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 12/02/2004 11:37:33 AM · #26
Seems a shame not to wait until Feb when the new Rebel comes out... you could get some real bargains after that. Why not get yourself a second hand Canon film camera and some lenses in the meantime? That's what I've done while I'm waiting for my Minolta DSLR to come in (but with Minolta kit, obviously!).
 12/02/2004 11:43:32 AM · #27
Originally posted by BobsterLobster:
Seems a shame not to wait until Feb when the new Rebel comes out... you could get some real bargains after that. Why not get yourself a second hand Canon film camera and some lenses in the meantime? That's what I've done while I'm waiting for my Minolta DSLR to come in (but with Minolta kit, obviously!).


I might well do that, I'm hoping for a bit of a bonus when I get paid at the end of Jan, so I will re-assess then. Are there any specs available for the 300D replacement yet?

I must admit that my forst choice for dSLR is the Minolta (I have got so used to having IS in my FZ2), but the 300D being half the price makes it very attractive.
 12/02/2004 11:55:43 AM · #28
Originally posted by colda:
Originally posted by BobsterLobster:
Seems a shame not to wait until Feb when the new Rebel comes out... you could get some real bargains after that. Why not get yourself a second hand Canon film camera and some lenses in the meantime? That's what I've done while I'm waiting for my Minolta DSLR to come in (but with Minolta kit, obviously!).


I might well do that, I'm hoping for a bit of a bonus when I get paid at the end of Jan, so I will re-assess then. Are there any specs available for the 300D replacement yet?

I must admit that my forst choice for dSLR is the Minolta (I have got so used to having IS in my FZ2), but the 300D being half the price makes it very attractive.


Don't know any specs yet, but the important thing is it will drive the price down.
If your first choice is the Minolta, and IS is important to you, I think you're crazy going down the Canon route. Once you've bought a few Canon IS lenses, you may as well have bought yourself a Minolta 7D with the difference that the IS has made to the cost of the lenses. Get a cheap second hand Minolta film camera, and save up for a Minolta DSLR body. I've gone for the Minolta route because I believe in the long term I will get excellent glass with IS for MUCH less than the equivalent Canon quality lenses.
 12/02/2004 11:58:16 AM · #29
i'm late to the party, but i definitely think you made the right decision about the 7i. i had one and loved it, but it's a couple of years out of the gate and MANY other cameras have zoomed by it.

i still don't know about the 300D (obviously, I went "the other way"), so take your time before making your decision. :)
 12/02/2004 03:39:18 PM · #30
Coming in late too but I thought that since I owned an A1 before I bought my 300D, my 2 cents might be welcomed.
Just so you know what my experience with both cameras has been, I bought an A1 about 3 months ago and sold it 3 weeks ago to buy a 300D.

Here are a few points comparing the A1 and 300D.

1. Using the A1 at ISO 400 or above is not a good idea. Too much noise and when I say noise, I mean green and pink pixels starting to show up.
With the 300D, I find that I can go up to ISO800 and still get clean pics.
Also note that the 300D offers ISO1600.
Winner: 300D

2. Although when looking at numbers, shutter lag doesn't seem that bad on the A1 or A2 but let me tell me you that there's a big difference when handling the camera.
Winner: 300D

3. Low light focusing with the A1 is so slow compared to the 300D.
Winner: 300D

4. Manual focusing with the A1 is not very accurate as you have to rely on distance instead of actually seeing it in the viewfinder.
I had bought the A1 because I was afraid of having to use the viewfinder all the time instead of being able to see what I was going to shoot on the LCD but I didn't use the LCD very long and once I started to use the A1 viewfinder, I didn't like the fact that the image wasn't crisp since it's a small LCD instead of a mirror reflection of what I'm shooting.
Winner: 300D

5. When looking at the specs, the LCD of both cameras have the same size and resoltion but for some weird reason, I find the 300D LCD much sharper and what I see on there is a whole lot closer to what the final result is.
I also love the preview in which you can be shown overexposed areas on your pics. The A1 doesn't have that.
Winner: 300D

6. Metering. Sadly, the 300D doesn't let you manually select the type of metering while the A1 does.
Winner: A1

7. The A1 has two dials which by default, let you set shutter speed and aperture.
The 300D only has one dial which sets shutter speed and you need to hold and press a button and then scroll with the dial to change aperture.
It's not a big deal and I'm starting to get used to it but it's still something I miss from my A1.
Winner: A1

8. Image quality is simply put, better with the 300D. I know that it's only 1.3 megapixels higher but I see a difference between both cameras.
The jpg compression algorythm is a lot better on the 300D. Visually, there's almost no difference between RAW and high quality jpg on the 300D while every A1 or A2 user will tell you that you want to shoot in RAW if you want maximum image quality which is all good but sadly, slower.
The sensor size which is much bigger on the 300D also has something to do with it.
Winner: 300D

