Note: since I reviewed this camera, Canon came up with the new Digital Rebel, which has pretty much the same guts as a 10D, with a plastic yet still well-built body, slightly less control but otherwise almost equal image quality, all for an even more breakthrough price of $900. You should definitely consider that camera as well.
Newcomers to digital photography tend to obsess over megapixels, but the real difference between a high-quality camera and a lower-end model is not just in the resolution, but also in how good each pixel is. The smaller sensors used in consumer digicams suffer from electronic noise, which gets very pronounced when photos are taken at high ISO ratings in poor lighting. This noise appears like colored dots sprinkled across an image, like static on a TV, and degrades images the way film grain does to traditional photography as ISO ratings go higher.
Canon pioneered the use of CMOS sensors in their digital SLRs instead of the more common CCD elements used by other manufacturers, culminating in their flagship 11 megapixel EOS 1Ds. These CMOS sensors combined with Canon's post-processing algorithms yield remarkably smooth images, and many buy the Canon cameras precisely for that "CMOS look". The 10D has very low noise and can go up to ISO 1600 (ISO 3200 if you enable a custom function). At ISO 1600, the noise is noticeable, but does not feel worse than my father's D100 at ISO 400.
Unlike film where the picture quality depends primarily on a the film and good point and shoot cameras can match pricier and bulkier SLRs (the $80 Olympus Stylus Epic with a fixed 35mm lens comes to mind), there is a much larger gap between digital point-and-shoot cameras and digital SLRs. This is because digital SLRs have much larger (and thus far more expensive to manufacture) sensors that collect more light and have higher signal to noise ratios than the tiny ones used in consumer cameras.
If you started digital photography with a point and shoot, love the flexibility and immediacy of digital but are still unsatisfied with the quality, you may be ripe for an upgrade to a digital SLR. The differences between Canon and Nikon are not big enough to induce someone who has a major investment in either Canon EF or Nikkor lenses to switch, however, but people who do not have a major investment in glass now have more options to consider.
Canon makes what is currently in my opinion the best lineup of digital SLRs, but they have strong competition from Nikon, Fuji and Kodak (all three using Nikon lenses). Olympus has a well-regarded line of non-interchangeable lens SLRs and Pentax has recently entered the fray as well. For the well-heeled, the Contax N Digital may be an options as well.
The 10D is the successor to the Canon D60, and has been heavily improved in a number of areas, the most notable being autofocus speed and accuracy, but build quality, sensitivity, shooting speed and other enhancements have also been made. I have had my 10D for a week now, as an upgrade over my Canon EOS D30. I have also used a Nikon D100 (I bought one for my father last year), which is the major competitor to this camera. The 10D has twice the resolution of the D30, is sturdier, has much improved autofocus, feels snappier, yet it costs $1500 (street price) when I paid $2400 for the D30 18 months ago. This price hasn't reached the psychological threshold of $1000 yet (where I believe film SLR users will start moving to digital en masse), but it is getting very close, and is well within the means of most enthusiasts. Also, this low price puts a lot of pressure on the second-hand market and if $1500 is too much for you, you should now be able to snap a second-hand D30 for the same price as a consumer point and shoot; while it will have lower resolution, the image quality will still be superior.
I won't go into a detailed overview of the camera, as this has been done better than I could conceivably do in the excellent preview by Phil Askey of DPReview:
http://www.dpreview.com/articles/canoneos10d/
In the end, the proof is in the pudding. I have put up two galleries of 10D photos on my website:
http://www.majid.info/galleries/10D_20mm/
http://www.majid.info/galleries/sf_2003_03_21/
I will finish with some observations that I haven't found on the Internet yet, and that may be useful for advanced users who are considering buying a 10D:
1. The camera feels solid, but not appreciably better built than the D30. The much-hyped magnesium shell does not make much difference.
2. As usual, the Canon software sucks. The USB TWAIN driver for the 10D does not work, breaks TWAIN and you need to restart apps such as Photoshop to be able to use other TWAIN drivers again.
3. The camera supports the PIMA (now I3A) Picture Transfer Protocol (PTP), a standardized protocol to transfer images and control a camera over a USB connection. I just wish they had also implemented the USB Mass Storage Class the way Nikon did. This would allow the camera to be recognized as a hard drive by all modern operating systems.
4. Even though the 10D is compatible with the BG-ED3 portrait
grip/battery pack, the base plate is slightly different from the
D30/D60, and dedicated Arca-Swiss style quick release tripod plates. Kirk Photo now has an Arca-Swiss style quick-release plate for the 10D, the PZ80. They are expecting to have a L bracket as well in about three weeks' time.
5. As usual with the introduction of new cameras, third-party (i.e. usable) RAW workflow software struggles to catch up. IMatch will generate thumbnails correctly, but not display the images. BreezeBrowser displays the images in quick preview mode but will not do RAW conversion yet (click here for 10D status updates).
6. The eyepiece cover is now integral to the strap and is less likely to fall off.
7. The 10D uses the same batteries as the D30/D60, but unfortunately not the same USB cable.
8. 10x magnification is better than the D30, but I wish they could resolve down to individual pixels to check for critical focus.
9. The camera feels quieter (muted shutter and mirror sound) and snappier than my D30, except for image review, which is still too slow for any but the most leisurely review.
10. Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 is supplied, a nice touch as this version is far more capable than the Photoshop 5.0 LE supplied with the D30.
11. The viewfinder is similar to the Elan 7E. It does not have eye control focus, unfortunately. The only other major missing feature is spot metering.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1500 This Camera is a Good Choice if You Want Something... Flexible Enough for Enthusiasts
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
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