Canon EOS 3000 Serious Camera at a budget price
Written: Dec 24 '03 (Updated Dec 24 '03)
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Pros: Good for both snapshots and creative photography. Fine first serious camera.
Cons: Not supported by Canon USA (international market model)
The Bottom Line: A great starting point for exploring creative photography without giving up the simplicity of automatic features.
A Good Camera at a good price.
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| fritz_t_coyote's Full Review: Canon EOS 3000 Kit 35mm Film Camera |
Full Review
On Gray Market Goods:
I'll start off with an aside: I bought this camera in the US from a pro shop, where they sell a lot of them to photography students. Sure it is gray market, which means it is the International version of the product, and not one targeted for the US or North America, and thus not distributed by the 'official, exclusive North American or US distributor.
As a 'world' model the Canon International warrantee applies; make sure whoever you buy it from is reputable and test it in the shop to make sure. If you do need service, there are authorized warrantee service centers all around the world, including the US and Canada, who are a mere FedEx away. More important than a mere warrantee, Canon has a well-earned reputation for quality, and this camera is no exception.
Exposure Control:
The EOS 3000 is a sophisticated automatic camera, with multiple fully automatic program modes, which balance the metering window, shutter speed and f-stop for different situations, such as portrait or sports modes; there is also a ‘Generic’ automatic mode, perfect for those casual snap-shots.
Better yet, there are also semi-automatic modes, where you can either set the aperture and let the computer set the shutter speed, or vice versa, or override the automatic exposure and deliberately over or under expose, or set the exposure based on the primary subject and let the background be over or under exposed, or … There is even a Good Old Manual mode that gives you total creative control (and total responsibility) while the exposure computer just becomes a reasonably intelligent light meter; There is even a clever trick for making properly exposed multiple exposures.
Focus:
Manual or Automatic, your choice. The automatic focus works well in most light conditions, and will turn on a helper lamp when it is too dark. If it gives up, it beeps and flashes a warning in the viewfinder. It always pays to pay attention to the viewfinder image, as sometimes the auto focus will disagree with you about what should be in focus, and what should blur. This feature works best with high quality lenses, especially genuine Canon lenses with USM motors. Lenses with regular motors take longer to focus… a factor to consider when selecting a lens for sports photography.
Flash:
It has a built-in pop-up flash which must be manually raised and lowered, which turns it on and off; Even in full automatic mode it will only recommend flash, it won’t surprise you with an inappropriate flash. If you take advantage of the hot shoe to attach a serious flash, the built-in cannot be raised, which is a good thing. The built in flash claims to have red-eye reduction, by turning on that focus assist lamp before actually taking the picture. It works as well as any other ‘red eye reduction’ I’ve seen, which is somewhere between barely and not at all. I bought a good bounce flash head, and solved many problems.
Film Handling:
When you load the EOS3000, the entire roll is wound onto the take-up spool. Each shot you take is rewound into the 35mm canister by the motor drive. This gives a level of protection in case you accidentally open the back… only the unexposed film will be ruined. Also, when the last shot is taken, it rewinds the rest of the roll all the way into the canister; thus there is no leader sticking out, so you cannot confuse an exposed roll with an unexposed roll. The motor drive is quiet and quick; the only time the motor ‘whines’ is during loading; which does not take very long.
Batteries
It takes a pair of special lithium cells which cost about 6 bucks each. The pair are good for 10-20 rolls of film, depending on how heavily you use the flash; etc. Since these are not found in many quickie-marts you might want to keep a spare pair in the gadget bag.
Ergonomics
The 3000 is big enough to hold onto; As a southpaw I find the right-hand-centric layout of exposure controls a bit annoying, but there is no getting around it. The critical information is displayed on a well-laid-out LCD panel on the top right, and echoed in the viewfinder. Once used to the controls, it is easy to bend the forces of time and light to your command, and set up focus, zoom, shutter speed and aperture without your eye leaving the viewfinder. In my hands, it felt right; not too heavy, but not flimsy.
Fit and Finish:
Good looking, basic black. The lack of zoomy graphics gives a serious look that matches the serious capabilities of this creative tool. Well crafted, as we have come to expect from Canon.
Reliability:
No problems, over 2 years and 50 rolls of film. No trouble at all. Like I said, well made.
And how about the Pictures?
I have been living with the 3000 for nearly two years now. It does a good job when I feel creative, and takes nice clear snapshots when I don’t feel creative. I can even set it to ‘full-automatic’ and hand it to my 10 year old, or my mother and just say ‘point it and push =This= button.
When I take the time to compose and focus and set the exposure Just Right I can get a nice image; What the viewfinder sees gets onto the negative and by using a quality photofinisher I get good prints of my original vision. The quality of my creativity is outside the scope of this review.
Note: This review was originally published on Nov 27 '02. Sometime between then and May '03 epinions reassigned it, incorrectly, to the Canon EOS-5000. I have now moved this review to the correct location.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 300w/lens
This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Flexible Enough for Enthusiasts
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Epinions.com ID:
fritz_t_coyote
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Member: Fritz Coyote
Location: New York, NY, USA
Reviews written: 41
Trusted by: 3 members
About Me:
Computer tech. Gearhead. SF 'fan'.
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