Quick Verdict
The Canon EOS 250D offers Canon's reliable and pleasing colour reproduction in one of the most compact DSLR bodies available with a vari-angle screen. The small size, and easy to use design should make it appealing to beginners, but it's more advanced controls and shooting options should make it appeal to those who want a more compact Canon DSLR. There's 4K video recording, and good noise performance, but there are also a number of limitations that you'll need to be aware of, including no silent shooting, and only 9 AF points when using the optical viewfinder.
The Canon EOS 250D is the world’s lightest DSLR with movable screen, the camera weighs just 449g with battery and memory card. Updating the EOS 200D, the 250D offers 4K video recording, a 24mp sensor, and is designed to be easy to use for beginners, as well as offering more advanced shooting. The camera is available in three colours: Silver/tan, White and Black.
Canon EOS 250D Features
The 24.1mp APS-C CMOS sensor has a low-pass filter built-in, which means there’s likely to be slightly softer images in comparison to a camera with no low-pass filter built-in. The benefit of this is that there’s reduced risk of moire in images (false colour in fine detail). The camera offers an ISO range of ISO100 to ISO25600 as standard, which extends to ISO51200.
The camera gives you the choice of 3:2, 4:3, 16:9, and 1:1 aspect ratio shots. It also shoots 14bit raw images, with the option of standard Canon raw, or the new more compact cRAW.
The Canon EOS 250D is also known as the Rebel SL3, and Kiss X10 in Japan. In some markets, it's even called the 200D II.
The optical viewfinder (OVF) offers 95% coverage, and 0.87x magnification, as well as dioptre correction. The 3inch vari-angle touch screen has a resolution of 1040K dots, with 100% coverage.
Using the OVF, the camera offers 9 AF points. Switch to live-view and you get 143 AF points that the camera can select from automatically. Switch to 1 AF point, and you can choose from 3,975 AF points. AF works down to -0.5 EV using the OVF, or down to -4EV using the liveview.
The camera is available with the EF-S 18-55mm f/4-5.6 IS STM kit lens which is, according to Canon, the world's smallest non-retractable kit lens.
The camera features a Guided UI (User Interface), which is designed to help beginners, and a Creative Assist mode making it easy to change settings, without necessarily knowing what all the different options and settings do. There's also built-in help, that explains every option.
Shooting modes included: Scene Intelligent Auto (Stills and Movie), Creative Auto, SCN (Portrait, Landscape, Close-up, Sports, Group Photo, Night Portrait, Smooth Skin, Group Photo, Handheld Night Scene, HDR Backlight Control, Food, Kids, Candlelight), Creative filters, Program AE, Shutter priority AE, Aperture priority AE, and full Manual (Stills and Movie).
Picture styles are available, and can be customised. The options include Auto, Standard, Portrait, Landscape, Fine Detail, Neutral, Faithful, Monochrome, User Defined (x3). There are a number of other creative effects available, which we explain, with examples, later in the review.
There’s a built-in pop-up flash with a guide number (GN) of 9.8.
Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are built-in, making it possible to connect to a compatible smartphone or tablet. Once connected you'll be able to remotely control the camera, as well as transfer images.
The camera records 4K UHD video at 25, or 24fps, as well as fullHD video at 60,50,30, and 25fps. There is a 29 minute, 59 second recording limit for a movie file. Stereo microphones are built-in, and there's a microphone socket on the side of the camera, should you want to use an external microphone.
Key Features
- 24.1mp APS-C CMOS sensor
- DIGIC 8 image processor
- 3inch vari-angle touch-screen
- OVF, 0.87x magnification and 95% coverage
- ISO100 to ISO51200 (Hi)
- 5fps continuous shooting
- Dual Pixel CMOS AF live view with Eye AF
- 9 AF points (when using OVF)
- 4K (UHD) video recording
- Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
- 1070 shot battery life (OVF)
- 320 shot battery life (using live-view)
- Available in three colours - Silver/tan, White and Black
Canon EOS 250D Handling
The camera body has an aluminium alloy and polycarbonate resin with glass fibre chassis, with a polycarbonate resin with glass fibre and special conductive fibre for the rest of the camera, so whilst the camera may look and feel as though it’s made out of plastic, polycarbonate is actually tougher and stronger than plastic. With a “plastic” looking body, the camera looks more budget orientated than the price, especially compared to mirrorless cameras with their “retro” styling and metal touches / finish.
