Overview
The Canon 850D (also sold in some countries as the Canon EOS Rebel T8i) is a mid-range DSLR camera that was released in 2020. It features a 24.1 megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor, Dual Pixel CMOS AF technology, and a 45-point all cross-type AF system.
Highlights
In terms of performance, the Canon 850D delivers high-quality images and video. The autofocus system allows for fast and accurate shots, and the camera performs well in low light conditions. The camera’s continuous shooting speed is rated(and tested) at 7 fps. The buffer of the camera can hold its own during bursts of shots, not leaving me once feel that I needed more. The kit lens is more than adequate for a beginner photographer starting out on their journey from pocket camera to amateur or semi-pro photography.
Features
One of the standout features of the Canon 850D is its user menu friendly interface.
The camera has a touchscreen LCD display that makes it easy to navigate and change settings.
The camera also has a variety of creative filters and scene modes available, from the big rotating dial on top, to help users be creative with their photography and get the great results right out of the camera.
The camera is sufficiently fast, with 7fps shots. Linked with a fast lens, and you will be getting nice results. Checking the timestamps of the photos, the camera does 7fps bursts no matter what. The bursts can last for at least 15 seconds of buffer, but ultimately you might feel let down only by the speed of the SD Card, but not the camera.
The camera comes also with additional software to copy the data to PC or mobile connecting it via WIFI/Bluetooth. This makes it real easy to get your work out of the camera fast to get it printed, archived or shared with others.
There is little fault with this camera. For me, it was the button layout on the back panel and confusing use of the buttons in some menus, which sometimes feels counter intuitive at first, but you get used to after only a few days.
If you upgrade from an older Cannon, then there is no issue at all, only benefits, like the improved battery life performance which can be a real nice improvement even if upgrading from a recent model – rated for over 1200 shots via the view finder.
Camera Body
In terms of durability, the Canon 850D is feeling like it is built to last. Canon is using Some plastic parts in the body that make it feel a lot lighter than its size. It has a solid construction and feels sturdy in the hand. The camera is not weather-sealed, still it stood the test when going out on a snowy day out shooting, so you can say it can withstand some exposure to the elements.
Display panel
The camera back panel has a one point joint that can do 180 turns in both up and left sides, with the capability of tilting for getting shots low, high or if you want to see your self while vlogging or taking a selfie. Resolution and Colors on the screen are great.
Screen on the tilt and swivel back panel has a responsive touchscreen, nice menu system to get advantage of the shooting mode and apply some light customization.
Kit Lens
Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II comes in the box with the body.
The lens is sharp, silent and fast focusing near to far, very accurate focus, smooth in video autofocus transitions with no jerky moves. And did i mention silent?
It really gives you no worries shooting photos, helping the camera be frustration free from inside the box. Using this kit lens compliments the body for being such a good quality product. DSLR’s just still work great.
Fun fact – The lens width with this camera body, makes it perfect to store the camera in the car cupholder so you can always have it with you.
Photo quality and speed
I will let the JPEG colors speak for themselves. Especially the ones made with built in camera modes like HDR or night mode – where the camera blends 3 or 4 pictures together to make a great exposure. The amazing thing is they are ready-to-post directly out of the camera, color grading and everything. Maybe sometimes the photos could look a bit oversaturated, but that is easily fixed even from the camera menu. This kind of flexibility and ease of use could not be possible in a DSLR until recently, so hats off to Canon for getting these great shooting modes in the camera. Night shots are no longer a pain to shoot and get great results. No complaints in the photo department.
If you have a look at the RAW pictures from this camera, you will be amazed of the noise levels, and this is especially when shooting at inside or at dusk or night. Noise levels will start to be visible in low light situations where there is not so much color and will make the pictures seem like dirty. The raw files have a lot of light stops in them, exposure is dead-on, with 99% of shots so you will have even the possibility to make HDR files out of a single raw to get the best out of a RAW – if you only have one shot.
Night Photo Shots and Shooting Scenes or Creative filters
With Creative filters like Black and white, HDR (3 shots) or Night mode (4 shots) felt the most rewarding to shoot with regardless of day or night.
A Light trails scene feels like it is missing. To overcome this, you need to use manual fixed time or bulb setting to create such a scene. Maybe this is not particularly a great camera kit bundle for shooting in low light conditions and thus the choice of not having the option in the menu.
Photo profiles
The camera has the classic built in scenes like any other DSLR before it, only now they have the option of choosing between multitude of scenes and creative filters that make photography feel like a lot of fun and provide great out of camera quality.
| Exposure Mode | Description |
| A+ Intelligent Auto | Completely automatic photography; the camera automatically chooses settings that produce the best results. You can have the option to manually open the flash if you feel like you need it. |
| SCN (Scene) | Automatic modes for variations of scenes for: portraits, landscapes, and nighttime shots. |
| Creative Filter | Enables you to add special effects to pictures and movies as you shoot them. |
| P (Programmed Autoexposure) | The camera automatically selects the f-stop and shutter speed for proper exposure, while you can choose from multiple combinations of the two settings. |
| Tv (Shutter-priority Autoexposure) | You set shutter speed, while the camera selects the f-stop producing good exposure. |
| Av (Aperture-priority Autoexposure) | You select f-stop, and the camera selects the shutter speed that will produce a good exposure. |
| M (Manual Exposure) | You control both the shutter speed and f-stop. |
Special Profiles or Photo Modes
Portraits, landscapes, and nighttime shots.
