First Digital Camera: D30?

I have two EOS SLR 35mm bodies and several lenses. The best lens I have is the 100-400 IS 5.6f white lens that Canon puts out. I'm interested in entering the digital world and am inclined towards the D30 because I have the lenses and am used to the EOS controls. Pricing is becoming more attractive at $2300 including the IBM microdrive and extra battery promotion.

Is this an "OK" first digital camera?

I go on safari and occasionally like to blow up shots to very large sizes. Will the D30 support that. Using the "raw" format and the 1gig microdrive, how many pictures will store on the drive?

I see that 5 megapixel cameras are on the popularly priced market and am concerned that this is 3.0 megapixels. I have seen rumours about a new generation D30 coming out in November that is attractively priced and has 6 megapixels.

My next safari won't be until January or February. Should I wait.?

My opinion, It would make an excelent first digital camera. I think you may be dissapointed in the quality of enlargements made to "very large sizes." I too have a history with Canon SLRs starting with my first camera, a Canon AE-1 from the mid/late seventies. This is why I bought a Canon digital camera when it came time to buy.

I was hesitant to buy a digital because I was worried about resolution with larger enlargements... Then I pondered the following facts about the last 25 years of my photographic background. 1) I NEVER have made any enlargement greater than 8*12, and the vast majority of my prints are 4*6. 2) The negatives of photos once beautiful and prized, made with decent camera bodies and great lenses are now not found, or scratched, or no longer in shape to make decent prints.

I think I can preserve digital images better than film, prefer the immediate feedback of digital, and am tired of scanning to email, post to WWW, etc. Digital for me is now.

While the cost is dropping quickly on digital cameras, I think you should buy a high quality film scanner and continue to shoot on silver. You will be greatly dissapointed when you shoot that perfect shot and want to print it at "very large sizes."

As far as waiting for a larger number of pixels, remember that the picture is two dimensional, and that DOUBLING the number of pixels improves the pixel density by only 41%. (hope i figured that one right) If you want to wait for more pixels, I would wait till you can hit 8-12 megapixels and can double the pixel density. I doubt very much that you will see much of a difference between the D30 and a 6MP camera (D-60 ?). My guess is that a 3MP D30 will blow the doors off any prosumer 5MP that is available now. Don't get caught up in the MP, check out the other features that will make decent pictures.

Lastly, check out the pictures that Pekka has on this site. The D1 and the D30 shots are great, but spend a few bucks getting one of these images blown up to 30*60 and see if you would be satisfied.

Good luck, and whatever you do, have fun. It's a great hobby.

PJ

Mystery Worm,

Is this an OK first digital camera?

It is much more than OK. You can produce beautiful images with this camera. Just have a look at some of the pix that Pekka has posted, or those on www.luminous-landscape.com.

How many images on a 1gb microdrive?

My D30 reports 289 images available on a full card. However, since raw is a compressed (lossless) format. This is only an estimate. I've never actually counted, but I have noticed that, as the card is nearly full, I always get more images than the counter estimates are left.

Enlarging Images

I have successfully enlarged onto 13x19 paper. I use and recommend (as do lots of D30 owners) a program call GenuineFractals. This does a better job of upsizing than Photoshop. I have read in various forums that many people have done enlargement to 20x30 that they are happy with.

Should you wait?

Canon are just about to release the EOS 1D, which is the big brother to the 1D. It is only 4.1 m effective pixels, but it obviously a superior camera - at a superior price! The estimate is around $7k. Other digicams from them are still rumours.

The D30 is not an easy camera. You cannot expect that images will be perfect straight out of the camera. You will have some workflow for "digital development". Therefore, if you are an amateur like me, I would say get the D30 and spend the time between now and your safari getting to know the camera.

Add-ons

Does the 2nd battery promotion you mention include the battery grip? If not, then this is a must-have for the D30. It holds two batteries and gives enough power for shooting all day long. I think the estimate is for 1000+ pix.

You should also consider a device like the Digital Wallet. This contains a portable hard disk (they do 6, 10 and 20 gb sizes at the moment) that you can download images to from the CF card. You will certainly need storage for more than 289 images on your safari. There are other options like the ImageTank and Nixvue album that do the same kind of thing. Do a search on the various D30 forums and you will see lots of discussion. You will still want to have another substantial CF card to use when downloading from the MD and as a backup, but the Digital Wallet is a much cheaper option that lots of CF cards.

I have just bought the 100-400L that you mention you have. It is great on the D30.

Regards,

Roger

Thanks for the recommendation on the digital wallet.

On the new EOS 1-D site, Canon says
"Q. Can we use Microdrives?
A. Yes, you can. However, they must be handled with extra caution, because Microdrives are extremely vulnerable to vibration and impact during recording and playback"

On back country Land Rover trips, vibration and impact are standard.

It seems that a few smaller mempry cards and a digital wallet may be a better way to handle data. Of course, the digital wallet is probably vulnerable to vibration as well.

Has anyone had any serious travel experiences with the D30?

256Mb CF cards are priced about equally per megabyte than microdrive. I'd vote for few cards and the digital wallet, especially if the cost of digital wallet is not problem. After all, this allows breaking one card without stopping shooting, and if one card is for example stolen with camera, not everything will be gone.

Canon is right about when it states that Microdrive is vulnerable when operating. I don't think this is problem, since the camera needs to be used to get the Microdrive spinning, at which point the camera (and Microdrive) will be in human hands, where the only way to cause extreme shock is to drop the whole thing or trying to use the camera as a hammer. Same applies to digital wallets. IBM says 1GB microdrive will take at least 3G shock when non-operating. Typical 2.5 inch hard drive (used in digital wallets) have about identical figures.

I'd say that on longer trips the biggest problem will be electricity. EOS 1d solves the problem with water, and propably dust too, but it still needs quite a lot of electricity to operate, which can be difficult to produce.