It’s Official! Canon Announce EOS 300D!

#1 alex

The specs look similar to the 10D (but cheaper) to the untrained eye (mine). Care to add some comparisons to the 10D so we can see why this is so special? Or is it just that it may have a street price of under $1000?

3:48 pm - Wednesday, August 20, 2003

#2 Mark Goldstein

There's an ongoing discussion of the differences between the 10D and 300D over at DPReview:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1019&message=5882458

5:55 pm - Wednesday, August 20, 2003

#3 Willaim C. Bert

It a lightwieght 10D, good move for Canon to sell more cameras. The question I have and it too early to be answer is. Is this going to be the 10D replacement? Maybe next year we will find out. But we all know what the popular topic for August will be on the internet forums!

Bill

6:22 pm - Wednesday, August 20, 2003

#4 Mark Goldstein

Despite the two cameras being pretty similar in terms of spec, I don't think the 30D will actually officially replace the 10D. Although it might have the same effect if 300D sales significantly out-perform the 10D and take away from the 10Ds market share.

Mark

6:27 pm - Wednesday, August 20, 2003

#5 sean

With the recent announcements from Sony, with it's 8 MegaPixel camera, Fuji with the F7000, and Minolta with the A-1, Canon needed to get a complete prosumer camera into the sub £1000 price range. There was a big gap between the Canon G5 and the 10D and obviously Canon had been working on this for some time.

Looking at the EOS300D specs, it looks to be pretty much identical to the 10D although with a few minor differences.

I suspect the internal buffer size is smaller, the EOS300 does 4 frames in a burst, the 10D does 9. Also the
300D doesn't appear to have the 3200 ASA mode. And does the 10D have a mirror lock up facilty? Whilst Canon
needs to introduce a few differences between the products, it looks like the major features, and CMOS sensor, are the same in both models.

I will wait to see some hands on comparisons of the 300D against the 10D before parting with my cash!

Although it looks to me the 300D is pretty much a 10D, albeit missing a few minor features.

I expect to see a 10D with eye control next year, and probably a cheaper version of the 1DS once Canon gets it's full frame sensor production sorted out.

Sean

6:34 pm - Wednesday, August 20, 2003

#6 Mark Goldstein

Yes the 10D does have mirror lock-up.

And yes, the 2 cameras do look pretty similar in terms of features.

Mark

6:59 pm - Wednesday, August 20, 2003

#7 Stephen

I would hardly call the lack of the control wheel on the 300D a minor point Sean. As for eye control, please no. I remember them on the Minolta Dynax range, they were naff

8:01 pm - Wednesday, August 20, 2003

#8 Mark Goldstein

I think people tend to either love or hate eye control. It sounds like a good idea in principle... (I've never tried it myself).

Mark

8:04 pm - Wednesday, August 20, 2003

#9 Ryan

Honestly, I'm quite disappointed/underwhelmed with this new offereing from Canon. So we have a slightly cheaper, somewhat less rugged 10D on our hands. A cheaper entry-level alternative perhaps, but what kind of performance can expect from that ~$100 lens, because once we talk about replacing that lens the $300 saving over the 10D goes right out the window?

Fixed 3:2 ratio, 1.6X FOV magnification again, rear-mount LCD-panel? Nothing revolutionary here, just a bit of a $$$ saving.

Feels too much like a 'digital Rebel Ti'. Another incremental cash-cow like the G3/G5 fiasco?

Can anyone tell that I'm rather dismayed?

8:24 pm - Wednesday, August 20, 2003

#10 sean

Canon has eye control in it's EOS-30 and EOS-3 cameras, so I think it is a logical progression for it to appear in the digital equivalents. I have never used it so can't comment on it's worth.
I think Canon will need something extra to differentiate the 300D from the 10D next year. The other option could be a higher resolution sensor, maybe something between the current size and the full frame size of the 1DS, maybe around the 8MegaPixel size.

I think if the sensor quality is the same in the 300D and 10D, then there is not a lot extra in the 10D for the £350 more it costs. Ultimately, it is lens quality which makes the biggest difference rather than bells and whistles in the camera itself.

It will be interesting to see how Nikon respond to this, as clearly their D100 is out priced and outperformed by the Canon cameras.

sean

8:32 pm - Wednesday, August 20, 2003

#11 sayan mitra

Indeed this is a very interesting piece of new, as I have been thinking of 'going-digital' over the last few months. As sean noted earlier, does anyone know what is in the pipeline ? What kind of spec-prices can we expect from Nikon and others in the next year or so.

