aerickson18's Full Review: Canon EOS-10D Digital Camera
I had been considering a digital SLR for sometime, and after reading the camera's great reviews and considering its price (around $1500, body only), I wanted to take this with me on a vacation trip.
I obtained the camera on the day before we left for the Yucatan, and had to learn it out of the box. It has enough automatic options so that my wife and I could take pictures with ease, but all the manual control I could hope for.
I do not need to repeat the technical information provided by Digital Photography Review (www.dpreview.com) or in other reviews. Phil Askew's information at the Digital Photography Review is always straightforward, in depth, and helpful.
I took pictures ranging from those in very bright tropical sunlight to very low light/night conditions (where flash and tripod could not be used. I was consistently pleased with the results, even when I accidently left the ISO setting at 1600 in the middle of the day. There was little or no noise, no noticeable moire, and the camera captured a wealth of detail. There were things that I missed when taking the picture that the camera recorded, making the photographs that much more valuable to me.
The automatic focus was consistently fast and accurate -- something that has apparently plagued earlier generations of Canon DSLR's. The 10D has seven focal points -- and when I shot pictures of Mayan ruins, I appreciated its ability to automatically maximize depth of field.
I took two lenses with me: the Canon 24-85 and 70-210 and had good luck with them both. With the 10D's 1.6x field of view, these were gave a lot of flexibility and I was pleased with the results from both of them. A wide angle lense is somewhere on a future Christmas list, but for now, Canon's professional "L" series lenses are beyond my budget. If you do not already have lenses, you will want to think about what you might need.
I would like to see the firmware upgraded to allow RAW format pictures in the automatic modes -- it is now available only in the "creative zones" with manual settings.
The magnesium alloy body felt solid. My wife said that it was a little heavier than she might have liked, but I have large hands and loved the way it felt. The buttons and menus were well-placed and easy to use. The LCD screen (1.8") is smaller than on my digital point and shoot, but was adequate.
The 10D supports Adobe RGB -- although without any parameter adjustments -- which is great for Photoshop. Although the camera comes with Adobe Photoshop Elements, you should think about investing in the full Photoshop 7 if you do not already have it -- one major reason would be to take advantage of Fred Miranda's excellent Photoshop actions (www.fredmiranda.com) that are optimized for the 10d. These include sharpening, noise reduction, and image size optimization for the web or large format printing -- all of which deliver fast, outstanding results. I am using these to make a photo album of my trip, and highly recommend them.
I used the camera under outdoor conditions that required some lens changes. I did not run into of the dust problems that can plague DSLR's. I have heard that CMOS may be less susceptible to this than the CCD, but in any event it was not a problem.
I probably took well over 100 pictures at Chichin Itza alone (using a 1gb CF card) and left my camera on as we explored some of the areas. Although I had a backup battery, I never had any need to change batteries in the middle of the day or even every night. My other digital recharged the battery through the camera itself -- the Canon 10d has a separate charger that gave added flexibility.
I have never used a camera that felt that like it was an extension of myself to the degree that the 10d provides. It was a pleasure ot use in every respect.
If I already had a DSLR (such as the Canon D60), I would probably not have upgraded to this camera. And I might have waited had I not planned to travel -- sixth months or a year from now there will undoubtedly be others. Olympus and other companies are working on creating a standard for digital cameras that may give added flexibility down the line. Pentax will release its digital SLR this summer. I have heard rumors of a higher resolution Foveon X3 chip. I am sure that Canon will find ways to pack even better things into the 10d body -- such as an affordable camera with no field of view crop (allowing you to use lenses as they were designed).
As with any piece of technology, there is always the trade off between immediate gratification and what is down the line in the near future. But for now, the camera's features and price made it irresistible for me to move from the digital point and shoot camera to a DSLR.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1500 This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Flexible Enough for Enthusiasts
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