Canon EOS Rebel T3i 18 MP CMOS Digital SLR Camera and DIGIC 4 Imaging with EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens,2.0 out of 5 stars Warranty or support, hopefully unneeded., December 22, 2011

This is more a review of Canons warranty and support than the camera itself.

I bought the T3i + kit from Amazon late in August 2011. My T3i camera will occasionally take pictures with compression lines running vertically through the picture. This is about 1 in 10 pictures. It is sort of like looking through wavy privacy glass. I have lost critical wedding photos to this.

So far over the course of 3 weeks trying to get a repair from the manufacturer Canon has blamed my laptop card reader, my workstation usb port, Windows 7 picture importer, Picasa picture importer, Lightroom picture importer, my class 10 SD card, my new class 10 SD card, My very newest professional 35mb/s SD card, and low batteries. I have been run through multiple camera resets and I have actually been hung up on. I have always been calm and professional when talking to support on the phone.

Finally after multiple calls to Canon support they agreed to check the camera. Now I have to ship it to Canons repair center paying for shipping and they will be keeping my camera for 10 business days for in house repair plus shipping times both ways. There is no guarantee of fixing the problem or of swapping out my camera. They actually stated on the phone that the 10 days could be longer as it is a busy time for them. I am waiting to send it to them after years end as I do not want to be without a camera during Christmas two of my children's birthdays and New Year's. 1 in 10 bad photos is better than zero photos. Canon will not advance replace cameras.

I think if I had received a fully working camera this would be a 5 star review. Instead I have to work with very poor customer support for a fairly expensive purchase. I deal with Dell, HP, Microsoft and Cisco customer support at my work every day and Canon has by far the worst support or warranty I have had to deal with in recent memory.

Hopefully your purchase will not need the support or warranty and you can simply enjoy a good product. Personally, I will be looking to other companies when it is time to get a new camera.


Review by ShaduLore