Canon EOS 1000D / Rebel XS

12th August 2011

Written by Gordon Laing

Canon EOS 1000D / Rebel XS Gallery

The following images were taken with a final production Canon EOS 1000D / Rebel XS, running firmware 1.0.3 and equipped with the standard EF-S 18-55mm IS kit lens.

The EOS 1000D / XS was set to Large Fine JPEG quality, Auto White Balance, Evaluative metering and the Standard Picture Style; High ISO Noise Reduction and the Auto Lighting Optimiser were set to their default OFF and Enable settings respectively. Image Stabilisation was enabled for all these handheld shots.

The individual exposure mode, file sizes, shutter speeds, aperture, ISO and lens focal length are listed for each image.

The crops are taken from the original files, reproduced at 100% and saved in Adobe Photoshop CS2 as JPEGs with the default Very High quality preset, while the resized images were made in Photoshop CS2 and saved with the default High quality preset. The three crops are typically taken from far left, central and far right portions of each image.

Note: you may wish to open a number of galleries for direct comparison of detail and noise: Canon EOS 450D / Rebel XSi gallery, Nikon D60 gallery, Olympus E-520 gallery, Pentax K200D gallery and our Sony Alpha A300 gallery.

Landscape: 3.34MB, Program, 1/200, f9, ISO 100, 18-55mm IS at 18mm (equivalent to 29mm)

This first shot was taken with the 1000D / XS and the 18-55mm zoomed-out to an equivalent of 29mm. It was bright and the sensitivity set to 100 ISO, so this represents ideal conditions.

As with previous Canon DSLRs, the results at lower sensitivities are silky smooth with plenty of detail and no noise or processing artefacts to worry about – as you’d hope.

The result also has a more natural look than many entry-level DSLRs which often boost the contrast, saturation and sharpness.

Landscape: 6.22MB, Program, 1/200, f9, ISO 100, 18-55mm IS at 18mm (equivalent to 29mm)

Another shot taken at 100 ISO under bright light, with the kit lens zoomed-out. The very low angle was made easier by Live View, although a flip-out screen would have been preferred.

As before it’s a very smooth image with no noise or processing artefacts.

And again, a natural-looking result with the default settings.

Landscape: 3.38MB, Program, 1/320, f13, ISO 200, 18-55mm at 55mm (equivalent to 88mm)

				Our next shot was taken of an approaching boat. The lens was zoomed-into its maximum focal length, the AF set to AI Servo and the sensitivity increased to 200 ISO. The 1000D / XS’s AF system tracked the approaching boat without difficulty, while the bright hull hasn’t fooled it into underexposing. The boost in sensitivity hasn’t had a detrimental effect on the crops, which are still very detailed and free of noise.

Portrait: 2.89MB, Program, 1/200, f13, ISO 200, 18-55mm IS at 55mm (equivalent to 88mm)

For this portrait shot we kept the sensitivity at 200 ISO and the lens at its maximum of 55mm, but manually popped-open the built-in flash to fill-in harsh shadows.

The 1000D / XS has done a fair job of balancing natural light with that from the flash and there’s lots of detail in the crops.

We shot this in Program mode, but switching to Aperture Priority and a small f-number can achieve a smaller depth of field.

Macro: 3.90MB, Program, 1/160, f9, ISO 400, 18-55mm IS at 55mm (equivalent to 88mm)

For this macro shot we increased the sensitivity to 400 ISO and positioned the camera as close at it would focus with the kit lens fully zoomed-in.

The increase to 400 ISO hasn’t had a detrimental effect on the image, with the crops still appearing smooth, detailed and free of noise.

In this respect the 1000D / XS is already doing better than some entry-level DSLRs which can exhibit evidence of noise at this point. But the real test of high sensitivities is indoors under dim light, so let’s move onto the next sample.

Indoor: 3.72MB, Program, 1/30, f4, ISO 400, 18-55mm IS at 18mm (equivalent to 29mm)

Our first indoor shot was taken with the EOS 1000D / XS at 400 ISO.

Look very closely and you’ll notice a slight reduction in quality over the previous images, but it’s still a fairly clean result which beats several rival models.

Indoor: 3.68MB, Program, 1/13, f3.5, ISO 800, 18-55mm IS at 20mm (equivalent to 32mm)

Our second indoor shot was taken with the sensitivity increased to 800 ISO.

As you’d expect, there’s greater visible noise artefacts than the previous samples, but again it’s better than some 10 Mpixel DSLRs, and there’s still a reasonable degree of detail present. The 1000D / XS images remain quite usable at 800 ISO.