Update: I was right, it is a 350D replacement.

Durable Magnesium Alloy Body: The EOS-1Ds Mark II meets the demands of professional field photographers. Lightweight and highly rigid, its magnesium alloy chassis & external covers (top, front, rear & memory card slot covers) contribute to excellent durability and electromagnetic shielding. Moving parts are tightly sealed to ensure water and dust resistance on a par with the EOS-1Ds.

What Canon is really saying…

Our Armageddon Hide armour plating will ensure protection from even the fires of Hell itself. No foul Demons from the Pit will tarnish your images of our final days.¹

I soooo want one. Anyone need a kidney? I’ll sell mine for $7,000.

_{[1]: As said by Jon “Salty” Hall.}

The paper is flawed in that it has a slightly reddish tinge, which makes pictures a tad warmer than they should be. Compared against Canon’s PR 101 Photo Paper Pro (which is an almost neutral white, very slightly on the warm side), GP 401 can be described as pink.

This pink color shifts flesh tones and anything that uses magenta ink to print out to be shifted over to the pink side as well. Unfortunately, the only way to get Canon branded credit card sized paper is to use this paper.

So, I just spent the last two hours slowly tweaking an existing ICC profile for a similar paper (Canon’s Photo Paper Plus, which isn’t nearly as red) to work correctly with this paper.

To get you close to the correct colors, set your “Media Type” to “Glossy Photo Paper”, and use the manual color adjustment dialog (click “Color Adjustment: Manual”, and click on “Set…”) to increase cyan to 35, magenta to 10, yellow to 25, and decrease intensity to -10. These alone increase the quality of output on GP 401 a lot, and make it similar to Photo Paper Pro.

Also, if you’re using Photoshop, or any similar professional printing application, disable ICM and use “Print Type” set to “None”. In Photoshop, you typically use Photoshop’s built in color management.

To use said color management, use “Print With Preview”, and select “Color Handling: Let Photoshop Determine Colors”, “Printer Profile: Canon i9900 SP1″, “Rendering Intent: Preceptual”, and turn “Black Point Compensation” on.

Now, this isn’t as good as just having an ICC profile for the GP 401, but it is about the best you’re going to get, it seems.

1. Use ISO 1600 to reduce motion blurring.
2. Use the AdobeRGB colorspace to reduce munging of colors not in the sRGB colorspace.
3. Capture in Raw, do not use JPEG as it only increases noise.
4. Increase the auto-exposure feature’s f-stop by 1/3rd or 1/2 to increase brightness of pictures. It is better to have over-bright pictures than under-bright, as brightening under-bright pictures increases noise, but darkening over-bright pictures only reduces noise.

These steps alone increase apparent picture quality boatloads. No more will you have noisy, dark, blurry pictures that look like they were taken with a bad webcam! Now, here is where Photoshop comes in:

Step 1: Since you are using Raw pictures now, you have to use a special plugin to load these images, which can be downloaded off Adobe’s website. This plugin allows you to load Raw pictures from tons of cameras. To get the best performance out of this plugin, under the Detail tab, set Sharpness to 0, and Color Noise Reduction to 0 (We’ll do color noise reduction next). Also, under the Curve tab, select a Linear tone curve.

Step 2: Pictures taken with a CMOS sensor (such as the Rebel XT’s) are often described as “butter smooth”, in as such as there is no obvious pixelation that CCDs cause. They are also low noise, and any noise that does show up (as such with high ISO speeds) looks a lot like film grain, and appears as color noise.

To clean up the little bit of noise that creeps in, use the Reduce noise plugin, using the settings shown to the right. Be careful, however, setting it too high, and you risk removing color detail, and setting it below 5 doesn’t do anything that can be noticed without zooming in 500%+.

Step 3: Now, many shots you take are probably very sharp. However, there is a neat trick that doesn’t involve real sharpening at all, but (ab)uses the Unsharp Mask tool instead. Using the settings shown to the right, you can easily increase the apparent sharpness without increasing the actual sharpness at all.

Increasing Amount allows you to increase the effect, but decreases the subtly, and this should be a subtle effect at all costs. Increasing the Radius changes the effect itself; above 25 and you start changing the overall contrast of the picture instead of specific areas, but below 15 it pushes small details more and it becomes very hard to notice any change at all.

Results

Now, here is a before and after showing what just using simple noise and sharpness management does using the three steps I outlined. Easily, you can tell the image is much clearer than before.

^{NR + UM 1:1}

^{Original 1:1}

^{NR + UM 1:3}

^{Original 1:3}

I’d like to thank the person who originally came up with the Unsharp Radius 20/20 trick. Unfortunately, I can not find where it came from, but whoever came across it originally found a real gem. Thanks you, whoever you are!

