Canon T4i Digital Camera Review

Motion

The Canon T4i captured motion fairly well. Artifacting was kept to a minimum, and while there was some substantial ghosting visible when the video was paused, it looked great in motion. There was visible rolling shutter effect with quick panning, but skilled videographers will find ways to get around it. Shutter speeds can be fine-tuned to minimize the effect, as well. Sharpness looked pretty good in motion, but freeze-frames showed that it could have been better. Luckily, people don't typically watch videos frame by frame. More on how CamcorderInfo tests motion.

The T4i's performance in this regard is in line with most DSLRs in its class. It's better than the T3i in terms of artifacting and ghosting, perhaps because of the improved DIGIC 5 processor, but not by a whole lot. The T4i's video was about on par with what you'd get from the Nikon D5100 and quite a bit sharper than the Pentax K-30's output, but can't quite match the Sony NEX-5N's results with regard to smoothness and crispness when recording motion.

Video Sharpness

In our tests, the T4i with the 18-135mm STM kit lens produced reasonably sharp results when recording video. In the lab, we found that the T4i can resolve about 600 lw/ph of vertical sharpness, and roughly 650 lw/ph of horizontal sharpness. This is a slight backward step from the T3i, but in actual field use we couldn't really tell a difference between the two. Overall, it's a pretty good score for a video-capable DSLR, though it certainly doesn't come close to what we've seen from higher-end video-oriented cameras. More on how CamcorderInfo tests video sharpness.

Low Light Sensitivity

We tested the Canon T4i's low-light sensitivity under lab conditions and found that it needed only 5 lux of light to produce an image that achieved 50 IRE on a waveform monitor (i.e., a fairly acceptable image that, while dark, is still visible with some degree of detail). By way of contrast, the T3i required 8 lux to achieve the same feat. The T3i's mark was already a good one, and the T4i's is superb for a camera in its class.