Canon EOS 30D

Reviewed November 2006

Test Photos

STILL LIFE PHOTO

This subject is photographed in a room that has a mix of fluorescent and incandescent light, but which is not brightly lit. The camera's flash is used to add fill light. The backdrop is 1.95 m (6.5 ft) from the camera.

The wide angle shot presented here is captured with an EF 17-40 mm f/4L USM lens. At the wide end, the lens is equivalent to a 27.2 mm focal length.

The image is captured in RAW format, and converted to TIFF using "As Shot" settings, using Canon's Digital Photo Professional software supplied with the 30D.

ZOOM PHOTO

Now we zoom in on a specific area. The intent is to test the sharpness of the image at the zoom's maximum setting. The camera remains at the same distance as with the preceding photo.

The zoom photo is captured with an EF 75-300 mm f/4-5.6 IS USM lens. As this image is captured with the camera mounted on a tripod, the lens' image stabilizer is turned off.

At its full magnification, the zoom has the 35 mm equivalent of a 480 mm lens because the 30D's CMOS sensor is smaller than a full 35 mm frame.

MACRO PHOTO

One of the advantages of a Canon dSLR is that it can use any of a number of excellent macro capable lenses. For this shot, a EF-S 60 mm f/2.8 Macro USM was used. At its closest focusing distance, this lens, designed for use with Canon digital SLR cameras, captures a field of view, horizontally, of just over 2.1 cm (0.8 inch).

The EF-S 60 mm f/2.8 Macro USM is an excellent lens that has no distortion, and which yields tack-sharp images.

BUILDING PHOTO

This image is our outdoor test. The architecture of the building, in particular the angled girders, immediately shows the presence of jaggies. The shadowed entrance can also often reveal the quality of the exposure.

The next two photos are captured with an EF 17-40 mm f/4L USM. At the wide end the lens is able to capture a broad portion of the building.

With this lens, we can note that there is no chromatic aberration, and that the detail the CMOS sensor captures is excellent.

For these photos, the metering is left up to the Evaluative pattern, and the white balance is set to Auto.

ZOOM PHOTO

Zooming in on the entrance of the building, the shadowed entrance takes on a greater importance for the metering and can cause an overexposure of sections that are directly lit.

At the maximum telephoto setting, this lens is only equivalent to a 64 mm focal length. As a result it captures a relatively large section of the building. Nevertheless, the detail it is able to capture is excellent.

The Evaluative metering of the 30D yields a very well balanced image, with a lot of detail visible in the shadow areas and behind the green glass doors, as well as in the directly lit areas.

NIGHT PHOTO

Since this camera is capable of long exposures, a photo taken at night is included here.

With the EOS 30D, night photography is just one more aspect of photography to explore fully. Right out of the box, the 30D is capable of timed exposures as long as 30 seconds. In addition, a B (Bulb) mode is available and unlimited in terms of exposure time, although it does require the use of either the optional Remote Switch (RS-80N3) or of the Timer Remote Controller (TC-80N3).

Similarly, the 30D offers a mirror lock-up function that prevents vibration from the mirror at the beginning of a long exposure, avoiding having the image be slightly blurred by the mirror's motion.

With a 30 second exposure, the 30D can yield superb images at night, and even with noise processing, images that are remarkably sharp, particularly when shot in cold crisp winter air.

Adventurous souls will discover that combining sensitivities as high as 800 or even 1000 ISO with long exposures and the Monochrome Picture Style can result in images that not only show a stunning amount of detail, but which contain a relatively reasonable amount of noise.