[midge]

Just thought I would let those on a budget know that PC World here in the UK are shifting the Canon 300D plus 18-55mm lens for £499.89, this is by far the cheapest price I have seen a new Digital SLR going for, an opportunity for those of us on modest income to jump into the DSLR arena.
The advertising says, "While stocks last", so good luck everyone.
Midge

[psilo]

thanks for that midge tho I have just bought the same one with same lens from warehouse express for £449

[IanF]

A few places have them discounted now - certainly a more affordable price.

[Kevin Bates]

DSLR for £449 what a bargain!

[Jim]

Originally Posted by midge

Just thought I would let those on a budget know that PC World here in the UK are shifting the Canon 300D plus 18-55mm lens for £499.89, this is by far the cheapest price I have seen a new Digital SLR going for, an opportunity for those of us on modest income to jump into the DSLR arena.
The advertising says, "While stocks last", so good luck everyone.
Midge

Not sure about the exchange rate equivalent but, here in the States Costco is offering the Digiatl Rebel (300D) with 18-55 and an extra battery for $769.99 USD

I'm pretty sure that the recent price drops are because Canon is positioning itself for the new Rebel XT (350D)

[psilo]

Yes Kevin I thought so too!! lol

[Bubbs]

Originally Posted by psilo

Yes Kevin I thought so too!! lol

Perhaps with the new 350D coming out they are offloading. Is the 300D any good as a digital SLR?

John

[Tyler Vargo]

You'd be daft to buy the 300D for MSRP now, with the new 350D out there at the same price you'd be wasting money.

The retailers probably can't sell the 300D at old MSRP any more so are getting rid of them to make way for the newer, better camera.

[IanF]

It will certainly be interesting reading the reviews of actual purchasers of the new model. So far they have been pretty mixed. At present I'd be hard pressed to spend the extra cash on the new 350D when the 300D has had such a proven track record. It will have to be something really special for me to pay the extra. One review last week was advocating the 300D over the 20D taking into account price for pretty similar results.

I was also reading about unlocking the 300D to make it more in line with the 10D which sounds interesting too.

[Romy Ocon]

Originally Posted by IanF

It will certainly be interesting reading the reviews of actual purchasers of the new model. So far they have been pretty mixed. At present I'd be hard pressed to spend the extra cash on the new 350D when the 300D has had such a proven track record. It will have to be something really special for me to pay the extra. One review last week was advocating the 300D over the 20D taking into account price for pretty similar results.

I was also reading about unlocking the 300D to make it more in line with the 10D which sounds interesting too.

I have two 300Ds and IMHO, it's a fine dslr for birding. About the only feature I miss is manual exposure control in AI Servo (I already have Wasiaware installed). For me, this is essential at flying birds with changing background. Using the camera's evaluative metering, it's quite easy to blow out the highlights of light colored fliers with much darker backgrounds.

The 300D can only do AI servo in Sports mode, where Av control is also not available. The camera always chooses wide open aperture until the shutter speed exceeds 1/2000 or 1/2500 sec, in which case it starts stopping down automatically. For large flying birds up close, the DOF might not be enough at wide open Av.

Of course, AI focus (the camera starts with one shot AF then switches to AI servo once it detects subject movement) is the AF mode in Av or Tv priority, but I find this mode not too reliable in getting AI servo to kick in.

Right now, I use a 20D for flying birds, and the 300D for everything else. If the 350 XT would have been available a while back, I would have opted for it rather than the 20D. Although 5 fps is nice, I think I can get by at 3 fps at fliers.

Just my 2 cents worth.

Cheers,

Romy

[devon.birder]

Originally Posted by psilo

thanks for that midge tho I have just bought the same one with same lens from warehouse express for £449

Warehouse Express do not seem to be advertising the Canon 300D for the price you quote on their web site. I would be interested in more details. This camera seems to being sold for different prices but the lowest prices seem to be for the body only. Roger

[postcardcv]

I was planning on getting the new version (350d), but the fall in price of the 300d might just change my mind. It seems that the only real advantages of the 350d are higher res and better burst photography. I've not read any full reviews yet, so would be pleased to see any that people know of.
A friend has the 300d so I've used it a bit and it is a fine camera, not sure I'd ever need the extra 2mp, and the £200ish saved could go towards buying better lenses.

