300D Review from a Minolta MF user

[jim_causey]

I'm now into my third day of ownership of the EOS 300D (Digital

Rebel). Up until now, I've been a user of Minolta manual focus film

SLRs, with a brief period when younger owning the Minolta Maxxum 7000.

 

My impressions of the camera so far are, for the most part, very

positive.

 

-- Shooting digitally is FREEING. My learning process has been

greatly accelerated by having instant feedback on my exposure choices,

framing, etc. This is exactly why I wanted to go digital at some

point, and I couldn't be happier with this aspect.

 

-- Image quality is quite nice. I've taken mostly snapshots while

learning the controls, so my pictures are nothing to write home about,

but I can't wait to go do some serious shooting.

 

-- Compared to my Minolta X-700 (and especially to my SR-7), this

camera feels like a toy. I've got basic prime lenses for my Minolta

that are far, far heavier than this body and kit put together. With

all that said, the amera still doesn't feel like it was poorly

built... just... "economically" built.

 

-- Compared to the MF cameras I've used, modern SLRs appear to be far

less intuitive. My Minoltas have very little "hold this button while

turning this dial, except when you're holding this button on the third

day of the week". (That being said, there are many easy ways to screw

up your shots with my Minoltas that are completely automated away with

this camera)

 

-- Autofocus has changed MASSIVELY since the days of the Maxxum 7000.

AF was little more than a toy on that camera, but on the Rebel

Digital, it's positive and faaast and reasonably quiet too. I can't

wait to get some USM glass to see how it really works.

[ron c sunshine coast,qld,a]

Just realise that usm doesn't nessesarily mean faster focusing.I have used a bunch of eos lenses and in the consumer grade lenses at least the usm thing is allmost pure marketing. <BR>One of my fastest focusing lenses is the older 100mm macro with all that heavy glass to move about.How can that be?They just use a big motor.<BR>There is one lens that i recommend you get in USM if you buy one-the 74-300 zoom is very slow to focus wether you have usm or not,so get the usm version as you need every little bit you can get.Better still just forget that model and go for the 100-300 if you need one that size.

Note: if the story has a bunch of visible HTML tags

[denisbergeron]

See this feature here :

http://www.photo.net/canon/lens-motors

[jay_.]

<<Shooting digitally is FREEING. My learning process has been greatly accelerated by having instant feedback on my exposure choices, framing, etc. This is exactly why I wanted to go digital at some point, and I couldn't be happier with this aspect.>>

 

I agree, a digital camera is like training wheels for real photography with costly film.

 

 

<<I've taken mostly snapshots while learning the controls, so my pictures are nothing to write home about, but I can't wait to go do some serious shooting.>>

 

That's when you'll find out how much time you'll spend agonizing over Photoshop trying to get your images to come up to the level you got from the film cameras.

[50d-boy]

I'm not sure "agonizing" is the way I would describe the Photoshop experience as much as I would call it "liberating". Jim, the trick is to make the exposure count from the first trip of the shutter. Then, if needed, use Photoshop to see how close you are to the desired exposure, composition, effect,...etc. I found with the 300D, I didn't have to do more than two minutes of work in Photoshop to enhance the images. (Namely the Levels Control, and Unsharp Mask) A lot of my photos come out the way I want them to without any manipulation. Canon's colour rendition is outstanding. I've alos found the glass exception (for the price).If you want to think of it in a pure sense, Photoshop is simply another darkroom w/o stinky chems.

 

Happy Shooting

BTW the 300 D rocks

[erb_duchenne]

<i>"I agree, a digital camera is like training wheels for real photography with costly film."</i><p>

 

Or training wheels for bigger, better digitals in the future. Either way they're much better training wheels than film.<p>

 

<i>"That's when you'll find out how much time you'll spend agonizing over Photoshop trying to get your images to come up to the level you got from the film cameras."</i><p>

 

My grandad agonizes over photoshop too. He'll take a dark-room any time. Everyone else I know (non retards) seem to take pretty well to photoshop. It's like you buy all the chemicals once, and you can keep processing and processing and processing...<p>

 

But you seem to have already gotten a foothold on things. Congratulations on your 300D and much happy shooting!