T4i / 650D - First Photos / First Impressions

[Photo-John]

After Canon announced the T5i / 700D, I started checking prices on the T4i and as I expected, I found some blow out deals. I'd been wanting one for studio work and video so I snapped one up, with the new 18-135mm STM lens. I took it out to some local mountain bike trails last night to check the video auto focus (it's the first Canon DSLR to have continuous AF in movie mode) and the continuous AF for action. I haven't done studio tests yet, but the image quality looks pretty much like I expected - the same as my 7D. It is, after all, the same sensor that Canon introduced with the 7D. The auto focus seems really good and I think I'm going to like the touchscreen LCD display - especially for live view and video focusing.

The first photo was shot using the T4i's continuous AF. I got a burst of about 3 of this guy showing off and they were all in focus. That bodes well for the action shooting ability of the camera.



The kitty was also shot using continuous AF. I had a little trouble here because of the grass getting in the way. I really should have used single shot for this. But I got this one good one. She loves playing in the long grass



This is just a straightforward landscape. The interesting thing here is all the purple fringing in the upper left. It can easily be removed in Lightroom but it's still a bummer. I need to experiment with the 18-135mm STM lens, too. It's designed specifically to work with the T4i's video auto focusing. But it's still a consumer lens and I wonder about the edge sharpness. The auto focus performance seems rock solid, though.

[Skyman]

PJ - I haven't used my 650 enough yet to write a proper review - hardly touched the video side, but one little feature really has me excited - manual control of the gain (volume) for the mic / external mic.

For video this means that you can correctly set the volume when using highly sensitive boom mics to cut out ambient noise and accurately record loud and or quiet noises without clipping the audio. It also reduces then need for adapters with the mics. If you have a powered mic (like the senheiser k6 series) you can get an xlr to mini cable so you don't need an adapter for the mic. If you have a mic that doesn't have a battery or needs phantom power then you will still need an adapter but it opens up worlds of possiblity for high quality audio without loosing the size and convenience that you get with DSLR video.

[Photo-John]

I haven't used the mic levels control because I don't really know how to judge when it's needed or how to use it. However, I have noticed that the built-in stereo mic sounds much better than the built-in mic on my EOS 7D. The main thing for me is the tilt-swivel LCD and the movie mode continuous auto focus, though. The auto focus in video is amazing - not at all what I expected. I have a whole bunch of action clips I've shot that I need to edit into a sample video because I don't think people really know how good it is.

[FrankT]

The T4i is a nice camera ..

[Photo-John]

The T4i is a nice camera ..

I agree. So far, I'm very pleased with it - especially for the price. Do you own one, too?