Canon EOS 1100D review (Rebel T3 review)
Design
Canon EOS 1100D Review (Rebel T3 Review) - Design
Perhaps the 1100D's (Rebel T3's) weakest area is its overall look and feel. The body is a very smooth plastic and the grip is the very same finish, plus the latest 18-55mm lens isn't the most fluid of zooms. It doesn't have the overall textured look and feel of something like the Nikon D3100. Furthermore the SD card slot shares the battery port at the base of the camera - a pain should you want to swap cards when the camera's mounted on a tripod. 
Control-wise and the 1100D (Rebel T3) is, in general, laid-out sensibly, despite some small quibbles: the front-mounted thumbwheel is right behind the shutter release which does mean your finger has to move from one to the other rather than resting and waiting on the shutter (as it would with a rear-mounted thumbwheel). Also, as per many Canon DSLRs, the top mode dial has a ‘start' and ‘end' position, i.e. it cannot rotate freely through its full circle. Plus there's no one-touch button to shoot movies, instead the proper Movie mode needs to be selected from the top mode dial before the live view button can then double-up as the record start/stop.
The majority of the 1100D's (T3's) other options are easy to select by using the Q (Quick Menu) button to access on the rear screen as a control panel. Chopping through these settings using the d-pad and adjusting them with the thumbwheel makes perfectly good sense and it's good to be able to see all your settings simultaneously on the screen itself. Other controls, such as exposure compensation, exposure lock and AF-point selection each have their own individual control buttons that are particularly useful for speedy adjustment. For harder-to-find options the interior menus are divided into sections to make it easier to search-out what you're hunting for.
With many competitor manufacturers getting involved in Guide-type modes, Canon hasn't really let loose and delved head-strong into this area apart from the CA (Creative Auto) mode. This sets out to simplify background blur, drive mode, flash and Picture Style. Elsewhere there are some other nods to visual aides and written descriptions when adjusting the mode dial, plus there are compact-like scene modes on the top dial itself.
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Latest comments
October 21 19:34
Stefan
hello people i am thinking to buy my first DSLR and its going to be the canon 1100D i think.what do you suggest me for my first camera ? Can somebody tell me why some of the models they have written EOS 1100D on the side and the same model they have only EOS rebel t3! whats the difference between the same two models ?? thanks Stefan
October 30 07:44
Brett
stefan there is no difference between the models the rebel t3 is what its called in the U.S its called the 1100D in the uk.Same thing different names.
December 18 12:37
David McCarthy
Don't know whether to buy the black and the grey 1100D. Is the image stablisation worth the extra cost and are there are drawbacks to it?
December 20 20:14
thaddeus
Hi all, I'm planning to buy my first SLR. Confused whether to go in for Nikon d3100 or Canon 1100. I heard that Nikon doesn't have automatic focus in the lenses while canon has. Is the autofocus motor built into the Camera or the lens? The price difference between both is not much but nikon has not bundled the 75-300 mm lens with the camera while canon is bundling it & giving it as an offer. Someone please assist. Regards, tfernandes UAE