Caution: This review contains technical terms, and often gets off topic and rants a bit. It also gets into the merits of professional photography, which directly effects the usage of an advanced camera such as the Rebel XT.

Features:

• 8 megapixel CMOS sensor with near unparalleled quality. 3456×2304 of low noise pixels, I don’t think I’ve seen a better quality image on any camera, short of stepping up to the 20D, a camera that costs at least $500 more with little other benefit.
• Bright pop-up flash that almost negates the need for a secondary flash, even though it has the plug on top for it. The camera supports E-TTL 2 flashes, but from what I’ve been told, the pop-up flash is brighter than every single external flash Canon makes except for their highest end model, the Speedlite 580EX.
• Multiple flash triggering so you can use an external flash in conjunction with the pop-up flash, for cases such as remote flash units, or just using the above mentioned 580EX and pop-up together for even brighter flashes.
• CompactFlash slot that writes at around 4 megabytes/sec, and supports cards over 2 gigabytes in size. CompactFlash cards are also the cheapest for their storage size, and come in sizes bigger than competing standards. SecureDigital (SD) cards cost about 50% more, and the largest ones on the market are 1 gigabyte, where there are 2 and 4 gigabyte CF cards available, and even larger Microdrives in CF format.
• Bright, high res, 1.8″ LCD display that accurately reproduces colors and can be viewed in bright sunlight. It is high res enough to display lots of detail, and the camera features standard functionality to be able to zoom into pictures to see detail up close.
• Decent kit lens, the EF-S 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6 II, is a pretty good lens to start out with. It has 3x zoom, and is pretty sharp, and beats the pants off of even the best point and shoot’s lens quality. It cannot be purchased separately, but I’ve figured out that its roughly $100 of the kit’s purchase price.
• Light weight and small size, this camera is not much bigger than most “full sized” point and shoots (without lens attached, of course); with lens, it weighs less than my previous camera, a Kodak DC215.
• Adjustable everything, and I do mean almost everything. Every little bit of functionality in this camera can be configured to suite your tastes.
• Multiple environment modes to optimize the camera for different environments, easily changed with the twist of a knob.

6 Month Review

So, as you can see, I do like this camera. Paired with my Canon i9900 photo printer, I’ve been printing out perfectly saturated, sharp, amazingly looking photos. Even at 13×19″ (the printer’s maximum size), photos look just as sharp as they do at 4×6″.

During the past six months, I’ve taken 1562 pictures, and have seen everything it can possibly do. The camera, as much as I love it, is not perfect. It shouldn’t be, either, otherwise how would Canon sell the 20D, a camera that costs almost $500 more; plus all the other higher end models. But any flaws can be easily corrected.

Typically, I shoot in IS0 1600 only. The camera has settings from 100 to 1600, and I’ve found that lower ISO settings, not just on this camera but on any camera, although increasing brightness in dark scenes, causes blurry photos. The only way to negate that, of course, is exclusively use ISO 1600 and use a brighter exposure level (I’ve been using +1/3rd). You get bright, sharp, low noise pictures; and any unwanted noise can be cleaned up in Photoshop.

Of course, being able to configure ISO, auto-exposure, and using a custom exposure level setting (cameras usually use a 1/2 f-stop scale, not 1/3rd, and the Rebel XT defaults to 1/2), is a testament to it’s configurability. I also use raw picture output instead of the default standard JPEG compression, to get the full 12-bit precision out of the sensor, and to prevent typical JPEG artifacts. I also use the AdobeRGB colorspace instead of the default sRGB (which monitors use) because it closer reflects the sensor’s output.

Typically, changing ISO, increasing auto-exposure, using raw output, and using a colorspace that better reflects the camera is what most professionals do automatically. They want the get the best picture out of the camera to begin with. I’m also using a post processing profile in the camera that disables any post processing (Parameters 2 in the parameters menu; its on the Camera 2 page).

“But Patrick, doesn’t that mean you’re basically using an entirely different camera than what’s out of the box?”

No. The camera is setup by default to be easy to use, and to give users images that look good without any additional mucking with. And that it does. It has multiple settings, that all you do is twist the mode knob on the top of the camera, and get what you want. Want to take a picture of a mountain? Use the outdoors mode. Want to take a picture at night? Use the night mode. Want to take pictures of fast moving objects? Use the sports mode.

However, it has additional modes that disable automatic features. The least automatic mode (and the most advanced) is a photography enthusiast’s wet dream, and allows you to do pretty much anything you can think of. If you want to be a professional photographer, you use one of the advanced modes, not one of the basic ones.

That said, being able to configure the camera to basically work totally different than what’s out of the box is a good thing. The ability to configure this camera to fit my workflow instead of the one Canon set by default is one of the largest strengths. No point and shoot gives me this level of configurability.

