Gadget Report: Canon EOS35D digital SLR camera
Writing about web page http://www.canon.co.uk/for_home/product_finder/cameras/digital_slr/eos_350d/index.asp
Emma has a new baby. Not the one she's been expecting for almost nine months, but rather, the Canon EOS350D digital SLR that was her birthday present. She has spent many years taking exciting wildlife photos in Botswana, using a traditional Canon print and slide film SLR. But now that there are top quality but affordable digitals, we're prepared to make the move.
First impressions of the EOS350D are that it is very similar to a traditional SLR, but with all of the additional flexibility of a digital. The controls are familar, with the addition of a screen and menu system for viewing photos as soon as they are taken. In common with most digital SLRs, you have to use the eyepiece to take photos. This does considerably extend battery life.
The 350D has several advantages over previous digital SLRs, such as the Canon EOS300D. It is much lighter, smaller (but comfortable to operate), faster (3 frames per second, fast enough for wildlife), and provides higher quality images, with its 8 megapixel CMOS. The quality of the images is astounding, the best that i've seen. Even when reduced to web size you can see this:
Zooming into the images on my computer, it is clear that we will be able to make enlargements with as much quality as a print or slide. The camera came with an 18mm to 55mm lens, which seems to be good.
Emma also has a set of the excellent Canon Ultrasonic lenses, going up to 300mm (although the focal lengths work out differently on the digital). We suspect that there is no longer any point to using her 2x convertor, as it is so easy to make enlargements on the computer. We are also quickly realising just what an advantage digital is for wildlife photography. On safari we often take over 100 shots a day, and bin a lot of them. With a digital, we can take as many as we like, at no extra cost to us or the environment.
These photos were taken at the Victorian Pleasure Gardens at Hill Close Warwick
You can see more in this gallery
30 Jul 2005 16:33
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12 comments by 2 or more people
[Skip to the latest comment]Great pictures and great camera…I'm jealous.
31 Jul 2005, 22:37
I should add that the camera only cost £600 from www.ebuyer.co.uk, with the 18–55mm lens included. A 512MB CF card cost £16. They did have some 2GB CFII microodrive cards for £40, but i'm not yet certain that these are reliable (the EOS300D had some problems with them).
Emma already had a set of the high quality Canon Ultrasonic lenses from her old camera (EOS50), although we haven't yet used them, as the standard lens seems very good.
01 Aug 2005, 09:11
Joseph
nice piece of kit Rob, and a timely purchase with the 'other' baby on the way…
01 Aug 2005, 16:44
Nice camera. Don't bin the 2x though; if you rely on cropping the images, you'll find your ability to print enlargements severely restricted.
02 Aug 2005, 11:14
Robert O'Toole
I'll have a go at printing a cropped enlargement, and see what the result is. I think i will be very impressed.
02 Aug 2005, 11:21
Do it by the numbers – if you can keep it to 300 dpi it'll look great, at 250dpi it's pretty good when printed large, and 200 is the minimum really.
The 350D has 3456px across the long side of an image. To do a 2x enlargement as a crop cuts this to 1728, which gives you 5.8 inches at 300dpi, or 6.9 at 250 dpi. So instead of being able to enlarge your image to 8×12 (bigger than A4) at ~300dpi, you can only reach 6×4 (normal, small photo).
If you never print stuff at bigger than 6×4, then relying on a 2x crop will work fine, but when you want to go larger, you'll have headaches.
Of course, with a 300mm lens, that's substantial pulling power with a dSLR with a magnification factor of 1.6, you might not be too worried. I'd imagine, though, that in the bright sunlight of the savannah the loss of light in the 2x converter would be more than offset by the ability to have a the extra reach.
02 Aug 2005, 14:42
Robert O'Toole
The 2x convertor is fine in good light. But of course the most interesting animals are out at dawn and dusk. The other problem is that more sophisticated autofocus systems, like that on the Canon EOS50, struggle to cope with it, even in 'spot' mode. My old Nikon F50 had no such problems.
02 Aug 2005, 23:22
Robert O'Toole
I'll try an enlargement at the weekend.
02 Aug 2005, 23:25
By the way, I do all my printing now at either photobox, or colab for large format stuff, I've been very happy with both. Colab can handle wider colourspaces, which is good if you're into that kind of thing.
03 Aug 2005, 14:05
Robert O'Toole
Photobox is excellent. A very quick and efficient service. I'll send some enlargements to them as well.
03 Aug 2005, 14:33
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Should you choose to shoot in monochrome mode, how wide is the availiable palate?
06 Aug 2005, 13:16
Henri Cartier-Bresson
> availiable
Forgive me, it's not my first language.
06 Aug 2005, 13:18
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