Image Quality

All of the sample images in this review were taken using the 18 megapixel Fine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 6Mb.

During the review, the Canon EOS 100D produced images of excellent quality. Noise handling is very good considering the pixel density. Shooting RAW is a good idea if you plan on taking lots of high-ISO shots, as you can get better detail with less chroma noise than by shooting JPEG. As regards the colours, we have found them to be a little on the dull side, though this is nothing you can't change in-camera, by way of tweaking the available Picture Styles or creating your own. The camera's Highlight Tone Priority mode allowed us to retain more highlight detail in contrasty scenes than would otherwise be possible without underexposing the midtones and the shadows. The built-in flash caused no red-eye, and the night photo came out very well. Overall, a very good showing.

Noise

ISO sensitivity can be set between ISO 100 and ISO 12800 in full-stop increments, and a boosted setting of ISO 25600 is also available. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting, with JPEG on the left and the RAW equivalent on the right.

JPEG	RAW
ISO 100 (100% Crop)	ISO 100 (100% Crop)
ISO 200 (100% Crop)	ISO 200 (100% Crop)
ISO 400 (100% Crop)	ISO 400 (100% Crop)
ISO 800 (100% Crop)	ISO 800 (100% Crop)
ISO 1600 (100% Crop)	ISO 1600 (100% Crop)
ISO 3200 (100% Crop)	ISO 3200 (100% Crop)
ISO 6400 (100% Crop)	ISO 6400 (100% Crop)
ISO 12800 (100% Crop)	ISO 12800 (100% Crop)
ISO 25600 (100% Crop)	ISO 25600 (100% Crop)

File Quality

The Canon EOS 100D has 2 different JPEG file quality settings available, including Fine and Normal, with Fine being the higher quality option. Here are two 100% crops which show the quality of the two options.

Fine (5.83Mb) (100% Crop)	Normal (2.75Mb) (100% Crop)
RAW (22Mb) (100% Crop)

Sharpening

The out-of-camera JPEGs are quite soft and at the default sharpening setting and benefit from some further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop. You can also change the in-camera sharpening level to suit your tastes via the Picture Style options.

Original (100% Crop)	Sharpened (100% Crop)

Flash

The flash settings on the EOS 100D are Auto, Manual Flash On/Off, and Red-Eye Reduction. These shots of a white coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1m.

Flash Off - Wide Angle (60mm)	Flash On - Wide Angle (60mm)

And here are a couple of portrait shots. As you can see, neither the Flash On setting nor the Red-Eye Reduction option caused any amount of red-eye.

Flash On	Flash On (100% Crop)
Red-eye Reduction	Red-eye Reduction (100% Crop)

Night

The Canon EOS 100D's maximum shutter speed is 30 seconds and there's a Bulb mode for even longer exposures, which is excellent news if you're seriously interested in night photography. The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 15 seconds, aperture of f/8 at ISO 100.

Night	Night (100% Crop)

Picture Controls

Canon's Picture Controls are preset combinations of different sharpness, contrast, saturation and colour tone settings. The available Picture Controls are shown below in the following series, which demonstrates the differences. You can tweak these Picture Controls to your liking, and there are also User Defined styles so that you can create your own look.

Standard	Portrait
Landscape	Neutral
Faithful	Monochrome

Creative Auto

Essentially a more extreme version of the well-established Picture Styles, Creative Auto offers nine options including Standard, Vivid, Soft, Warm, Intense, Cool, Brighter, Darker and Monochrome, all of which can be interactively tweaked to suit your taste.

Standard	Vivid
Soft	Warm
Intense	Cool
Brighter	Darker
Monochrome

Auto Lighting Optimizer

Auto Lighting Optimizer performs in-camera processing to even out the contrast and correct brightness. There are 4 different settings - Off, Low, Standard and Strong.

Off	Low
Standard	Strong

HDR Backlight

The Canon EOS 100D's HDR Backlight scene mode captures three different exposures and combines them into one, retaining more shadow and highlight detail.

On	Off

Highlight Tone Priority

Highlight Tone Priority is a custom function which can be enabled from the menu. Use of this custom function improves highlight detail by expanding the camera's dynamic range in the highlights. As you can see from these examples, Highlight Tone Priority reduced the extent of highlight blow-out considerably.

