Feb 23, 2006

I’ve been a Canon 10D owner for quite some time now.  In fact, when I found out that my wife and I were having a baby, I knew I needed to bite the bullet and upgrade from my point-and-shoot Casio 3000EX.  Roughly $2500 later (camera plus lenses, extra batteries, CF cards, etc.) I was one happy (if a tad poorer) camper.

And, the camera has been good.  It has allowed me a degree of flexibility with creativity that really does surpass 35MM cameras.  Both the immediate histograms and the ability to zoom in on a captured picture while you can still get another shot have literally changed the way I take photos.  The benefits of the degree of control and the quick focus and lightning shutter response are almost immeasurable compared to a point-and-shoot digicam.  Most people I know with a non-slr camera always complain about the lag time between hitting the button and the picture being taken.  The memory of a generation of children has been lost to shutter lag, I’m convinced.  But, the 10D changed all that for me, and all was right with the world (or at least with my camera).

But as is the way of things, time has moved on and so has technology.  First the 20D was released, and it was a significant step forward.  Two more megapixels and a second generation Digic II processor made this camera a sweet replacement.  People say that you can take almost noise free pictures at up to 800 ISO with this puppy.  For an ambient light photographer like myself, that’s a major deal.  But, I held my techno-lust at bay and never made the leap, though I tried to talk myself into it on more than one occasion.

Then Canon has the audacity slap my face one again by releasing the 5D, a full-frame CMOS camera, meaning that it doesn’t suffer from the 1.6x lens magnification factor like the 10D and 20D do, where a 50mm lens is akin to 80mm.  Hey, that’s great for telephoto, but you get killed on wide angles.  This camera is a beauty!  A huge LCD on the back, improved Autofocus and massive internal memory make this camera the pro-sumer king.  And, for only $3500.00 this 12.8MP bad-boy can be all yours.  But, sadly, not mine.  My only consolation on this is the slight banding issue that seems to plague a small subset of units.

Now, Canon is delivering another sucker-punch with its announced release of the 30D.  How does this compare to the rest of the Canon line, and specifically the 20D that it is replacing?  Good question!

I see it largely as a hybrid, with the same sensor as the 20D, but with some of the more advanced features of the 5D, such as the 2.5 inch LCD and the ability to turn off sharpening while shooting JPG’s (typically only possible with RAW formats).  The biggest thing that I like about this camera, is the inclusion of a spot meter - something that I’ve sorely missed on my 10D.  Its a 3.5% center positioned meter that allows you to pin-point the exact portion of the photo that you want metered for proper exposure.  Simply point to the most important subject in your photo, spot meter and exposure lock, then reframe, focus and shoot.  Almost guaranteed results as you want them.

But, the big question is, will it be mine?  I don’t know…  If Canon follows their normal release schedules, this October will bring a replacement for the 5D, and I’m thinking that the Nikon D200 is looking awful sweet compared to the 30D.  Of course, then I would need new lenses, more batteries, a strap that says Nikon and not Canon… *SIGH*

It’s a never ending battle…