Canon EOS 30D

Appealing to both the hobbyist and pro markets alike, the new EOS-30D is Canon's long-awaited follow-up to the acclaimed EOS-20D. Available with an 18-55mm lens kit for a street price of around £999 or as a body only purchase for about £100 less, it's more expensive than budget SLR contenders from

Olympus, Pentax and Nikon, but hopes in this way to attract a more discerning customer. Owners of the more consumer-oriented 350D, priced at under £800, may well wonder what the fuss is about, for this new camera is markedly similar to the lower-priced model in many respects. The main differences show in the design, which is tailored towards a more demanding level of usage. There is a more rugged feel to the body, and the shutter is built for up to 100,000 cycles.

There is also far more weight to the body, giving it a quality feel but requiring strong wrists when a longer lens is attached. But why spend the extra cash on a camera that is simply built a bit better? Well, there’s more to the 30D than meets the eye. For starters there’s a new larger, wider 2.5-inch LCD with brightness adjustment, a high precision 9-point AF system and finally, a 3.5% Area Spot Metering mode, which was inexplicably left off the EOS-20D.

In a nod to the consumer market, Canon has also incorporated a set of ‘Picture Style’ pre-set options. These sound suspiciously like scene modes, but they’re rather more sophisticated than that. Accessed via the Record menu, they allow you to apply an effect to your shot that helps to bring out the best of the subject. So, the Portrait preset brings out better skin tones, the Landscape preset delivers vivid blues and greens, and so on. However, the scope of these presets goes further, with options for shooting with neutral colours, monochrome, and a Faithful mode that adjusts the image colourmetrically to match the subject’s colour if it is photographed under a cool temperature of 5200k. Each preset also has a range of settings – sharpness, contrast, saturation etc – that can be customised and stored to suit your requirements.

Despite these impressive options, the 30D is not without its flaws. There seems to be a very long gap between focussing and shutter release in Auto mode, resulting in a surprisingly large shutter lag of up to one second in some circumstances. This isn’t good news for novice users that might be relying on Auto fairly heavily as they first get used to the camera. Fortunately, when we shift out of the autofocus, shutter lag becomes pretty much non-existent, with the exposure happening seemingly before you press the shutter button. Lag time between shots is also impressively fast, measuring a fraction of a second between ordinary JPEG shots and rising to no more than around 2 seconds when capturing the largest possible RAW files. Things are slightly less impressive when it comes to continuous shooting. The 5fps speed is decent enough, but a total of only 30 JPEGs or 11 RAW files before the buffer is full doesn’t compare well to similar models like the Nikon D200, which can manage up to 22 RAW files at the same speed.

The Canon 30D is compatible with the complete range of Canon’s EF and EF-S lenses, and being so dependent on these is no bad thing, as it means the user controls a large chunk of quality. Using the standard 18-55mm lens kit, there is plenty to be happy about in terms of results. Exposure is well balanced, even in dimly lit rooms, with colours punchy and bright enough to make even the dullest subjects stand out. The controls are intuitively located and designed for frequent, repeated use. Buttons are generally kept to a minimum, leaving the reliable Mode dial to hold court. It’s also refreshing to see the Drive button has its own control, as most sports photographers won’t have the time for extended menu usage. The only downsides are the thumbstick to the right of the LCD – which is a little too small, delicate and sensitive to be truly useful, especially in the absence of a d-pad – and the camera’s power switch. This requires strong fingernails to activate it, and the process can become wearing incredibly quickly. Canon is aiming at a demanding and consistent user with this model. The extra weight and more robust build quality allow for increased punishment. Meanwhile, image quality is excellent (as expected) and the extra drive speed makes sports photography a dream. The only downside is the price tag, which is a little steep for the level of advantage offered over the cheaper 350D.