Canon EOS Rebel T1i

Lens & Sensor

Zoom Ratio Examples
18.0 mm	37.0 mm	55.0 mm

The T1i has a 15-megapixel 22.3×14.9mm CMOS sensor, with a built in sensor cleaning system that activates when the camera is turned off. If the cleaning doesn’t successfully shake loose all the dust particles on the sensor, a photo can be taken of a white background in order for the camera to register the dust location, which can then be removed digitally with the Canon Digital Photo Professional software provided with the camera.

The T1i has an APS-C sized sensor, which is significantly smaller than the 35mm full-frame sensor used on the likes of the Canon 5D Mark II, and slightly smaller than the APS-H format sensor which is found on the Canon 1D line. The smaller sensor creates a ‘crop factor,’ where you multiply the focal length of a lens by this factor to get the equivalent focal length for a 35mm sensor. With 15 megapixels squeezed into a small sensor, noise levels and dynamic range tend to be worse.

Viewfinder (9.00)

TheT1i viewfinder offers 95% field of view at 0.87x magnification and a diopter range of -3 to +1 m-1. A nice touch on the viewfinder is the small proximity sensor placed right beneath it, which turns off the LCD as you put your face up to the camera.

The T1i comes with a eyecup cover attached to the neck-strap, which is used to cover the viewfinder to prevent light leaks during tripod photography. It’s nice that they include this on an entry-level model, but you have to remove the eye-cup to use the cover, which is a pain to remove, and it’s something you want to avoid doing frequently.

Display(s) (6.10)

The T1i uses a 920,000-dot, three inch LCD, which offers excellent sharpness for playback, and makes manually focusing in Live View easier. Nikon’s comparable model, the D5000, instead has a lower-resolution LCD (only 230,000-dots) but it is articulated, which means it can be folded out and viewed at different angles.

By pressing the Set button, the T1i launches into a quick menu, which lets you alter common settings very quickly. The quick menu has a small quirk where if the possible options for a setting extend over more than two rows, you can only use left and right on the four way controller to chose which one you want, but not up and down. So when you open the Picture Style list from the Quick Menu, there are two rows of choices, and you have to keep pressing right at the end of a row to get down to the next one, rather than being able to use up and down.

The LCD can be set to seven brightness levels, and the Quick Menu can be set to one of four color schemes: black on grey, white on brown, white on black or a rather hideous green on black.

Connectivity (4.50)

There are three ports on the T1i: mini-HDMI (cable sold separately), USB/AV out and a remote control terminal.