Canon EOS 300D Digital SLR

Hi Chris
I have had my 300D for around 2 months and love it. It is easy to use i.e you don't have to keep referring to the manual and the images are great.
One thing I do not like is the amount of play in the focusing of the kit lens. It is far too loose but auto focus is fine. I have added a Sigma 70-300 lens and that is producing super results.

Of course the 300D will soon be obsolete but who cares. This quality will last me for years.
Regards
John

no regrets
100's of photos
using canon lenses only.
512meg ultra cf card

one picture printed in local paper already

Interchangable lenses has got to be one of the best things about having an SLR. I wish I had the money to buy the expensive 'L' series ones that you see the press and sports photographers using (usually white).

I did pick up a second hand EF 50 1.8 Mk II recently, and though not an L-series lens, it is incredibly sharp. On the 300D it works a bit like an 80mm portrait lens.

It's lovely and bright, you can shoot handheld in twighlight at ISO 200 with it.

Park Cameras do them for about 75 quid, well worth it.

Reviews and sample pics http://www.photo.net/canon/50-1.8
http://www.pbase.com/cameras/canon/ef_50_18ii

Hi,

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I wish I had the money to buy the expensive 'L' series ones
----------------------------------------------------

What's this I'm hearing expensve L ones.

Are these 'L' ones 11 Mega pixel then?

Jim Bird.

Nothing to do with Megapixels Jim.

Canon make a wide range of lenses costing from under 100 pounds to several thousands.

The 'L' or 'luxury' series use the most expensive optics and often cost many times the price of their non-L consumer counterparts.

I'm considering getting a Battery Grip, has anyone got one of these for the 300D or similar and do you think that they are worth it?

Friend has the battery grip and thinks its ace.

Will be getting one soon.

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Mike

Thanks, I'm shopping around for one at the moment. When doing that I noticed that there's a proper semi-hard case available for the 300D.

It's called a CSHE16L. I can't find a decent picture of one and can't suss out if it allows you to take pictures with it on like some do, so if anybody knows please post.

I played around with a 10D last weekend, very impressive. If the 300 can take similar photos then it's really quite something for the price. I can't possibly stretch to a 10D but I may be able to push for a 300 as it's my 40th next month

Adam

quote:Originally posted by Chris Longley:
Thanks, I'm shopping around for one at the moment. When doing that I noticed that there's a proper semi-hard case available for the 300D.

It's called a CSHE16L. I can't find a decent picture of one and can't suss out if it allows you to take pictures with it on like some do, so if anybody knows please post.

Chris

I'm not sure if this answers the question but the description hints that you have access to the camera functions whilst in the case

http://www.littleenterprises.co.uk/html/modules.php?name=Amazon&asin=B0000CC64I

Thanks, I just read the bit "Designed to conveniently expose the camera controls and LCD panel" And from the picture it sure looks like the front flips up to reveal the lens.

The 300D will easily produce pictures as good as the 10D. It has the same imaging chip and can use the same lenses. The 10D may get better results in tricky situations where exposure evaluation is very difficult.

A good comparison table is available on this page: http://www.digitaldingus.com/overview/canon300d10d.html

I just spoke to the guy that lent me the 10D and he told me that it cost him £900 in Singapore ! Obviously that's no lens, but what a difference !

I'm sold on the 300D, just got to find a deal somewhere. I'm not 40 for a month so I'm in no hurry.

Any recommended sites/dealers?

TIA,
Adam

quote:Originally posted by buckers:
I just spoke to the guy that lent me the 10D and he told me that it cost him £900 in Singapore ! Obviously that's no lens, but what a difference !

I'm sold on the 300D, just got to find a deal somewhere. I'm not 40 for a month so I'm in no hurry.

Any recommended sites/dealers?

TIA,
Adam

bought mine from photofactory incl 512meg cf ultra card at under £1000

Got my 300D from Kamera Photographic Ltd of St Helens, Merseyside.

Their Web site is www.bestcameras.co.uk.

At the time of purchase last October, the price was very competitive and the sales service and attention very good.

An excellent camera.

Tim

quote:Originally posted by buckers:
I just spoke to the guy that lent me the 10D and he told me that it cost him £900 in Singapore ! Obviously that's no lens, but what a difference !

I'm sold on the 300D, just got to find a deal somewhere. I'm not 40 for a month so I'm in no hurry.

Any recommended sites/dealers?

TIA,
Adam

I've ordered one from Amazon £799 inc canon EF 18 - 55 lens. Lead time is a little long tho' been 2 weeks so far

Anyone having problems with the odd shot suffering underexposure? Flash or no flash.

Trev

If there's a lot of bright white in the shot (eg snow) I have to adjust the Exposure Compensation otherwise the cam will underexpose. However I believe this is true of all cameras when confronted with things like snow.

I have to confess that I originally thought that my cam was underexposing all of the time, turned out that one of my monitors was dodgy.

There's some excellent screen calibration pages here http://www.weingarten.net/network/displaycalibration/brightness_contrast.html

Tim - excellent link, thanks. They do the 300D with 18-55 (kit lens) and also a UMS 55-200 all for £1019.

