Canon Digital Rebel - What's Next?
 

Has anyone seen this new digital rebel? A 6.5 MP SLR camera for under $1000. I wonder if this may be indicative of what's to come from Canon, affordable true-professional quality gear, which could mean an affordable HD video camera soon as well. Thoughts?

Just have to wait and see Peter. If you want to read loads of rumors and speculation do a search on "XL2".

Hi Peter,

The Digital Rebel is certainly affordable, but it is definitely not true-professional quality gear. It's very much a consumer piece, with the same plastic body as the consumer-level Rebel Ti 35mm SLR. The Canon EOS 10D, which is a D-SLR with the same chip as the Digital Rebel, is a step toward professional-quality gear.

Many would argue the Digital Rebel is hardly professional quality gear. It's well built and offers great image quality at a previously unheard of low price. However, it is lacking a long list of features required of a camera before a professional would look at it.

Well that's interesting, because the guy in the camera store said the same thing, but when I asked him what the real differences were, he said PQ was roughly equal, and that the 10D would be faster in between shots.

What other features does it lack that would make pros snub it?

Anyway, since this is a camera forum, I guess I would say that any HD camera from canon is also likely to lack some features that "professionals" demand, but will still be usable by all but the most spoiled filmmakers.

It's viewfinder is not a pentaprism. The digital Rebel's finder is a mirror arrangement that is not as bright and not full field. Many pros don't consider the 1.6x crop factor (magnification) CMOS a professional size. The AF is slow for some sports and it lacks spot metering. I could go on with the list, but I think you get the point.

Does that mean that the Digital Rebel can't produce images suitable for professional work? No, the image quality meets or exceeds 35mm film in almost all conditions.

I do get the point. It sounds like a lot of little things that I wouldn't care about. :)

I always manual focus anyway. Though I suppose a better viewfinder would help there.

Just wondering, if you could be so kind - what is a pentaprism? On my ancient (but adored!) all-manual olympus 35mm, there is a small innter-circle that is askew except when the target is in focus. Makes focusing a snap. Is that what you're talking about? Do all SLR cameras have that?

Thanks!

These new DSLR's have a reduced VF and no focusing aid (again, until you get to the pro level). The Digital Rebel is particularly difficult to manually focus because it's VF issues.

Sorry Peter, missed the bottom part of your post. The device your referring to is call a split image focusing aid. The collar around the circle is called a microprism. The entire device is called a focusing screen. The pentaprism is the five sided, coated glass device in the top of a camera. The Digital Rebel uses a cheaper mirrored device, accomplishing the same ends, but producing less sharpness and brightness.

If you want an excellent 24 page review of the camera, read here:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos300d/

It starts with a feature matrix between the rebel and it's semi-pro older brother the Canon EOS 10D.

I strongly reccomend www.dpreview.com for any digital camera information seekers...

as you may have read my other post i'm a happy 300d user, well worth the 999 i paid for it, even the kit lens is worth the 100 bucks...

personally i don't think the 10d is worth the extra 600, and here is why, the 10d gives you a bit faster fps, it also gives you 3200 thats fine, and a host of user settings that you can program and save...

for me all that does not matter coming from a evrything manual ae-1, i'm just happy to have IS and AF...

the only thing i like is the pentaprism, and kelvin rd out, these are the only two functions that will help me take a better picture...i own a s40 and don't use many of the special features, so for me it was better to put the extra cash into glass

now the 1ds on the other hand is worth it (if i had that kind of scratch for a hobbie) it is big but full frame is somthing i would like to aspire to after having it so long with film...

Thanks Jeff!

I'll take a careful look. The 10D does sound like it is MUCH better constructed. I want this camera to last forever if I'm going to pay so much for it, so I'm going to reconsider.

Quality comparisons between the 300 and the 10D are practically identical. Granted alot of the customizable settings aren't there due to the internal software simply being disabled. The magnesium-alloy body of the 10D is more rugged though I'm not in the habbit of dropping my gear and/or using them in rainstorms.
The 300D is much bigger bang for the buck. I don't see any missing settings I can't "live" without. In other words they aren't make or break features...at least not for an additional $600, not including the price of the lense.

The internal frames of the two are both metal. The only plastic is the shell on the 300D.

For speed of shooting (fps) - if something is moving that much I'll be using my GL2 :-)

The only setting missing that I have had a bit of an issue with is for control over flash output. I can get around this by intentionally setting to underexpose but it is still a nuisance for macros. Getting an external flash will help some.

Quality is good and for the price difference I could get more lens.

Frames per second is similar, but the memory buffer is a major delay. Once the buffer is full you have to wait for the buffer to empty to start shooting again. The Digital Rebel is more restrictive in AF and metering modes.