10:30 pm - Wednesday, August 20, 2003

#12 Mike Strock

I've been looking at buying a 10D to complement my wife's Canon film camera for a while now. I've got an Olympus 3020, which I love, but a 10D would give me a bit more latitude. The 300D looks interesting, but I am wondering if they will have the same in-stock issues as the 10D does? IE, I went to Ritz Camera the other day to look into purchasing a 10D, but they told me that I wouldn't be able to get it until November. Hopefully, Canon will be able to keep this camera in stock. We'll see if it replaces my 10D lust, however....

12:19 am - Thursday, August 21, 2003

#13 Mark Goldstein

This is from the interview with the head of Canon Europe marketing:

A complaint of Canon digital cameras is that Canon is often unable to keep supply up to meet demand. How does Canon intend to meet anticipated demand for the EOS 300D?
Once the market is aware, there is no doubt there will be enormous demand for the EOS 300D, and we have stocked accordingly. What Canon wants to do is shorten the time between availability and market awareness. Waiting for reviews, articles and information to be published can take two or three months. But we want everybody to know right now that this is the product, and this is the price. This is why there is so much focus on the launch.

http://www.photographyblog.com/comments.php?id=P683_0_1_0

So hopefully Canon will have sorted some of their stock issues. Fingers crossed!

1:05 am - Thursday, August 21, 2003

#14 William C Bert

Actually to come to think about it, this camera is the first Canon DSLR camera not to be an improvments from the prior one. Look at D30 -> D60 -> 10D. Each new version of camera was cheaper and more importantly, there were improvements from the prior model. Not so with this camera, it like you paid for what you get!

Bill

5:42 am - Thursday, August 21, 2003

#15 Mark Goldstein

You're right Bill - the 300D isn't an improvement on the 10D. But then again it is aiming at a different market segment and you're getting almost the same camera as the 10D for a few hundred $/£/Euros less.

Mark

8:51 pm - Thursday, August 21, 2003

#16 Christian

Thanks to all for a great and very informative homepage.

In Japan, the streetprice of the 10D (house only) is around 1750 USD, roughly similar to the US list price. Add about 300 USD to this for a lens similar to the one bundled with the 300D, and the total comes to more than 2000 USD.

If Canon Japan follows the US pricing, the 300D price should be around 1200 USD (including the lens), a significant reduction in price.

I've had digital prosumer cameras for 5 years now, present one being a Sony Cybershot F707, and recently I was thinking of upgrading to the 10D. However, I expect the 300D to be much cheaper than the 10D (in Japan), and I think I will upgrade to the 300D instead.

The reason behind this is that with an SLR - as many have pointed out - the investment in lenses could be a significant part of the system. So I'd rather spend 500USD less on the 300D, in time buy some good lenses, and later upgrade to a better offering from Canon, if necessary.

10:00 pm - Thursday, August 21, 2003

#17 alex

Is there a definative word on whether or not you can manually select a focus point with the 300D? Or are you at the mercy of the auto-focus-point-selection feature?

10:07 pm - Thursday, August 21, 2003

#18 Mark Goldstein

I believe you can manually select one of the seven auto-focus points (see page 62 of the User Manual). To quote:

"The AF point is used for focusing. The AF point can be selected automatically by the camera or manually by you. In the Basic Zone modes and <Q> mode, the AF point selection is automatic only. In
the <T>, <R>, <E>, and <W> modes, the AF point can be
selected either automatically or manually."

http://www.canoneos.com/digitalrebel/download/manual.pdf

Mark

10:26 pm - Thursday, August 21, 2003

#19 Mark

I have an EOS 30 and a 10D. The eye control works fine most of the time. In fact I actually miss eye control on the 10D. Occasionally the eye-control has a sulk and refuses to pick the area I believe I am looking at. If that happens I can take my eye away from the camera, return it to the eyepiece and generally it works the second time.

Do you want me to say which is the better camera? :->

10:28 pm - Thursday, August 21, 2003

#20 Mark Goldstein

That sounds like a very clear-headed plan Christian! Much better to invest your cash in lenses, rather than the camera body, as that is where the image quality lies.

Mark

10:28 pm - Thursday, August 21, 2003

#21 Mark Goldstein

I quite fancy getting an EOS 30 as a backup to the 10D - especially since they're so similar I was hoping 2nd-hand prices would nose-dive, but body-only still seems to be around £300.

Mark

10:31 pm - Thursday, August 21, 2003