I purchased my Canon Rebel T3 about a year ago in a bundle deal with a 75-300 lens as well as the 18-55. This was my first SLR, and I absolutely loved it. I'll start with what I felt were the pros and cons, and then go into more detail, concluding with my decision to upgrade to the Canon Rebel T2i. All the photos on this page were taken with the T3.
Pros:
- Beautiful pictures in ideal conditions with little to no effort.
- Fast shutter speeds, flash speeds, etc.
- A full range of settings, this is a fully featured SLR, you can go from automatic to manually adjusting everything.
- Good LCD Screen
- Compatibility/Popularity (the sheer number of accessories and lenses out there for the Canon EOS line of cameras is mind-boggling)
Cons:
- Good but not great video. It was far superior to a cell camera or a cheap camcorder, but the autofocus while shooting isn't great in video, and the screen isn't sharp enough to tell if you're in focus when manually focusing.
- Good but not great pixel count. The bump to the T2i is apparent in some of my pictures. For most situations, the T3 is fantastic, the sensor remained the same between the 2, and that's more important than pixel count.
- No external microphone (for video). The built-in microphone was good, but like any built-in if there was any wind it overpowers the other audio.
The Experience:
From the first moment I picked up the T3, I loved it. It was an excellent SLR, and if I hadn't been shooting video very much (or if I had a separate good camcorder) I would never have switched. The automatic mode turns this complex camera into a point-and-shoot for my wife, so there's not reason to be intimidated in the jump to the SLR. Just like any point and shoot camera it also has shooting modes, optimized for certain situations like Sports. These automatic modes work great as well, you could get away with buying this camera and never learning F-stops or optimal shutter speeds. I really want to stress this, ANYONE can buy this camera and get great shots in most conditions.
Canon's menu/settings interface is intuitive for the most part. Once you get into complex areas it can require experimentation or consulting the manual, but hat's off to them for keeping the majority of it simple and intuitive. It can take something like 3 shots per second, so for sports, animals, or kids it is perfect.
As I learned more about photography, I was delighted to discover that everything mentioned in Photography websites and blogs I was able to do with the Canon Rebel T3. With my advanced ultra-zoom point and shoot that I used to use, I'd often run into situations where I wanted to take a time-lapse shot, or do something manually, and simply couldn't.
I would have been extremely happy with this camera for years, were it not for video. I'm the informal photographer at all our family gatherings now, and find myself shooting video at nearly every event. The video from the T3 was crisp and clear, when I could get it in focus, but when you're shooting video you have to use the LCD, and it can be hard to see if you're in or slightly out of focus. If you switch your lens to automatic focus, it will attempt to continually keep things in focus for you, but this results in the lens shifting in and out of focus quite often, and you can hear the focusing motor going in the resulting video.
Since the T3's are so much cheaper now, if you're not doing video, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it. Even if you do plan on doing some video you'll probably still love it, it really wasn't bad at all.
Seriously, buy it now. :-)
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