The EOS D30 is Canon’s first “real” digital SLR, the camera is well designed, beautifully engineered, feature rich, and utilizes some exciting new “cutting edge” technology. The ergonomics are very well thought out, (almost perfect with the addition of the optional battery grip) and only Nikon’s D1 (at about twice the price) is built better.

Earlier Canon digital SLR’s (like the EOS D2000/DCS520 & EOS D6000/DCS560) were very expensive hybrids with Canon bodies and digital circuitry from Kodak, the D30 is built from the ground up by Canon. There are a few areas where the D30 does not appear to be designed for professional level work, and these seem to be based on Canon’s proprietary agreement with Kodak to provide bodies for Kodak professional level Digital SLR’s (Canon is prohibited by this agreement from competing directly with Kodak in the marketplace until 2002)

Canon EOS D30

EOS fans have waited a long time for Canon to offer an affordable digital SLR, and they are going to be very comfortable with the D30. Serious shooters (amateurs and pros) who have come to love the EOS camera line are in for a really pleasant surprise, the D30 was designed and built especially for them. The camera looks and handles like EOS 35mm film models, the controls and operational interface are laid out in a very similar way, and almost all EOS lenses, flashes, and accessories will work just fine with the D30.

For the last three months I have been field testing a selection of Canon digital cameras, one of my good friends who manages a large retail camera business (he often loans me new photographic equipment to check out) has accused me of being biased toward Nikon products, so I decided (in the interests of objectivity) that it was time to try out some of the latest digital goodies from Canon. I have been using Nikon equipment for more than twenty years and I can honestly say that the Canon EOS D30 is one of the finest cameras I have ever worked with.

The only currently available digital SLR’s that are comparable to the EOS D30 are Nikon’s pro level D1 and Fuji’s Finepix S1 “Pro”. Canon is reluctant to call the D30 a professional SLR, preferring instead to market it to part time pros and serious amateur shooters. For this reason, the D30 is actually more easily compared to the Fuji S1, than to Nikon’s D1. While the EOS D30 is not as ruggedly built as the D1, the camera is sturdier than Fuji’s digital SLR (which is based on the Nikon N60 body) The D30 is an excellent photographic tool, has a large proven system of high quality lenses, loads of accessories, and is able to compete on a very equal footing. Working pros and serious amateurs using the Canon EOS 35mm system, and seeking to expand their options by adding digital capability, would be well advised to seriously consider the EOS D30.

In the Field: Hands On

My first experiences with the D30 came on a very cold Saturday afternoon in December. There were two inches of fresh snow and the temperature was hovering at about 28 degrees, the sky was blue and the light was very good. I took the camera and a Canon 17-35/f2.8 L zoom lens to an old pioneer cemetery in the parking lot of the Breckenridge Lane “Books-A-Million” store.

The city of Louisville has grown over the past few years and old “family” cemeteries tend to turn up in some of the strangest places. The burial plot is surrounded by a chest high wall of huge blocks of hand cut native Kentucky limestone, placed without mortar. A small arched limestone gateway with a very old cast iron gate, hanging precariously from one hinge, adds a picturesque frame for the half dozen “country” style monuments. Two larger and more elaborate marble tombstones complete the picture of the tiny cemetery.

The limestone walls and most of the markers are of a pale gray color, the marble tombstones a creamy yellowish white, and the new snow blanking everything was a pure pristine white. The sky was a lovely winter blue, without a single cloud. My major challenge was to figure out how to show the sky in its perfect and striking blue, without losing the subtle color differences in the snow, limestone walls, and marble markers. It is very easy to expose for the snow and end up with bluish snow, or to expose for the sky and end up with un-naturally “washed out” snow, a compromise exposure somewhere between the two (and a Tiffen 812 Warming Filter) offered the best solution.

I shot a roll of Kodak Ektachrome Elite 100 slide film (using a Nikon N90S) for comparison purposes. The images from the D30 were consistently well exposed, but not quite on par (exposure wise) with the images from the N90S, the Canon metering system had difficulty handling the subtle shades and the blue sky. Contrasty scenes, are best shot in the RAW mode, JPEGS of high contrast scenes tend to blow out pretty quickly and have a washed out look, with muted color saturation.

On another Saturday (a beautiful February morning this time) I spent more than three hours shooting “street” scenes in Louisville’s “Highlands” neighborhood (mostly along Bardstown Rd.) I shot skateboarders, some of the colorful young patrons of the “Twice Told” coffeehouse, a Buddhist monk in orange and purple robes, and a few of the eclectic shops, storefronts, and imaginative signs of this eccentric neighborhood. The D30 (this time with Canon’s excellent 28-135/F3.5-5.6 Zoom) was fast and responsive.

