For some time I have been considering the idea of buying a Digital SLR camera. I enjoyed SLR photography with my non-digital Pentax many years ago and it’s something I’d like to catch up on. I have been using a Sony DSC-F828 which is essentially a point-and-shoot camera but with many of the controls (aperture, exposure, ISO sensitivity, bracketing, etc.) that many of the DSLRs have, but with the added benefit of many of the features that Sony cameras are known for like recording movies, etc. Part of what was putting me off was the costs of a full frame DSLR (i.e. one with a 35mm rather than an APS-C sensor), but something like the Canon EOS-5D would cost over £2,000 plus lenses. I was reluctant to go for Canon EF-S lenses since sooner or later I expect I will be buying a full frame camera so these would become redundant. Also, the Sony F828 is already 8 megapixels so I would have wanted a 10, 12 or even 16 megapixel camera ideally, but I wouldn’t be prepared to spend £2-6k for a camera for a hobby.
On Monday I finally decided that I should stop thinking about it and actually make a decision, so I purchased a Canon EOS-350D with an 18-55mm EF-S and 55-200mm EF lenses as a bundle with a battery grip (which didn’t add much to the cost as a bundle, but which proved to be a very nice addition as I shall go into later).

I was tempted by the new Sony DSLR-A100 or first in the “alpha” series since Sony acquired Minolta’s camera business. The interface is from Minolta it seems and the support for Sony Memory Stick Duo is a converter with the Compact Flash card. One of the reasons I am a Sony fan is the Memory Stick and the fact it works on my laptop (although admittedly so does SD now). Sony is also very good at explaining the compatibility of all of their products whilst Canon is a bit more “professional” about it in that you need to find the information for yourself. A really nice feature I would have wanted, and present on the DSLR-A100 is anti-shake compensation (SuperSteadyShot in Sony branding) since it’s on the mounting of the CCD sensor rather than the lens which means every lens becomes an image stabilising one. In cost terms, this would make the Sony solution far cheaper than Canon IS lenses, something that may yet make me consider Sony in the future. Certainly if they begin supporting Memory Stick Pro directly in cameras with full size sensors, I would be very tempted.

In the end, my reason for going Canon was two-fold. Firstly, my investment in EF lenses would still pay back if I upgraded to a better camera. In the meantime I’ll have to take advantage of the 1.6x magnificantion factor EF lenses give me against a smaller megapixel rating. Secondly, I’ve heard a lot of good things about Canon cameras from friends who use them.

A few disappointements with then Canon 350D:

The menu interface on the Canon is a bit counter-intuitive such as switching between black & white and colour for example. I am getting used to it and I can work with it but it could be better I feel.

The hand-grip on the 350D is totally appauling as it’s just hard plastic. I can’t believe Canon released an SLR like that. The only consolation is that the battery grip attachment (BG-E3) has a far better grip.

My Sony flash gun won’t work with the Canon–This didn’t surprise me hugely, and certainly not something I would blame on Canon, but it’s an irritation, particularly as it was a fairly nice flash gun. I would have hoped that the basic features would still work.

The 18-55mm EF-S and 55-200mm EF USM lenses both have a rotating front which makes it impossible to have a ‘perfect’ lens hood
It would be useful to have a mirror lock-up facility that allowed the LCD screen to show the photo without needing to look through the viewfinder. Similarly, having this ability in the software which is installed on a computer attached to the camera would be most useful.

After some time…

I’ve found that having started using my new camera more of my images have been blurred. I suspect it’s a combination of re-learning the settings, and perhaps getting used to less automated compensation that the Sony point-and-shoots may offer (and I ought to add I still intend to buy a tiny Sony pocket camera in the not too distant future). This is improving though and I’m told it’s not infrequent an experience for new cameras.

I was also very pleasantly surprised to find the EOS 350D has an orientation sensor that logs an EXIF setting. It’s a shame Windows Explorer’s own built-in lossless (I haven’t checked that it is yet) rotation function from Microsoft Picture Viewer doesn’t keep all EXIF settings as it’s quite efficient otherwise.

If there’s one site that I need to plug is www.dpreview.com as that proved very useful in my decision.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 6th, 2006 at 8:39 pm and is filed under photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.