Canon Rebel T6i first impressions review: the King of Rebels

It's only the first month into 2024 and I have already acquired 3 "new" to me cameras; two of which were gotten at no costs off of trades and one was at a price I could not pass up.  I will likely review all 3 at some point along with a few cameras that didn't make last year's cut for the camera a week challenge.

But for now, let's focus on my newest acquisition: the Canon T6i (750D).  This camera was the beginning of the end of the Rebel camera line featuring the last sensor that would be put into the Rebel: Canon's 24mp APS-C sensor that was also used in the 77D and 80D.

Prior to late 2019 I was primarily a Canon shooter and my workhorse camera was a Canon 80D.  I really enjoyed that camera but after it got water damaged I switched over to a Nikon D7200 as my primary camera for Event photography. The Canon T6i brings back some of my fond memories of both shooting the 80D and throwback first DSLRs I owned I learned Photography on (the Rebel XTi and T1i). It makes a perfect bookend to my Canon Rebel series collection.  

Released in 2015 the Canon Rebel T6i (known as the 750D in Europe) alongside the Canon T6s (an alternate version with a second control wheel and top LCD) would be succeeded by the Rebel T7i and T8i. It had a new 24mp 1.6x CMOS sensor, a refined look and feel, and the articulated LCD inherited from the T5i.

The overall ergonomics of the Rebel T6i makes it feel more of a premium camera over the other Rebel series cameras in my collection.  It is slightly larger then the XT-T2i cameras I own and noticeably heavier.  However it still remains a lighter weight DSLR then something like a Canon 7D or Nikon D7XXX series body.

The Rebel T6i has a few other differences from the rest of the Rebel Series cameras I've used including the SL1 (which I sold to a friend) and older models from the original Digital Rebel up to the T2i.  Gone are the days of the jarring and loud signature "ka-chink" of the older Rebel's shutter and mirror flip up and it now has a satisfying click when the shutter actuates and mirror flips up. It is also a very responsive camera with write delays a thing of the past even when shooting RAW+JPEG except when doing bursts. 

Burst speed on the T6i is a respectable 5 FPS; which may not sound like a lot but considering most other Rebel cameras topped off at 3 or 3.5 FPS and most premium APS-C bodies stopped at around 7 FPS this is quite respectable.

Put these all together and this camera (along with the T7i and T8i that followed) are the King of the Rebel series cameras. 

The T6i still has a few of the Rebel's "classic" feature restrictions such as only full stops in ISO when set Manually (100, 200, 400, 800 etc), no ability to set a minimum shutter speed in priority mode, and less Autofocus points then the more premium APS-C DSLRs.  After a day out shooting with this or any of my Rebel cameras these features more and more feel like "nice to have" vs "have to have".  

The end of the day I feel the Canon Rebel DSLRs are unfairly judged by people especially higher-end camera snobs who can "afford the best".  Sure they lack a lot of "features" and "aren't full frame" but some of my best and most spetacular shots I have ever taken have come off a Rebel.  

For me, the simplicity is what makes these cameras special.  I can just go out and shoot without over thinking of how my function buttons are set, what focus mode I should be in, micro tune my Autofocus or ISO etc.  I can dial in what I need to quickly and just go out, shoot and enjoy myself.  The same can be said of the Nikon D5000 (which will be its own future review) and the Sony a290.  Sometimes I just like keeping it simple.

I have not gotten out to use this particular camera much, though I did for a short time own an imported 760D which was a EU version of this camera's sister camera the T6s.  I owned that camera as a backup to my 80D before I started collecting cameras as a hobby in 2017 and I sold it a few months after buying it because I felt like I wasn't using it enough.  So I am glad to have a version of that camera back.

Enjoy a few SOOC (straight out of camera) photos off the Canon Rebel T6i that I took last night right after I bought it. I had the camera set to JPG and these were still mostly test shots taking advantage of the last of the daylight on an abnormally warm late January evening.

 

What lies ahead for this Blog in 2024 and Beyond

 I started the Digicam Den blog in 2023 to document a year long project of shooting and reviewing 52 digital cameras ranging from early 2000s pocket cameras up to more modern Full Frame DSLRs.  

The results of this challenge were intriguing, and I found myself often being surprised at getting some really amazing photos not off the 2019 Nikon Z50 or the two Full Frame DSLRs I reviewed but in some of the much older DSLRs and even a few of the pocket cameras as well.

