Canon T4i Hands on Review

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mmurph
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p.1 #1 · Canon T4i Hands on Review

Hello folks,

I finally got my Canon T4i this afternoon. I put up a quick Word Press blog with some first thoughts about the camera:

http://blog.mtkalin.com/

I am going to head out now to take some pictures and test out the features, including the ISO and some dynamic range tests.

Feel free to ask questions here or at the blog. Samples soon.

Thanks!

Michael

Jun 15, 2012 at 09:48 PM

Dawei Ye
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p.1 #2 · Canon T4i Hands on Review

Thanks for the feedback that was quick!

Jun 17, 2012 at 03:26 PM

mmurph
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p.1 #3 · Canon T4i Hands on Review

I have to write up another post now. Unfortunately, I didn't get this in my hands until late Friday afternoon, when my wife and son were already home for teh weekend. Family tasks have slowed down testing.

Though I should get to play with camera equipment in Fathers Day (in the US), right?

I **really** like this camera! Like the usual "lock focus and recompose" process on an autofocus camera, it takes a bit to find a good working method in the field for some of the automated functions.

I have turned off the Movie Servo Focus, which is always hunting to find a new focus point. So far my strategy has been to

1) Select and lock a focus point with the shutter 1/2 way depressed. Then,

2) When I want to shift focus, touch the rear screen to the preferred focus point.

That works quite well in a typical framed, static image with shallow depth of field. The focus moves a little quickly for good video quality without the STM lenses. I may try to stretch the focus shift on the timeline in Premiere Pro and see how it looks.

I am really looking forward to testing this with the STM lenses. I hope they ship quickly.

More later!

Michael

Jun 17, 2012 at 03:47 PM

Tom_W
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p.1 #4 · Canon T4i Hands on Review

Thanks for the quick hands-on review. Looking forward to more information!

Jun 17, 2012 at 05:31 PM

Yakim Peled
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p.1 #5 · Canon T4i Hands on Review

Tom_W wrote:
Thanks for the quick hands-on review. Looking forward to more information!

Me too, especially WRT video AF.

Happy shooting,
Yakim.

Jun 18, 2012 at 12:00 AM

mmurph
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p.1 #6 · Canon T4i Hands on Review

Video autofocus up next! Just on my way home from testing in the field

Some learning curve, but I really love this camera! My favorite camera ever. It just beat out the 1DsII and pushed the Mamiya 7II into 3rd place!

Jun 18, 2012 at 12:30 AM

mmurph
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p.1 #7 · Canon T4i Hands on Review

Ok folks, I put up a post on auto focus.

I just finished it - trying to get my thoughts accurately into the post. I think I oversold the camera a bit on the first pass.

But my next post will be on some negatives, one of which I mention there: You can't turn off auto ISO in any auto exposure mode!!

I mean really Canon , WTF? You can hold the <*> key to lock ISO while recording, but I am already short on hands and fingers and brain cells to track ... everything.

When I saw the way that "Movie" mode was set up on the dial, I thought - wow, maybe it has Tv and Av - shutter priority, aperture priority - set a nice 1/60 and never leave, or a nice 1.8 and stay wide open. No such luck.

Say Canon - here is my list of firmware upgrade requests .......

Cheers!
Michael

Jun 18, 2012 at 04:19 AM

CW100
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p.1 #8 · Canon T4i Hands on Review

mmurph wrote:
I really love this camera! My favorite camera ever. It just beat out the 1DsII and pushed the Mamiya 7II into 3rd place!

the Rebel T4i beat out the 1Ds mkII ?
amazing

Jun 18, 2012 at 10:29 AM

mmurph
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p.1 #9 · Canon T4i Hands on Review

I think they are pretty equal in basics. That is an 8 year old camera - from 2004. Same time as the 20D.

Obviously the 1DsII had much, much better build quality. But the autofocus on the T4i feels pretty comparable. I don't remember the frame rate, but it seems about equal.

Of course the T4i has Live View, video, and all of the special autofocus tracking modes.

Today I'll post the negatives though to balance it out. Mostly firmware stuff, but some really stupid calls!

And this is all pretty subjective of course. I think the 40mm pancake is a brilliant idea, great small portable kit for video, really good MTF charts. Others are not so excited ...