However, if you want the camera to do everything for you, and take great pictures, it will. I was using basic modes for the first 500 pictures or so, and they’re quite amazing looking; they still beat the pants of off higher end point and shoots, and still look sharp, low noise, and saturated with color.

Additional Notes

I recommend as your first purchases for anyone that owns a Rebel XT, or any Canon DSLR, is a clear UV lens filter, and a stable three axis tripod. The UV lens filter (I use a Sigma EX Multi-coated UV Filter, 58mm) will prevent scratches and dust on the lens. If you irreparably scratch the UV filter, just go buy another one. If you irreparably scratch the lens, you’re out hundreds of dollars. The UV filter also increases the quality of “blue sky” shots, and also reduces haze in hazy environments.

As for the tripod, I suggest you get one that does all three axes¹ (rotation, pitch, and yaw), and is stable enough to hold your camera. Good ones for beginners cost $30 and up, but it is well worth the investment.

Also, to go with your tripod, I suggest a wired remote trigger. The Rebel XT has a little 2.5mm stereo plug on the side to plug a wired trigger in, that works exactly like the one on the camera itself: half-press to focus, fully press to take a picture. The one that goes with the Rebel XT is the Canon Remote Switch E3. I’d avoid the wireless ones because you have to be in front of the camera to use them.

Last, but not least, eventually you’ll want a better lens. Sure, the kit lens is great, but you’ll eventually out grow it. Buying a new lens is on my to-do list, and I’ve decided to replace it with Canon’s EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM, a lens that is amazingly sharp, silent when focusing (due to the Ultra-sonic Motor (USM)), and increases sharpness when holding the camera due to Image Stabilization (IS). The zoom range is larger than the kit lens’, and is overall well worth the $425 or so.

Of course, now I’m going to go have to buy a new UV filter… that lens uses 72 mm filters.

Summary

I have to say the Canon Rebel XT is well worth the $950 I paid for it, and this camera is probably going to stick around for the next four or five years because of how well made, and featureful it is.

_{[1]: Axes is the plural of axis, pronounced “axe ease”.}

In turn, they attempted to convert me to the cult of ProJet Elite, and I’ve gotten nothing but horrible results with my Canon i9900, which I reviewed not too long ago.

So far, I have tested only ProJet Elite Picture Rag Warm Tone 190gsm¹. It does reproduce colors semi-accurately, but it looks very faded, and blacks are a dark grey. Also, dark areas appear splotchy, and sometimes very light areas end up appearing bright white.

Tested vs Canon Photo Paper Pro² (glossy, but reproduces colors amazingly), ProJet Elite Picture Rag fails horribly. If you’re looking for a decent brand of thick matte paper, look elsewhere.

Please note, however, that this does not reflect on Adorama as a fine purveyor of photography goods in any way. I’ve never had problems with any of my orders with Adorama, and they often carry products cheaper than Amazon, and even carry products that Amazon doesn’t. I still recommend Adorama as a good place to shop… I just don’t recommend their paper.

_{[1]: In Photoshop CS2, with the printer set to Matte Photo Paper³, Quality 1, Auto halftoning, Print Type none, borderless printing on at the 2nd notch, and any options in the effects tab off; with Photoshop set to “Let Photoshop Decide” color handling, the “Canon i9900 elite warm tone” printer profile, and Perceptual rendering intent with black point compensation on.}

_{[2]: In Photoshop CS2, with the printer set to Photo Paper Pro, Quality 1, Auto halftoning, Print type none, borderless printing on at the 2nd notch, and any options in the effects tab off; with Photoshop set to “Let Photoshop Decide” color handling, the “Canon i9900 PR1″ printer profile, and Perceptual rendering intent with black point compensation on.}

_{[3]: The Matte Photo Paper setting produces better results than Other Photo Paper and Plain Paper with ProJet Elite Picture Rag.}

Update, February 7th 2006: I’ve now tried every combination of setting the printer driver to every media type, color adjustments with ICM and print type; and I’ve also tried changing settings various settings in Photoshop (color handling, rendering intent, and black point compensation).

There is simply no way to print good results on this paper using the Canon i9990 inkjet printer. If I rated products on a 5 star scale, Adorama ProJet Elite inkjet paper would get 0 stars.

Ultimately, unless you actually need a UV filter (ie, for outdoor shots with a lot of haze, wide open blue sky, or reflective water), you usually just buy one as a way to protect your lens by not having it open to the elements; it’s easier (and cheaper) to buy a new $20 UV filter after you ruin it, than a new $150+ lens.

That said, this filter is optically clear, and doesn’t affect the brightness, color hue, or color saturation of shots, and is made of a single piece of glass with a solid metal frame that screws right into the front of my lens, and my existing lens cap fits over that. So, now I don’t have to worry about cleaning dust and other destructive substances off my lens, since the lens filter seals the front of the lens off from the outside; so I just have to clean the outside of the filter.

