Canon's triple-digit EOS line has traditionally catered for those dipping their toes into DSLR photography, but as successive models have acquired more functionality, they've ventured further into enthusiast territory.

The Canon 600D sits somewhere in between the two camps, with a small form and entry-level styling, but many features inherited from the enthusiast EOS 60D.

Even so, it varies in only a handful of ways to the previous EOS 550D, and arrives only a year after that model.

So, is the new arrival simply a stop-gap model, a retort to competitors gaining ground with their own offerings? Or it just the next logical step in a series long seen as a barometer of DSLR technology?