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It is 12.5x10x14.5cm the last figure with the lens at its most compressed position, the total weight is 696grams.
It is supplied with a neck strap but the normal substantial grip point on the right side I prefer to use it without it.
The left side has an anchor point for the neck strap with a rubber bung covering a charge port, USB port and HDMI out socket. The right side has the pair to the neck strap anchor. The base has tripod screw and to the right or this the door to access the solid battery and where you insert any SD card you use.
Apart from the supplied 18-55mm lens the only item on the front is the light sensor. The top has a shoe for any external flash you use and forward of this the built in flash that will automatically open when required. To the right of this is a fourteen position wheel, on the right side of this is the on/off slider and in front of that a flash button as well as a user control adjuster before you get to the well positioned shutter release that your right finger sits comfortably on, this sits at 45 degrees to the top of the camera.
This leaves the back which is dominated by a 6x4.5cm fixed TFT screen that on this model can be blank, show image or image capture settings dependent on how you use it. Above the screen is the eye piece which for those coming from a portable camera is in most cases the best image framer. A total of ten well marked buttons and the ubiquitous five position joystick control complete the rest of the back with just the ribbed padded piece clear for your thumb to get a good grip.
Images can be captured in L, L, M1, M2, S1 and S2. The L mode is 18MP, M is 8MP while the S is 4.5MP, and the amount of compression determines the difference in file size.
There are four video capture sizes 1920x1080 @25FPS, 1920x1080 @24FPS, 1280x720 @50FPS and 640x480 @25FPS.
Every image I took using the cameras Smart Auto mode exceeded my expectations when reviewed on my PC less impressive were my images taken in various manual mode settings but that of course is down to me thinking I can improve on the cameras own choices and this is normally patently untrue.
I see from the Canon site that they place the EOS 1300D at the upper end of the beginner range of DSLR unit which seems correct to me, while people can use it perfectly adequately in Smart Auto and even get live view on the TFT they can start to learn to use it as a DSLR was intended to be used.
The DIGIT 4 processor enables your images to look exactly as you saw the shot and in some cases even better than what your eye captured when you took the image.
You of course have Wi-Fi and also NFC to allow quick transfer of captured images while still out and about.
A DSLR camera with lens for just over £300 is fantastic value and when I saw the price I checked it not just twice but three times as I was expecting a figure close to double that.
The Canon EOS 1300D is available from Amazon for £319 with free delivery.
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