Canon d30 any good?

[david_le1]

hi, I'm thinking about purchasing a Canon d30 for my friend. I want to

spend about, 500. I want to get the flash, lens, and all that jazz. I

can't go any higher, due to lack of money. Is the D30 good w/ coloring

and raw? my friend likes really warm colortones that look vibrant. Any

suggestions on my plan? If you could recomend a decent lens to start

out with, and flash, that'd be great. As long as the lens can zoom and

has macro (somewhat). Don't need too much zoom. probably 105mm max.

Thanks!

[aaron_lam]

The D30 was a fantastic camera 5 years ago. Today... assuming you are buying used, the price between a D30 and a 10D is so marginal (or one of the DRebel flavors) for what you get. It really is worth the extra $100 (even if you have to sacrifice a lens for now) to get much better response, much much better noise control etc. Digital cameras are slightly different then film cameras b/c although the lens does matter a lot, you can't switch out film... you are stuck with that sensor and it's characteristics. It is worth it to get a 10D... even a D60 over the D30.

 

Best regards,

 

 

aaron

[PuppyDigs]

It was a groundbreaking camera back in the day but, 6 years out, is lookin' kinda long in the

tooth. You can buy a Pentax iSt DL with kit lens for only a bit more and the viewfinder makes

Canon look silly.

[dan_vidal]

I've seen 10D bodies go for pretty close to $500. If you're on a budget you can get a cheapie lens on ebay for $100 or so. I'd definitely suggest a 10D over a D30. I've used both and the difference is staggering. You're looking at 2 generations difference there.

[ilkka_nissila]

Just get a D50 or Digital Rebel and they will blow away the D30 in every respect. You can almost meet your price requirements. I just sold a D70 for $250 and a friend of mine sold the 18-55 DX with it and it went altogether for $350 (I believe). So if your friend is willing to consider second hand, the price limit is not completely impossible.

[jonglass]

Could I throw my voice into the fray, and say "Bunkers!" to what everybody else has said so

far. :-) Last April, when my Nikon Coolpix 990 died, I agonized over which camera to get,

and finally settled on Canon (moving from my Pentax manual focus equipment), and then

came the agonizing decision over what body. At the time, I believe the 20D was brand

new, and the 10D was the mainstay, along with the 300D. I believe that while I was

agonizing, the 350D came out, thus making my decision even more difficult! In the end,

however, I was able to get a D30 plus a 28-80 Sigma for well under $500. Why did I

choose the D30?

 

Well, first of all, the D60 wasn't/isn't worth the extra you would pay, and the 10D was still

too expensive, and also has some drawbacks that D30 doesn't have (speed, noise). The

dRebels are not, IMO, worth the money as they are not as hardy as the D30, so what did

that leave me? A D30 is quite cheap as a first-timer's foray into digital, but as to its

benefits?

 

 

Well, it was the first dSLR which people (namely Michael Reichmann) claimed vied with

35mm film. Secondly, its lower resolution meant lower noise, and I had seen some

complaints at the time, both here and other places, that the D30 had less noise. I doubt

this is true for the 20D, but I can say that my photos are almost noise-free up to 800 ISO,

so long as they are properly exposed. Another benefit for the D30 is smaller file sizes. I

can shoot about 150 RAW on a 1 Gig card, or well over 300 JPEG, at top quality. Not only

that, but I can even use a 64 meg card for JPEGs! Try doing that with a newer camera! :-)

This means that my supply of older 64 meg cards is still useful. But not only that, I can

store more on my hard drive, and process them much faster than 6 mp or 8 mp images.

These are things to consider. Also, due to the smaller file sizes, I suspect that the D30 is

actually faster in actual use than even the 10D, when it comes to file-write times, and

burst speeds. I know that if I'm shooting JPEG, I almost cannot outrun my buffer, shooting

at almost maximum speed. I know I've shot off over 20 photos without any perceptible

slow-down--and this is at almost 3 fps. But in any case, the colors are warm and and rich,

IMO. Strangely enough, when I finally downloaded and started using Canon's Digital Photo

Professional, my older images became even more rich and beautiful!

