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- Great image quality
- Superb battery life
- Incredible selection of lenses
- Boring video mode
- Not enough body controls
Every photographer professional or otherwise remembers their first DSLR. Making the right choice could determine whether photography is a passing hobby or a future obsession, so your first DSLR has to walk a fine line between cost too much and its an investment rather than a hobby and capability. Go too cheap and youll be hamstrung with a camera thats too slow and gets in the way of your shooting.
So the EOS 250D is a promising looking bit of kit. It sits almost exactly in the middle of Canons consumer range not super cheap, like the all-plastic EOS 4000D, but not bursting with expensive high-end features like the EOS 90D. The question is it capable enough to keep ambitious beginners happy, or does it sacrifice too much performance and too many features on the altar of budget-consciousness?
Canon EOS 250D review: What you need to know
The spec sheet makes for promising reading. Images are high resolution at 24.1 megapixels, courtesy of its APS-C sensor, with a maximum ISO of 51,200. At the heart of the EOS 250D is Canons DIGIC 8 the same sensor as youll find in the EOS R and EOS 90D, among others. It offers enough oomph to allow the 250D to shoot 5fps in its fastest continuous mode, as well as providing for 4K video shooting at 25fps. You also get Canons dual-pixel CMOS autofocus, which allows for autofocus to be performed on the sensor itself, theoretically allowing faster autofocus in live view and movie modes.
A key differentiator between this and mirrorless cameras is the optical viewfinder, allowing photographers a direct view through the cameras lens and which doesnt drain the battery every time you compose an image. That allows Canon to claim an impressive battery life of 1,070 images significantly more than any mirrorless camera we can think of. You can still shoot the EOS 250D in live view mode, of course, and to that end theres a 3in, pivoting touchscreen with 1,040,000 pixels. The EOS 250D uses Canons dual-pixel technology to allow autofocus to be performed on the sensor itself, leading to theoretically fasterand more accurate autofocus in live view.
Canon EOS 250D review: Price and competition
The EOS 250D costs £599 with its 18-55mm EF-S lens, and for the moment at least there isnt a huge amount of current-generation competition at this price.
If you want to stick with Canon, you could opt for the EOS M200, a very good bet for those starting out in photography, albeit one that doesnt offer much in the way of body-mounted controls for those who want a camera that will keep up with their growing experience. You also get the EF-M, rather than EF-S, mount, which restricts the number of lenses you can fit. The EOS 250D supports a vast number of lenses, up to Canons insane high-end professional prime and telephoto options.
You might also see the Nikon D5600 in a similar price bracket our advice is to ignore this until Nikon gets round to updating it. A shorter battery life and no 4K video recording mean this 2016 DSLR is beginning to show its age.
Otherwise, if you want a current-generation mirrorless camera youll be looking at spending at least a few hundred pounds more on something like the Fujifilm X-T30 or even more on the Sony A6400.
All of which leaves you with a fascinating proposition: a capable, mid-range camera that can shoot 4K and leave you with change from £600. But is it any good?
Canon EOS 250D review: Features and design
The EOS 250D is small just 122mm wide, and its light. So light, in fact, that Canon is able to slap the bold claim on the box that this is the worlds lightest DSLR with a moveable screen. Before you add a lens, youre looking at just 449g. This doesnt quite put the 250D into mirrorless territory behold the Sony A6400, which weighs about 100g less but it does make the 250D utterly manageable for a days sightseeing, for example. Despite its whittled-down dimensions, one of the traditional strengths of the DSLR excellent ergonomics are preserved. The grip on the right hand side of the camera is deep and comfortable and the camera feels well balanced.
Body controls are, largely, present and correct, with a few sacrifices made to keep the EOS 250Ds dimensions in check. The autofocus point and autoexposure lock buttons are stacked on top of each other a little awkwardly on the back of the camera, and the cameras buttons are almost universally titchy, which will make them tricky to hit if youre trying to make manual adjustments while wearing gloves. Overall usability is good, though. The click wheel behind the shutter release is knurled and moves with a solid click; while its the only settings dial on the camera, Canon has made the Av button a bit bigger and easier to hit, allowing manual photographers a relatively easy time.
The monitor on the back is the only way to see how the EOS 250D is set up youll need to get the Canon EOS 77D if you want a secondary LCD screen with shooting data. Luckily, its a good un: 3in diagonally with 1,040,000 pixels. Its natch a touchscreen, and while Canons in-camera menu system hasnt changed significantly in about a decade, it held up to the vagaries of our fat fingers pretty well we found getting around with either the jog dials, D-pad on the back or the touchscreen intuitive, fast and accurate. For beginners, its pleasing to see Canons excellent guided menu systems available as default. Flick to Av mode, for example, and the back of the camera will give you a quick appraisal of what different aperture settings mean. You also get plain-English warnings if youre about to shoot over or under exposures. It makes the EOS 250D a very accessible camera for those who have never attempted to grapple with photographys more technical points. Once youre cooking on gas, you can choose to use Canons standard menu system, seen on this and every other Canon camera up to its flagship pro models.
