Digital SLR Comes of Age
Written: Jun 23 '03 (Updated Jun 23 '03)
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Pros: interchangeable lenses,great images
Cons: not full frame yet, dust, quite heavy
The Bottom Line: Please don't just use this as a glorified point and shoot. If this is your first SLR please take time to learn about photography first.
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| phillypina's Full Review: Canon EOS-10D Digital Camera |
This is my third digital camera. I started with a point and shoot Kodak and then last year although I was already drooling for a digital SLR I could not justify the price but now, with this $1499 price who can resist?
I ordered the camera first from Ritz with its free shipping and all but lost my patience after a week of waiting. To my surprise, I accidentally found one at the CalumetPhoto website. I received the camera after a week's worth of anticipation.
For me the perfect match for a buyer of this camera would be somebody who owns a Canon body with a few Canon lenses. When I bought this camera, I had already been using a Rebel 2000 for a year and I had 3 lenses with it. It helps a lot to have some prior SLR experience and know about manual exposure, setting apertures and shutter speeds. But then, this camera could also be a good first leap into photography because it will save you lots of money on film and processing. This is especially true if you shoot a lot of pictures. But as a precaution for beginners, please keep your expectations low because the learning curve will be likely steep. Best bet is to get a photography book along with a camera. Otherwise, please set the setting to automatic (using the round control on top not the one near the lcd) if you need to use it immediately. But using this camera in Automatic is like buying grand piano just to play Twinkle twinkle only with one hand or something to that effect.
Naturally, after investing a significant amount of money one must also invest time in learning the features.
One of the greater feature is setting the ISO anytime. But as a note of reminder, before starting to shoot check to make sure what ISO you are shooting with if it's appropriate to your situation. Last time, I forgot to check my ISO, it was set to 100 when I was shooting a Native American Dance performance, I should have set it to 400 or above. As others have also mentioned, 400 is so fine grained and others even have used 800 without any complaints.
It takes time to get used with the controls, first things you have to learn is using your pointer finger for the top control wheel for setting shutter speed, among others.
And for the aperture using your thumb on the bottom wheel.
Of course there are plenty of other settings to learn but to start using manual exposure you have to get used to this.
This is a Six Megapixel digital camera. I haven't really tried shooting RAW but I know it will take about 5-6 MB for each image because it includes an attached jpg file with it. If you shoot at Large Super fine, the one I use most of the time, each image takes roughly 2-3 MB.
This camera has a very fast shutter lag time. For me it is acceptable enough. I did not even have to buy a fast compact flash card. I just used my old 128MB Sandisk. You may want to buy extra cards like 256/512 but I opted to buy a 20Gig digital wallet instead ($189). In the long run this is much cheaper than any card. It's your choice.
Oh by the way, for current Canon G2 owners, it uses the same battery pack (BP511), to my delight. The battery has long life, it is possible you can shoot all day with just one battery. But it does help if you have an extra one. The package comes with a separate charger and charges for about 2-3 hours.
Now for a dash of reality here is what lies for you as a digital SLR user.
1. dust on the CMOS - at aperture of f16 and above be prepared to eventually see gray spots especially when shooting they sky or any white background. At first I suspected defects on the camera but as I read through forums I learned that this camera almost always comes shipped with factory dust. Canon suggests using a bulb blower but I've tried using it and it did not remove the dust. Best bet is to send it back to Canon and they will clean it for you for free while it's on warranty.
2. you will probably find yourself buying Wide Angle lenses because of its 1.6 magnification factor. So that's probably an extra $500 . I myself opted to buy an inexpensive 24 2.8 and promised myself to buy the 17-40 next year.
3. you would crave the better lenses for this camera. When you're used to seeing blown up images on screen you suddenly find yourself become so quality conscious that you find yourself buying only the best lenses your money can buy.
4. You need to know and use Photoshop. Photoshop Elements, the stripped down version of the venerable software comes free with the package.
I bought this camera May 2003 so this is about all I could say about 1 month of use. I will soon be updating this review for more experiences and tips for this awesome camera.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1499
This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Flexible Enough for Enthusiasts
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Epinions.com ID:
phillypina
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Location: Marlton,NJ
Reviews written: 20
Trusted by: 0 members
About Me:
IT Professional, Photography Enthusiast/Amateur
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