This is also why I prefer shooting with creative filters for night shot or HDR, because the quality is much better when the camera mixes multiple shots in the same. The great thing about it, is that you can shoot multiple pictures even handheld at night and you won’t get bad, blurry shots that often to bother. Use your camera strap or your own body to stabilize the shot and you will be amazed what
Sports or Kids modes bring a lot of the fast action back to still, even in low light situations, like under a dark shade of trees. It’s like when shooting in these modes, there is no expectation about the quality of the shot, because of the emotion and effort caught in these pictures is more important, and actually improved by the high noise, blurriness of the background and other imperfections in the shot, as long as the subject is correctly shot in the frame and in focus. It shows exactly the grit or the effort or the fun or emotion behind that all.
Sports or Kids modes, are also useful for shooting fast moving kids, cars, or animals.
Night shot noise reduction
Noise reduction on this camera is very good, if you compare the RAW-CR3 files, to the out of camera JPEG. You just can’t realize how good the noise reduction is until you see it with your own eyes.
Now because of this sensor being a bit more noisy, you will see more reddish or grey nuances in the picture even in indoor situations where 6400 ISO will come on when shooting Auto.
Photos
Video
Overall video performance
4k video is has great quality out of camera, has visible slow shutter, video is recorded with a crop. Stabilize function is constantly working when doing panning shots and video looks wobbly when moving fast. It can be a great camera for studio recording when using it for still video for vlog. For 4k video though you should try to switch to a 10mm lens.
1080p is good quality, still not great.
1080p has also a fast 240 frames per second mode (with a crop) for recording fast action like sports, birds flying.
Video Samples
4k 24p with 18-5mm IS kit lens and built-in microphone
1080p and 4k with 18-5mm IS kit lens and built-in microphone
Canon Software
Phone app is very intuitive and it simply works. Can easily connect to the camera and manage the photo shooting just like a super remote control which is sharing the screen and making changes to the shot settings in real time. I’ve seen something similar to this app controls on the GOPRO app. Connecting the app and camera using the app is reliable – no connection breaks during remote control use, fast – no lag, selecting and applying changes to the photo/video settings from the phone screen, turning the phone into an enhancement device similar to a screen recorder(which a phone can actually do).
It is also possible to sync video or photo from the camera with the phone to be able to share or store it in cloud or on the network pc share. There is a drawback here that you have to keep focus on the Canon app at all times, otherwise the transfer stops.
On the PC app installable from the Canon website, you can use it to pair with the help of 1st time setup instructions of the desktop app and camera connectivity. Every time you will come back home with a new batch of photos and videos, transferring your files from camera to PC is just a matter of turning your camera off and on again. The software is then doing everything for you, while you take some time before starting on your new edits.
I sometimes had trouble with the Windows app, when sometimes it was not starting after a restart or locking out when in idle (maybe because of hibernate). After closing and opening it again, it would reconnect with the camera and get started on the transfer.
Overall experience with Canon 850D
JPEG Photos are great quality for an entry level DSLR.
Great in bright light, awesome colors out of the camera from jpg.
Software apps for PC and Phone are great to act as a remote or to transfer media from camera to local drive,
If I had to compare it to another camera, from what other reviews I’ve seen of Canon cameras, this 850D feels a lot like the mirrorless M50 II.
Battery and charging
The batteries in this camera is shared across multiple other camera from Canon for Both mirrorless and DSLR.
During my testing, I was shooting 300+ shots, 20 minute video shot for a timelapse and a few 30 second videos in all video resolutions, and all this in winter weather in cold winter weather. This was not enough to drain the battery completely, only going down to 1 bar of battery(not flashing). The Timelapse was shot with the display on, though it can be set to turn off to save a lot of battery. I suggest using the display for a one minute test and then start again with it closed.
According to Canon’s own table below, the battery can last for more than 1200 shots Mechanically/NoFlash. That’s an awesome result, because if you even compare it with Canon 750D that has physically the same battery, then it’s 2.5 more shots from the same battery, That’s just one of the top reasons for choosing this camera.
The biggest draw back here is that you have to get a spare battery or have the charger with you at all times. There is no car charger or battery pack charger option. Because they are so small, I would suggest to have a spare one with you.
Connectors
HDMI, Microphone jack 3.5mm, Headphones, stand, hot shoe for plugging in flash or an external microphone.
Battery grip extension optional extra, is available. This add-on should also improve the handling for people with big hands.