The same with the 18-135 IS. First kit lens I have **ever** cared about. I've never actually used one before for serious work. I have 7 L lenses, and 4 non L primes. Even going to sell some L's to make room for the 40 and 18-135!

Cheers!
Michael

Jun 18, 2012 at 10:48 AM

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p.1 #10 · Canon T4i Hands on Review

mmurph wrote:
I think they are pretty equal in basics. That is an 8 year old camera - from 2004. Same time as the 20D.

Obviously the 1DsII had much, much better build quality. But the autofocus on the T4i feels pretty comparable. I don't remember the frame rate, but it seems about equal.

Of course the T4i has Live View, video, and all of the special autofocus tracking modes.

Today I'll post the negatives though to balance it out. Mostly firmware stuff, but some really stupid calls!

And this is all pretty subjective of course. I think the 40mm pancake is a brilliant idea, great small portable kit for video, really good MTF charts. Others are not so excited ...

The same with the 18-135 IS. First kit lens I have **ever** cared about. I've never actually used one before for serious work. I have 7 L lenses, and 4 non L primes. Even going to sell some L's to make room for the 40 and 18-135!

Cheers!
Michael

Great review! Thank you Michael!

I have a question. Generally speaking, for a mother recording her children's growth, will you consider T4i to be more suitable for her than 5d mark ii? I understand these are totally different cameras, but I can see that T4i has better auto focus system than 5d mark ii from your review. What's more, the auto focus for the video could be very very useful. As for the IQ, 5d mark ii is marvelous, I can see and feel the differences on the screen but for prints in 4X6 size, which I normally do, these differences disappear.

Thank you.
Alice

Jun 18, 2012 at 02:22 PM

Tom_W
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p.1 #11 · Canon T4i Hands on Review

Video AF sounds very promising. The still AF sounds like the respectable system from the 40/50/60D, which isn't bad at all.

Jun 18, 2012 at 03:53 PM

Daan B
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p.1 #12 · Canon T4i Hands on Review

Thanks for doing this. Looking forward to your comments when you use the STM lenses with the T4i.

Jun 18, 2012 at 07:27 PM

mmurph
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p.1 #13 · Canon T4i Hands on Review

fullmoon wrote:
Generally speaking, for a mother recording her children's growth, will you consider T4i to be more suitable for her than 5d mark ii? I understand these are totally different cameras, but I can see that T4i has better auto focus system than 5d mark ii from your review. What's more, the auto focus for the video could be very very useful.

Hi Alice,

That is really a tough one. I have not used the Canon 5DII, if you can believe that ... I had my 1DsII, and the 20d, 30D, and 40D, so my comparison will be based on those. Plus the Canon T3i.
Sorry for the long pre-amble. I don't want to "oversell" this camera based on my immediate perceptions. New toys are fun!

I was particularly frustrated trying to use the T3i for casual family videos, etc. without autofocus. We were up north on the beach a few weeks ago with the dogs on the beach and the thing was just a PITA. I wound up using my iPhone instead just to capture casual video.

The T4i will go a long way towards filling that gap, with one important exception. The auto exposure is really limited, in that in all auto exposure modes the camera will automatically set was frustrated with the auto exposure mode itself, in that there is no way to control WHAT values are changed in ANY of the auto exposure modes, as far as I have found yet.

For example, the camera will vary shutter speed, aperture, AND ISO. Even in a bright daylight shoot, at 1/100 at f/16, it seems to PREFER to vary the ISO rather than the shutter or aperture. I saw the ISO bounce from 100, to 200, 400, and 800 in a matter of a few seconds when panning across a backlit scene.

It is possible to lock the ISO by holding the <*> key after taking exposure while recording. I have to experiment to be sure, but I think it only stays in effect while you are holding the key.

I haveto run. More in a bit.

Best,
Michael

Jun 18, 2012 at 09:41 PM

Yakim Peled
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p.1 #14 · Canon T4i Hands on Review

mmurph wrote:
The same with the 18-135 IS. First kit lens I have **ever** cared about. I've never actually used one before for serious work. I have 7 L lenses, and 4 non L primes. Even going to sell some L's to make room for the 40 and 18-135!

I remember using the 18-55 IS and 55-250 IS and amazed by their IQ. Looks like Canon is continuing this trend. Great.

Happy shooting,
Yakim.

