EOS 10D impressions
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By Hitoshi Doi (doi@usagi.org)
Some of my thoughts on the EOS 10D are as follows.
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Revision 0.2 (2003.03.24) Revision 0.3 (2003.04.02) Revision 0.4 (2003.08.06) Revision 0.5 (2004.02.09) Revision 0.6 (2004.03.01) |
The 10D is a great camera! It is basically an improved D60, but with a much lower price tag. I probably wouldn't have gotten it if it was the same price as the D60, but now I'm glad I did get it.
My biggest "regret" regarding the D30/D60 was that I didn't buy them early enough. Since I bought the 10D on the day it went on sale, I won't have this "regret" any more. (^_^;
AF (auto focus)
Unlike the D30/D60 with a 3 point focusing sytem, the 10D has a 7 point AF system like the EOS 7. It is definitely faster than the D60 in the dark, and it can focus at darkness levels where the D60 couldn't.As for accuracy of the AF.. it's a cheap EOS. (^_^; It will miss, and sometimes it has a pretty wide threshold. But it feels a little more accurate than the D60 in general.
Also the focus screen is just as bad on the 10D as the D60. It's hard to tell if the focus is correct.
ISO
The 10D can go up to ISO 3200. The jpegs at ISO 200 and ISO 400 are very clean. Much better than the D60. ISO 800 is also usable. ISO 1600 and ISO 3200 are definitely noisy, but for those situations where there is no other choice, I will use it.With the D30/D60, it was possible to configure the "set" button on the back to display/set the ISO value. But with the 10D, there is an ISO button on the top of the camera, and you can't configure the "set" button to change the ISO value. This is very inconvenient.
buffering
The 10D buffers just like the D60, except it has enough space for 9 images (instead of 8). Also the secondary buffer seems to be larger, enabling the 10D to take pictures quicker than the D60. However, since the buffer is larger, when the entire buffer has to be written out to the CF, this takes longer than with the D60.I have updated the simple performance tests for the 10D, D60, and D30.
The transfer rate of the 10D seems to be slower than the D60.
image display
This is one aspect where the 10D has major improvements over the D60. The 10D is faster at displaying the images from the CF. It also has a zoom button, and it's possible to zoom in on any location of the image. The D60 only had a 9 piece zoom, where the image was divided up into a 3 by 3 grid.The part that is the same with the 10D and D60 is that you still have to wait for the buffer to be completely written out before viewing the images. Since the 10D has a bigger buffer, you have to wait longer to view the images on the 10D.
There is one more difference between the D60 and 10D, and this is the biggest disappointment regarding the 10D for me. After taking one picture, both the D60 and 10D displays the image on the screen, and it's possible to delete the picture right away. But when you take multiple pictures (i.e. keep the shutter pressed) the D60 would only display the very last picture on the screen. The 10D will display all of the pictures in succession. This may be very convenient for some people, but this wastes a lot of valuable time for me. If I want to delete the last picture that I have taken, I was able to do it very quickly with the D60. I can't do that with the 10D until I wait for all of the images in the buffer to be displayed on the screen. So this means that I have to put data on the CF that I don't want to keep.
jpegs
The 10D jpegs (with all of the parameters set to default) seem to be just as sharp a the D60 jpegs.Now I use the jpegs with most of the parameters set to +1 or +2.
white balance
The 10D has better features for manual control of the white balance than the D60. But I use AWB (auto white balance) most of the time..The AWB of the 10D is different from the AWB of the D60. In daylight, there isn't any problem. But indoors (with or without flash), the AWB of the 10D tends to be too yellow. Some people have said that the AWB of the D60 was too blue.. But I prefer that to being too yellow.
For indoor events with various colored stage lights or those allowing flash, I use manual WB (setting the WB in degrees K). I can estimate the value, then take a few test shots and get fairly decent colors. Using AWB indoors makes the color too yellow 99% of the time.
ETTL
The ETTL on the 10D has been modified to use more of the data from the area outside of the AF square. This may be good for those taking group shots or fairly generic backgounds. But since the two most common situations for me are a black (or very dark) background or a white wall (or white sheet), this makes the 10D's ETTL pretty useless. I now set the 550EX into manual mode (usually between 1/4 and 1/16) and take a few test shots to get the proper level of flash.
shutter
My shuter started breaking at around 22,000 shots. The camera gives an "error 99" when I take a picture. It can still flush the buffer, but nothing else works. The only way to make the camera usuable is to turn it off, or take the battery out.When the problems began, it only happened about once every 100 or so shots. But after a while it got more frequent. At the worst case, I was getting the "error 99" about 5 to 10 shots in a row. But then, there are times when I can go a few hundred shots in a row without any errors.
The shutter totally gave out at around 32,000 shots. I took it to the Canon repair center in Shinjuku, and got it fixed in one week (still under warrantee). I hope the shutter lasts longer this time..
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