9. I noticed you made a comment about the A2 being easier to carry around than the 300D. I don't see any difference.
I bought the Lowepro Top Load Zoom 1 to carry the A1 and the 300D fits in very well.
Also note that both cameras weight about the same (6g difference)so none of them will feel heavier around the neck.
Winner: Tie

10. Lenses. Well, this one is a bit tricky depending on how you see it.
Out of the box, you can cover more range with the A1 has the lense covers 28-200 compared to the packaged 18-55 of the 300D so on that, the A1 wins.
However, if you ever have other needs such as wider angles or longer zooms or even smaller apertures, with the A1, there isn't much choice except for the wide and telephoto converters which are nice but you'll lose one stop and overall, you'll never be able to go below 2.8.
Winner: 300D

11. Shutter speed on the A1 goes all the way up to 1/16000 while the 300D stops at 1/4000.
Seriously, 1/4000 is plenty and even 5000$ cameras don't go to 1/16000 so I don't see much of a use for it unless you're trying to photograph something that travels at the speed of light or something.
Winner: Tie

12. The on-board flash of the 300D is much better. I've used both flashes in different lighting circumstances and the A1 flash blows out subjects a lot more than the 300D.
Winner: 300D

13. Transfer from camera to PC is much faster on the A1.
I bought myself a card reader for the 300D (35$CAN) because the transfer was way too slow.
I'll also have to buy myself a USB2.0 PCI (20$CAN) card to make full use of my card reader since my PC only support USB1.1.
Once I have that set up, I'll be much faster than the A1 alone but you could get the same set up with the A1 anyways.
Winner: A1.

Overall winner: 300D

If you buy the A2, you will probably be happy with it for a while but am sure you'll soon feel the need for more like I did and that's exactly what the 300D will get you.
The overall responsiveness and feel of the 300D is a lot better overall and the results are much better.

As far as the new Rebel coming out, from what I've read, it will be officially announced in February but the tentative release date is in the fourth quarter of 2005 so you'd have to wait a while before getting it.
If you're going to wait a little, you might want to look into the Olympus Evolt which is set to come out soon enough and will be in the same price range as the 300D and has a few additional features which might be interesting.

I strongly recommend the 300D if you decide to go the dSLR way as it is cheaper than it's competitors and offers a wide range of lenses which you can invest in and keep if you ever want to upgrade the body.
One piece of advice though, don't buy EF-S lenses as if I'm not mistaken, only fit on the 300D and 20D so go with the EF line instead.

Whatever choice you make, I wish you a lot of fun with your next camera. :)

Hope this looooooooooooooooong post helps you in some way.
 12/03/2004 02:35:51 AM · #31
Many thanks for that Frederic,

I handed back the 7i last night (it was hard to do - I miss it already!). Now I've just got to get through christmas and see how things are at the end of Jan.

Cheers

Darren
 12/03/2004 03:51:15 AM · #32
Good luck.
Be string!
My thoughts are with you!

Peter
 12/13/2004 03:50:41 AM · #33
Update (for anyone that may be remotely interested) :)

I've decided that dSLR has to be the way to go, the choice came down to the following:

300D inc 18-55mm lens
50mm f1.8
55-200mm
420EX flash unit

or

D70 inc 18-70mm lens
50mm f1.8
70-300mm
SB-600 flash unit

The costs work out at about the same, after playing with both cameras the D70 came out the clear winner, I was really tempted to handle the 20D but it's a bit out of my price range, and I don't want to have to wait any longer than I need to :)

Thanks again for all the input and help :)

Darren
 12/13/2004 07:55:52 AM · #34
In case you are not totally decided i have a 300D for sale with the 18-55mm.
 12/13/2004 10:37:41 AM · #35
Originally posted by colda:
Update (for anyone that may be remotely interested) :)

I've decided that dSLR has to be the way to go, the choice came down to the following:

300D inc 18-55mm lens
50mm f1.8
55-200mm
420EX flash unit

or

D70 inc 18-70mm lens
50mm f1.8
70-300mm
SB-600 flash unit

The costs work out at about the same, after playing with both cameras the D70 came out the clear winner, I was really tempted to handle the 20D but it's a bit out of my price range, and I don't want to have to wait any longer than I need to :)

Thanks again for all the input and help :)

Darren


I/m in the same boat as you - waffling. I would like the Fuji S2, but it is up the class of the 20D price wise. The D70 is neweer in design, so it has many advantages. The Rebel is tempting price wise, but I am willing to spend a tad more to get a tad more. I can find S2s for about a grand on ebay and i still get to use Nikon glass.

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