For 2024 I am doing a Photo a Day challenge which due to the more frequent and fleeting posts I am keeping that challenge to my microblogging resources; IE Twitter, Bluesky and my Telegram channel I set up for it.  

This blog is meant for my longer thought dumps, and is a lot less viewed then my social media accounts, and I think I am fine with keeping it that way.  I don't want my longer-winded content that I use mostly to self-reflect on to be buried in a series of shorter one a day moments.  

While I could do a write up every day where I was when I took each photo and describe in detail what equipment and settings I was using to take the photo, that would require a lot more time and effort then I have available to me.

So instead I will still use this Blog to do write-ups and thought dumps about photography as I feel inspired to do so.  This may include camera reviews that weren't part of my 2023 project as there were a few cameras in my collection I could not include in my review due to missing components IE no battery, no charger or no way to get photos off.  In addition I will still be purchasing and rotating in new cameras that were not part of my 2023 project.

Here's to looking forward to another year of Photography ahead.  January and February are the dullest and most limited months for opportunities for me to get out and take photos and my Photo a day will keep me engaged in making sure I keep taking fresh content in 2024.

Enjoy a few photos taken as part of my daily challenge so far this year, while I won't be posting these photos otherwise I felt a sampling of photos I've taken so far in the first week of 2024 would be a good way to kick off going forward into another rotation around the sun.

2023 Weekly Challenge Week 52: Canon Rebel XT

With last week being the last week of 2023 I have reached the end of the ambitious 2023 challenge of shooting and reviewing 52 different Digital Cameras in one year.  

It's a sad conclusion to a very long project and while my collection will change and evolve, I'm certainly not going to be buying or trading a different set of 52 cameras for 2024 to review. 

I will instead be doing a smaller project that is shared on shorter social media outlets and re-purposing this blog for times I want to vent or share with the few people who will take time to read my posts.

For the last week of 2023 I decided to sneak in one more Canon Rebel DSLR.  I will do a followup post on why I collect Canon Rebels and why they hold such a special place in my heart.  

The short version of that followup post is that the Canon Rebel series of DSLRs are the ultimate Underdog workhorse camera that gets dumped on by many, many photographers for feeling "cheap" and not being "A $2000+ Entry-Pro Full Frame Camera". 

However when it comes down to it the Rebels are so simple in form and function they are the perfect Advanced camera to learn Photography on.  They don't have all the "Features" to distract you and make you feel that you are "missing" something because Brand X's Pro Full Frame camera has a feature that yours does not.

This week's review is of a camera I decided not to keep, simply because I have a friend that I can get one in better condition from for cheaper to add back to my collection.  But it was the one Canon Rebel Sensor I was missing other then the last 24mp sensor that Canon put into the Rebel series (which still command a pretty high price for used).

The Canon Rebel XT (also known as the Canon Rebel 350D in Global Markets) was the second in Canon's entry level series of consumer/budget DSLRs released in 2005. It features an 8mp CMOS APS-C sensor (the same sensor that was used in both the professional APS-C 20D and 30D) which in terms of image quality was a noticeable increase from the first consumer generation APS-C 6 mp sensor even if the resolution bump was a fairly minor increase and a stopgap between the 6 and 10mp sensors that other camera manufacturers skipped.

The 350D/Rebel XT also was the first Rebel series body to have the smaller, more compact form factor (as the original Digital Rebel was significantly bigger in spite of still missing the top screen) that Canon would carry all the way to the Rebel T8i and T100 with only a few unique models such as the T6s, SL1-SL3 diverging on this classic form factor.

It was the last Canon Rebel to have the rear secondary LCD info panel as future models would drop this feature to put in a larger main TFT screen without increasing the physical size and form factor.  

While the button layout would change slightly with the Canon Rebel XSi the core controls of this camera are still very simmilar to the more modern Canon Rebel/XXX/XXXXD camera bodies. It still has the classic 4 way navigation buttons which double as pre programmed function buttons to quickly adjust features such as ISO and White Balance when not moving the focus point or navigating menus.

