This is long text but can be interesting for those who are thinking
in upgrade their Fuji to a DSLR.
When I was looking for a DLSR camera there were only three possible
options, the D70, the Rebel and the 20D. First I started to look
for full sized samples here and there, as picture quality, for me,
was and still is the real important feature on a camera. Looking at
Steve’s web site samples of the Rebel and the D70 I was convinced
that a Canon would be my next camera. I hated the image quality of
the D70 comparing it with the Rebel samples. So much noise and the
full sized crops were so harsh, the Rebel samples were showing a so
smoother image, almost no noise at all. So I narrowed my choices to
the Rebel and the 20D. The 20D appeared to be the perfect choice,
full featured camera, 8MP CMOS sensor, fast startup and focusing
system, but at the end, very expensive. I knew that I would need an
extra lens, not a high end Canon glass, but maybe a nice Sigma
70-300. Oh, an external flash also. Doing the math… out of my
budget. It would be the camera or a happy marriage. My last choice,
the Digital Rebel. So I started looking for nice samples of the
300D. There are tons of fantastic samples of that camera all around
the Internet. Great pictures, buttery smooth images, and a camera
that proved to be a great player, almost two years on the market
and several happy owners. Oh, the Russian hack that adds some
needed functionalities and the fantastic ISO 3200, the dream cam.
So I went to the shop to give it a nice look before buying it. I
have to say that I got a little disappointed. Almost 2 seconds for
the camera to startup, but a fast focus, at least compared with the
S7000. A bit of hunting on moving subjects, but still a very fast
and responsive focus system. But the absence of spot metering was
making me think twice before buying the camera. The 20D suffers
from this same problem. I can’t understand why Canon didn’t add
spot metering to these cameras. And there was another little
problem, the camera built quality. Our Fujis has a really better
built quality, then a saw the D70 on the shelf. WOW, what a darn
solid camera, plastic, but heavy, bulky, a very solid camera. It
didn’t seem to be plastic really, maybe some other better material.
The Rebel is like a toy side by side with the D70. So I decided to
give another chance to the D70. Back home I started to look again
for some samples of the D70. Please, don’t take me wrong, the Rebel
doesn’t look and feel like a cheap camera, no way, it’s a nice
camera but compared with the D70, it has a clear cheaper built
quality.
Looking again for the D70 samples I found some unprocessed images
showing that I was wrong about the D70 image quality. All that
horrible images that I saw at Steve’s web site didn’t has anything
to do with the new samples that I was looking at. The Rebel images
were still smother then the D70 samples, but the colors were so
nice, the pictures ware so sharp and detailed, even more detailed
then the Rebel samples, it seems that the D70 sometimes can show
more noise because it produces slight shaper images than the Rebel.
The camera has so more features, a faster flash sync, a superb
light metering system, instant startup, lighting fast focus, the
kit lens seems to be also better then the lens that comes with the
Rebel, a nice internal flash, a wonderful this and that, many bells
and whistles, so I decided to stop that torture and buy the camera.
There are also tons of happy D70 owners, I couldn’t go wrong. I
knew that if I bought the Rebel sooner or later I would regret, I
would miss a faster flash sync and also lots of the features
present on the D70. Ken Rockwell that may not be the #1
photographer on earth, but a pro and a top of the list name likes
the camera, so I really couldn’t go wrong. At the same time I sold
three pictures, I never thought that I would sell pictures some
day. That money helped me with the decision of getting the more
expensive D70 in place of the Rebel. Now I still need to buy a
70-300 Sigma glass, 58mm IR, UV, ND, and polarizer filters, a nice
flash gun, my Nikon SB22 needs to be retired, and a bag for the
camera. For now my S7000 has been dislodged. Lots of money yet to
be spent.
I hope I didn’t bore you too much. My first impressions of the
camera are on the next post, reply of this one.
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Best regards,
Guilherme
My photo album:
http://www.maccocker.com.br/gallery
