Perhaps a strange time of year to be sent a DSLR unit with a 55-250mm lens as this requires either very large rooms or outside use to get the best from it, however so far the weather has been kind and my short time with it was productive.

The smallest DSLR on the market at the moment. We sell heaps of these because of its size. Good/basic all round photography capabilities with an APS-C size sensor for portability and image quality you can enlarge.

Small with full range of SLR features

Strap very fiddly to fit and no plastic cap for the hot shoe

Canon has miniaturised the digital SLR with the EOS 100D. If you want a small camera, but absolutely have to have a proper viewfinder, this is your best bet at the moment. It's surprisingly usable given its tiny dimensions, although its 18-megapixel sensor is getting on in age.

Perhaps a strange time of year to be sent a DSLR unit with a 55-250mm lens as this requires either very large rooms or outside use to get the best from it, however so far the weather has been kind and my short time with it was productive.

Canon took the standard Rebel and whittled it into a smaller body, removing only a few features, while adding one very important one: improved live view autofocus. The result is a mature camera for the family photographer that's not a burden to bring along, but which can also serve as a reliable,...

Very small and light with good grip for small to medium-size hands; High ISO shots are quite usable; even above ISO 6400; Excellent LCD and responsive touchscreen; Special coating minimizes fingerprint smudges from touchscreen use; Hybrid AF II / STM lens combo is noticeably improved for live view...

May be too small for those with larger hands; Grip may be insufficient for use with larger lenses; AF illuminator integrated into flash (must have flash engaged to use it; Flash produces red-eye in Night portrait mode; Non-STM lenses struggle in live view and in movie servo AF; Default dynamic range...

My Canon EOS Rebel SL1 review reveals a DSLR camera that does a lot of things well for a smaller than average camera, including good image quality and fast performance levels in viewfinder mode, all at a very good price versus other DSLRs.

Canon was late in entering the mirrorless camera market. When it did come out with the EOS M it faced some flak due to the slow autofocus speed. Although Canon did announce a firmware update to improve the AF speed in June this year, the damage was already done.

Nowadays entry level DSLRs are priced as much as flagship smartphones. If you want more control over the kind of photographs you take, there are enough DSLR options to pick from. One such camera is the Canon EOS 100D.

Good build quality; Rich in features; Lightweight and compact

Expensive; No Wi-Fi or in-built geo-tagging; High colour saturation in tone priority mode

This is currently the best crop sensor camera you can buy right now.

Image quality is superb, Loads of familiar features, Full manual control / RAW shooting, Fast; there's no appreciable lag that I notice yet

Max shutter is 1/4k; No HSS on the built-in flash; so can be limiting for fill-flash in bright sun; Flash compensation limited to +/- 2 stops