In terms of how responsive the camera is it's about on par with the Classic Digital Rebel.  Which means its okay but not great when it comes to a DSLR.  It's a lot less frustrating to use then a Bridge camera from the same era (IE the Canon Powershot Pro 1) so instead of waiting upwards of 10-20 seconds between shots if you shoot in RAW the write delay is down to 1-2 seconds with a reasonably fast (for what this camera supports) CF card.  This makes the camera just fine for like shooting street photography but doing single shot bursts/double tapping with this camera is a lot more frustrating then the Canon Rebel XTi and forward which had a big enough buffer to store a few shots in RAW before having to write to the card.

Shooting in JPEG of course, the buffer is large and fast enough to have a seamless shooting experience; but the delay was short enough that it was still tolerable for a day of casual street photography while shooting in RAW to not frustrate me so I shot the camera in RAW and post processed after for this review.

One improvement in shooting experience was the lack of a startup delay the Original Rebel had.  Flick the switch on and the camera is ready to take photos instead of having a 5-10 second boot up sequence where the rear LCD flashed before it was ready to go. This alone made the Rebel XT feel more like a modern DSLR in spite of the lackluster buffer and very slow FPS drive.

Overall, I did have fun shooting this camera and it was a lot more enjoyable and less frustrating expereince overall then the last two cameras prior to this review.  I wanted to end this review on something that didn't make me want to pull my hair out with. 

This camera isn't the fastest, nor does it do the best at low light photography. It can't shoot Video. But at the end of the day this is a great example of a camera you can find for under $50 used that is so basic and simple to use that it really breaks down Digital Photography into the Basics, and becomes a camera that an experienced or learning photographer both can still use to capture some really nice images without relying on the camera (or phone) to do everything for them and "automagically" capture an image that may or may not be what they wanted.

Taking a step back and shooting an old DSLR before the age of Live View, Video or more "advanced" features is really a good excersize.  Anyone struggling with their photography or just wanting to have a better understanding of how Digital Photography works beyond just "pressing a button" can learn a lot by picking up an old camera like this and shooting it for a week or even a month in lieu of their smartphone or modern High-End Full Frame Mirrorless camera that has all the bells and whistles.

And with that, I leave 2023 with the following photos taken with one of the most basic of all interchangeable lens cameras that can be picked up for less then the price of a single Steak Dinner; a Canon Rebel XT.

2023 Weekly Challenge Week 51: Coleman Xtreme 2

Back in January for one of my first reviews I reviewed an off-brand pocket camera that was produced by GE.  It was indeed a bizarre fever dream of a cheap (but modern) digicam that became prevalent right before the rise of Smartphones when every company even ones that normally did not make cameras wanted to have a slice of the point and shoot digital camera market.

Last week I shot another of these, this time a design that traded a limited optical zoom to be waterproof; the Coleman Xtreme 2. 

By reviewing this camera and reading its manual I learned a few things from that gave me an idea of how the GE was so bad as well (namely the discrepancy on the sensor- which I will dive into later).  For now let's get some product photos up.  I'm not going to lie, aesthetically it has a unique design which gives it points over the GE RS1400 off the bat:

By the mid 2010s smartphones had started to take away more and more of a share of the pocket camera market.  However there was still one last big push to make pocket cameras and one niche in particular remained: Waterproof cameras.  These cameras were bought for both taking on a cruise in case you decided to go snorkeling and to give to kids who could throw the durable little cameras around without risking breaking your really expensive smartphone.

This camera is something my significant other won at a raffle 8 years ago, and had not been opened or used until my review of it.  Luckily unlike the Olympus D390 I bought that was DOA this camera did indeed work when I put two new AAA batteries (yes it takes AAA batteries) into it.

Just like the GE RS1400 you can't find any information about this camera online: when it was first made, any sort of reviews, etc. This camera is a bit more common to find for sale however then the RS1400 on E-Bay or overstock stores that have likely been sitting on a palette of them since the mid 2010s.

Since I have the box and manual for this camera I found that the manual has some interesting information which tells us more about this camera and even contradicts the writing on the outside of the box and top of the camera.  

The manual hints that this camera was released in 2015 however it is impossible to verify this as just like the GE camera no one other then myself has ever done a review on it that I can find, and no one with an endorsement from Coleman for sure. There's probably reasons for this as its well, pretty terrible.

Lets expand on the contradictory information from the camera's manual: on the top of the camera and package in bold text is written "16 Megapixels". Which was about what one would expect to see on a late model digicam right?  However when you open the manual you are told that the camera has a 1/3.2" CCD sensor with "5 million ACTIVE pixels" so in reality it is a 5mp camera.  

