Disappointed by Digital Rebel (Canon EOS-300D)

I was attracted to the Digital Rebel primarily because of its
high-sensitivity sensor. I had read many reviews which all praised
the Rebel's ability to take virtually nose free images at ISO 400.
I thought the Rebel would be a good choice for me because higher
ISO will let me increase the shutter speed, which will let me take
less blurry pictures of my 1-year-old who won't stand still.

I was disappointed by the pictures, however. The problem was very
poor dynamic range. If the light on the subject's face is even a
little bit uneven (indoor lighting) then you get washout. I didn't
understand this at all, because even my older Pro90 took better
pictures.

So I did some research. Turns out, the dynamic range falls sharply
as you increase the ISO. See the charts at:
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0011/00111608dynamicrange.asp
What this means is that permanently setting the ISO to 400 as I
had previously planned to do is not an option at all. Even increasing
the ISO from 100 to 200 causes a significant decline in dynamic range.
So it looks like I will have to set the ISO to 100 most of the time.
Which cancels out the reason I bought this camera.

Had I known, I would probably have purchased the FujiFilm FinePix F700
instead. You can get this camera for around $270. It has lower
resolution than the Digital Rebel (3.1 Megapixels), and of course it
is not an SLR, so you can't change the lens. But it has one of the
best dynamic ranges, and the lowest manual ISO setting on this camera
is ISO 200. This camera would probably take better pictures than the
Digital Rebel, with better dynamic range, and less blurry because of
the higher ISO. (ISO 200 is sufficient for best quality, whereas the
Canon requires ISO 100.)

Still, the Digital Rebel has the advantages of an SLR: I am going to
get an F1.8 50mm lens for around $70. This will let me increase the
shutterspeed a little bit. But it is unclear whether this will bring
the picture quality closer to the $270 FinePix F700.

 

You'll enjoy the Finepix f700 shutter lag.
A 50mm lens on a 300d will in effect be an 80mm

 

Probably operator error - the Rebel can be set to do your exposure for you
too. Just put it in one of the picture modes and you'll be happy.

--
http://www.chapelhillnoir.com
home of The Camera-ist's Manifesto
The Improved Links Pages are at
http://www.chapelhillnoir.com/links/mlinks00.html
A sample chapter from my novel "Haight-Ashbury" is at
http://www.chapelhillnoir.com/writ/hait/hatitl.html

 

[POSTED TO rec.photo.digital - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

There is no Free Lunch.

Why not use Auto ISO, and shoot in Shutter Priority AE (or Sports) mode?

I seriously doubt that.

 

[POSTED TO rec.photo.digital - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

Perhaps that will make him happy, but maybe not -- all the talk about money
suggests a serious case of DSLR Buyer's Remorse. ;-)

In <q0u2c.71827$> on Sun, 07 Mar 2004

 

[snip]

And, I haven't had any of his problems.

Fred

 

Open,

The solution for you is to leave the camera at a lower ISO and use
electronic flash to stop the action. If there is plenty of light, then
you can do a lower ISO without worrying about shutter speed.

Gary Eickmeier

 

Welcome to digital. It in many ways is like slide film. You have limited
latitude to work with.

Underexposing a bit will retain highlights that tend to blow out. Correct
later in a photo editor. Using the raw mode will also help retain some
working latitude.

The Rebel has image parameters that you can set. You can use one of the
available three and set one for lower contrast.
John

 

Hi!

Hmm.. How about a fast AF for this job, I'd see the limitations more
there than anywhere else....

Nor do I. Look at this, posted here not too long ago by JPS:
http://www.pbase.com/image/26476905

This is the D30, not the same chip. Plus: Yes, digital cameras behave
more like slide film. A Simple question here: Did you use the RAW mode?
If not, you have only 8 bits per channel dynamic range in the file, thus
no change of correcting later on in Photoshop or alike.

A littel bit??? ;-)))

Sorry, but you are doing something wrong here. My guess is the file
format JPG plus harsh lighting. If you have constant propblems with the
highlights, I recommend to slightly underexpose.

Cheers,
B.

 

Digital sensors currently resemble slide film: they do not tolerate
over-exposure, losing all detail in the hightlights. The only workaround is
to understand this and realize that using the oncamera flash for non-static
candids is a crap shoot.

 

Digital sensors currently resemble slide film: they do not tolerate

On camera flash always sucks whether if's film or digital.

 

[POSTED TO rec.photo.digital - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In <070320041347061616%> on Sun, 07 Mar 2004 13:47:06

It can indeed suck in some cases, but can be good in other cases -- it all
depends on what you are doing and trying to accomplish. I have some very nice
images taken with on-camera flash.