Flame retardant suit on, visor down...
RANT MODE ON**
I have to confess that I'm still amazed at the amount of complaining that goes on about the features that have been supposedly crippled on the 300D and what should be done by Canon to rectify this!
Before I go too far, no I don't have a 300D but like many, it's release has certainly made me look carefully into what it's introduction at such a low price (compared to previous DSLRs) means for me. I currently own a Canon G2 (which I think is great) and a Canon EOS 500 film SLR (a Rebel equivalent).
After going WOW! when first hearing about the 300D, I looked pretty quickly at it's features. Low and behold they seem to match (excluding the obvious digital bits) those provided by the film EOS 300V; Is this purely co-incidence?
Now I know from experience that the 300/500 is 'bottom' of the EOS tree, the 30 gives more features, the 3 more still, and then you have the 1's for the real pros(!). However a quick glance at the Canon website will quickly lead you to this conclusion, this isn't brain surgery, yet.
So, continuing to look at the film SLR's for a moment next up the evolutionary scale from the 300 is the 30/33... Now what features does this have over the 300? FEC for one, control over which focus mode is used for two, more custom functions... in short more control. Now, is there a 30D yet? Not quite, we have a 10D. Now the 10D doesn't offer eye focus control, so perhaps is closer to the EOS 33 than 30, but it's in the ball park although given the price differential maybe it doesn't quite justify the extra money and this would seem to be borne out by the fact that it does appear to have dropped in price since the 300D launch. (Even if not offcially.)
Now why the rant? Well it seems to me that Canon are in the process of aligning their film and digital EOS bodies. Buy a film or digital quivalent number EOS and you can expect the same photographic functionality. Is this good or bad? Well, it's how it's been for film SLR's for some time. You want more control or better AF? Buy a more expensive body. If you can afford it, well at least you can use the same lenses and decent film, your choice. And here I think Canon need to be applauded as rather than fit an inferior sensor to the 300D, you get the same one (different country of manufacture) as used in the 10D. At least they've acknowledged that ultimate picture quality matters most.
The fact that this 'alignment' between film and digital
seems to be happening should be seen as a good thing as it shows product line maturity. So expect more of it, yes it IS marketing but then it ain't new and everyone does it. It probably also signals an end to the new model every second culture that digital is trapped in. This too is good, it will help people get off the technology addiction, TAA anyone?
But I've spent more money than a top of the range P&S and don't have all the bells and whistles I had before? Canon are ripping me off. Come on, be serious. Take a look at cars, let's say you own a VW Golf (good car) with all the toys, air-con, sat-nav etc. Now for a better driving experience (or for status) you might want to try a BMW 3 series (50/50 weight distribution, rear wheel drive, fly by wire). It costs more but what's this? No toys? You're lucky to get a cassette player, forget your CD changer pal. Are BMW ripping you off? Depends what you want, if you want a better driving experience no... if you want more toys, well maybe, you're gonna have to pay a lot more for them,
but those toys will be a lot better thought out than the VW ones and provide more.......
It's the same going from a top of the range P&S to a bottom of the range SLR. You may not have the toys but you do have a much better tool for photography, you just have to be prepared to work with what you have. It's been this way for SLRs for a long time... this is nothing new... it's not just Canon...
So, FEC, it isn't on the 300V, I doubt you'll ever see it on the 300D. You do have a choice though. IF you're serious about flash photography it's
highly unlikely that the internal flash will last long. You'll buy an external. If you want FEC buy a flash unit with it on. It's still cheaper than a 10D. Of course you could by a 10D with a 420EX, but do you really do that much flash photography?
Also I find flash brightness to be highly subjective. On my G2 I think it's ridiculously over bright, if I take several pictures in a room people start walking into each other shortly afterwards suffering from temporary blindness. Need to take two pictures and in the second one people look like they've been hit over the head with a hammer. Now I
can compensate, but it is (or was) a top of the range model so you'd expect to...
I may be wrong on this but the firmware idea; yes the 300D has the same sensor, the same DIGIC processor, but maybe just maybe neither of these are responsible for function? If they were surely you could have 10D custom functions on a G5? It's highly likely that other chips are responsible for such functions. You'd be mad to use a highly specialised custom chip for big standard software control. There are cheaper alternatives less specialised than a DIGIC, and less functions = less chips = less cost. The 300 is built DOWN to a price, perhaps you could call it a 3 Series Compact?
Am I missing something?
RANT MODE OFF**