Which tracks for the size of the lens and overall poor build quality of this camera.  Coleman likely took surplus sensors from one of the first generation smartphones they could get in bulk for next to nothing and slapped it into this waterproof case.

How it gets the 16 megapixels is by in-camera interpolation which is a fancy way of saying it just blows up the pixels in this particular case.  Think of how a Digital Zoom works- its similar to that except instead of cropping in on one area of the photo this expands the entire image.  The results are just what you expected pretty terrible.

On top of this, this camera is a Manual Focus pocket camera.  Yes you heard it, Manual Focus on a Digicam in 2015.  This automatically takes away points from the GE RS1400 as while the AF on that camera wasn't great atleast it had it.

I was originally going to review this camera two weeks ago, but after a day of shooting with it in "16 megapixel mode" and not having any real useable images from that set, I decided to take a step back; there had to be something I was missing as there was no way the camera could be that bad.

Well, I was half correct.  Not really mentioned in the manual there was an adjustment lever on the side of the camera for focusing between macro and landscape (infinity focus).  The camera was by default set on Macro mode and I found that this setting threw everything out of focus as even photos taken up close were extremely blurry.

Switching to the landscape mode helped a lot, but the camera still had a hard time getting a solid focus on anything with this early cellphone style pan-focus lens it had on it, but it provided me with a few useable shots instead of practically none from the first time I took it out.

After I figured that out, and set the resolution to what the hardware of the camera could do (5mp) results got marginally better.  I got one really nice shot with it that did in earnest really surprise me (which you will see below, the landscape photo of the frozen lake) but only under very specific conditions did it pull that off.

Otherwise the shots were noisy at any ISO, blurry, smudged and lacked detail. It reminded me very much of the early attempts at phones for photography which furthered my hunch that was exactly what it was: a sensor and lens from a five to ten year old phone that was re-packaged into a waterproof case.

As such, I have some insight that since the GE RS1400 had similar quality issues it likely was the same story; take an old camera phone sensor, put it into a camera and then market its Megapixels to be higher then it actually was to make it sell. It's such a bizarre shovelware strategy which is proven to work especially in days before online reviews were centralized.

The build quality however was much better then the GE RS1400.  The rubber grip made it feel nice in your hand and the buttons including the shutter were more responsive; which for a cheap waterproof camera is impressive.  The video button was not on the top next to the power button and the power button itself was not easy to accidently double tap to turn off right away.

Overall however this camera was worse then the GE camera which is saying something.  It lacks basic features such as Autofocus.  The menus are extremely laggy and irratating to navigate.  The camera has a silent shutter with a terrible shutter lag even if you leave the digital shutter sound on. 

When you take a photo with this camera the "shutter noise" actually fires off before the shutter does making it extremely easy to move the camera while taking a photo as the tone implies that the the photo taking is done.

To sum this review up: I only liked the fact that this camera's design was fun and unique and otherwise want to chuck it into the middle of the Mississippi River (but I won't because A its not mine and B it is so terrible its a fun conversation piece). 

And finally, let's move onto the photos, starting off with the one photo that I had to do a double take on when I got it to the computer because it somehow actually looks really nice, unlike the other 150 or so photos I took with this camera over the last week and a half.

2023 Weekly Challenge Week 50: Canon Powershot A75

Earlier this year I reviewed the Canon Powershot A510, and the sensor and design this camera is very close, almost identical to the Powershot A75 even if they are in two different series.

In the early 2000s this was actually fairly common to do especially for Canon.  Prior to the Powershot ELPH series which standardized the smaller more compact form factor Canon tried a lot of different designs in their pocket cameras, with some being discontinued to show up in later model series. If a model design did well, they may re-use the design a year or two later under a different series.

Released in 2004 this camera is almost identical to the Canon Powershot A510 (released one year later in 2005) in physical button layout, size and form factor.

The Canon Powershot A75 has a 1/2.7" 3.2mp CCD sensor.  The Canon Powershot A510 that proceeded it has a newer and very slightly larger (smaller fractions under 1" sensor size is bigger) 1/2.5" 3.2mp CCD sensor.

The similarities between the sensor are not the only thing these two cameras share. They both have a indented finger grip, full manual controls with a 4 way dpad, optical viewfinder, 3x optical zoom and could both take filters/lens adapter by the optional attachment that could hook up to the camera's accessory ring.

