The Canon EOS 300D / Digital Rebel is a good digital camera for photographers on a budget
who want the flexibility and control offered by 35mm SLR cameras. The camera is an
especially good value when purchased in a kit with its special 18-55 zoom lens. Although
the 300D is not as convenient to use as the more expensive Canon EOS 10D, the 300D is still
capable of producing high-quality images.
I have been using digital cameras for about three years now. Although I love the
convenience of digital imaging, I have found the cameras themselves to be rather
frustrating. What I wanted was a digital camera that had the same basic capability as my
Canon Elan II at a price of $1500 or less. Initially, the Canon 10D looked like it fit the
bill perfectly until I thought about the focal length multiplier. Since the 10D’s
sensor is smaller than film, lenses mounted on the 10D have a different field of view from
35mm cameras. To get the same wide-angle capability that I enjoyed with my Elan II, I
would have to buy $3000 worth of new glass for the 10D! So I decided to compromise and I
started looking for a “prosumer” camera to tide me over for a couple years until
full-frame sensor cameras become more affordable. Apparently, someone at Canon also
recognized the wide-angle dilemma as well, since the day after I started shopping for a
new camera, Canon announced the Canon Rebel 300D.
The Body
About a month after Canon’s announcement, I found myself walking out of a local
electronics store as the proud owner of a shinny new Canon Rebel 300D. I took the camera
home and examined my new purchase. The body seemed solid and well constructed. The
controls are logically placed (at least for an experience EOS user), and the camera fits
well in my hands. Some people may be disappointed in the body’s plastic construction,
but I think this is good since it results in significant weight savings. After sitting
down and reading the instructions, I had a pretty good idea about how the 300D worked.
The Canon 300D is an odd mix of high-end and low-end features. It has many
professional-level features like a 1/200 second flash sync speed and a 1/4000 second top
shutter speed. It has auto-exposure bracketing and exposure can be adjusted in 1/3 EV
increments. The viewfinder has a built in diopter adjustment for eyeglass wearers. The
300D’s auto-focus system will shame anything else in its price range. It even has a
depth-of-field check button, although how anybody would ever use it with the 300D’s
small, soft focus screen is beyond me. (Note that since the 300D’s sensor is half the
size of 35mm, the viewfinder image is also half the size of 35mm. The focus screen is
designed for brightness, not accurate manual focusing.)
While the 300D shares many features with more expensive cameras, some advanced features
can be awkward to use. For example, unlike more expensive Canon SLR’s, the 300D only
has a single command dial. This means that to set exposure compensation (or the aperture
in full manual mode), you have to press a small button while turning the command dial. In
addition to the single command dial limitation, you can not directly set the auto-focus
mode or the exposure-meter mode. For example, to use predictive auto-focus, you have to
use the camera in “Sports” mode. Since “Sports” is a full-automatic
setting, if you want to use predictive auto-focus with some exposure compensation, you are
out of luck.
In addition to having some encumbered advanced features, other advanced features are
missing all together. In my opinion the biggest omission is flash exposure compensation.
Flash-fill is an invaluable tool when you photograph people in direct sunlight. With the
300D, if you don’t like the default fill ratio you have no way to fix the problem.
Two other missing features are mirror lockup and second curtain flash sync. Although I
must confess that I hardly ever used these features on my Elan II, the annoying part is
that Canon could have added these features at little or no cost.
Even though the Canon 300D has some annoying omissions in its feature set, it is very
important to note that they are just annoyances. The 300D is a very powerful camera and
most people will never even notice its limitations.
The Lens: EF-S 18-55/3.5-5.6 USM
Strangely enough, the main selling point of the Canon Rebel 300D for me was the
availability of the camera with a 18-55mm zoom lens. In turns out that my enthusiasm was
justified. The EF-S 18-55mm zoom is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The lens has amazing
optical performance for the price. Its minimum focus distance is about 4 inches. Stopped
down to F8, it is as sharp as my 50mm F1.4 USM lens. Plus the 300D and lens together
weighs less than the Canon 10D body alone! The impressive optical performance of the lens
is made possible by the fact that it is only designed to cover the 300D’s sensor
rather than a 35mm frame. Note that due to the small sensor in the 300D, at 18mm this lens gives a field of view the same as you would get with a 29mm lens on a full frame 35mm camera.
Although the lens has many good qualities, do not expect to much from a $100 lens. The
lens is definitely very cheaply constructed and has a small maximum aperture. The focus
ring is extremely narrow to discourage users from focusing manually. The lens definitely
suffers from barrel distortion at the wide setting, although in the digital world this
isn’t a huge problem since it can be corrected post-exposure.
Canon has indicated that the 18-55mm will probably be the only EF-S lens they ever
make. I believe this is indicative of Canon’s desire to stick with the 35mm format.
Canon already has a full-frame SLR, but is it priced beyond the reach of amateur
photographers. However, when you consider that the Canon first consumer digital SLR cost
$3500 not long ago, it isn’t hard to image that full frame SLR’s may be
affordably priced in just a couple of years. Based on this, the EF-S 18-55mm zoom lens doesn’t
need to be perfect. Instead, this lens is an interim solution until full-frame 35mm SLR
cameras become affordable.