"Street” photography is very demanding, the camera/lens must respond instantly to capture the “decisive moment” when scene, lighting, subject, expression, and body language come together. The D30 is the best digital camera I have used to date, for “street” work. Canon’s first rate 28-135/F3.5-5.6 (45-216mm 35mm equivalent) is an excellent lens for “street” photography, the focus (manual or AF) is fast and accurate, the images are crisp and the contrast is superb. The maximum aperture (f3.5) is large enough to blur the background and the long end (135mm-digital 216mm) gives enough reach to allow the photographer to capture the action without being so close he/she makes the subjects wary.

Exciting New Features

The most exciting “new” feature on the Canon EOS D30 is its CMOS sensor. The 3.1 megapixel sensor is the very first use of this technology in a conventional digital camera. CMOS has been seen by the industry as the future of digital imaging (larger sensor size- equals more pixels-equals better resolution) for several years now because CMOS devices consume less energy than CCD’s, have a lower signal to noise ratio, and tend to be less delicate, but CMOS devices have been difficult and expensive to manufacture. Images produced by first and second generation CMOS sensors were very low in resolution and image quality was unacceptably poor, however, Canon seems to have completely overcome these engineering difficulties with the D30.

The D30’s 15x23mm CMOS image sensor is a bit smaller than the standard 24x36mm image area of 35mm (its actually closer to the size of an APS frame), but it is much larger than most standard CCD digital camera sensors, the image you see in the viewfinder and on the flash card is still magnified (1.6X) so the effective focal length of 35mm lenses is increased, a 50mm normal lens becomes an 80mm “short” portrait lens, the superb quality 17-35/F2.8 L Canon Zoom becomes a (35mm equivalent) 27-56mm zoom.

The EOS D30 has a strange mix of professional and amateur features, but most photographers will soon get used to them. The viewfinder is typical for Canon, the level of eye relief is just barely sufficient for eyeglasses wearers like me. The image in the D30’s viewfinder seemed quite a bit smaller and noticeably dimmer than those seen through the viewfinder of the Nikon N90S. The D30’s AF only has three sensors and obviously won’t perform as well as the latest “multi-sensor” 35mm SLR auto focus systems, especially in low light/low contrast situations.

One glaring omission is the lack of a true spot meter, the D30 has a "partial" meter like Canon’s Elan models, but a true spot meter is almost a required feature for serious photographic work. The frame rate is slow, but the shutter lag time is quite short, and seems almost on a par with most film cameras. One really neat addition, that is seldom seen on non-pro models (film or digital) is a true mirror lockup, a great feature if you do macro/close-up photography.

The dedicated DOF preview is another great feature, and absolutely necessary for serious photography. Auto exposure bracketing (AEB) offers the option to shoot three exposures (1 under, 1 at the “correct” exposure reading, and 1 over) with a single trip of the shutter button, another welcome feature, especially in tricky lighting or rapidly changing action.


Prints made from D30 RAW image files are absolutely stunning, and up to 8x10 inches they are virtually indistinguishable from prints made from 35mm slide images, in fact the colors in the digital prints actually appear to be a little bit brighter. The Canon D30 produces a 2160x1440 image and a 3200 dpi scan of an Ektachrome Elite (ISO 100) slide will produce a 4500x3000 image. The difference is very apparent when the prints are closely inspected with a good quality loupe.

I used a Contax 5X loupe to study the 8X10 prints made from D30 images and identical 8X10 prints made from 35mm slides shot with the N90S. At 5X magnification, the detail in the slide prints was crisp, with all edge detail sharp and clearly defined. The prints from the D30 at 5X magnification showed very minor pixelation, and considerable loss of detail, especially in areas where picture detail edges were hard and clearly defined, like windows, doorways, building details, signs, lettering, and the like.

The EOS D30 has a couple of really neat features that are unique to this camera, the coolest new feature is called Long Exposure Noise Reduction (available as a custom function) this is very helpful for long exposures/night shots. After the initial exposure is captured, the camera takes another exposure (for the same period of time) but with the shutter closed, the second exposure subtracts the noise recorded during the first exposure. Since the noise actually comes from the CMOS sensor (and mostly appears in darker areas of the image) this effectively eliminates noise in long exposures, improving contrast and resolution.

Another great feature is the “on demand” ISO setting, you can set a preference (custom function) that permits the user to press the “set” button and scroll through the ISO options (100, 200, 400, 800, and 1600) allowing you to easily bias exposures, quickly and in precise increments, for rapidly changing light conditions.