As a small DSLR, it may feel a little too small for large hands, but for those that want a compact travel DSLR, the small size (and weight) certainly makes the camera easier to travel with, particularly if you use a small lens or lenses.
Despite the small size, you’ll still find all the standard controls and dials as you would on other Canon DSLRs, with a top mode dial, there’s an off/on/video power switch, a dedicated ISO button, as well as AV/Exposure compensation on the back. Unfortunately there's no quick access to drive modes, white balance (and other settings), without first pressing the Q button, as the 4-way controller does not give shortcuts to these settings.
On the back - The 3inch touch-screen is a gapless design, and has great viewing angles. The display looks bright, and clear, with good colour reproduction. You can use the touch-screen to set the focus point, change settings, as well as navigate your way around the menu system.
The optical viewfinder (OVF) provides a clear view of the scene, and with 0.87x magnification it's a reasonable size, however it only shows 95% of the frame.
Speaking of the menu system :– the camera gives you the option of a more friendly, helpful, user interface, and this is enabled by default. All the options remain the same, they just make it easier for a beginner to change settings and know what is happening. You can switch these off if you’re familiar with Canon EOS cameras, and feel more at home with the standard colour scheme. The menu system has built-in help, as well as highlighting any settings you’ve changed away from the default settings. A handy reminder of what settings you might have accidentally changed. Switch to the video mode, and you get a set of video options – clever!
Live view AF:
If you’re coming from a compact camera, smartphone, or mirrorless camera, it may feel odd to use the camera’s optical viewfinder, especially as you’re likely to want to use the screen to compose shots away from your eye at time. The Canon focus system is quick, but switching between standard operation (using the OVF), and live view does add a slight delay to the shooting experience. You'll also notice the "odd" sounds when shooting in live-view, as there's no silent shooting mode available.
Dual Pixel CMOS AF has 143 / 3975 focus points and – gives between 80% vertical x 80% horizontal coverage of the frame, up to 100% vertical x 88% horizontal depending on the lens used. This is vastly improved compared to the 9 AF points on offer when focusing using the cameras optical viewfinder and standard AF system.
The memory card compartment is underneath, with the battery compartment. The camera accepts UHS-I SD cards.
There’s a microphone socket on the side, as well as HDMI mini output port. There’s also video out (integrated with USB).
Wi-Fi and Bluetooth make it easy to transfer images to a smartphone, and low-power Bluetooth means you’ll use less power when transferring images.
Battery life - Battery Life - The camera uses the LP-E17 battery, and offers up to 1070 shots when using the OVF, or 320 shots when using live-view. The camera doesn’t offer in-camera battery charging or power from a USB source. If you plan on using the camera with live-view, then a spare battery would be recommended, otherwise, you should be fine with just one battery.
Canon EOS 250D Performance
The performance section is where we look at the image quality performance of the camera. Additional sample photos and product shots are available in the Equipment Database, where you can add your own review, photos and product ratings.
Canon EOS 250D (Rebel SL3) Sample Photos
Sample Photos - The camera produces images with pleasing colour reproduction, with a good level of saturation, and pleasing skin tones. Results are reliable, and consistent, and exposure is reliable, with exposure compensation rarely needed. Dynamic range is good, and can be expanded using the auto lighting optimizer (ALO) option. You can shoot raw and process the raw files if you want to recover more dynamic range, or you can use auto exposure bracketing (AEB) mode. To have the camera automatically create HDR images (in-camera) you need to use one of the HDR scene modes (for a more natural effect), or even use one of the creative HDR art modes, although it's a shame it's not just an option within the normal shooting modes so that you have more control.
