Labs

The Canon Eos 400D needs little introduction. This popular camera has a 10.1-megapixel Cmos sensor and the legendary ease of use that Canon SLRs have been famous for over the past few years. It also benefits from access to an illustrious set of lenses, all with superfast and quiet focusing.

The Eos 400D has a bright and clear 2.5in LCD screen and is lightweight but robust. In terms of features, the Canon will not leave you wanting with almost all eventualities catered for. The kit lens supplied with the 400D is an 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 type, which is a decent starter lens but nothing more.

In use, the Canon is a fine camera, and it

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delivers results, whatever your needs. If you're an absolute beginner then getting started is as simple as turning the operation dial to the green icon and taking pictures. If you know what you're doing then the manual controls are just as easy to manage. All this is aided by an excellent and simple to follow menu system.

The Canon performed well with good colour reproduction and nicely balanced skin tones. The colour image test was a touch warm and the primary colours not quite as saturated as we'd have liked but this could be fixed in post processing. We were impressed with the level of detail captured by the Eos 400D. Our skin tone test showed similar qualities, though it's fair to say that other cameras here produced a better quality shot.

The Canon combines ease-of-use and handling with good image quality and is a good all-rounder. Canon could be a little more generous with the kit lens but the Eos 400D is a solid performer nonetheless.

That said the image quality was outshone here by other cameras and at the end of the day that's a major consideration. If you've invested in Canon lenses then perhaps it would be best to stick with Canon bodies but if not there's never been a better time to shop around.