Both are powered by 4 AA batteries making them popular for digicam enthusiasts. The one noteable difference is the A75  uses Compact Flash and the A510 takes SD (not SDHC) memory.  The A75 is a little more useful as it can read CF cards up to 1gb whereas the A510 will not read any SD cards over 512mb; which makes locating memory cards that work with the A510 a lot harder to work with.  While you should be able to use the more standard 2gb SD card, mine would not read it and seemed to struggle with anything over a 512mb card.

There is one unfortunate issue with both of these cameras, and this is Quality Control issues.  These were entry-mid range consumer pocket cameras and they were not built to last.  Both are plagued by a variety of wear and tear issues (which happens for cameras that are almost two decades old.  However after talking to other Digicam collectors it seems very common that both of these camera series have a lot of defects) ranging from dead sensors, to dead zoom or AF motors on the lenses and worn out control buttons.

My A510 and A75 both have flaws which prevent me from giving them a full honest review.  As I mentioned when reviewing the A510; one of the D-Pad buttons was worn out which prevented me from changing the time/date or adjusting other functions such as exposure compensation.

During this review, the A75's optical zoom motor got stuck to the full wide focal length.  The lens would still extend and retract as it was turned on or off; but after two photos the zoom lever on the front would no longer engage the motor to extend the lens to zoom in.  Autofocus did work, but I was locked to one focal length.

The shooting experience of both cameras was very close to each other.  Startup and shutdown time was good, but there was a slight input control lag as well as a shutter lag when a photo was taken.

The mechanical issues of both cameras along with the fairly meh and slightly laggy shooting experience makes me very unlikely to shoot with either of these again.  

If one was searching to get the mid 2000's Digicam look and wanted the ability to do manual exposure then both of these cameras would be an option provided you were able to find one in better condition then the ones I own. In this case, the sensor in the A510 seemed slightly more vibrant and sharper so I would recommend that over the A75 but the differences are pretty slight.

So with the defect limitations of the particular camera I have, here's a few examples of I was able to get for one of my last reviews for this 52 camera project.

2023 Weekly Challenge Week 49: Fujifilm Finepix T550

 Towards the end of the pocket camera era (early to mid 2010s) camera manufacturers made one last push to make small, compact and cheap pocket cameras that offered one thing that Smartphones did not (and still do not) offer: a true seamless optical zoom.  

Most of these late model pocket cameras shared a few things in common:  they were very basic to use with a lack of physical controls, had a decent optical zoom range for their size (typically around 10x) and a lot of these actually ran CCD sensors to keep costs down making them the last CCD based cameras that were available new on the market over a decade before they were deemed obsolete by the camera industry as a whole.

Back in Feburary I already reviewed one of these cameras; the Canon Powershot ELPH 190. The Fujifilm T550 was a direct competitor to this camera with a similar sub compact size, solid optical zoom and aimed to be a true no-thought to use point and shoot camera.  Of the two cameras the Powershot ELPH 190 wins hands down in just about every respect, which I will go over in the rest of this review.

Released in 2013 the Fujifilm Finepix T550 as mentioned before was a budget sub-compact "super zoom" pocket camera, and among the last push at making true consumer (not hobbyist) pocket cameras that were as easy to use as a Smartphone.  Smartphones would obliterate this market in 2018 making the slightly newer Canon Powershot ELPH 190 (2016) the true swansong to this class of low-end true point and shoot cameras.

This camera features a 12x optical zoom and a 16mp 1/2.3" CCD sensor, making it very similar on paper to the late Powershot ELPH series (150-190).  

Ease of use on both is very similar with both cameras allowing the user only to change basic things like set a timer, turn on or off the flash and enable macro mode.  Some more advanced features such as setting a manual white balance or adjusting the EV are available in the camera menus but are not easy to access.  

Overall this camera is pretty standard for a consumer grade point and shoot camera; where it is assumed the average person will never need any "Manual" features and just trust the camera to make all the decisions for them (very much the same mentality for Smartphone photography as well). With this in mind, the Canon Powershot ELPH 190 does a lot better job of providing really nice photos straight out of camera with not a lot of fidgeting in post or frustration while taking the photo IE having focusing issues or shutter delays.

