Light Weight
Easy to use in automatic mode.

Too Small for people with Big hands. The buttons and dials are not made for anyone of size.

I picked up this camera because of weight and lens options. (I planned on taking this backpacking so weight was and issue.) My Photographer friend is unimpressed with the construction and durability potential. However, I feel that the options and quality suit my needs. The pictures I take look great with the right lens. If I put a garbage lens on the body, the pictures are garbage. If I put a descent lens on the body, the pictures look great. The full automatic mode does all the thinking for me. I would buy cannon low end again.

Customer Service

Not needed yet.

Similar Products Used:

No other SLR experience.

Nice selection of features for beginner or advanced users.

Doesn't seem too rugged, had needed repair (once caught on fire in film loader!)

I don't know if my experience was a fluke or not. Before the fire incident, I was very pleased. It focuses quickly, has a number of useful features, and can also be used fully-auto cor casual photographing. Honestly, though, I would recommend spending more on a different camera.

Customer Service

Repair was quick but EXPENSIVE.

Similar Products Used:

Minolta SRT,
645 format

Not many

This camera is a piece of crap. After shooting just one roll of film, almost every flash picture was either gravely underexposed, overexposed, or a combination of the two in certain places. The plastic body feels like it'd break if it slammed against your chest too hard.
What the hell does Canon think people are going to use all those features for. I figure they'd have been much better off spending their money trying to figure out how to get the d*** thing to focus better, and faster. It litteraly takes about 7 seconds to focus on a good, long range shot with a 300-400mm lens.

And what's up with the meter?? Why would you spend an extra $20 on a camera to get a meter, when it **DID NOTHING**???? Every time I have tried to use it, the pix come out all wrong. I have been a photographer for 16 years, and I used every technique I knew to meter the picture properly - none of them worked. I also tried to do it the way they suggested in the manual - it still didn't work. It's like it changes itself everytime you take a picture.

I had this camera for three months. That's three months too many. I wisely switched back to using my EOS 620 as my backup camera instead of this piece of garbage Canon tries to pass off as a camera. Bottom line - *****DON'T BUY THIS CAMERA***** - IT SU***!

Similar Products Used:

All EOS
Nikon N-70, N-80
Some Pentax
Mamyia-Sekor medium format models

Reasonably priced camera that's a good entry into the Canon lens system. It's more camera than the Nikon N60 (which lacks that ablility to rate the ISO of your film manually).

Autofocus can be slow (more the fault of a non-USM lens than the camera itself). Slow flash-sync is a bit annoying. The lack of a depth-of-field preview makes close-up photography a hassle. An old-style split-image focusing screen would greatly aid in manual focus with lenses with small maximum aperatures.

This little camera is a joy to use. Sure, compared to higher-end cameras like the EOS 3, this camera lags in film speed, custom functions, and is made of plastic. What did you expect: Titanium casing for under $300 US? Unless you're using it to crack open walnuts, you shouldn't have any problems. I've owned mine for two years and haven't a complaint about durability.
While most professionals prefer a camera with weight, the light build of the Rebel G makes it ideal as a back-up camera in case your "big-guns" conk out on you (and it will happen at the most inconvenient moment). The body without a lens can fit into a pocket on a photographer's vest, or a small corner in a camera bag without taking up too much room.
Yes, if you want to take pictures professionally, you'll want the control that other more expensive cameras offer, but in the meantime, this camera is affordable enough to allow you to actually practice photography, rather than spending your time sneering at people who don't have the pro-models while you produce crap-pictures, anyway.