Canon EOS 250D (Rebel SL3) Lens test images
Lens Performance - The EF-S 18-55mm f/4-5.6 IS STM lens offers a good standard kit lens, with reasonable performance. For better results, it's worth stopping down (using a smaller aperture), and you can also tweak the camera's settings to increase sharpness, giving good levels of detail. As with most cameras, you'll be able to get better results with a prime lens, or a more expensive lens, rather than with the kit lens. You'll also be able to get better bokeh, and background blur, with a bright prime lens, such as the 50mm f/1.8 STM lens, compared to the kit lens, which has an aperture that starts at f/4. The lens is resistant to flare, despite our attempts to induce flare. We struggled to spot purple fringing, and there were minimal signs of chromatic aberrations the majority of the time.
Macro performance is good, with the lens able to focus on subjects 25cm away. Focus was reliable, with a good success rate, using both live view and the optical viewfinder. Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS) helps keep images steady at slower shutter speeds.
Distortion is also particularly noticeable, with strong barrel distortion at the wide-angle end of the lens, and strong pincushion distortion at the telephoto end, and we'd recommend switching distortion correction on. These images were taken with distortion correction switched off. There are additional lens correction options of peripheral illumination correction (vignetting), and "Digital Lens Optimizer" which we left switched on. Some vignetting was noticeable, but nothing too worrying.
Canon EOS 250D (Rebel SL3) ISO test images
ISO Noise Performance - Noise is well controlled up to ISO1600, where fine detail starts to drop off, however results are still good, with images usable. Images also look good at ISO3200, although noise has increased. Noise becomes more noticeable at ISO6400, however images taken at this speed should still provide usable results. At ISO12800 noise becomes stronger again, and you may want to avoid using this ISO speed, depending on your intended use. Noise is high at ISO25600, and we'd recommend you avoid this setting. Noise at ISO51200 is excessive. High ISO speed noise reduction options are: Off, Low, Standard (default), and High. Expanded ISO (in custom settings) makes ISO51200 available.
Noise compared to the competition...
The Canon EOS 250D gives similar performance to some other cameras, with slightly better results at high ISO speeds (ISO6400, ISO12800 and ISO25600) when compared to the Nikon D3500, but worse results when compared to others such as the Sony Alpha A6400 (with 24mp APS-C sensor with copper wiring), and Fujifilm X-T30 (with 26mp BSI APS-C X-Trans 4 CMOS sensor).
Canon EOS 250D (Rebel SL3) White-balance test images
White Balance Performance - Auto White Balance (AWB) performs very well under fluorescent lighting, with the fluorescent preset giving such similar results, it's not really needed. AWB gives a slightly warm result under mixed lighting. AWB also gives a warm result under tungsten lighting, however there is an "AWB Cool" setting that you can toggle on, and this gives much more neutral results (which will be useful for product shots). The tungsten preset gives very similar results to the auto setting.
Canon EOS 250D (Rebel SL3) Digital filters
Digital Filters - In normal shooting modes there are a number of "Picture styles" available, and can be customised, with options to adjust Sharpness (strength, fineness, threshold), Contrast, Saturation and Colour Tone. The presets include Auto, Standard, Portrait, Landscape, Fine Detail, Neutral, Faithful, Monochrome, and User Defined (x3).
In Auto+ mode (Scene Inteilligent Auto) you can use the "Creative Assist" button, and there are a number of different colour options, such as Vivid, Soft, Warm, Cool, Green, etc. In the scene modes you'll find handheld nightshot, HDR as well as Portrait and Food, to name a few.
In the "Creative filters" mode you'll find effects like grainy black and white, soft focus, fish-eye effect, water painting effect, toy camera effect, miniature, plus the HDR Art modes of standard, vivid, bold, and embossed.
There is no built-in automatic panoramic mode.
Video - The Canon EOS 250D offers 4K (UHD) video recording, which crops significantly into the sensor. When recording FullHD video (with electronic image stabilisation disabled) the camera will use the full width of the sensor for recording. Switching to 4K video, you'll notice a strong crop, and this gives a telephoto view of the world. Here you can see how much 4K video crops in to the frame, compared to FullHD video recording:
Canon EOS 250D Video Crop
The highest ISO for 4K video is ISO6400, for FullHD video, this can be extended up to ISO25600. Video is recorded using MP4 H.264 compression. Stereo microphones are built-in, and there's a microphone socket on the side. Electronic image stabilisation is available for 4K and FullHD video recording, although this does crop in to the image. Electronic image stabilisation can look artificial at times, but does a good job of keeping video steady. Picture styles are available in the video mode, however, these are the same as when in Photo mode, with no specific "Flat" profile available unfortunately. FullHD HDR video recording is available from the Scene mode dial.