 

So, it's _only_ 3mp. I have printed straight out of the camera at 11x14, and the photos are

beautiful! I have also "resed up" some photos to 20x30 at 300dpi, and even those look

just great printed out by a photo lab. Sure, there may not be the detail that a 6mp image

has, but once you look at it from a normal viewpoint, I doubt your average person, even a

discriminating one, would see much of a difference. The D30 is simple, ergonomic, and a

delight to use. I would love to get a more modern camera, but honestly, until the 30D

came out, none of the other cameras caught my attention. You can put a Tamron 19-35

f3.5-4.5 lens on it, and be very happy with it, and do it for less than a body-only for

newer models. I just did a search on eBay, in fact, and see that recent D30s have gone for

about $300 for the body only, and the 10D (which is the only other Canon I would

consider) is still going for about $700.

 

I would offer only two caveats.

1. Make sure it has a low shutter count. You can do this by asking the seller to shoot an

image for you, and send it to you untouched. Unless they have reset the counter, you

should know about how many photos have been taken by the number in the image name.

But this is important because Canon has rated its shutter at only 15,000 actuations.

2. That viewfinder issue.... It is a bit of a pain. As someone else mentioned, you can get a

Pentax with a much better viewfinder for only a little more. If he is used to a decent

viewfinder, the D30's is small, and has no eye-relief for glasses (which I wear).

I guess that the third caveat is that they are getting old, and I presume that there will be a

greater failure rate among D30s than newer cameras, but I suspect that Canon built this

thing quite solid, and so it is less of an issue than it could be. In any case, if you can hold

the camera and try it before buying, that would be best.

 

the upshot is that I think your friend would and could be satisfied with the D30. I know I

am.

 

Oh, and another lens to consider that is cheap, but, in my experience, has decent quality

is the Sigma 28-80 f3.5-5.6 II zoom. It has wonderful macro capabilities, and makes an ok

all-around lens. In 35mm terms, it's the equivalent of a 45-128 or thereabouts. Yes, it is

cheap, but I have no complaints re: color, focusing and flare. Resolution may not be the

best, but at 3mp, it isn't so important. ;-) Also, it doesn't distort too much that I've noticed

(most likely due to the crop factor).

 

-Jon

 

P.S. I have some images posted on the web if you want to see them. Just drop me a line via

email.

[douglas_perry]

What Jon said...I have a D30 and I love it for all those reasons. I paid $400 US for mine last October. I wouldn't pay more than $350 US now. I have an old Canon 28-70, 3.5-4.5 II that seems produce very nice images with a D30. However, the D30 will benefit from a USM lens such as the 24-85 because the focusing is slower than more recent models. I've been looking for this lens to replace the 28-70.

 

The 24-85 can be had for less than $200 if you shop well so you should be able to buy a D30 and this lens for around $500. If you want a flash as well for under $500 then look around for the 28-70, 3.5, 4.5 I or II lens...they go for less than $100 now and that should give you some room to buy a flash with your budget. Keep in mind that you may have to buy a memory card and/or a new battery as well. A 256MB CF card goes for about $30 which is plenty large. Replacement third party batteries go for about $10 each.

 

The D30 has image parameters that you can change to increase the colour saturation of the images produced by the camera. Boosting the saturation setting results in very vibrant colours...perhaps too vibrant for prints, but very nice on a computer monitor.

 

Doug

[m_barbu1]

Albeit, this is time-sensitive, but check out this <a href="http://slickdeals.net/#p7304">deal</a>. Dell Home has Canon Digital Rebel XT 8MP Digital SLR camera kit with 18-55 lens for $584.20 after coupons and rebates. IMO, the noise on this camera is better than the D30.

[lovcom_photo]

I used a D30 heavily for 3 years. A great camera for it's time.

 

However I would not advise anyone to get one today. Better to get a Rebel XT because 8.2mp is better then the 3.3 of the D30.

 

And to the guy that claims very large enlargments from his D30 are "great"...BUNKERS! Interpolation will NEVER take the place of Mega Pixels. Rez'ing up 3.3MP to 16x20 will guarentee great loss of detail, great introduction of digital artifacts too.

 

One may think the result is great until one sees what can be rex'd up from 8.2mp...the differences are STAGGERING, to be sure.

 

The D30 gets noising at ISO 800 and faster, and not often usable. Using noise reduction programs on those images will also remove precious detail...something no one will want given a triffle 3.3mp.

 

Better to spend a few more bucks on the entry level EOS Reb-XT. You get tons more MP, less noise, less noise, less noise, faster start up times, faster responsiveness, and you can print bigger at native resolution, faster focus, and one can take advantage of the EF-S lenses.

 

And so the D30 is a better build...so what? How is that going to improve image quality? It won't.

 

No body would fault anyone for only being able to afford a used D30, but if you have the financial ability, get the entry level EOS and take advantage of progress in technology.