Breaking news: Canon has announced a digital version of its film-based EOS-300v consumer SLR, and it's called the EOS-300D
Debate Canon's news on the dpnow.com forum
Update Wednesday 3rd September
There were a couple of inaccuracies in our hands-on article:
1) The battery grip that attaches to the 300D is newly designed and is called the BG-E1. It does not fit the 10D, D60, D30. Likewise the BG-ED3 does not fit the EOS 300D.
2) The input/ output terminals on the camera body are, USB, Video-out, Remote terminal for RS-60E3. (not AC power).
We're sorry for any confusion that might have been caused!
Update Wednesday 27th August:
Canon had a pretty amazing digital 3D 'time slice' rig at the Canon EOS-3D launch party. Made up of no less than 50 (fifty!) synchronised EOS-300Ds, the fully operational rig photographs subjects as 3D 360 degree still movies - if you see what I mean...
Update Friday 22nd August:
dpnow.com photo-gallery report of yesterday's EOS-300D press conference and hands-on session now up, plus we have a link to some independent sample images
Rather later than promised, our photographic record of yesterday's events in London, including a press conference and then a ride down the Thames in a luxury river boat trying out the new 300D, is now up. Click here to get there.
Sample images!
Our friend, Kai Thon, at the Norwegian site, www.digit.no, has posted a gallery of sample images taken using a pre-production EOS-300D. Do bear in mind these images may not be representative of final production cameras. Kai's site is mostly in Norwegian but you won't have any problem examining the images. Click here to see the samples.
Update 18:05 Thursday 21st August:
Following up Canon's 36 hour launch extravaganza
The 400 or so European journalists, including myself, who converged on London last night to celebrate the launch of Canon's new 'consumer' Digital SLR, are on their way home now.
Coming later today on dpnow.com will be a photo gallery report of our hands-on first impressions of the 300D, plus some shots from this morning's press conference.
We saw approaching a hundred 300Ds on show. Canon are bullish about meeting the demand and say current production is set at 70,000 units a month.
In case you were wondering, the UK pricing (RRP) are:
£899.99 (£765.95 + VAT) EOS-300D body only
£999.99 (£851.05 + VAT) EOS-300D with EF-S 18-55mm zoom
£229.99 (£195.74 + VAT) EF 55-200mm zoom
All the above are expected to be on sale from late September.
18-55 EF-S particulars
The EF-S 18-55mm lens is only available when purchased as a kit including an EOS-300D body. Its lens bayonet is designed to make it difficult to mount on all other EOS cameras, including the 10D. This is because the rear element of the lens extends further into the camera than a conventional EF lens and only the 300D, so far, has a reflex mirror mechanism designed to give adequate room.
Neither the new EOS-3000v film SLR, also launched yesterday, nor the EOS-300v film SLR, which donated its body to the 300D, can use the 18-55 EF-S lens (correcting a hunch I made yesterday that the 300v might be compatible). If an EF-S lens is mistakenly mounted on an incompatible camera, the mirror of that camera and the rear element of the lens are protected by a rubber surround on the rear of the lens. Also, the EF-S 18-55 does not have a USM autofocus motor, but it remains quiet and focus speed seemed more than adequate.
Power Shot A80
The new Power Shot A80 steals some of the current Power Shot G3's thunder.
The PS A80 (£349.99 (£297.86 + VAT) will be on sale from October. The A80 is actually a substantial redesign of the existing A60 and A70. It uses a larger 1/1.8 inch 4 megapixel CCD sensor compared to the 2 and 3 megapixel 1/2.7 inch devices used in the older models. To acommodate the larger sensor, a new 3x (38-114mm equiv) zoom has been designed. The A80 also sportso a new flip-out 'vari-angle' LCD view screen. Canon insists there are enough plusses in the more expensive Power Shot G3 to maintain its presence in the Power Shot family.
Update 15:20:
Specifications table now available
We now have a detailed specification table covering the EOS-300D and the EF-S 18-55mm zoom. Click here to see it.