Design, Handling and ergonomics
Ergonomics – Buttons, menus and touchscreen
The In-camera menu feel a lot better than what I was expecting when comparing to an old school DSLR from 10, 15 years ago. It’s more user friendly and has actually usable functionality like clearing up burst shots(which you can only do from the menu only). Video, photo, playback and media editing with creative modes, menu/button/shooting customizations and more camera info.
Grip and ergonomics
Nothing to complain or report in the Grip department. Grip gives confidence too shoot low, high and middle. The back panel helps a lot when shooting in landscape or portrait modes from all angles.
Button usability and layout
- small rotary dial on the back panel feels unusable for larger thumbs and might have been better if it would have been positioned closer to the middle of the body or maybe use a wider rotating dial or at least a bit more obtrusive from the body, for a better grip during rotation.
- The info button is also used as back button and should have been positioned on the lower right of the camera, for use with the thumb, otherwise it feels just in the wrong place. Sometimes back can also be replaced by the menu button.
- In some modes you cannot use delete the photos when viewing them, which is quite strange as you could cleanup your files directly on the camera.
- Deleting multiple files from just using the delete button is not possible. You have to do this from the menu.
- If you shoot a lot of bursts, for sports or wild life, then you will most likely generate a lot of waste and you won’t be able to cleanup this directly from the camera and will have to copy the files via the card or Bluetooth/WIFI image transfer utility, but that will take more time than direct card copy. There are software that can help with this.
Competition
Around the same or just a bit higher in the price range, the Canon competitors all have something no the table.
Fujifilm – Mirrorless only range of APSC cameras with great sensors – X-T200, X-S10 and more recently X-S20 – great cameras for usability and shooting experience, light and compact, great at in-camera software, not so good in battery department, but you can charge it on the go using USB, unlike this Canon 850D.
Canon – D90, M50 II – DSLR and Mirrorless equivalents of what, on-paper, looks like the same sensor from Canon.
Nikon – D7500 – on paper this is a better camera ,but Nikons are not selling that good numbers for some years now.
Sony – Has only mirrorless cameras in their lineup since 2016. APSC sensor cameras are great for stills and almost as good for video. A6100 – lower price, A6400 – equally matched, A6600 – best Sony APSC
OM Systems(previously Olympus) – OM1 – has a slightly smaller sensor – 4/3, but somehow makes up with computational photography features.
Panasonic – Lumix DC-G90M, Lumix DC-G7 – have a slightly smaller sensor – 4/3awesome package, makes up the less megapixels with computational photography features.
Durability
Camera feels a bit light in the hand and has a lot of plastic surfaces, apart from the rubber grip, but that is good for a great shooting experience. It feels sturdy and well put together, built to last. Buttons press feel natural. The camera body does not scratch that easily.
Canon Software
In camera
Editing photos and video inside the camera is a nice addition to the software. It is very easy to use for basic needs with possible changes to the original, like color intensity, brightness, contrast, but I did not feel it could replace more advanced editing like lifting shadows and highlighting certain areas. I did not use it that much personally, but it is worth mentioning as sometimes this rough editing is all you need to post something online.
PC or mobile software
With EOS Utility or Image transfer utility allow you to copy the photos from the camera either immediately after the shot or when you get back home.
If you want to start the transfer for all the photos on the camera, You just have to set it up one time, then remember to turn the camera on and off and just wait for the copy to end. You will see a flashing red light on the camera back-panel letting you know the media transfer is going on.
- Install on pc or phone, follow instructions to setup WIFI and Bluetooth on PC/mobile and camera.
- On PC, just open the app(or set it to launch at startup),
- On the camera, power off and on the camera and it connect computer and camera via WiFi and start the transfer of data.
- On the phone request the camera to download the photos: all or individual. Remember turning off and on camera every time to start the transfer.
The software is easy to use and it rarely faults.
Canon Lens – alternatives for amateurs
Wide angle is really interesting for all sort of reasons. If you have sufficient light, or play with your settings right, then it will reward you with nice results. Also, if you have a wide angle, you can always crop the image if you have enough megapixels to work with.
Wide is making useful for showing off complex environments like a city, it’s architecture, landscape, or close up shots.
A lot of great shots can also be done indoor, if sufficient light is available or flash is used.
Astrophotography is possible with this lens, and this is one of the main reasons I want this kind of a lens.
Usually this type of lenses are compact in size and weight, making it the ideal urban/travel shooter, maybe even use it for a little selfie-vlogging. Downside of using wide angle would be the distortion on the side of the shot.
- Canon EF-S 10-18mm IS STM – my first lens on the list because of it’s image stabilization, small size and because of the “wide” range of situations where you can shoot with it. 220grams;
- Alternative cheap wide lens – Canon EF-S 10-22mm DSLR F3.5-4.5 USM; same reasons as above, minus the stabilization. So, unless you are not shooting in fast low light situations. 385 grams;
- Tamron 18-400mm F/3.5-6.3 Di II VC HLD SLR, Autofocus – the best all round lens to replace all lenses with one. I want to test to see the weight of this 22.2x zoom – 710 grams;
- Canon EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Nano – 7.5x zoom lens – 510 grams.
ITravelNomad 
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