Canon splits the personality of its top Rebel model with T6i, T6s

Canon's Rebel dSLR line is doing so well that the company's adding a second model at the top, in addition to revving it. The T6i (750D) and T6s (760D) join the existing T5i (700D), T5 (1200D) and SL1 (100D) for a total of 5 dSLR bodies costing less than $1,000 (up to £800 or AU$1,000).

Two Canon dSLRs for beginner photographers (pictures)

+5 More

See all photos

The T6i and T6s are slated to cost $750 and $850, respectively, a small price gap. But as it did with the T5i announcement, Canon is artificially creating a price distinction between the kits by only offering the T6s with the more expensive 18-135mm STM lens for $1,200 and the T6i in a cheaper $900 configuration with the 18-55mm STM lens, as well as an $1,100 kit with the longer lens; the market usually fills in the gap with less expensive kits, however.

In the UK, the 750D 18-55mm STM kit will run for £690 and the body, £600. There doesn't seem to be an official 760D kit in the UK, and the body will cost £650. In Australia, the 760D body's available for preorder at $1,200.

Though they have notably different body designs, the two models are ultimately only slightly different. The T6s' controls and layout are designed to appeal to a higher-end photographer, with advanced conventions like a top status LCD, lockable mode dial and a lockable control dial on the back, with hopefully less cheap-feeling buttons.

Enlarge Image

Other interesting distinctions in the T6s/760D include, an eye sensor for switching between the viewfinder and Live View, an electronic level, plus tracking autofocus in Live View -- the "s" is for "servo." It also offers HDR and miniature special effects in movie mode and digital zoom.

The cameras are identical otherwise, and the T6i's/750D's body is almost unchanged from the T5i/700D, with only two extra buttons added to the top -- a direct-access to change autofocus mode and a display-options button -- as well as a Wi-Fi status indicator. As before, the chassis is composed of an aluminum alloy and polycarbonate res with glass fiber and the cover polycarbonate resin with glass fiber.

What's new

• Updated sensor, autofocus and image processing systems. Canon's new 24.2-megapixel sensor is based on an updated version of the company's Hybrid CMOS, which incorporates both phase-detection and contrast autofocus on the sensor to provide better autofocus during movie capture when used with one of the company's STM (stepper motor) lenses. Plus, it has more phase-detection points, 19 up from nine, similar to the AF system that's in the original 7D. It also gets an upgrade to Digic 6 for the most current set of features and newest processing algorithms, which includes improved automatic scene detection in the presence of IR or flickering light sources.
• New metering sensor. Canon brings the RGB+IR metering technology from the 7D Mark II down to the new Rebels, albeit with fewer zones. Generally, in addition to metering these sensors provide information to improve face or object detection and sometimes to boost autofocus tracking speed.
• Smaller viewfinder. The small, dim viewfinder of the T5i loses even more magnification, dropping from an effective 0.53x to 0.51x.
• Updated features. Most of the new features bring the camera into parity with the competition. At the top of the list are clean HDMI out and NFC/Wi-Fi connectivity (plus support for Canon's Connect Station, if anyone cares) top the list. Also new is multishot HDR.

My take

It's really nice to get some significant updates from Canon for its mid- to entry-level dSLRs, with an expectation of better performance and image quality. Canon sees the T6s' appeal as a cheaper version of the 70D -- which will be 2 years old this summer and therefore is due for a rev -- for people who can't afford or don't care about the better performance, build quality and viewfinder of the latter.

Given the standalone cost of the 18-135mm STM lens, which tends to run about $550 (£340, AU$600), those kits look like they'll be really good values unless you're really budget constrained. A lot will depend upon how all that new technology translates into improvements over the T5i as to whether they're worth the price differential. As to the choice between the models, I suspect that most people will (and probably should) opt for the cheaper one unless upsold by a salesperson, especially if the tracking autofocus in Live View doesn't work very well -- the only differentiator between the two that I think will really matter to people who traditionally buy these models.

Compared to the competition, they look a little less shiny; from a specs perspective, they're close to the slightly more expensive Nikon D5500, but the D5500 outdoes them in several ways; better battery life (the Canons use the same compact battery as the newly announced EOS M3), bigger viewfinder and a larger LCD, to name three. It will be interesting, to say the least, to put them head-to-head.

Comparative specs