The Canon EOS 700D also known as the Rebel T5i is sold as an excellent entry level Digital SLR camera. Targeted at the amateur with a passion for photography who may be operating on a budget.

The 700D utilises an 18.0 megapixel CMOS, 1.6x cropped frame sensor. This means compared to images taken with 35mm film cameras the image looks approximately 1.6 times larger in the image.

I always shoot in RAW as this gives me the most flexibility in editing my images. It also enables them to be scaled up or down in Photoshop with no distortion. Shooting in RAW records the images in approximately 17.9 megapixels with dimensions of 5184 pixels by 3456 pixels.

This DSRL has 9 auto focus points that are fully automated or can be set manually. It also has an ISO range of 100 through to 12800. The 700D can also fit the specifically designed EFS lens range by Canon which cater for the cropped sensors. Or they fit the standard EF range of lenses which include the L series of professional lenses.

With the common automatic settings for those who want ease of use this model can also be manually controlled giving full control over aperture, shutter speed, ISO and the exposure settings. Additional settings include being able to manually set white balance and taking long exposure shots in bulb mode.

I managed to pick this camera up on a rental agreement to start with and was happy enough with it to pay out the agreement and purchase it outright after several months.

Having a fascination with finance and being something of an impulse buyer this setup enabled me to begin using the camera and teaching myself a lot of techniques without having to come up with the purchase cost straight away. I worked out that the additional time I had to play with it was valuable to me in learning and was just as cost effective in the long run when weighed against the recommended retail of the kit that I purchased.

The kit that I purchased also include the Canon EFS 18-55mm lens as well as the Canon EFS 55-250mm lens.