Canon seems to have leapfrogged over Nikon. The new Canon 20D body is 8 megapixels, has 9 autofocus zones that work with less ambient light, and can support a 5fps frame rate (23 frame buffer with JPEG, only 6 with RAW). Perhaps more important, Canon has announced two new EF-S lenses (17-85mm with image stabilization and 10-22mm) that only work on the 20D and the D-Rebel / 300D. Up to this announcement, Nikon has had a significant lead in wide-angle lenses for D-SLRs (the DX series of lenses), but this announcement significantly helps Canon close the gap. In particular, the Nikon D70 kit includes an 18-70mm lens, and Canon now offers a lens with a wider range and image stabilization. If somebody were newly getting into digital photography and wanted to go the SLR route, a Canon 20D plus the 17-85mm lens would be a fantastic way to get started.

Now we just have to see how / when Nikon responds with a successor to the D100.

All the information is over at DPReview.com or Luminous Landscape.

Speaking of which..

Does anyone here want a slightly used BG-ED3 battery/grip accessory for their 10D/D60/D30 camera? My new 20D wants it's own new version of this, so..

You have one already? Huh?

-Zeke

Mmmm.. yess.. the 20D looks very nice. Just when I was thinking about getting a D70, this thing pops up in the list.. darnit!

This buying of digital cameras is worse than buying computers!
I have 3 cameras so far.

Ooo, no turn on delay! [drools]

Ok, I think I'm gonna spring for a new camera, a DSLR, possibly a D70.

Now my boss said he's going to New York in a couple of weeks for a shopping/sight-seeing trip of undetermined length.

Can anybody recommend a place where he could pick up a camera for me, somewhere a short distance from the tourist areas, or near somewhere that I can pursuade him to visit!?

Gareth

I think Rob has suggested J&R before, which is right across from City Hall. They're also a reasonably large mail-order house, so you should be able to check for it online (they seem to be out of stock).

B&H Photo Video (www.bhphotovideo.com) is a photographic equipment Disney World. 33rd to 34th & 9th (IIRC). Closed Saturday (you'll figure that one out the second you walk in).

-Zeke

yes.. I'm starting from scratch, so it's a big decision to make.. I know 2 people with D70's and one with an older Canon D60. I like the canon for the better (atleast in the older 10D reviews) night/low light shots. the CMOS sensors seem to be better for that kind of shooting, tho people say the D70 catches up a signifigant ammount on the noise front.

Since I really won't be able to afford any until xmas anyway.. I'll wait for the reviews and comparisons to come out.

I like the price point of the 300D/D70, but I figure I should spend the extra $300 USD to get the next level up to get a higher quality body. the D70 is much better feel than the 300D, but it's not a nice solid metal feeling like some other film cams I've used.

First, I agree with the plug for B&H Photo. I've bought lots of gear from them. If they say it's in stock, they mean it and you'll get it right away. There's always somebody with the camera for less money, but never a whole lot less.

Honestly, both Nikon or Canon will make you happy. In terms of night photography, I can't speak for Canon, but here's what a D70 can do. I took this picture on July 4. These are some locals who like to blow things to bits. This guy is wearing a custom metal hat, loaded with all manner of fireworks. He's dancing around while the fireworks are shooting out of his head. (The hat has a WW1-era helmet welded into it for safety, and he's also wearing earplugs and welder's leathers.)

I was about two meters away, laying on the ground and shooting as fast as I possibly could, despite the occasional embers falling on me. They didn't give me a chance to run back to my car to grab my tripod ("we're doing this now, you ready?"), so this is hand-held at 1/30 second (using the kit lens, wide open), bracing my forearm between the ground and the camera.

The camera, in its own auto-ISO wisdom, decided to expose the image at ISO 640, which turned out to be a bit underexposed for the background foliage, and a bit bright for the fireworks -- probably the right compromise. Luckily, I always shoot raw, so I had plenty to work with. First, here's a draft of the image, color corrected and cranked up to 3200ASA or so using Adobe Photoshop CS:



At 3200 ASA (not even officially supported by the camera but easy to do after the fact), the blue channel is pretty much useless noise in the dark bits, but there's still good signal in the highlights. I redeveloped the image at a lower speed but imported the full 16-bit data into Photoshop, where I then played lots of games with layers, channel mixers, and masks so I could work separately on the dark parts and the bright parts. Here's the result:



In short, it took maybe ten minutes of work, but the end result was better than I could have ever expected. So, I ain't saying Nikon is better or worse than Canon. I'm saying that either camera could have taken this image, but to really perfect it, you've got to work it afterward. Sure, there's some noise (one-to-one pixels of the final image below), but it's quite acceptable, all things considered. The only question is whether the camera can correctly pick good exposure and focus settings, since you're potentially far too busy to worry about those things.

Hi,

I need a BG-ED3 grip! Do you still have it and how much would you sell it for?

I still have the whole kit here, grip included. A buddy of my has first dibs on the D60, but I don't think he'll want the grip. Make a nice offer, please!

Cheers

Hi, I'd like to get one without going over $100, the reason is - I need it for a used D30 which I just bought online and don't even know how long the camera will last so investing into a brand new grip does not make much sense. To give you a clue, I can just tell you that the best price I coud find online for a used one is $130.
Thanks,
Gene

Mmm.. I can ship you mine for US$120 (shipping incl).

