored areas are noticeable in images taken with ISO 3200 and higher. This color noise is clearly visible in images taken with ISO 6400, but they are reduced in the highest ISO speed setting of 12,800. Atthis high ISO setting the anti-noise filtering gets very intense and reduces color clouds, but in return it also reduces image details and creates typical anti-noise filtering artifacts.

The automatic white balance system showed a slight tendency toward cooler colored areas. The differentiation of red colors could be better, caused by the high saturation of red nuances.

The dynamic range results are very good for a camera with an APS-C-sized sensor, with a maximum of 11.7 f/stops and even high results (more than 10 f/stops) in images shot with higher ISO speed settings (up to ISO 800). When using higher ISO settings greater than ISO 1600 the dynamic range results decline.

Lab results and test images by BetterNet, our TIPA-affiliated testing lab. Edited by George Schaub.

To read the lab test on the Canon EOS Rebel T4i please go to: www.shutterbug.com/content/ canon-eos-rebel-t4i-lab-test-results-comments.

Scorecard
Pro
+ Compact entry-level SLR; advanced design of the body
+ Fully articulated swivel monitor with high resolution (1,040,000 RGB dots)
+ Easy handling: scene modes for beginners; comprehensive image control for more advanced users
+ +/- 5 EV stop exposure compensation
+ Very nice color reproduction; high dynamic range results (even when shooting with higher ISO speed settings)
+ Full HD video with all standard frame rates

Con
- Somewhat high oversharpening
- Slightly high saturation of red nuances

Images Tech
Image Tech is where we publish web-exclusive lab reports on cameras. To read the reports please go to the Shutterbug homepage at www.shutterbug.com and click on the Image Tech tab on the top navigation bar. New reports are published frequently, so check Image Tech for updates.

The Canon EOS Rebel T5i with the 18-55mm IS STM kit lens has a list price of $899.99. For more information, visit www.usa.canon.com.