Customer Service

Never needed it

Similar Products Used:

Nikon N50
Nikon N60
Canon EOS 1
Canon EOS 3

Easy to use for very very casual, point-and-shoot-like, picture-taking

Flimsy and light material and construction
Useless features
Inconsistent
Slow and useless autofocus
Built-In Flash is a pain
Somehow drains batteries quickly
Don't trust the metering

My mother came home with this outfit one day along with the 28-80 lens. I was throughly unimpressed. If you have to buy this camera buy the body alone and get some good lenses. To me this camera is an expensive minorly more advanced point-and-shoot that makes you feel like you are using an SLR. It is not versatile (which for me is a top priority) and the bells and whistles are mostly for show. If it makes you feel better to have something that looks like an SLR in your hands than this is the camera for you. It does gives somewhat better picture quality than a point-and-shoot and possibly more options but not enough for the money. My mother has come to me countless times having no idea how to operate it beyond turning it on and pressing the shutter, and experiencing some kind of problem with the mechanics of it. While my mother isn't a techno-guru, the problems weren't her fault. Felt is flaking onto the mirror and the viewing screen and while it doesn't effect the exposure it is a sign of bad construction and it is extremly irritating. I don't recommend this camera.

Customer Service

Haven't used it, but not because I haven't needed it

Similar Products Used:

Elan IIe
A2e
Rebel X (similarly unimpressed, although I had less time with it)
Nikon FM
Nikon EL

Lightweight body and lens; inexpensive; "semi-automatic setting with choice between shutter priority and aperture priority; good user manual.

Flimsy shutter, VERY easy to damage; manual settings hard to use; zoom lens requires high-speed film at all times; built-in flash casts uneven, glaring light.

I'm thoroughly disgusted with this camera's cheap-o shutter, which consists of a series of plastic strips that are VERY easy to poke in (thus jamming the shutter) when loading and unloading film. I spent more than $100 getting it fixed one time, and I've fixed it myself two other times. It's happened again and I can't fix it, and I'm not pouring any more money into it, so I'm getting rid of the camera. If you are a non-wealthy amateur photographer with the hands of a surgeon (and thus won't mess it up like I did), the Rebel G could be a good choice. A true beginner might prefer a point-and-shoot, and is probably wasting money on the Rebel G's manual features if they won't be used.

Customer Service

N/A

Similar Products Used:

None

Cheap & cheerful, great features for the price

Standard Lenses are slow, upgrade to USM when you first buy it, they'll be worth it.

Meter on mine underexposes reqularly

Great beginners camera, I bought one and my interest in Photography stemmed from there. Has travelled round Europe, Africa and N. America and has never complained, nor broken. Has been abused a lot but still looks in perfect condition (plastic body must be pretty strong).

Similar Products Used:

None

very inexpensive, good deal for the money, pop up flash

extremely slow and shoddy autofocus, poor metering, batery eater, poor flash, plastic

Basically this camera is a good extreme beginner camera. The auto focus is much slower than manual. The metering gives you no clue of what it is actually evaluating. As a nikon user, it is clearly evident that the entire camera is plasic, and anyone who likes stock zooms, 28-80 4-5.6!! is kidding themselves if they think that image quality is the same as a fixed focal length or even the f/2.8.

But that all withstanding, a good buy for around 200 bucks.

Customer Service

none needed

Similar Products Used:

canon elan, elan II, nikon n70, f100

Very lightweight and easy to use for the novice.

Batteries run down very quickly, unreliable focusing, annoying redeye light.

This camera is a good looking, lightweight pice of kit, but you could do much better elsewher such as the Nikon F60, I bought 2 after getting rid of my Canon and have run approx 60 films through both without a single problem.

Customer Service

My Camera used 6 sets of batteries within 8 months, was sent back to canon for repair three times but I refused to accept it back after the third attempt to repair it.

Similar Products Used:

Nikon F60

The rebel is simple and easy to use, accepts all Canon lenses, and is very lightweight. Good beginner camera, especially for the price.

SLOW autofocus (I have missed many shots while it refocused to infinity and back), not enough custom features, inconvenient setup for adusting the exposure over or under, built in flash is worthless.

This is an ideal camera for a beginner looking to get a first SLR. However, the downfalls make it hard to do any action photography, and advanced ametures will find the slow autofocus extremely annoying. It's a good value for the money though.

Customer Service

not tried

Similar Products Used:

A2E, Elan