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Canon EOS 300D: a first look

Lori Grunin 0

Published: 02 Sep 2003

It's been a while since we've become quite so excited about a new product, but Canon's EOS 300D will definitely spark an epidemic among enthusiast photographers who have been waiting for an affordable, interchangeable-lens digital SLR.

Canon's sub-£1,000 EOS 300D digital SLR, which ships in mid-September, looks set to be the enthusiast digital camera to beat.

Based on the company's popular 35mm EOS 300 SLR line, the 300D offers about 85 percent of the feature flexibility of its bigger, more expensive brother, the EOS 10D, at revolutionary prices of £899 (inc. VAT, body only) and £999 (inc. VAT, with EF-S 18-55mm f3.5-to-f5.6 zoom lens -- equivalent to 28mm to 88mm on a 35mm SLR).

Even if it didn't support interchangeable lenses -- including the complete catalogue of Canon EF-mount products -- this digital SLR would still have great specifications for the price: a 6.3-megapixel CMOS sensor; seven manually selectable autofocus points; and a four-shot, 2.5-frame-per-second continuous shooting speed, regardless of resolution.

The EOS 300D does sacrifice some controls, which, depending upon how you shoot, may be critical. Although it offers three metering modes -- evaluative, partial and centre-weighted average -- it automatically decides when to use evaluative and centre-weighted, and you can only toggle partial. Similar limitations apply to focus tracking. Furthermore, it even shares some of the inconveniences of the EOS 10D, including a viewfinder that shows only 95 percent of the frame and the absence of spot metering.

The EOS 300D will cost £899 (inc. VAT) without a lens and £999 (inc. VAT) with an EF-S 18-55mm lens (equivalent to 28-88mm on a 35mm SLR).

When the EOS 300D ships in mid-September, we think it will be the enthusiast camera to beat, especially since Sony's DSC-F828 won't ship for another couple of months. But stay tuned -- there's an evaluation unit en route to us and a review forthcoming.