Adam

Anyone tried to sync the camera yet using studio lighting and infrared flash unit attached to the hot shoe.

Been experimenting in a friends studio, and can't get the exposure correct. Looks like the flash is going off at the wrong time and is creating a ghosting effect in the pictures, plus a blue halo round the subjects head. Any ideas what would cause this?

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Mike

What was your shutter speed Mike?

You might find the information in this link very useful http://www.ephotozine.com/forum/viewanswers.cfm?qid=7775&catid=2

[This message has been edited by Chris Longley (edited 21 February 2004).]

Thanks Chris - Some useful info on that board.

What i was trying to do was use 2 studio lights that auto flash using an infrared control attached to the camera shoe.

Will try to upload 2 pics showing the blue edging and the ghosting.

Mike.

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Mike

Example of double image

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Mike

The only way that I could see that happening Mike is if the camera was moved slightly while the shot was taken, but I'm betting that it was on a tripod.

You should be aware that Canons use a very sophisticated flash metering system and only genuine Canon or third-party flash systemns dedicated for Canon AF are recommended.

Unless you set aperture and shutter manually then the camera will meter for the ambient light in the room (not taking into account the flash) Which can mean a long shutter speed, maybe half-a-second or longer and a wide aperture.

Any vibration, camera or subject movement will show up in such a long exposure.

In (M)anual mode set a fast shutter speed, 100th second at least, then do some test shots with the flash, making adjustments to the aperture and shutter speed according to the results. If you have a light meter you could use this next to the subject when you fire the flash and transfer those settings to the camera.

FWIW - I got my 300D yesterday morning, ordered it from AJ Electronics on Edgeware Rd, £819 (inc P&P) for 300D with Lens Kit. Most e-tailers I contacted had no stock - this must be a very popular camera at the moment !

Unfortunately, I didn't have a chance to play with the 300D for more than a few minutes as my wife took it off me - it's not my 40th until 14th March :(

First impressions are that it's much lighter than the 10D I've been playing with, which is a big + for me. It's also very fast, you can fire shots off very quickly even with flash enabled - they just 'buffer-up' and transfer to the CF. Very clever !

I'm looking forward to my birthday, and I haven't said that for a few years

Adam

Thanks Chris. I'll experiment more.

Mike

Since there are obviously a few 300D owners on this forum, what lenses have you opted for (and why) ?

I've checked the kit lens and I seem to have a good one (there seem to be some duff ones around) but I'd like a telephoto as well.

Here are some useful links I've found so far :

http://www.photo.net/equipment/canon/300D/EOS_300D_lenses.html
http://groups.msn.com/CanonDigitalRebel300DSupportGroup/lenstalk.msnw

and of course, the www.dpreview.com forums.

Adam

Anyoue used "FECset" to help avoid underexposed shot in manual mode. Is it safe or unwise?

I've used 'FEC set' almost since the day I got the camera, or at least since I first used the flash. I have not encountered any problems.

A couple of days ago I purchased a Sunpak PZ5000AF (CAN) and interestingly this sets FEC zero while on the camera but, when removed, the camera reverts to FEC +2/3 for the on camera flash.

I won't pay the silly sum of money Canon want for the 550EX since the benefits of E-TTL seem dubious at best.

Chris

Thanks Chris.

Do you feel it has made a difference?

Mike,

Very much so, though I remain to be convinced of the advantages of E-TTL. I have FEC +2/3 set and that gives, for me at least, far better results than the standard setting.

If you look at http://www.dpreveiw.com in the Canon300D forum you will find long threads about flash on the 300D. It's all very well for the E-TTL afficionados to say if you do this, this and that it works well, but most people want things to work well without that much bother. I think even they would admit that sometimes it gets exposure badly wrong.

I used A-TTL with my previous EOS camera, but sadly that flash has no 'manual' mode and will not fire from the 300D. The flash I've ended up with is really a sophisticated version of the Vivtar 283 with lots of bells and whistles but no E-TTL.

Chris

How do you use or find how to use the FEC setting on the 300d camera as I too have under exposure with the built in flash. I have tried going on to the link in the previous posting but it doesn't seem to work for me.
Thanks.
Pete

I can send it to you if your email can take a 2.2mb attachment

Mike.

If for some reason you can't receive the email then you may download it from here

http://chrispix.servepics.com/ftp/pub/applications/applications.htm

(Bottom of the page: FecSet Flash Exposure Compensation for Canon EOS 300D )

Thanks for above two answers to my question re. FEC. Errrrrrrrr . . . . Showing my total ignorance . . . How do I get the file (from either e-mail or from a download) on to my camera to make the adjustment. Yes I know us pensioners are a real pain.
Do please tell me. Pete

Connect the camera as you would for downloading photographs and then 'run' the program you have downloaded.

