You will probably read a lot of reviews of this camera that are rather dismissive of its look, feel, and feature set. And while I cannot defend the lack of a rubberized handgrip... spend any amount of time with this camera and you will find it simple, yet competent little DSLR which gets the most important thing right.
The camera has a glossy plastic finish which doesn't exactly exude quality or make it feel like a high-end camera. But construction on this camera is very tight. The plastic is light-weight but its not flimsy like you would expect. There is no rubberized handgrip, which I think was a mistake to omit this on this camera. Especially since its predecessor (and its competitors) have them. Outside of that, the hand grip is a very nice size. The one upshot to the lightweight plastic is that the camera feel very light with the kit lens attached.
One thing you have to watch out for is that the camera feels very out of balance when attaching a heavier lens. The Canon EF-S 18-200, while a good performer optically when paired with the T3, feels way too front heavy. And this will be true with a lot of the pro-grade Canon lenses that you attach to the T3.
The buttons and menu system have the typical degree of straight-forwardness found in most Canons. Canon's menu system is easy to learn and navigate through. That makes the T3 a good candidate for a student or someone that wants to learn photography in general and wants a camera they can grow with. Of course it offers full Auto mode but when you're ready to try and manipulate the more advanced manual controls, the Canon Rebel T3 is about as unintimidating as they come. It's also a great entry into the DSLR realm for hobbyists currently using an advanced point and shoot (and can be found for almost the same price as some advanced point and shoots).
With the exception of burst shooting, this camera's performance is excellent. Excellent start-up, shot-to-shot, and autofocus performance. It has 9 autofocus points compared to its predecessor's 7 points. I do not reccommend this camera as a budget action shooter. It has a slow continuous burst rate (2.7fps) and a very limited buffer. If you need a budget action shooting DSLR, your best bet is the Pentax K-r.
The camera comes with a nice, chunky battery which delivers excellent battery life. The viewfinder is 95% coverage and I found it to be satisfactory, some people say its really cramped but personally I think it's alright. The screen resolution is rather low at 230k, but in real-world use it's not as bad as you would think, and somewhat viewable in direct sunlight. I think both the viewfinder and the LCD are of better quality than the ones found on the Nikon D3100. And overall, the T3 is faster and more fluid than the D3100. After having shot with both cameras, I personally think the T3 is more enjoyable to shoot with... despite the D3100's better plastic and more advanced spec sheet.
The camera ships with the standard 18-55 kit lens but I suggest buying the kit which includes the additional 55-250 lens. While I do not like the kit lens performance when paired with the Rebel T2i & Rebel T3i, I think when it's paired with the T3 it's a bit of a different story. The lower end kit lenses have an easier time resolving detail on the T3's 12 megapixel sensor vs. the 18 megapixel sensor on the T2i/T3i. So, do not let a salesperson or anybody else say that the image quality on this camera is inferior solely on the basis that it has a lower megapixel count than its linemates. However, when you put a higher-end lens on the T2i/T3i, they do trounce the T3 when it comes to resoliving detail (not in noise performance though).
That said, overall, the image quality is excellent. Detail capture is good, metering is excellent, exposure is excellent, dynamic range is pretty good, color reproduction is punchy without being cartoonish and oversaturated. The ISO performance is excellent. Excellent performance up to and including ISO1600. One minor quibble is that the JPEGS come out just a tad soft. But they respond well to a little bit of in-camera sharpening or of course you can shoot in RAW as well. But overall, a very impressive performance from the T3.
The movie mode, while delivering solid video quality, is rather limited. It's 1280x720 HD and there are very limited manual controls. It's more like something you would use for quick clips rather than longer videos or movies. I think the Rebel T2i/T3i or EOS 60d are better choices if you're equal parts into videos and photos as they have far better video modes than the T3 does. But if you're main interest is stills photography, this probably won't matter much to you.
The Rebel T3 may not be the sexiest camera around but it is a simple, enjoyable camera to shoot with that delivers nice results with minimum effort and it appeals to a broad range of folks from DSLR newbies, to hobbyist, to even professionals looking for a light-weight backup to their higher end gear. At its current price, it is a great value and I highly reccomend it. .
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