It weighs an ounce or two, so it does make the camera feel heavier; not that its a bad thing, I always thought my Rebel XT was a tad on the light side. Even though it weighs more, it doesn’t effect the autofocus function in any way (including the rate at which it focuses), and isn’t heavy enough to cause lens creep¹.

I paid around $30 for mine from Adorama, and I’m quite happy with the performance. Since I’ve never owned a lens filter before, I was worried that it would alter the quality of the shots, but it hasn’t in any way. If you own a professional-level camera, I highly recommending buying a Sigma EX Multi-coated UV Filter for your lens(es), too.

_{[1]: A problem with some lenses where the moving part of the zoom lens slowly moves outwards/inwards when tilting the camera forwards/backwards.}

For a mere $350-400, you get a printer that is fast, quiet, produces great prints, good looking, and charismatic. If there is a printer you can pick up chicks with, this is that printer.

Speed: Doing borderless photos at the highest quality using Canon’s Photo Paper Pro, I get a 4×6″ in about 35 seconds, a 8×10″ in about 50 seconds, and a 13×19″ in about 3 minutes. Watching it do a 13×19″ that fast is almost like a magic trick.

Noise: Ultimately none. The specifications in the manual say 37db maximum when printing, but the only thing I hear is the clunk-clunk sound of it feeding pages into itself, and the occational swish-swish as the head goes back and forth while printing. Its quieter than any printer I’ve ever owned.

Photo Quality: I’ve been printing out 8 megapixel images from my Canon Rebel XT, and the photo quality is amazing. Compared to, say, the Kodak digital printing booth at Walmart, for roughly the same price per picture[1], I get much better quality. And, of course, it beats any consumer or prosumer photo printer I’ve owned (including two Canons and a Lexmark[2].) I haven’t found a good picture to push the envelope of this printer’s 4800×2400 DPI output, but I find text to be crisp and sharp, as if it came out of a high end laser printer.

Size and weight: Well, I won’t say the printer is small. It being a wide format printer, it has to be big enough to print 13″ wide paper, plus enough room on each side for the print head to completely clear the paper. The specifications in the manual say it weighs 21 pounds, and has a WxHxD of 23x7x13″, but that isn’t really big at all. The volume is roughly four times that of a Canon consumer printer, and they pack a lot of features in such a tiny space.

Ink usage and price: You’d expect a printer like this to chew through ink like crazy, right? Wrong. I’ve printed over 75 4×6″s, a 8×10″, a 13×19″, and two pages of a PDF so far, and according to the ink level viewer in the driver, I haven’t used much ink at all (see the screenshot to the left to see for yourself). Amazon is currently selling all the 8 seperate ink tanks for around $8 a peice, so the cost per unit of ink is lower than most professional printers, and lower than any consumer printer that uses the single all-in-one carts with the built-in print head.

Asthetic quality: I used to think all printers were ugly, and were far too ornate for their function; or on the other end of the spectrum, too boxy and plain. The Canon i9900 manages to perform well and look good doing it. As a review said (one I read before buying the printer) it looks like they “sliced a cylinder in half”, and I have to agree. Also, the coloring is a tasteful blend of black and dark silver, and the front panel only has two buttons, a light, and a USB plug for plugging a camera directly into the printer.

Other things I like about this printer is how it folds up on itself to keep dust out: the front tray folds in and up to prevent stuff entering from the front, and the paper holder in the back folds down to prevent dust and small objects from simply falling inside. I can open the front panel with the tray and paper holder closed, so replacing ink carts is a breeze.

Honestly, I’d pay even more for this printer than what Canon sells this for. Canon’s MSRP is $500, Amazon sells it for around $450, and I’d pay around $600-700 for it; its very hard to get printers that are supported by Linux that are any good.

_{[1]: Its about $0.50 per 4×6″ at the local Kodak booth, and I pay about $0.60 cents per 4×6″ in a 120 pack of Canon’s Photo Paper Pro. Photo Paper Pro is thicker, brighter, and more resistant to mishandling than Kodak’s paper in my opinion, so it’s quite worth the extra ten cents.}

_{[2]: I hate Lexmark’s consumer printers. Lexmark refuses to release Linux drivers for them, and they have threatened to sue anyone who tries to. I would normally say “boycot Lexmark”, but lets face it, Lexmark consumer printers are some of the lowest quality printers produced with some of the highest priced ink. Get a cheap Canon for a similar price, you’ll be much happier.}

Update: I’ve blogged about using Adorama ProJet Elite inkjet paper with my i9900, and its worth a read if you want to know how well the i9900 interacts with this brand of paper.