Canon 1200D was the talk of the town when it was released on the market. But the predecessor lacked NFC capabilities and Wifi Options. So the company launched its successor on the market for the same price as Canon 1300D.

Canon 1300D acts as a stepping stone for all budding photographers who are into serious photography. This becomes the perfect entry-level DSLR who are new to these cameras with interchangeable lenses and its attractive price adds to the points.

In this article, I will be doing the complete and comprehensive review of the Entry-level DSLR – Canon 1300D and will be coming up with the pros and cons of the equipment.

The Scorecard:

Detailed Analysis:

Canon is one of the best Camera manufacturers on the globe and they house the extremely popular 5D Lineup which is mostly used over every photographer for Professional photography.

So, from a renowned camera manufacurer, you can’t be complaining much about the outcomes of the product.

Review Aspects:

• Build and Design
• Image Quality
• Connectivity
• Battery Life

Build and Design:

As with most DSLRs, the design is pretty much the same as always. The EOS 1300D uses smoothly finished matte plastic that doesn’t really exude class, but in every fairness, no entry segment DSLRs boast premium, metal finish.

You get an inbuilt flash module, a pentamirror optical viewfinder, 3-inch LCD viewfinder, and the standard array of physical control buttons with one circular toggle dial right behind the shutter button.

The camera also comes with a mic-out, mini-HDMI and mini-USB out, along with WiFi and NFC wireless connectivity.

The button arrangement also remains the same, so if you have used a Canon camera prior to this, chances are that you’ll find the layout familiar and very easy to use.

On overall terms, the Canon EOS 1300D is one of the easiest and most convenient DSLR cameras to use in the market right now.

Image Performance:

The Canon EOS 1300D is equipped with an 18-megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor with 1.6x crop factor. It is coupled to a DIGIC 4+ image processor, with a native ISO range of 100-6400, expandable to 12800. 

The EOS 1300D packs in all the essentials, including shutter speed range of 30” to 1/4000”, support for Canon EF and EF-S lenses, and houses 9 AF points with one cross AF point with f/5.6 focus point. It can also shoot Full HD videos at 30fps or 24fps.

As with most budget DSLR cameras, the optical viewfinder is pentamirror and pentaprism, leading to a slight leakage of light internally. It is not majorly noticeable, though.

The EOS 1300D shoots reasonably decent photographs, although noise is certainly discernible onwards of ISO 800. The light processing is also not the best in class, so you may often find shooting up the ISO values. 

With the starter kits, you get the perfect lenses to begin your photography journey, and while we can only hope that the EOS 1300D performed even better in terms of adjusting light, it is quite efficient as a beginner’s DSLR.

The dynamic range of the EOS 1300D is not class-leading either, which leads to marginal morphing of shadows, lower accuracy of colors than slightly higher-priced compatriots like the EOS 75D, and at times, noticeable banding in ISO 100.

As for advantages, the EOS 1300D excels with its incredible ease of usage, reasonable smoothness and the presence of a cross AF point which majorly helps in speeding up autofocus performance.

For beginners, the Canon EOS 1300D is suitably fast, smooth and fairly responsive. It is not consistently accurate, and I found the EOS 1300D focussing on the wrong point in the frame at least once every six new photographs.

The Canon EOS 1300D is not the best in terms of image clarity, level of noise and dynamic range, but does very well with colors and improves on the speed and accuracy of autofocus on budget DSLR cameras.

It is also very easy to operate and convenient, offering a number of priority and scene modes, along with full manual shooting capabilities. It does have its compromises, but its advantages weigh out what it misses on.

Connectivity:

One of the most convenient factors of the Canon EOS 1300D is the presence of WiFi connectivity.

To use it, you need to download Canon’s CameraConnect app on your phone, enable WiFi on the camera from the Wi-Fi Function option on the second-from-right Menu list, connect your phone with the SSID and password shown on the camera’s LCD display. 

Once you are connected, opening the app will show up the camera in front of you, which you need to tap on to complete the connection process. It is really very simple, and perfect if you love sharing your photography work on social media.

Images by default are resized before downloading to phone over WiFi to save storage space and ease uploading (well, why else are you transferring the files to your phone, anyway?), and you can change this easily from the drop-down settings menu.

Remote shooting works fairly well with minimal lag unless you have a distance of over eight feet from the camera. I quite like the overall layout of the app, which tries to make up for the lack of a touchscreen on the camera.

Battery Life:

The battery life could have been much better, though, and is, in fact, the only notable aspect that I did not really like about it. With one full charge, I managed to shoot 229 photographs. 

I had kept LCD settings at default which translates to a very inconvenient LCD switch off time of 10 seconds and comparably dim brightness.

I may arguably get slightly better battery time with more conscious usage, but if I am out for a photo walk all day, I will certainly run out of charge before the walk ends, which is not the ideal situation.

Features:

• The Canon EOS 1300D features Wi-Fi and NFC capabilities.
• The camera has an 18-megapixel sensor with Digic 4+ image processor.
• You get a 3-inch LCD display with a 920K dot resolution.
• And all standard features of a typical DSLR

Final Verdict:

At this price, the Canon EOS 1300D is the best present-generation camera to buy for budding photographers.

The Nikon D3300 performs better with autofocus and balancing light across frames, but the EOS 1300D has its strengths in the vibrancy of colors and ease of interface and buttons.

At around Rs. 30,000, the Canon EOS 1300D is a very old school beginner’s DSLR that retains the essence of photography while fusing in new-age features and toggles like ISO barrier and wireless connectivity on the go.

It is, to sum up, a good DSLR to buy for many budding photographers out in the market to buy their first interchangeable lens camera.