??

My 20D with 17-85mm IS lens is due here either Friday or Monday...

Do let us know your opinions!

-Zeke

Well, I've had the 20D for about three weeks now, and my opinion is.. too busy snapping photos to write about it! I absolutely love it!

My D60 was no slouch, and there was a huge step up in responsiveness and capabilities when I got the D60 to supplant my Nikon 990.

The difference with the 20D is every bit as big a leap in usability. That's my opinion in a nutshell. This camera never makes me wait for anything, even with a quite slow 1GB CF card for storage. It is fast, fast, fast, and that is far more important than I thought it would be before getting the 20D. Makes a massive difference for me.

More later.

Cheers

Argh. Must upgrade.

Of course, I couldn't buy *just* the new body.. now I have way too many nice lenses here... what to do.. what to do..

EDIT: Speaking of lenses, the new 17-85-IS is suprisingly well built. Quite solid construction, much much more so than the 28-135-IS had. It's even better built (mechanically) than my also new 70-300-DO-IS is.

So far, photos are good with both of those new lenses, though neither is going to rival my L lenses for colour/contrast. On the other hand, the two of them together are about the size of just one of my L lenses.. guess which ones I'll choose to walk around Oz with this fall..

Cheers

Canon have now done it again at the bottom end of the DSLR market.

Their new 350D / Digital Rebel XT gets all of the speed improvement of the 20D, plus 8 mega pixels and gains most of the manual controls that were removed from the 300D when compared to the 10D it was based on.

Oh and it is quite a bit smaller and 17% lighter than the 300D.

...and most importantly, it is available in black from the outset

http://www.dpreview.com/articles/canoneos350d/

and it still doesn't have a permanently visible ISO value. Why the hell not ?!

I believe it's time to trade up.

Yup, the new DRebel/Kiss/350/whatevertheycalledit is one heck of a nice camera -- were I buying today, I'd get it instead of the 20D. No question. The 20D has a number of minor features over it's baby bro, including a real Prism viewfinder (as opposed to the "penta mirror"), but not enough for me to want to pay US$500-600 extra for now!

Cheers!

I was suprised to hear that Canon will not be discontinuing the 300D/Digital Rebel, they are going to keep it as the bottom of the range model.

That's just marketing-speak for "we can't say it's being discontinued until stock levels finally ease off, as otherwise we'd be stuck with tons of stock as dealers await firesale pricing on it all".

Changelog:

-- 19-Feb-2005: added EXIF data to my website photo browser

This now shows the shooting info at the bottom of each image. Eg. shutter speed, f-stop, ISO, focal length, speedlight setting, and the model of lens used.

Semi-useful for anyone looking at my pics with an eye on evaluating lens quality and/or versatility etc.

Cheers

I'd have to see one in person, but the smaller size also sounds nice. There's no need to have enormous SLR bodies when using Digital - with film, a large part of it was about the film plane and cartridge. I really liked the size of the Pentax *istD for example. Sure wish Nikon would release a D200 with a similar size. I'd love to go back to using an SLR. About the only thing i'd miss (that I have with my 5700) is the ability to preview a shot on the rotating LCD before taking it. This lets me put the camera on the ground (or low enough that I can't get my head low enought o the viewfinder) while I look at it from above - or above my head while I look at it from below. Every time I hande a film SLR right now I just long for the crystal-clear non-EVF viewfinder... Ahhh...

Bruno

I've heard arguments about heavier cameras being easier to handle under some circumstances (i.e., more mass == more inertia == less jiggles), but it's hard to beat a light travel weight.

When I went from my Canon G3 to the Nikon D70, the big change was giving up on the rotating screen. Initially it bummed me out, but then I made up for it with the frame rate. On the G3, pressing the button was a big commitment. It takes several seconds to commit an image (in raw mode) to the memory card. On the D70, it's all nicely buffered so you don't have to worry about it. That means you just hold the camera in whatever position, shoot a few shots, and check to see if you ended up with what you had in mind. This works pretty well for normal lenses, but has proven to be insufficient for my fisheye lens. Every small bit of tilt in the camera can have a radical effect on the final image and you really have to be seeing the final image to get it right.

So far, the Fuji S3 and the Canon 20Da (the "astronomy" version of the 20D with the infrared filter removed) have introduced LCD preview modes, but it's not clear that either would be useful in practice. If you like being eccentric, you can get it today in the Epson R-D1. Presumably, as the D-SLR space gets more crowded, the flip-and-rotate screens will start showing up in more cameras. It's a great feature.

I purchased the Canon 350D and I personally like the smaller size. It is definately lighter and easier to manage for me. It cuts down in weight when it comes to lugging it around all day. My only beef with the camera is that the new black body (it comes in gray, as well) has a textured surface that scratches all too easy. Most of the camera stays scratch-free, the due to the smaller size, the area just to the right of the lens tends to get fingernail scratches and such.

All in all, I'm happy with the higher mega-pixel rate, the smaller size, the (greatly increased) boot time, the higher capacity battery, and other goodies that Canon has added.