Looking for some quick advice

[formula4speed]

Okay well I completly forgot but my brother is graduating from college this weekend so I'm thinking I want to have my new camera there for it but I'm torn between the 300d and 350d. The resolution in and of itself doesn't warrent the extra cost to me afterall 6 megapixels is still pretty high res. For someone who just uses the camera for leisure purposes, what are the selling points to upgrade to the 350 model? Any direction is greatly appreciated.

[pcasciola]

Most of the differences are listed here on the first page of DPReview:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos350d/

[tim]

The biggest advantage of the 350D, to me, is it's speed. If you take a few pictures then hit the "view images" button, the 300D takes ages to show the last image, whereas the 350D will do it just about straight away. If you want to move forwards or backwards you get the same thing. That and better high ISO performance make the 350D an easy choice IMO.

[formula4speed]

The extra speed does sound nice, just having a hard time swallowing the price tag I guess.

[markubig]

the 350D gives you 9 custom functions . .. 300D gives you zero (unless you hack it)

[tim]

And if you hack the 300D you only get a few CFs that work.

[formula4speed]

Seeing as how I have never heard of these custom functions, are they really something I need?

[markubig]

Seeing as how I have never heard of these custom functions, are they really something I need?Custom functions just let you adjust the camera to be more specific to what you want. For you, it might not be important.

One thing you want to take into account is that the 350D had FEC (flash exposure control . . . the ability to adjust the strength of the flash) and the 300D doesn't. If you go with the 300D, you can resolve it by either installing the firmware hack (do a search on "300D Wasia firmware hack", and you'll see tons of threads with pros and cons) or buying a flash that has FEC (550ex, which you can only find used, or the new 580ex). 350D has FEC, so you can probably get away with a less-expensive flash, like the 420ex. FEC is just another one of those things that give you more control of your camera.

dpreview, which Phil mentioned above has reviews on both the 300D and 350D. I also found this website to be helpful with reviews. http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/

Good luck!

[robertwgross]

Some people use a camera for years without knowing that it even has custom functions.

They tend to get a little sleepy when reading the chapter of the manual on advanced features.

---Bob Gross---

[formula4speed]

I'm gonna check them out at a local camera store, see which one feels better to me as that is the most important thing to me.