Canon EOS 30D

Reviewed November 2006

Characteristics

With it, the EOS 30D has a sensitivity range of 100 ISO through 1600 in 1/3 EV increments (100, 125, 160, 200, 250, 320, 400, 500, 640, 800, 1000, 1250, or 1600 ISO). Furthermore, if enabled in the Custom Function Settings (see further), the range can be increased up to 3200 ISO, which is indicated on the LCD panel by the letter H.

The CMOS sensor of the 30D being smaller than the area of a 35 mm frame, all 35 mm lenses mounted on the camera have their marked focal length increased by 1.6X, resulting, for example, in a 50 mm lens having an equivalent focal length of 80 mm.

The EOS 30D is sold either with or without a lens. With a lens, it is often sold with either of two lenses: one is the 18 to 55 mm EF-S lens, equivalent to a 28.8 to 88 mm zoom and commonly retailed with the Rebel XTi (EOS 400D); the other is the 17 to 85 mm IS USM EF-S lens. The camera, however, is compatible with EF lenses as well, making it possible to use it with Canon's entire line-up of lenses.

The EOS 30D has a shutter speed range that extends from 1/8000 second down to 30 seconds, and which also offers an unlimited exposure time when the Bulb (B) mode is activated in the Manual mode.

With all shooting modes, three image sizes are available on the EOS 30D, and each can be stored with either of 2 compression levels: Fine or Normal, with Normal applying approximately twice as strong a compression as Fine.

In addition, when the camera is set to one of the Creative Zone modes (P/Tv/Av/M/A-DEP) images can be recorded using Canon's RAW format, which uses a non-lossy compression. Moreover, just like the 20D, the 30D offers the possibility of saving the RAW image along with a JPEG version that can be either Fine or Normal, a very practical combination:

The image quality is selected as the first option of the camera's Shooting menu, identified by a camera icon:

The menu of the 20D is continuous, and flows from one option to another and one section to another as the Quick Control Dial is turned, and if needed, the process can be sped up by pressing the JUMP button, which immediately accesses the first item in the next section. Each option is identified on the left side of the display, while its current setting is shown on the right. Opening any option to change its setting is done by pressing the SET button in the middle of the Quick Control Dial:

• Quality: to select the image quality, as explained above.
• Red-Eye Reduction: On or Off. Controls the activation of the red-eye reduction lamp, positioned on the front part of the body, near the upper grip and the shutter release.
• Beep: On or Off. Controls the beeps produced by the camera during some operations.
• Shoot without card: On or Off. Decides whether or not the shutter release will work when there is no memory card in the camera.

• Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB): provides for three exposures — one with the standard exposure, one underexposed and one overexposed over ±2 EV in 1/3 EV increments. If the Continuous mode is selected, the 3 shots are taken in a burst, while if the Single shooting mode is in use, the shutter release must be pressed 3 times.

• White Balance Shift/Bracketing: White Balance Shift uses a graphic display to shift the standard colour temperature for the white balance setting. The system allows biasing the white balance towards Blue, Green, Amber or Magenta.
  
  White balance bracketing allows bracketing the white balance over three shots, varying the content of blue/amber, or magenta/green over ±3 levels.

• Custom White Balance: allows photographing a white object, and then using it as reference for a custom white balance setting.

• Colour Temperature: serves to set the white balance by colour temperature, from 2800 K to 10,000 K in 100 K increments.
• Colour Space provides two choices for the colour space to use: sRGB, for normal photography; or Adobe RGB, for images that will be used for commercial printing. Note that sRGB is set automatically in the Basic Zone modes.

• Picture Style decides the image processing parameters:
  • Standard: processes images so they appear vivid and sharp.
  • Portrait: optimizes skin tones while limiting the sharpening applied. The skin tone can be adjusted with the Colour Tone setting.
  • Landscape: enhances greens and blues and sharpness.
  • Neutral: records natural colours and subdued images. No sharpness is applied.
  • Faithful: adjusts the colour of the subject when it is captured under a colour temperature of 5200K. No sharpening is used.
  • Monochrome: captures black and white photos.
  • User Defined 1, 2, 3: allows recording up to 3 sets of personalized settings for Contrast, Sharpness, Saturation, Colour Tone, Filter Effect (monochrome), or Colour Toning (monochrome).

Past the Shooting section, the menu moves into the Playback options, which are identified by :

• Protect: allows selecting photos and tagging them so that they cannot be accidentally erased. Images can be selected one at a time from either the full screen view, or the thumbnail view.
• Rotate: rotates an image by 90° or 270°.
• Print Order: the EOS 30D is compatible with Direct Print and Bubble Jet Direct Print and PictBridge, making it possible to print directly to any printer that supports one of these standards.

To connect to a compatible printer, the Communication option of the Setup menu needs to be set to Print/PC (see the Interface and Software section of the review) which allows the menu shown here to be displayed.

The menu makes it possible to select the paper type, superimpose dates and file numbers on the photo, create index prints, and make prints with or without borders, print the same image more than once on a page, or use printing effects (vivid, noise reduction, vivid + noise reduction), and even crop images if desired. (RAW images cannot be printed directly.)

• Transfer Order: serves to select images that will be automatically transferred when the camera is connected to a computer running Canon's software.
• Auto Play: is a fully automatic playback mode that allows images to be displayed as a slide show either on the monitor or a TV.
• Review time: sets the time for which a just-captured image will be displayed on the LCD monitor. The options are to show the image for 2, 4, or 8 seconds; Hold, which leaves the image on the screen until a button is pressed; or Off, which does not display the image.
• AF Points presents two options:
  • Not Display: does not overlay the AF point selected on the thumbnail image in playback when the detailed display is selected.
  • Display superimposes the selected AF point on the thumbnail image in detailed view.
• Histogram also offers two choices:
  • Brightness, which shows the overall brightness of the image.
  • RGB, which displays the brightness for each primary colour.

After the Playback options, the menu continues into the Setup options. The Setup options address the basic settings of the EOS 30D and are covered in the Interface and Software section of this review. However, when the camera is set to one of the Creative Zone modes, the Setup menu also includes one option called Custom Functions, which provides 19 customizable settings:

The EOS 30D uses CompactFlash memory cards, up to 2 GB or more, and Microdrives. The memory slot is located on the right side of the camera, covered by a large, solid door.

As it comes from Canon, the camera kit does not include a memory card, however, as a guide, a chart showing storage capacities with an optional 1 GB card is presented here:

While the chart below shows the number of RAW + JPEG images that can be stored:

*Worth noting, the LCD Panel on top of the camera shows a maximum of 999 remaining shots when large capacity CF cards are used.

All external connections for the EOS 30D are located on the left flank of the camera, covered by a single flexible plastic cover that can be opened to reveal the upper or the lower connections, or both.

At the top is the High-speed USB 2.0 port , while directly below is the Video Out jack. The EOS 30D is capable of producing either an NTSC signal, or a PAL signal, as selected in the Setup section of the menu (see the Interface and Software section of the review). Both cables are supplied with the camera, either body only or in the kit.

Below are two other connections. The first on the left is a PC Terminal, allowing for the connection of 3rd party flash units or lighting systems to the EOS 30D. The other connector is to attach any EOS accessory equipped with an N3 plug, such as the Remote Switch RS-80E3, or the Timer Remote Controller TC-80N3.