Canon Rebel T6 DSLR Camera with 18-55mm Lens

I'm mostly a novice photographer with a specific interest: product photography for wood turnings I make and sell online. I purchased this camera after a couple of other failed attempts and overall, I'm pleased. This is a basic camera and lens combo kit and if you're looking for some bells and whistles like an articulated LCD display, this isn't for you. However, the photos are outstanding, it has both a wide range of automatic settings as well as convenient access to more advanced controls if you want to set your own shutter speed, aperture, manual focus and so on. It is comfortable to hold, but I have mine tripod mounted all the time. Build quality is good and comparable to the Sony A3000 and the Nikon that I bought earlier. I do prefer this camera over these others, although I will say that the Nikon LCD interface is very intuitive. Having said that, it's basically what all low-end DSLRs are these days: plastic. That's not a bad thing, and it makes for a nice, lightweight camera if you're out in the field shooting. Likewise, the lens is also plastic and with a plastic mount so if you want something heavier you're better off with a bare camera and a separate lens. The LCD screen on this camera is of decent but not huge size. Still, it is fine for displaying settings. In Live View mode it's pretty good in my "studio" but I can't comment on contrast and visibility outdoors. However, it is clear, seems to have a fine resolution and does the job. However, it isn't articulated like some people prefer so that may be a deal-breaker for you. For me, not so much. Software: On-camera is good. It also has a "feature guide" that helps you along if you want to stray from the automatic settings. For example, you can change to aperture priority mode and it guides you through other settings. Very helpful for a newbie like me. Bundled is non-existent. I went to the Canon site and downloaded a set of utilities (this camera is also known as the 1300D). Included are a sort of Lightroom clone, another editor that I haven't even loaded, and a tethered shooting utility that I use. A lot. So for some reason Canon doesn't provide any software with the product, and not even a manual. That's mystifying to me but can all be found online. I got the manual and the utilities above. By the way, Canon is really aggravating about how you download software. Once you find it and choose to download, be prepared to provide your body serial number in order to link to the download. Sheesh! The main thing I wanted was to be able to shoot tethered to my computer, and, since I've been using Photoshop forever, I also use Lightroom (and also Gimp and UFraw for those of you who know what those are :-) So how is that going? Pretty well. However, you have to have a tethering cable and Canon will sell you a cable for twenty-five bucks, or you can get this: "IFC-500U Compatible USB Cable" right here on Amazon for $8. Shooting tethered is great for me, because as I age, my vision is getting worse. I can now shoot products from my computer and use a 22" monitor as a live view screen and then take the shot without touching the camera (after I've turned it on). Looking back, had I realized then what I now do, I'd have bought the T5 instead. Why? It's $100 cheaper, and really what I got for the difference is a slightly faster processor (don't need it), a better LCD screen (that I don't use), and WiFi (which sucks on this camera. Big time). Why do I say the WiFi sucks? Well because it isn't really compatible with a standard computer OS. You can shoot and dump off to a phone or an iPad but really, not to a computer? So my hope was to fire up the camera, have it seen as another resource on my home network, and move the photos to my 2TB NAS. However, the camera will not work in WiFi if a cable is attached, and vice versa. Which really is rendered moot anyway by the fact that it doesn't work with a PC or a Mac OS. C'mon, Man! How many photographers spend hundreds of dollars on a camera to put photos on their phone? I mean, you can just use your phone for that. Hence the three stars. YMMV