The T550 has a number of flaws in operation that I have found in other camera reviews such as focus hunting AF (ELPH SD630), Movie button too close to the power button often causing me to record a video instead of turning the camera off (GE RS1400), overall non-responsive when compared to competing cameras (IE ELPH 190) and fairly meh overall image quality when you compare it to the ELPH 190 which is a lot sharper and has better dynamic range in spite of having a similar sensor on paper (16mp CCD vs 20mp CCD 1/2.3").  

I felt less inspired to shoot this camera this last week as a result of its technical flaws combined with the fact that December is not typically a very interesting month for Photography in Minnesota or Wisconsin. So I did not get a good variety of photos with this camera; mostly just quick "snapshots" of still life or plain landscape scenes.

As such, this is a camera which will be on my sell list for 2024 to trim out of my collection.  It still gets that vintage high contrasty CCD look; but there are a lot of cameras in my collection that do a better job of this with a lot less effort.

2023 Weekly Challenge Week 48: Olympus Tough TG 620

 Earlier this year I reviewed the Olympus Tough 8010, a camera that is nearly indestructible but that's really all it has going for it. Last week I shot a better version of a Tough series camera a mid-range Tough TG-620.

The king of waterproof cameras is the Olympus Tough TGX series.  Sadly even a TG1 commands insanely high resale prices so getting ahold of one for cheap is really hard to find at a price that warrants my "fun digicam budget".

So today I'll review the best Waterproof camera I own and for a small sensor compact it's relatively solid even if you don't take the water/dust and shock resistant build into factor.

At first glance the TG 620 is a pretty unassuming little waterproof camera.  It has the offset lens design which can be a challenge when trying to shoot two handed and like all waterproof pocket cameras has an internal optical zoom so no lens extends when the camera is powered on or zoomed in.

Released in 2012 it has a pretty standard 1/2.3" 12 MP CMOS sensor.  Being a CMOS sensor does give it a slight edge to ISO noise and it did a perfectly fine job up to around ISO 1250 when I used it indoors.  For a small sub 1" pocket camera getting useable shots at ISO 1250 is actually pretty solid.

Startup and shut down times are nearly instant, thanks in large part to not having an extending lens. Menu operation is smooth and the UI is vastly improved over the Tough 8010.  It has a really nice shutter button for the size of the camera as well.

Other controls such as the 4 way joystick and zoom toggle are a little small; but it is very uncommon to see a pocket camera with an actual joypad control vs the more standard 4 way D pad buttons with the OK in the middle.

The lens on the TG620 is also the sharpest least distortion internal zoom lens of any internal zoom pocket camera I own easily beating both the Tough 8010 and the Sony T300 by a fairly wide margin.

Overall this camera would still fall just outside of a pocket camera I'd take out as a daily shooter which would comprise of the Panasonic ZS100, ZS50, Canon Powershot S90 and Olympus XZ-1.  It easily ranks in the upper half of pocket cameras I enjoy shooting which will likely save it from the chopping block (the Olympus Tough 8010 on the other hand yeah that can go.)

It's not a perfect pocket camera by any means.  Its short 5x optical zoom is only a 3.9 apeture while at wide angle.  This makes it fairly slow and limits what you can do with it indoors.

This camera has one unique feature, an LED assisted macro mode. It has limited useage and I wouldn't try using it with anything moving such as an insect but for a small sensor camera it did pretty good at picking out small details on this sandwhich, getting it in focus in a room with very low ambient light otherwise.

 

 

Altough I can't compare this camera to a more flagship waterproof camera like the Olympus Tough TG5 or the 1" sensor waterproof Sealife camera if I was in a situation where I needed something waterproof such as while wading or swimming or if I was on a vacation that had water based activites that would be high risk for other cameras; I certainly could get some decent shots out of this camera.  

 

Sure the detail falls off at 100% crop and sure it has a fairly limited Dynamic Range to work with due to being a small sensor CMOS chip, but it can still deliver some shots that look better then my Cellphone which marks it off as a win in my book.

Overall it was a lot more enjoyable to shoot and had much more consistent output results the the Olympus 8010 and was also more consistent then the previous week's Canon Powershot ELPH SD630; granted this camera is 6 years newer.

So while I can't give this a glowing review for every situation as it can at times come up short; if someone was looking for a camera for a high-risk situation that can be bought for cheap and still had serviceable controls, operation lag and output quality; I certainly could recommend this camera to them.

To wrap it up enjoy some photos I took with this camera into the first two days of the last month of 2023: