Malcolm Stewart
Registered User
Registered: March 2004
Location: Milton Keynes
Posts: 414
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Review Date: Fri April 25, 2008
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 7
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Pros:
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5fps. Same interface as my 5D. Low cost.
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Cons:
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AF - took too long to suss out what was wrong.
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I bought my s/h mint condition 30D in Spring 2007 and to start with it was used with my mint condition EF 300 f4L, & an outwardly battered EF 300 f2.8L, and with 1.4x & 2x Canon extenders - primarily shooting wildfowl on water from a sturdy tripod. Later it was used with a mint EF 300 f2.8L IS USM.
It's taken some time sorting out the focus problems which were largely front focus errors when used with the old 300 f2.8L; a lens which had initially seemed OK on my 5D. After analysing hundreds of shots & doing simple statistics I decided the lens was front focusing, and after getting the 300 f2.8L fixed (a tale in itself due to its age) I was still not getting the results I expected, so I went over to using the 5D with the 300 f2.8L & 2x. These were better despite losing the 1.6x factor.
Last autumn, I had Lehmanns check the 30D and correct its AF, and recent results with my EF 300 f4L have been fine. I must now check it again with the 300 f2.8L lenses. Thank goodness I'm not using film!
OK I have had some very good results but too many "easy shots" on bird targets were significantly front focused. Was it mis-alignment between the v/f centre focus spot and the AF sensor (picking up on the nearer water), or an AF body-lens problem? Seems like I may have had both, and it's taken around a year to get it sorted and have confidence again in my gear. (I had both lens and body adjusted independently, as I didn't want to lose the good AF accuracy which I got with other lenses and different extended subjects.)
I've just ordered a 1D MkIII so that I can take advantage of the Micro-adjustment facility, and am hoping that in future the errors will be mine rather than from the equipment.
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Malcolm Stewart
Milton Keynes, UK
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