With Micro Four Thirds models and other mirrorless digital cameras growing in popularity, the digital SLR market has gotten some stiff competition. The category continues to push forward, though, and Canon, which has not yet manufactured a compact interchangeable lens camera, offers up the EOS Rebel T3 as its entry-level D-SLR contender. This 12-megapixel digital SLR is on the lower-end as far as price and features, but it has all of the options and flexibility an aspiring photographer might need to break out of the tedium of point-and-shoot and cell phone cameras. It's available at a $599.99 list price with an 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens, and while its slow-focusing Live View LCD is nearly useless, overall speed and picture-quality performance are very good.

Design

The camera body feels a bit naked, and too smooth for a digital SLR. While the 3.9 by 5.1 by 3.1-inch (HWD), 1.09-pound T3 seems fairly sturdy, it uses the same smooth matte plastic all over its case. Even the grip, a surface typically textured to make holding onto the camera easier, is completely smooth. The buttons on the back panel are all large and flat, with many of the controls sitting flush against the camera body. A rubber door on the left side of the camera holds the mini USB, mini HDMI, and remote connectors, and the SD/SDHC/SDXC card slot sits next to the battery slot on the bottom of the camera body.

The 2.7-inch LCD, optical viewfinder, mode dial, wheel, and hot shoe are standard SLR fare. While it doesn't flip out and twist up or down like the Canon T3i's ($899.99, 3.5 stars) 1,040k-dot 3-inch screen, you can still clearly see the pictures you review on the T3i's 230k-dot screen. Unfortunately, focusing is so slow in Live View mode, you'll more likely be using the optical viewfinder to frame your shots.

Performance

As Canon's entry-level, low-end, barebones digital SLR, the T3 doesn't have a lot of power compared with the higher-resolution Canon T3i or 18-megapixel T2i ($799.99, 4 stars). However, it's still an SLR, and that means it's faster and more powerful than any compact point-and-shoot on the market. Its APS-C sensor can reach up to ISO 6400 sensitivity, and the camera uses Canon's Digic 4 image processor, allowing it to capture 3 frames per second in continuous shooting mode and 720p video at 25 or 30 frames per second.

We test picture quality using the Imatest software, which evaluates cameras for resolution and noise levels. The T3 performed fairly well, with very good high-ISO noise numbers and decent resolution for its 12-megapixel sensor. In our tests, the camera demonstrated a center-weighted average of 1,851 lines per picture height. Anything higher than 1,800 means very sharp pictures, so the T3 does fairly well; it's on par with the Nikon D5100 ($899.99, 4.5 stars), though not quite as good as the Canon T2i's 2,296 lines or the Mocro Four Thirds Olympus PEN E-P3's ($899.99, 4 stars) 2,001 lines.

The T3 works very well at higher ISO sensitivities, making it suitable for shooting in low light. Any picture with 1.5 percent noise results in a grainy photo. The T3 crossed this threshold at ISO 3200; at ISO 1600 noise levels were only 1.4 percent. At ISO 800, noise is even more manageable, just slightly under one percent.

When shooting using the through-the-lens viewfinder, the T3 is lightning-quick. The camera takes just 0.5 seconds from starting up to first shot, and after that it can grab photos at 1.91 frames per second, about once every 0.52 second. The continuous shooting mode is even faster, capturing 2.87 frames per second, very close to Canon's claims of three frames per second for its DIGIC 4 processor. The camera starts to fall apart when you use the Live View mode, which turns the LCD into a viewfinder. This system uses a different method of focusing, and it takes much longer to lock on a subject and get the shot. When shifting between subjects, it took the T3 as long as 5.7 seconds to take a picture, and when shooting the same subject with no need to re-focus it still took 1.4 seconds. Frankly, the Live View mode on the T3 is effectively useless, and you need to use the viewfinder if you want to capture anything in less than five seconds.

Video quality is very good, but there are some irritating quirks. High-definition footage looks sharp with the kit lens, but in my tests, the T3 had difficulty focusing on close subjects, forcing me to manually focus. Both focusing and zooming with the kit lens was very loud, and the camera's microphone picked up the sounds of the lens as I twisted it. Sounds from subjects were very soft, with my voice coming in much louder than people I talked to just two feet away. Also, occasionally artifact bands appeared at the bottom of the picture, but generally everything looked sharp and crisp when focused.

As an entry-level digital SLR, the Canon EOS Rebel T3 works well. It's quick (when shooting through the viewfinder and not the LCD), its picture quality is solid, and it offers all the manual controls and tweaks you need to learn how to shoot like a pro photographer. At $600, it's a decent starter kit that has the unenviable position of sitting at the bottom of its category in price. But that money can get you a better-performing compact interchangeable lens camera, like the Editors' Choice Sony Alpha NEX-C3 ($649.99, 4.5 stars), with better noise performance and sharper pictures than the T3. And spending more opens up a world of superior SLR options including the Nikon D3100 ($699.99, 4 stars) or our Editors' Choice mid-range D-SLR, the Nikon D5100 ($799.99, 4.5 stars), which offers better build quality and picture quality while still offering the optical viewfinder that mirrorless cameras like the NEX-C3 lack.

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