You can find additional videos on the ePHOTOzine YouTube Channel.
Value For Money
The Canon EOS 250D is available for £579, with 18-55mm IS STM lens, which makes it quite good value for money. There are a number of alternatives available, including both DSLRs and mirrorless cameras.
Entry level / compact DSLRs:
Nikon D3500, 24mp, FullHD video, the D3500 is actually lighter, but slightly larger, £349 with VR lens
Canon EOS 2000D, 24mp, only 3fps continuous shooting, FullHD video, £379 with IS lens
Pentax K-S2, 20mp, Wi-Fi, NFC, 3inch vari-angle screen, weather resistant, 5.7fps, IS, Mic socket, £479 with kit lens (if available)
You could also look at these mirrorless cameras, particularly if you're looking for something compact, most of these also offer quicker continuous shooting, and some offer in-camera image stabilisation:
Olympus OM-D E-M10 III, 16mp, 8.6fps, 4K video, in-camera IS, £555 with 14-42mm lens
Panasonic Lumix G80, 16mp, 9fps, 4K video, in-camera IS, weather-sealed, £699 with 15-45mm lens
Fujifilm X-T20, 24mp, 8fps, 4K video, £699 with lens
Canon EOS M50, 24mp, 4K video, £599 with 15-45mm lens (albeit with a limited lens range)
Have a look at more DSLRs in our Top 10 Best APS-C DSLRs list, or have a look at more compact system cameras in our Top 11 Best Entry Level Mirrorless list. You'll also need to buy a memory card and a case or bag to keep your camera safe and protected - have a look at our complete guide to camera bags.
Canon EOS 250D Verdict
The Canon EOS 250D offers a compact DSLR, with Canon’s typical, and excellent, colour reproduction. Noise performance is improved compared to other entry-level Canon, and Nikon DSLRs. For those that want the true DSLR experience, with an optical viewfinder, and the impressive battery life that goes with it, the EOS 250D offers a very neat little package.
The camera also benefits from the vast array of Canon EF and EF-S lenses available, with the 50mm f/1.8 STM lens being a particularly good value option. In fact the wide choice of lenses remains a key advantage of choosing a DSLR from Canon (or Nikon, or even Pentax). Sure mirrorless cameras are catching up, particularly Micro Four Thirds, but are there as many budget lens options available?
There are areas where the camera lags behind the mirrorless competition – for example silent shooting isn’t possible. The live view experience, whilst offering rapid focus, doesn’t offer the same seamless experience as mirrorless cameras. There’s also an optical viewfinder that doesn’t give 100% coverage of the frame. Continuous shooting is slower too, at 5fps, due to the physical limitations of the mirror system. There’s no in-camera battery charging, or powering, which is now becoming standard on the latest mirrorless cameras, and the USB port remains dated as a MicroUSB socket.
Those interested in 4K video recording will, no doubt, be disappointed by the heavy crop. However, on the other hand, there’s a microphone socket, and FullHD video recording, with effective electronic image stabilisation.
There are other areas where there are limitations that just seem odd, when other companies offer it as standard, such as the option to shoot at intermediate ISO speeds, instead the 250D limits you to full steps. Ie ISO100, ISO200, ISO400, with no in-between. Sure the camera may be targeted at the entry-level or beginners, but other entry level cameras offer this.
The small size, and easy to use design should make it appealing to beginners, but it's more advanced controls and shooting options should make it appeal to those who want a more compact Canon DSLR. It'll be particularly appealing if you want to upgrade from an older Canon EOS DSLR, and have a range of lenses that will fit right on to it.
| The Canon EOS 250D offers a compact DSLR experience, with Canon's reliable colour reproduction. |