Jun 18, 2012 at 10:06 PM

mmurph
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p.1 #15 · Canon T4i Hands on Review

Yakim Peled wrote:
I remember using the 18-55 IS and 55-250 IS and amazed by their IQ. Looks like Canon is continuing this trend

Sorry, I don't want to mislead you. I don't have the new 18-135 mm yet.

I am very much looking forward to testing the STM lenses.

I am exceited to test the speed and look of teh auto focus transitions. I am also eager to test the IS, which is supposedly optimized for hand held video.

Canon is making a big investment in video with the 2 lenses. The T4i is sure to be just the first of the video optimized bodies.

Canon Rumors says teh T4i with the 18-135 kit is shipping now from adorama. I hope I get mine from B&H this week!

Best,
Michael

Jun 18, 2012 at 10:24 PM

Yakim Peled
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p.1 #16 · Canon T4i Hands on Review

mmurph wrote:
Yakim Peled wrote:
I remember using the 18-55 IS and 55-250 IS and amazed by their IQ. Looks like Canon is continuing this trend

Sorry, I don't want to mislead you. I don't have the new 18-135 mm yet.

Oh...

Happy shooting,
Yakim.

Jun 18, 2012 at 10:33 PM

Boxersoft
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p.1 #17 · Canon T4i Hands on Review

Thanks for the postings - great to hear some real-world comments.

mmurph wrote:
Feel free to ask questions here or at the blog.
OK, here's a question I've been wanting to ask someone with actual hands-on experience...

I understand that the T3i has a 3x - 10x Digital Movie Zoom feature, but I've seen no mention of that in the specs of the T4i. A number of people have commented that they found it really useful (at the 3x end anyway, as that apparently used "spare" sensor capacity to deliver zoom with no loss of definition).

Have Canon really ditched this feature on the T4i, or has it just been overlooked in all the discussion of the new features?

Jun 19, 2012 at 11:18 AM

mmurph
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p.1 #18 · Canon T4i Hands on Review

Boxersoft wrote:I understand that the T3i has a 3x - 10x Digital Movie Zoom feature, but I've seen no mention of that in the specs of the T4i.....

Have Canon really ditched this feature on the T4i, or has it just been overlooked in all the discussion of the new features?

I am 99% sure that they have removed that function. Maybe there is a chance that someone like Magic Lantern can return it with updated firmware? Maybe, but for now it is gone!

The 3x and 10x magnifications are still there in Live View mode, and they look stunning, as usual. Incredibly good considering you are only looking at a small section of the frame at 10x.

But the magnification goes away as soon as you start to record.

The only thing that makes sense to me is that Canon has changed the way that they are offloading and downsampling the chip. I understand that in the past the T3i used to line skip to render the image.

With the extra processing power of the Digic 5, if they have the capability to read and average every row, that might explain why they can't just "grab" the rows and columns from the magnified areas and maintain the same quality?

Although they do still allow the selection of different ratios in Live View mode, for both stills and video. Which really amounts to the same thing.

It would be nice of Canon to clarify some of these technical details when they release a camera so that we didn't have to reverse engineer everything to figure out how to adapt the tools!

Michael

Jun 19, 2012 at 04:24 PM

Boxersoft
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p.1 #19 · Canon T4i Hands on Review

Thanks for the reply. I don't know nearly enough about the workings of these things to grasp the details of line skipping etc., but it's a real shame that it's gone. I'm really surprised that it hasn't come up in any of the reviews that I've seen - I'm certainly not the only one who's been wondering.

Perhaps Canon might bring it back in a firmware update, but I won't hold my breath for a Magic Lantern fix - from what I've read, it is likely to be some while before we can expect to see Magic Lantern working on the Digic5.

Jun 19, 2012 at 04:31 PM

mmurph
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p.1 #20 · Canon T4i Hands on Review

Boxersoft wrote:
From what I've read, it is likely to be some while before we can expect to see Magic Lantern working on the Digic5.

Ah, thank you - I hadn't heard that. Do you have a link anywhere? I'll look on their Wiki, etc. to see what I cann find.

I had been planning on e-mailing them to ask about this. I take it that the processor or architecture present some design issues.

I expanded my reply to your question on teh digital zoom here to longer discussion at my blog link.

I don't have any Google advertising or other links, so I'm not trying to drive traffic. It is just taht the replies get a little involved and long for the forums.

Thanks for the discussion!
Michael

Jun 19, 2012 at 05:54 PM

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