A technical review of the EOS 250D from a newbie photographer isn’t going to be particularly insightful or useful. There are lots of good reviews out there (this one from Digital Camera World seems pretty good). So I thought that, as a new photographer, I would give you a real-word view of what it was like to use this camera.

The camera I purchased, came with the Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM kit lens, a camera strap, a battery, a charger, a body cap, and lens caps. But no SD card. So you have to purchase an SD card, otherwise there is nowhere for the camera to store your pictures. But other than the SD card you have everything you need to at least get an image.

The manual is thick, but it covers several languages. It repeats the same information in each of them: it is very basic. There is an advanced manual available on the Canon website that is much more helpful. YouTube has lots of helpful videos that are more helpful still.

Key Features

The basics are that the camera is a digital single lens reflex camera (DSLR) with a 24.1-megapixel APS-C sensor. My camera came with a kit lens, as above, and many other lenses are available. The camera has the Canon EF mount. It can accept EF and EF-S lenses that are made by Canon and other lens manufacturers, such as Sigma. EF lenses are designed for full frame cameras, whereas EF-S lenses are designed for crop sensor cameras, like the 250D. The sensor is high quality and my images seem sharp and have rich colour. Have a look at my galleries to see the output.

You can use the viewfinder or the screen on the back of the camera to take your image. In the viewfinder you can use a 9-point autofocus system. Using the screen (called ‘live view’ by Canon), however, you can use 3,975 user-selectable auto focus points. The auto focus system is sophisticated and uses ‘Dual Pixel sensor technology’. This is, apparently, faster and better than contrast based auto focus. I just know that it works.

Manual Focus

You can focus manually, with the auto / manual focus selection being on the lens rather than on the camera. A small aside here, I have been learning about photography in general and the 250D in particular, using YouTube amongst other things. One YouTube channel from a professional photographer suggested using the focus peaking setting to improve image sharpness. I looked for guidance on how to enable focus peaking on the 250D. Canon make no reference to it, and one expert said that it wasn’t available on the 250D. So, I accepted that but, by chance found another YouTube channel that told me exactly how to enable it. So not only was this great news, but it also showed how the 250D continues to surprise with its capacity and capability.

EOS 250D Menu System and Software

The menu system is similar to other Canon cameras. Additionally, though, the 250D has a guided system that is helpful for beginners. The camera can be set up in a way that suits the user. I have, for example turned off the beeps that indicate that the timer is about to activate. It’s annoying. I have changed the auto focus activation from a half-press on the shutter to a back button. That’s helpful for a number of reasons. It is possible to activate the shutter using the screen – I have turned that off too. The number of times that I have inadvertently taken a picture when I was trying to do something else.

The ‘live view’ option can be electronically zoomed using buttons on the back of the camera. This enables the user to switch to manual focus and finely focus for a sharper image.

There is a light meter and the histogram is available to assist with exposure. ISO, shutter speed and aperture can all be set using the screen.

Taking a photograph with the EOS 250D

It is possible to set the camera on a fully automated mode, meaning it can be used as a ‘point and shoot’ device. But where’s the fun in that?

Other modes include aperture priority (the user sets the aperture and the camera does the rest), shutter priority (the user sets the shutter speed and the camera does the rest) and a fully manual mode.

The third aspect of the exposure triangle, the ISO, is accessible using a button on the top of the camera or by accessing the screen. The ISO can be set to auto. In manual mode the camera’s lowest ISO is 100 and the normal problem of high ISO, noise in shadows, seems to be absent in ISO values below 1600.

All that’s left is to push the shutter!

Other useful features

The camera can be connected to WiFi and Bluetooth and linked to a mobile phone (which can be used as remote shutter). Photographs can be downloaded over both WiFi and Bluetooth.

The camera natively shoots in jpg, but can be set to shoot in RAW in all modes except fully automatic.

Conclusion

I am thrilled with my purchase of the Canon EOS 250D. It is aimed at the beginner and makes this a virtue with the easy-to-use guided menu system and the fully automated options. It also, however, is sufficiently sophisticated to allow the beginner to learn, develop and become a more advanced user.

This is an excellent camera, and I would recommend it to any aspiring photographer.