Update 13:10:
Alessandro Stanzani, Head of Marketing, Canon Consumer Imaging Europe interview
Canon has released a rather spin-doctored, but nevertheless interesting, interview with Alessandro Stanzani, Head of Marketing, Canon Consumer Imaging Europe.
Among some of the little nuggets of information he reveals, Canon has no plans to joing the Olympus-led Four Thirds platform, the new EF-S 18-55mm lens is seen as a speciality lens rather than the start of a new lens family, the CMOS sensor is here to stay and although the 10D sensor and the 300D sensor are essentially the same, they are made slightly differently. No full frame consumer SLRs are planned.
To read the whole text, click here.
Update 11:25:
Canon declares the EOS-300D the single most important consumer SLR since the Canon AE-1 27 years ago.
Here are some excerpts from the Canon statement and you can read the whole text here.
Canon has declared the EOS 300D to be the single most important consumer SLR since the AE-1 in 1976. Just as the AE-1 triggered an SLR revolution by being the world’s first camera with an embedded microcomputer, Canon believes the EOS 300D will be seen as the point in history when the SLR market shifted irrevocably to digital.
"Canon expects 400-500% growth in the digital SLR segment from 2002 to 2003 in terms of shipping volume[1],” says Hiroshi Komatsuzaki, Head of Canon Consumer Imaging Europe. "The EOS 300D will play a key strategic role in this growth. By dropping the price so significantly, Canon is very deliberately putting high performance EOS digital technology into the hands of the consumer at a time of accelerating demand for high performance digital cameras”.
Update 11:10:
Here are some more product shots just in...
Here is a direct front-on view of the 300D fitted with the EF-S 18-55mm (29-88 equiv) zoom.
This is the new 55-200 (88-320 equiv) EF zoom
And here is the EF-S 18-55mm (29-88 equiv) zoom. The S means it is not compatible with some EOS models. As we understand it, the EOS-300D (and possibly 300v film camera version) have a special reflex mirror action that provides more room for the rear element of the lens. By enabling the rear element to get closer to the focal plane, it's easier to design wide angle optics.
It will be interesting to see if Canon has also managed to design-in a 'digital lens' style perpendicular exit ray exalted by Olympus, for example, in its E-series platform in order to avoid corner shading and lost sharpness. But it doesn't appear that the EF-S system is a true small circle digital lens like those being produced by Olympus, Nikon and Pentax, to date.
Update 10:35:
Here is a picture of the EOS-300D linked directly to a Canon Bubble Jet i850 printer for PC-less printing.
We now also know that along with the 18-55mm (28-88 equivalent) f/3.5-5.6 EF-S zoom that is optionally bundled with the camera, Canon has unveiled a 55-200mm (88-320 equivalent) f/4-5.6 affordably priced (not L-series) telephoto zoom. The focal length range dovetails nicely with the 18-55 lens.
Update 09:20: We have European pricing on the new Canon EOS-300d: Euro 1179 (approx. £825) for the body only and Euro 1279 (approx.£895) complete with an 18-55mm (29-88mm equivalent) zoom lens. Compare that to a EOS-10D at a discounted price of £1200 without a lens! Canon is also unveiling a 4MP version of its successful Power Shot A70 entry-level digicam, upping the resolution from 3MP to 4MP. It's priced Euro 479 (approx £335).
Earlier this morning:
This is unofficial news and we're still waiting for official releases from Canon UK.
However, a snapshot of features includes:
* 6.3MP CMOS sensor
* 3:2 aspect ratio
* JPEG and RAW file formats
* 4 shot burst mode
* 1.8 inch 118,000 pixel LCD screen
* PictBridge direct photo printer connectivity support
* ISO up to 1600
So far this does look like a built to cost offering from Canon. It may look rather unexciting, but the key information will be how much it will cost and will it include a lens?
For more information on the EOS-300D, including sample images from Canon Japan, click here.
We'll update this page as soon as we have more official information.
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