The controls arent flawless, though. Were used to seeing the compass points on the direction pad on the backs of cameras used for shortcuts to features such as AF mode, timer settings and so on, none of which you get here. Changing focus mode or the burst setting youre on means poking the centre Q button on the direction pad, prodding the setting you want and changing it. It all feels like it takes a bit longer than necessary.
Theres also the hallmark of all true DSLRs: a proper, optical viewfinder. The distinction between a quality EVF and an optical viewfinder is getting thinner and thinner at the high end, but for our money there isnt a mirrorless camera available at this price with an EVF that comes anywhere near an optical viewfinder for detail resolution. Indeed, there are enough mirrorless cameras at this price that dont come with an EVF at all, making the EOS 250D a real catch for photographers who want a straight-through-the-lens view of their subject without holding their camera at arms length so they can compose images on the rear monitor.
A final significant tick in the usability box is that excellent battery life. The battery itself is nothing special a standard issue LP-E17 number youll spot in any number of other Canon cameras. Nonetheless, efficient electronics mean the EOS 250D offers a claimed 1,070 shots.
A very minor point is that the battery and SD card live behind the same door, which was fouled by our (standard size) tripod plate, so those who fit a plate will have to take it off each time they want to charge the battery or use an external memory card reader more or less a certainty given that the EOS 250D can only transfer data at poky USB 2 speeds.
You get a reasonable number of ports. Videographers who want to plug in a set of headphones are out of luck, but there is a mic socket. On the other side of the camera theres a mini HDMI-out port, which can be used with an external recorder, as well as a micro-USB port so no USB 3 data transfer or USB-C charging here. Also, incidentally, no USB cable in the box, *rage emoji*.
Canon EOS 250D review: Photo quality
Canon is ole reliable when it comes to image quality. Predictable and superb colour science married with excellent fine detail and good ISO performance means the EOS 250D can produce punchy JPEGs for those who arent interested in the finer points of image processing, or flatter, more malleable RAW files for those who are happy in front of an editor.
The finer points: the supplied lens, Canons standard-issue EF-S-mount 18-55mm f/4-5.6 IS STM is reasonable rather than revelatory. In high-contrast areas we saw purple fringing at apertures as small as f/8, and edge sharpness never really gets going. They dont call them interchangeable lens cameras for nothing, though: our advice is to bag the EOS 250D body-only and find something with a bit more panache even if this will be your first quality camera.
Noise performance isnt affected by the lens you use, of course. ISOs up to 800 were more or less interchangeable in terms of quality, giving you about four stops of shutter and aperture flexibility. ISO 1600 showed rather more noise, but nothing awfully disruptive. We compared our results to our tests of the Nikon D3500 and found output from the two cameras broadly the same.
Canon EOS 250D review: Video quality
Video quality is excellent, although the relative paucity of features means serious videographers will want to look elsewhere. We found plenty of detail in the EOS 250Ds 4K, 25fps output, but with no log support or headphone socket, and no high-speed framerates available beyond 50fps at Full HD, this camera is perhaps better suited to light vlogging or DIY documentaries than the demands of more ambitious filmmaking. On the plus side the kit lens has a stepper motor, which makes for all-but silent operation even with autofocus tracking turned on. We appreciate the inclusion of focus peaking.
This is definitely a better stills camera than a video shooter the former is something the EOS 250D is perfectly suited for; its merely adequate for video.
Canon EOS 250D review: Verdict
Its a rare photographer that cant remember their first serious DSLR, and for years Canon has played a key role in building cameras that offer the perfect blend of affordability, performance, usability and image quality. The EOS 250D continues that heritage nicely it takes great images and supports a wild number of lenses that will allow it to grow with learning photographers. Its usable, and its guide mode provides an easy way into the jungle of f-stops and shutter speeds. You also get superb battery life and a fairly good video mode.
Times are changing, of course, and it will be interesting to see what Canons entry-level DSLR looks like in 18 months battery performance on mirrorless cameras is only going to improve, and there are other manufacturers, notably Fujifilm and Sony, producing ever-more tempting cameras for mass-market photographers. For now, for the money the EOS 250D makes Canon as solid a choice as it ever was.
