Heather
I give this camera five stars for picture quality. Its amazing. Coming from a bridge camera this is a huge step up and Im amazed by the picture quality. I wanted to learn more about photography but also have something that takes great pictures out of the box. On auto mode this camera takes wonderful pictures (although I know it pains professionals to hear that anyone uses auto mode). If youre wanting to move up to a DSLR and are feeling intimidated I can assure you this camera is very user friendly. After a week shooting in auto I started reading the manual and moving to other modes. The touch screen is great and the menus are very user-friendly. When moving to different modes the screen gives a brief description of what that mode does, so for those of us who are learning its very helpful. I couldnt be happier with this camera. I went with the 18-135 lens after much debating. Im used to a super zoom and was afraid the 18-55 wouldnt be enough for an everyday lens and I wasnt sure I wanted to drag two lenses around with me. Im SO happy I went with the 18-135. Its a great everyday lens, its not overly bulky and I get plenty of zoom without having to switch lenses. Its great. The reason for giving this four stars is the video, which I would actually give three stars to. I went with the T5i because of the STM lens and how great its supposed to be for video. I agree that its totally silent when auto focusing. I cant hear any noise at all, both when holding my camera and when playing back the video. The problem is that if you use autofocus in a video its insanely slow to focus, which basically ruins the video. It also causes the videos to jump slightly when it comes into focus (still trying to figure out if they all do this or if mine is defective). Ive started taking my videos with manual focus, which is fine, but it defeats the purpose of buying the STM lens. In hindsight I would have just gotten the T3i since the STM isnt really necessary if Im manually focusing my videos anyway. The quality of the video is great as long as the subject isnt moving, but on the best quality setting the files are huge, so keep that in mind when shopping for a memory card.