Off	On

Sample Images

This is a selection of sample images from the Canon EOS 100D camera, which were all taken using the 18 megapixel Fine JPEG setting. The thumbnails below link to the full-sized versions, which have not been altered in any way.

Sample RAW Images

The Canon EOS 100D enables users to capture RAW and JPEG format files. We've provided some Canon RAW (CR2) samples for you to download (thumbnail images shown below are not 100% representative).

Sample Movie & Video

As of February 2025, we are no longer providing full size sample images or videos for download.

Please contact us if you have any feedback on our new policy.

Product Images

Front of the Canon EOS 100D

Front of the Canon EOS 100D

Front of the Canon EOS 100D / Flash Raised

Side of the Canon EOS 100D

Side of the Canon EOS 100D

Side of the Canon EOS 100D

Side of the Canon EOS 100D

Rear of the Canon EOS 100D / Turned On

Rear of the Canon EOS 100D

Rear of the Canon EOS 100D / Main Menu

Rear of the Canon EOS 100D / Info Screen

Rear of the Canon EOS 100D / Quick Menu

Rear of the Canon EOS 100D / Info Screen

Rear of the Canon EOS 100D / Info Screen

Top of the Canon EOS 100D

Bottom of the Canon EOS 100D

Side of the Canon EOS 100D

Side of the Canon EOS 100D

Front of the Canon EOS 100D

Front of the Canon EOS 100D

Memory Card Slot

Battery Compartment

Conclusion

The EOS 100D / Rebel SL1 is the smallest and perhaps the most surprising DSLR camera that Canon have ever released. Nobody really expected this camera when it was unveiled alongside the more traditional EOS 700D. In many ways it perfectly straddles the divide between its bigger brother and the EOS M compact system camera, surprisingly offering very similar handling and performance to the former while not being that much bigger than the latter. Indeed, the EOS 100D / Rebel SL1 almost certainly spells the end for the rather unloved EOS M, at least until/if Canon release a second-generation version of what for them has been a disappointing release.

It's not all good news for the EOS 100D, though, as the larger 700D offers a better grip and control layout, articulated screen, better flash options, stereo sound and a more versatile auto-focus system for not that much more money. Also the EOS 100D / Rebel SL1 makes less and less sense as you attach bigger and bigger lenses to it - with the 40mm pancake it's almost as small as some of the mirrorless camera competition, but fitting the 18-55m STM kit lens or some of the bigger EF lenses makes the overall package much bigger and reduces the camera's appeal. You really need to give careful thought to how you'd mainly use this camera before buying.

As with the EOS M and 650D, the EOS 100D is designed to appeal to owners of compacts who have outgrown their camera and want to step-up to something that gives better results without being too complicated. The touch-screen operation is seamlessly integrated, offering the ability to take a picture with one press of the screen. Even if you prefer using the viewfinder and hate touch-screens and the need to hold the camera at arm's length to use it, you'll still appreciate the ability to review your images by swiping from side to side and pinching to magnify them (at least we did), although the innovative Hybrid AF system still doesn't solve the camera's sluggish Live View auto-focusing.

Image quality is up there with the other Canon APS-C sensor DSLRs - shrinking the 100D has thankfully not affected its photos in any negative way - and it's one of the main reasons why you'd consider the EOS 100D / Rebel SL1 over some of the similarly-sized mirrorless competition. Compatibility with Canon's vast range of lenses is also another big attraction. You will have to pay a premium for this though, with £709.99 / $799.99 for the EOS 100D / Rebel SL1 and a the 18-55mm STM kit lens being quite a bit more than its main rivals, and as stated before not that much less than the 700D.

In summary the EOS 100D / Rebel SL1 is a surprising camera in many ways, not least that it delivers the typical EOS experience without too many compromises at all. It makes a compelling alternative to a compact system camera when paired with the smaller Canon lenses (including the EOS M), but we'd choose the more capable EOS 700D instead as a natural partner for Canon's larger optics.

Ratings (out of 5)
Design	4
Features	4
Ease-of-use	4
Image quality	4.5
Value for money	3.5

Main Rivals

Listed below are some of the rivals of the Canon EOS 100D.

Review Roundup

Reviews of the Canon EOS 100D from around the web.

Specifications

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