Canon EOS 30D SLR Review

The eyelevel viewfinder offers approx. 95% coverage vertically and horizontally (0.9x magnification with 50mm at infinity). It has a 20mm eyepoint with -3.0 -- +1.0 diopter correction.

Inside the viewfinder is a partial metering circle (spot) and nine focusing points. The active focus point(s) are illuminated so you know exactly which AF zone(s) has been selected. A custom function lets you enable or disable the AF point illumination feature.

The information presented in the viewfinder includes: AF information (AF points, focus confirmation light), exposure information (shutter speed, aperture, ISO speed, AE lock, exposure level, spot metering circle, exposure warning), flash information (flash-ready, red-eye reduction lamp-on indicator, high-speed sync, FE lock, flash exposure compensation), white balance correction, maximum burst, CF card information

The 2.5-inch, 230,00-pixel TFT liquid-crystal monitor has a 170° wide viewing angle and six LED backlight modules. Compared to the EOS 20D, the 2.5-inch monitor has a viewing angle 1.94 times larger in all directions, is much easier to see in daylight, and has a font size about twice as large and 10% wider. The monitor has approx. 100% coverage for JPEG images and 5 levels of brightness adjustment with a gray chart displayed along with the image.

Controls on the back: On the left from top to bottom; The PRINT/SHARE button, the MENU button calls up the onscreen menu system. The INFO button displays camera settings on the LCD in shooting mode, and toggles the information displayed in playback mode between basic, shooting information with histogram, and no shooting information at all. The JUMP button is effective in playback mode, allowing scrolling of 10 or 100 images at a time, or scrolling by date or folder. The "blue arrow" button puts the camera into playback mode. Below the LCD is the trashcan button for deleting images. On the top right is the AE lock/FE lock/ Index/Reduce button and the AF point selection/Enlarge button. The Multi-controller has 8 direction keys and a center button; it's used to select AF point, white balance correction, scrolling a magnified image in playback and moving the trimming frame for direct printing. Below is the Quick Control dial, the SET button in the center and below that is the main power switch.

The Mode Dial has positions for: A-DEP (automatic depth of field), Manual, Aperture-priority (Av), Shutter-priority (Tv), Program AE, Automatic, Portrait, Landscape, Macro Close-up, Sports, Night Portrait and No-Flash.

Controls on top of the grip: Shutter release, Main Dial, LCD illumination (light bulb), AF Mode/White Balance, Drive Mode/ISO speed, Metering Mode/Flash Exposure Compensation button. Along the back edge is the AE lock/FE lock/Index/Reduce button and the AF point selection/Enlarge button.

The large monochrome data LCD displays all major camera settings such as shutter speed and aperture values, exposure mode, ISO speed, focus mode, metering mode, drive mode, custom function, flash exposure compensation, exposure bracketing, exposure compensation, selftimer and battery status. The data LCD is illuminated by a highly visible blue backlight.

In shooting mode, camera settings can be displayed on the LCD monitor by depressing the INFO button.

Images are stored on CompactFlash Type I or II flash cards or IBM/Hitachi Microdrives. The 30D supports FAT(16) and FAT32 file systems so any capacity device may be used.

The 30D was designed for professional users and high speed flash media. It would be a shame to put anything less than the fastest CF cards in this camera. The 133x speed Sandisk Extreme III cards are a perfect match for this dSLR and are available up to 8GB.

In addition to its standard PictBridge features, which are compatible with most PictBridge-compliant printers, the EOS 30D supports additional direct printing features exclusively when the camera is connected to a new PIXMA Pro9500 or Pro9000 desktop photo printer - these features include the following:

• Full support for Picture Style settings: Images are printed according to the photographer's preferences for sharpening, contrast, saturation and color tone, as well as monochrome and other special effects.

• Fine adjustment of other image quality settings such as color balance, color space (including Adobe RGB), overall brightness, face brightness and microcontrast levels as well as a red-eye correction function.

• Expanded paper selection, including a range of fine art paper stocks available in a variety of sizes up to 13" x 19".

In previous direct printing, the colors shot by the camera were automatically corrected by the printer during printing. The user could neither print images using the camera's unmodified color characteristics nor look at a print and make fine adjustments to color tones. With an EOS 30D/ PIXMA Pro Series printer combination, a full range of print effects is now possible. Images can now be printed using the camera's color characteristics without automatic correction by the printer, a particular advantage when printing from a camera with Picture Style. When necessary, the conventional print mode with automatic correction on the printer is still selectable.

The 30D is powered by the BP-511A 7.2v 1390mAh lithium rechargeable pack. At normal temperature (68°F/20°C) it's good for ~1100 pictures with no flash or ~750 pictures with flash used 50% of the time, at lower temperatures (32°F/0°C) the number of pictures drops to approx. 900 / 600. Battery life is incredible thanks to its low- power CMOS imager and power-saving DIGIC II processor.

The supplied CG-580 (U.S. and Japan) compact charger requires approx. 100 minutes to charge a fully depleted BP-511A battery pack. The red LED indicates the charge level. Other compatible batteries are: BP-511, BP-514 or BP-512.

The optional BG-E2 battery grip holds two BP-511A/511 type batteries and extends the battery life to approx. 2200 frames. It can also accept six AA-size batteries when using the supplied BGM-E2 battery magazine. The BG-E2 also adds a portrait grip with a vertical shutter release complete with an AE-Lock button, Focusing selector button and Main Dial. When two BP-511A batteries are installed, they share the power load equally.