Chris

Sorry about the link; I've just checked it out. Dyslexia rules but it was done on a very awkward Thai keyboard and, being in an internet cafe, I didn't have the chance to check it out myself... it was a very slooow connection.
Try: http://www.dpreview.com

and search on FEC or something similar.

from one pensioner to another

Chris

Thanks for the gen. I am always terrified to attempt these things so after a large glass . . I took the plunge logged on and followed it through and it seems to have worked.
Here in my personal Pensioners Club, I will raise the next glass to you all.Pete

Anyone know of a shop (on or off line) where the 300D semi-hard case is in stock? Everyone I've tried so far has had trouble getting it in stock.

Cheers

Dave

Hi Folks,
Had my 300D about a month now and I'm really pleased with it. Fantastic pics.
Even the kit lens seems pretty good and the whole thing is pretty intuitive and easy to use.
I read the post by Chris Longley and looked at the thread on lenses for the 300D written by Bob Atkins.
Great article, but I'm still undecided whether to go for the one size fits all 28-135mm or get the F1.8 50mm for portraits and a 75-300 for long shots (on a tripod of course).
I'm also torn between coughing up large sums of money for Canon lenses or going with the compatibles.
I think I'll wait and see what circumstances I can't cope with on the kit lens then buy accordingly.
Regards.

all my lenses are canon.
the one that came with the camera
a 28-?? ( 44 - ?? attached to 300d)
a 75-300 ( 100 - 480 attached to 300d)

the canon lenses are better than the cheaper sigma lens i bought for my partners eos500n , which won't actually work on my 300d , when used on my eos500.

I'm probably old fashioned but prefer non-zoom lenses for their optical qualities. The 50mm F1.8 is reported to be great for portraiture and, unlike the kit lens, is sharp at wider than F8.

Having said that, lenses here are

Kit Lens
Canon 28-70
Canon 70-210
Sigma 400

This Sigma works with the 300D.

I've got a 50mm 1.8 and it's incredibly sharp. It's my favourite lens. I've even used it in preference to the kit lens to do wideangle shots by taking two pictures and stitching them together as I like it that much.

The only downside of this lens is that it makes pics taken with your other lenses look soft :(

Ok Guys

I only have the lens supplied with the 300D, so what's the best additional lens to buy / use for portraits etc?

I got hold of an old Canon 70-210mm F4 and it works very well with the 300D - I've used it for photographing ballooning and trackdays - very sharp pics so far. The motor is not USM so it sounds a bit 'crunchy' in AI servo mode.

Adam

Mike,

The 50mm f1.8 is a good option for portrait photography with 300D/D10/30/60

The crop factor makes it roughly similar to 80mm - flattering enough for decent protraits.

Gavin

Professional portrait photographers swear by non-zoom prime lenses of 80 or 100mm. With anything wider, depending on the angle of the shot, you get distortion, big head small body etc. On a digital SLR you should take account of the FOV cropping factor, a 50mm lens acts like an 80.

Also the wider aperture of these lenses means you can take advantage of really shallow depth of field to blur the background and draw more attention to your subject.

I researched this before http://www.ephotozine.com/search/forum/index.cfm?q=portrait+lens&r=10

Mike I have the Sigma 70-300mm APO lens and I find it very good for the money, about £160.00. I can email you, or anyone else, part of a portrait if you wish.
John

Just received an email from canon asking me as a 300d owner to fill in an on-line questionnaire.

Euro 2.50 to wwf for everyone filled in.

Would any of you happy 300D bunnies be interested in a Canon EF100-400 f4-5.6L IS USM lens? Purchased approximately October of last year from Jessops at a penny under £1300 and about a month later I got an EF400mm f2.8 to compliment an EF100 f2.8 macro lens so it's been somewhat redundant ever since.

I've thought about keeping it for use with an XL1 but my arms aren't long enough to peer through the viewfinder and simultaneously focus / zoom lens.

The same lens is regularly advertised on ebay but usually from somewhere in the orient with the risk of import tax and hanling fees to add to the apparently attractive price. Thought I might offer it here first.

Meant to add that it comes complete with UV filter case, hood, strap and all original packaging / documentation - never got round to registering it.

Canons (L) Lenses are superb... I have just purchased tha 17-40mm f4 (L)
and the quality is really very good, plus it Looks as though you could pull it at the back of a car.. the build quality is first class

I also have the 28-135 IS usm which is also optically very good -- the build quality is not as good as the (L)s but its a very good walkabout Lens

Been using a Sigma EX f2.8 70-200 APO lens for a week now. Lovely crisp images, but need to do some weight training to carry it around ;) When I get enough quality images together, I'll post a gallery.

Trev

Have installed hacked firmware. I now have the added options in the menue as per

http://www.bahneman.com/liem/photos/tricks/digital-rebel-tricks.html#what

But now that i am able, which ones should i change. FEC seems to be the one everyone is raving about. Does this stop overexposure using flash?

Sorry don't know if it does , but that was the hint that i saw a while ago.

I'm not flashing mine at the moment because my 18-55mm lens has decided to commit suicide and causes the 300d to display err99 which is a communication with lens error , which i don't get with other lenses.