It is true that while learning photography, one should always begin with manually operated SLRs. In that sense, a completely automated camera like the Canon EOS-66 is not recommendable to a beginner, though Canon labels it as a ’’beginner’s’’ camera. However, as one becomes little advanced and starts knowing the meaning of features like automatic exposure bracketing, depth of field lock, TTL metering etc., this is the camera I would advice him/her to buy. By no means all these features are absolutely necessary for taking good photographs, but then, they increase the accuracy, and reduce the uncertainty.
Canon EOS-66 is the trend setter in the lowly priced, feature-rich, the so called ’’beginner’s’’ SLRs, so much so, that Nikon was forced to respond with an F-55, Minolta with a Dynax-3, and so on... It is the world’s largest selling amateur SLR, and a definite improvement over its predecessor, the EOS- 88. When it came into the market, it was the lightest SLR (365 grams) with a fully poly-carbonate body, though now the other two above mentioned comparable models have beaten it by few grams. In the U.S., the model goes by the name Canon Rebel EOS-3000-N (I still don’t understand why camera companies name their cameras differently for the U.S.market). So you shouldn’t be confused if somebody calls it differently! There is also a QD version of EOS-66 which can imprint date and time on photographs, and weighs a few grams more.
Coming to the looks, the camera has a silvery finish, which has off late become a fad among cameras. The camera overall is ergonomically designed and the buttons are conveniently placed. As for the technicalities, the version marketed in India comes with a 35-80 zoom, whereas that which is marketed in the U.S. comes with a 28-80 zoom (again, something which I don’t understand!). The quality of zoom lense would fare as pretty good for an amateur, whereas in terms of a professional it would only rate as average. The auto-focussing is fast, and except in extreme light conditions, the camera performs well in auto-mode. The auto-mode has five settings, the fully automatic where the camera decides everything, the night scene mode, the portrait mode, the close-up mode, and the landscape mode. The camera can also be operated in manual or semi-automatic (both aperture priority and shutter priority) modes. The LCD display of EOS-66 is large and the icons are clear and easily discernible.
The camera has a winding speed of 1 frame per second, which is inadequate for professionals, but enough for an advanced amateur. The winding mechanism of EOS-66 is little peculiar in the sense that before you start shooting the first frame, as soon as you load the film into the camera, the entire film is pulled out from the cartridge and is wound to the other side. As you take photographs, the exposed film is frame by frame rewound into the cartridge. This actually protects the exposed frames in case of accidental opening of back cover while the roll is in ; you don’t loose any photographs. There is three-point focussing, and three types of metering, including a centre-weighted metering mode. If you are too unsure of getting a correct exposure, you can use the automatic exposure bracketing feature, in which three successive frames are shot in +1, normal, and -1 exposure stops. The depth of field lock which its competitor, the Nikon-F-55, lacks, shows you exactly how the actual photograph will be, interms of sharpness of the image, its foreground, and the background.
The built-in flash is reasonably powerful with a guide number of 12 ; that means that if you put an ISO 100 film inside the camera, you can cover up to 12 meters distance (with a 28 mm wide flash angle) with that flash. If you want a more powerful flash, you can use the external Canon Speedlite flashes which can provide upto guide number 46. The flash synchronization is at 1/90 which is little slow, considering some fully manual cameras like the Yashica-FX-3-Super have flash synchronization fixed at 1/125. There is also a built-in red-eye reduction facility.
To prevent camera jerk during slow shutter speeds, you can also attach a remote to this camera. The maximum shutter speed is 1/ 2000, and film upto ISO 6400 can be used in this camera.
As a whole, I would rate this camera as a good performer, and easy to handle for an amateur who has 5-7 years of experience in photography with manual cameras. The camera is available for Rs.12, 500/- onwards in grey market, but I wouldn’t advice you to go grey. In white market, thanks to the Indian customs duties, it costs Rs.19, 895/-. Before you buy this, check out Minolta Dynax-5 & 3 also. The former has just been adjudged as the best camera of 2002-2003, and the latter is a light weight successor of the former. They are identical in price structure to EOS-66, and even the features are identical.