Photo

In the film world, the technical quality of the pictures you take is conditioned mostly by the lens and film you use. A $79 Olympus Stylus Epic with a fixed 35mm lens will take as good or better pictures than a fancy SLR (single-lens reflex) by Canon or Nikon, and you can load it up with Fuji Neopan 1600 or Ilford Delta 3200 film for taking pictures in very low light conditions.

For digital cameras, this does not hold – the more expensive digital SLRs (DSLRs) have much larger sensors that collect more light and thus have a higher signal to noise ratio, which makes for smoother, cleaner pictures and higher sensitivity. Compact digicams peak at ISO 400, which means flash is required at night, with the accompanying “red-eyed rabbit caught in headlights” look…

Unfortunately, until recently DSLRs have been out of most peoples’ reach, with prices above $2000. Canon breached this by introducing its flagship amateur DSLR, the 10D, for under $1500 street price. Many believe that prices will still need to fall below the psychological threshold of $1000 for DSLRs to gain wide acceptance. It’s interesting to look at the Japanese camera manufacturers’ trade association CIPA’s statistics, from which it appears the manufacturers’ average wholesale price for interchangeable-lens digital SLRs was about $910 in February 2003. Some pundits think the $1000 retail price threshold will be crossed around the end of the year.

Update (2003-08-20):

The other shoe drops – Canon just announced its $900 EOS 300D, which packs most of the features (and more importantly, the sensor and image quality) of the EOS 10D for less than 2/3 the price. Canon can do this, as they are a vertically integrated company, making everything from the optics to the sensor.

I received my QR plate from Kirk Enterprises yesterday. It is very well made, with a U-shaped ridge the cradles the bottom left of the camera for optimum stability, and cutouts that leave the battery compartments accessible. This is a fairly long plate.

rear view, bottom left view (showing the U-shaped ridge), bottom view

I received my Canon EOS 10D digital SLR yesterday, as an upgrade to my D30.

Some observations that I haven’t found on the Internet yet, and that may be useful to other new 10D owners or owners to be:

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. I use a Firewire CompactFlash card reader instead.

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 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 like the PZ-52 or BL-D60 from Kirk fit loosely and twist. In the meantime, my older, non-dedicated B24E plate from RRS will fit, but as it is held only by friction, it is a less than ideal solution.

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.

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.

I also posted some sample images I took during my lunch break, with the Canon EF 20mm f/2.8 USM. The images were converted with Canon’s File Viewer Utility V.1.2.1

Update (2003-03-27):

Kirk Photo now has an Arca-Swiss style quick-release plate for the 10D, the PZ-80. They are expecting to have a L bracket as well in about three weeks’ time.

Update (2003-08-05):

The current version of BreezeBrowser is fully functional with 10D RAW images, and has been so for a few months now.

I found this excellent tutorial for new users of IMatch looking to import their photos. It’s far more detailed than mine (Image category management with IMatch) on setting up the asset management workflow.

I shot a sample roll of Kodak’s new Ektachrome E100GX film. It is marketed as a fine-grained and sharp film, clearly to challenge the current dominance of Fuji Velvia and Provia 100F (RDPIII), with similar specs to Provia, at least on paper.

Here are a few small 256×256 crops of 2900dpi scans I made on my Nikon Coolscan IVED scanner. I deliberately exaggerated the grain structure by applying equalization in Photoshop.

Velvia	E100GX
Provia	Provia pushed 2 stops

Keep in mind this test is highly unscientific since the crops represent different scenes with different contrast levels and colors.