Digicam for those who waited

[tugrik]

Canon finally reached out and slapped the consumer digital-camera market; something it badly needed. Today they released a consumer entry-level dSLR called the 300D, also known as the "Digital Rebel".



In the film-based world Canon's lineup is as follows: Rebel (entry level), Elan-II (prosumer), EOS-1v (Pro). The digital side now follows in exactly the same manner: 300D (digital Rebel), 10D, 1D.

It's 6mpix (just like my 10D) but with a slightly reduced feature set. The cool thing? It broke the magic "sub-$1k" barrier. It has an MSRP of $900 which means a street of $750 (or less with some of the agressive sales shops out there). It uses all the EOS lenses and also the new EOS-S (short-focus) wideangles.

Canon Digital Rebel: news story on DPReview

If you wanted a "real" SLR camera but didn't want to spend the $1500/3000/6000 that the 10D, D-30, 1D cost when they came out then this is the one to get. Sure, it's still a lot, but you get all the advantages a dSLR provides: full auto everything with much better focus/exposure systems than the film-based Rebel camera, manual control of all features when you need it, interchangeable high-quality lenses, 'always ready' shooting, high capacity CF card storage... the list goes on.

Instead of getting some fixed-lens consumer beastie, spend the $750 and add a $100 basic lens (18-55 zoom)... or a $100 50mm/2.8 prime. Then, go out and play with photography, not just 'a digicam'. Ooooh yeah.

Comments

[perlandria.livejournal.com]

YEA!
Thank you for letting me know.

I was wisting over a $400 range Canon just last night. If this assignment lasts, that is so the treat for myself.

[goldwing.livejournal.com]

This is what I've been waiting for. I can finally make a good jump to digital from my Canon Rebel 2000.

Thank you for the information!

[kibbles.livejournal.com]

Oooh nice, sounds like a good move up from the Dimage 5.

Maybe if I am a good girl, Santa will give me one!

(Pay cut coming soon, owtch. Not looking forward to it, may have to wait.)

[higginsdragon.livejournal.com]

One question I've been curious about regarding the high end digital cameras is how do they simulate film speed? Lets say I want a short exposure at night by using a high speed of film? That sort of thing.

[tugrik.livejournal.com]

The native ISO of the chip is set at 100ISO. For all major intents 100ISO digital = 100ISO film. The camera can then apply an amplification circuit to the chip, allowing for higher ISO's: 200, 400, 800 and 1600. Increasing the ISO digitally has the exact same effect on the light-calculations as it does for a film camera, but there's a drawback. Much like high-ISO film is 'grainier', the amplified signal of the CMOS chip gets more noisy the higher you go.

CMOS/CCD 'noise', while comparable to film "grain", is a different beastie. One of the big differences between the high-end dSLRs and the entry level cameras is how this noise is handled. The Canons and their CMOS technology (vs. most the others being CCD) handle the noise the best so far, giving a 'film-like feel' to it. This is part of why the Canon dSLRs are so popular.

For the most part, shoot at the lowest ISO you can and instead play games with your aperature and shutter-speed. Move up in ISO only when you really need to or when you have a specific effect in mind, as it gets uglier the farther you go. The 10D is fine at 100/200/400... but at 800 you start seeing uglies. I'm hoping the new 300D is similarly capable.

For a short exposure at night I'd suggest a low f/number lens, like a 50mm/1.4 (or even the 50mm/1.0!) or other similar light-bucket of a lens. Those are pricey, though. Many people just jack the ISO way up and deal with the noise. If you want I can take a few night shots and play with the ISO rating to let you see... or troll around www.dpreview.com 's 10D review for extensive photos about ISOs.

CMOS photosensors.

[cjthomas.livejournal.com]

Am resisting the urge to geek about shutter times for CMOS sensors. I've been working on this at my day job (the York job I shouldn't have taken that has eaten into thesis time but that is lots of fun).

Am currently working with the design CMOS camera chip intended to take pictures at a million frames per second (though it cheats by using a laser to crank up the object illumination).

You can distinguish photon counts plus or minus on the order of 1e4 with a relatively ordinary CMOS image sensor. This lets you have lots of fun with exposure rates and other things.

Noise is mainly electronics noise at those levels. Photon count noise becomes important when your "maximum brightness" signal is about 1e4 photons and you're counting plus or minus 1e2. Lots of interesting ways to tweak the circuit to try to reduce noise, some of which work better than others.

Ok, I didn't resist the urge to geek very well :)

-Deuce

[desertcoyote.livejournal.com]

Interesting. My pride and joy is my Canon Elan II, and now I'm thinking of adding a digital camera/camcorder to my equipment (someday when I have money, at least). Hmmm- Any good Canon digital camcorders?

[tugrik.livejournal.com]

A 300D (this camera) or a used D30 would do you wonderful... you could use *all* of your existing Elan II pieces. Isn't system compatibility wonderful?

As far as camcorders... there's not many I like. The few I do are a bit 'up there'. Comes from having half my college degree-studies bein' in Film/Video production. I'm a big fan of the XL1 3-chipper as well as the JVC GRHD1 HD camcorder. Both are >$3500, tho.