Usability and Performance
Being somewhat of a propeller-head, the technical aspects of photography fascinate me.
At the same time, I recognize that all the features and specifications boil down to a
simple question: did the camera capture an image or not? The good camera will make shots
even in adverse conditions. A poor camera will miss them. To test out my new 300D, I used
it in a variety of situations: night-time time exposures, indoor available light, action
photography, flash photography, and even some good old-fashion landscape photography. By
using the 300D in many situations, I learned a lot about its capabilities.
Landscape Photography
Photographing non-moving objects on a bright sunny day is one of the easiest tasks you
can ask of a camera. Unfortunately, many cameras lack the wide-angle lens needed to take
pictures of wide-open spaces. With its 18-55mm zoom, the 300D doesn't share this flaw. The
downside to the 300D is that because of its SLR design, the LCD screen can not be used as
a viewfinder. This makes the camera inconvenient to use in low-angle shots like this one.
The camera is also missing mirror lock-up, although with the small mirror on this camera,
I don't know if that is a significant omission.
Wildlife Photography
The 300D is well-suited for wildlife photography. As one would expect from a Canon SLR,
the 300D has a high-quality auto-focus system. The camera had no problems focusing a 300mm
F4 lens on rowdy leopard cubs playing in deep shade. A huge advantage of the 300D over
film cameras is the ability to switch ISO settings on the fly. If I had gone the zoo with
slide film in my camera, I would have never gotten this shot of a leopard cub.
Indoor Available Light
Using an on-camera flash is a recipe for bad to mediocre pictures. A better solution is
combining a fast camera with a fast lens. If you mount a 50mm lens on the 300D you can
take photographs with amazingly little light. Hand-held candle-lit images are a real
possibility.
Close-up Photography
The close focus capabilities of the EF-S 18-55mm combined with the Digital Rebel's high
ISO settings form an effective tool for close-up photography. While the camera with the
standard lens isn't suited to photographing tiny objects like insects, objects a few inches
wide are.
Time-Exposure
Although the instant review capability of digital cameras makes them idea for long time
exposure photography, clunky auto-focus and high image noise frequently limits their
capabilities. I had no such problems with the 300D. Auto-focus, white balance, and
auto-exposure performed as expected on an evening downtown. I was particularly pleased by
the low amount of noise in the images.
Of course the default exposure made pictures look like they were shot in daylight, so I
switched to manual mode and reduced the exposure time considerably. I had expected manual
mode to be a pain to operate with the camera’s single command dial, but it
wasn’t too bad since I only had to set the aperture once. An unexpected bonus
discovery was that my remote release for my Elan II (RC-1) worked on the 300D as well!
Flash Photography
Although I did not upload any test images, I did test the 300D with a manual flash
attached through a hot-shoe to PC cord adapter. Although the flash worked, the camera was
a pain to use in this fashion on account of the single command dial. Unlike time-exposure
photography, you have to frequently change the aperture setting during flash photography.
I found it particularly awkward to set the aperture while the camera was mounted on a
tripod. Because of this, I do not recommend this camera for someone doing studio flash
photography.
Miscellaneous
The camera has a few general quirks that I would like to mention. One thing that took
some getting use to with the 300D is how quickly the camera goes into “sleep”
mode by default. The camera turns back on when you touch any button on the camera, but the
operation is definitely different from operating a film camera. Another word of caution is
to be careful about judging correct exposure from the image playback screen alone. The LCD
can't display as many colors as a computer monitor, so use the histogram option instead. A
particularly nice feature is that the 300D is always ready to take a picture when the
power is on. Even when you are reviewing pictures on the LCD screen, you can pressing the
shutter release and take a picture. In contrast, most consumer digital camera can not take
pictures when they are in “Review” mode. The camera also can automatically
rotate images right-side up.
Included Software
ZoomBrowserEx – Allows you to view and organize your pictures. Some browsers have
difficulty with large files from scanners or digital camera, but this program seems to
handle them quick as a rabbit. Its organization features appear powerful, but I haven't
used them much yet.
FileViewer Utilities – Transfer files, view images, and convert RAW images to JPEG.
Remote Capture – Control the camera via USB
TWAIN Driver – Download images into image editor.
WIA Driver – Download images directly in Windows Explorer (XP and ME only).
Photoshop Elements 2.0 – Stripped down version of the popular image editing
program. Since I have the full version, I haven't tried it.
Competition
When you factor in the capabilities of the EF-S zoom lens, the Canon Digital
Rebel is so much cheaper than cameras like the Canon EOS-10D or the Nikon
D100 that I don't view these cameras as direct competition. Instead, its
competitors are prosumer cameras like the Sony F828 and the Minolta Dimage
A1. Both of these cameras have fast 28-200mm equivalent zoom lenses as well
as 14-bit A/D conversion for only a little bit more than a Digital Rebel.
