Why I Still Keep My Canon SL1

I bought Canon SL1 with old 18-55mm kit lens back in 2013 at a ridiculous low price. It was for Jol’s photography class but she moved on quickly to other cameras so SL1 was stuck with the old man.

SL1 was Canon’s first answer to those many compact mirrorless systems out there. It was the smallest DSLR on the market back then. I already had m43 mirrorless system when I bought SL1, so its strongest selling point (portability) was not that attractive to me. I also had professional Canon gears so I don’t really need another Canon DSLR. I am an active eBay seller, I sell my gears if I don’t really need them. But today SL1 is still with me.

Why? I am an old school, I still prefer SL1’s optical viewfinder to mirrorless systems’ electric view finders. Back in 2013, SL1’s autofocus system was still faster and more accurate than most of the mirrorless systems. SL1 also felt better in my hand, the arrangement of the buttons is logical. But the most important reason is I can build a low cost system around SL1 without sacrificing too much picture quality.

The key to this low cost but highly usable system is the STM lenses Canon introduced among these years. The main lenses in this line up are (all EF-S): 10-18mm, 18-55mm, and 55-250mm. None of these lenses are over $300 and yet they give you a generous coverage from super wide angle to telephoto range (16mm to 400mm) with above average optical performance. But you have to make sure you got the latest version of the lenses. For instance, My SL1 came with a non STM version kit lens. When I decided to build the system, I first sold it on eBay and bought the IS STM version. From the pictures taken by these two lenses, you can easily see STM lens has the better optical performance.

With all the mirrorless systems, if they just use the kit lenses, they won’t give you better performance over the low cost SL1 system. With that being said, if you have other Rebel cameras, you can also build a low cost but very capable system. Don’t look down on your Canon STM lenses, they might feel very plastic but they can be very good if you use them in the right way. In my case, this SL1 system is actually lighter than mirrlorless system with the similar grade and coverage of the lenses. That’s why, this SL1 becomes one of my favorite travel systems. If you really need low light support, throw in the 50mm f1.8 and 24mm f2.8 STM lenses and you will be fine. Both lenses are under $150. Canon also puts 50mm f1.8 and 10-18mm lens into a package with a discounted price. The package is also on sale every now and then (you get another $50 discount).