Conclusion


I don’t understand why Canon chose not to include an ISO 50 setting (available on the Canon Powershot G1) with the EOS D30, and I feel that the lack of spot metering is a serious omission, however, the EOS D30 is a fine picture taker, capable of professional results. CF type I or II and the IBM “MicroDrive (you’ll want to go with the MicroDrive, 10mb image “RAW” files are the norm) offer lots of options, covering everything from casual family snapshooting (at lower resolutions) to serious “pro” RAW image output.

Three grand may seem like a lot of dough for a digital camera, the price is not exactly a “blue light special”, but it is competitive with other interchangeable lens SLR’s and certainly within the financial range of many serious amateur and part time pro photographers. The superb system of Canon lenses and accessories, first rate imaging capability, and overall “usability” of the camera make it, especially for Canon EOS 35mm system users, a great ticket to the wonders of digital photography.

Technical Specifications

Camera Type: Interchangeable Lens Digital SLR
Exposure Modes: Auto, Program AE, EOS “Image Zone” (Sports, Landscape, Night, Macro, and Portrait modes), Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority, and Manual
Metering: Evaluative (35 zone), Partial (9.5 per cent), and Center Weighted Averaging
White Balance: Automatic, preset (five mode), or custom
LCD Display: 1.8 inch (image review and menu)
Sensor Type: CMOS 15X23mm
Resolution: 3.1 Megapixel (2160X1440)
File Formats: JPEG, RAW
ISO: (35mm equivalent) 100, 200, 400, 800, and 1600
Shutter Speed Range: 30 Seconds to 1/4000th of a Second
Flash: Built in/Pop up (and external Canon flash units)
Storage Media: CF type I or II (IBM MicroDrive: yes)
Comp/Con: USB
Power: Li-Ion rechargeable
Included: 16mb CF card, Strap, Cables, Battery, Battery Charger/AC Adapter, Software (Canon DCS, Adobe Photoshop LE)

For information on How to Choose a Digital Camera please see my review:

http://www.epinions.com/elec-review-2E46-17B174E2-39A418E3-prod1

For information about specific Digital Camera models, please see my Digital Camera Reviews:


Nikon Digital Cameras

Nikon Coolpix 5000
http://www.epinions.com/content_52720406148

Nikon Coolpix 885
http://www.epinions.com/content_46290931332

Nikon Coolpix 995
http://www.epinions.com/content_40256769668

Nikon D1X
http://www.epinions.com/content_36023996036

Nikon D1
http://www.epinions.com/elec-review-4868-E2433E5-38737CF8-prod2/tk_~CB003.1.78

Nikon Coolpix 880
http://www.epinions.com/elec-review-2DA8-DF21E52-39E118CA-prod5

Nikon Coolpix 990
http://www.epinions.com/elec-review-3B78-3C431D90-3A345313-prod3

Canon Digital Cameras

Canon Powershot G2
http://www.epinions.com/content_47646084740

Canon Powershot S10
http://www.epinions.com/content_7563808388/tk_~CB003.1.74

Canon EOS D30
http://www.epinions.com/content_11625991812/tk_~CB003.1.58

Canon Powershot PRO 90IS
http://www.epinions.com/content_30440001156/tk_~CB005.1.9

Canon Powershot G1
http://www.epinions.com/content_8768294532/tk_~CB003.1.70

Canon Powershot PRO 70
http://www.epinions.com/elec-review-6496-25768DA-38C3E01A-prod9/tk_~CB003.1.70


Sony Digital Cameras

Sony DSC S85
http://www.epinions.com/content_51957567108

Sony MVC-CD 300
http://www.epinions.com/content_45591793284

Sony DSC-S50
http:http://www.epinions.com/content_15885897348

Sony Mavica MVC-CD1000
http://www.epinions.com/elec-review-5F01-365BA12-3980602C-prod3/tk_~CB003.1.14

Olympus Digital Cameras

Olympus Camedia C3040
http://www.epinions.com/content_42675179140

Olympus Camedia C3000
http://www.epinions.com/content_26106105476/tk_~CB003.1.30

Olympus Camedia E10
http://www.epinions.com/elec-review-59FB-183DFC73-3A17388F-prod2/tk_~CB003.1.42

Fuji Digital Cameras

Fuji Finepix S1 “PRO”
http://www.epinions.com/elec-review-5591-16816C34-39047A87-prod5/tk_~CB003.1.18

Minolta Digital Cameras

Minolta Dimage 5
http://www.epinions.com/content_49104522884


Just “cut’n’paste” the URL into your browser’s address window.








Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 3000.00