[robski]

I have been using a 300D for 18 months and in general I have been very happy with it. However I am hoping to upgrade to a 20D or I may consider the 350D. My main 2 gripes with the 300D are 1 to 2 second boot and wakeup time and the slow download speed of high resolution files to PC. The new cameras address these 2 points. Now 1/4 second boot and wakeup time and uses USB 2. The extra resolution is useful but not my main motivation.

If your budget is tight then I am sure your enjoy the 300D as I have done but if £200 is not a big deal then I'd go for the 350D. I would wait a few months before buying the 350D so any bugs can be ironed out also the price may drop a wee bit too after the initial rush.

Robert

[simon]

Originally Posted by IanF

I was also reading about unlocking the 300D to make it more in line with the 10D which sounds interesting too.

Does anyone have any info regarding unlocking the 300D ? What extra features do you get ? How do you unlock it ? etc

[kennygee]

Robski

A suggestion to speed up download times from 300D to PC - use a USB2 card reader.

This eliminates the camera/PC connection and conserves camera battery power during transfer. These can be had for as little as £5 from 'proper' computer component suppliers (not PCWorld or Currys etc!!!!)

Cheers

Ken

[robski]

Originally Posted by kennygee

Robski

A suggestion to speed up download times from 300D to PC - use a USB2 card reader.

This eliminates the camera/PC connection and conserves camera battery power during transfer. These can be had for as little as £5 from 'proper' computer component suppliers (not PCWorld or Currys etc!!!!)

Cheers

Ken

Yes Ken that is what I use it makes a hugh difference.

But I worry that keep removing the CF card is wearing out the
CF card contacts and camera socket contacts.

Just FYI had a 256 MB Kingston Compact flash fail last week. Images became corrupted once over a quater full. I was about to put the card in the bin and buy a replacement when I realised the item had a life time warranty.

I contacted kingston in the UK and they e-mailed me a RMA form.
I posted the faulty item to them on Monday and the replacement card arrived this morning. Nice one :)

Robert

[robski]

Russian 300D hack - I've not tried it myself but I understand plenty of people are happy with it.

Link to info and takes you to download

http://bobatkins.photo.net/photograp...ware_hack.html

Also google 300d hack and that will find loads too.

Robski

[kennygee]

Great service from Kingston.

I wonder what others feel about the issues you raise about repeated memory card swapping. Do you think this contributrd to your card failure?

Ken

[robski]

Originally Posted by kennygee

Great service from Kingston.

I wonder what others feel about the issues you raise about repeated memory card swapping. Do you think this contributrd to your card failure?

Ken

I am not sure - but I have unplugged cards a few times and then realised the camera was still turned on. I have several cards so I don't know if I did this with the card in question.

I bought the card off e-bay originally about a year ago and it has probably been used a dozen times. The card was not sealed in the manufacturer packing so it's origin is suspect.

This is the only card I have had fail.

Robert

[psilo]

I bought my 300d from warehouse express for £449 as a result of a mail order return.However it came with a 4 year warrenty so I am not concerned about that. I would agree with the gripe about the slow start up time. This was something that irritated me about my old minolta and I didnt expect it from a dslr too.
I have a built in card reader in my computer but my download time from the cf card is very slow too.
btw after every use is it essential to remove both cf card and battery?

[robski]

btw after every use is it essential to remove both cf card and battery?

I never have. Does the manual say you should do this ?

Is you reader USB 2 or 1 ?

If you have very slow CF cards then It won't make much difference if it's USB 2 or 1.

A useful link on CF info and a bit on CF speeds.

http://bobatkins.photo.net/photograp...ory_cards.html

Robert

[psilo]

Originally Posted by robski

btw after every use is it essential to remove both cf card and battery?

I never have. Does the manual say you should do this ?

Is you reader USB 2 or 1 ?

If you have very slow CF cards then It won't make much difference if it's USB 2 or 1.

A useful link on CF info and a bit on CF speeds.

http://bobatkins.photo.net/photograp...ory_cards.html

Robert

well it certainly says you should remove your battery and recharge it after every use. Then put the cap back on to stop the battery short circuting whilst in the camera. The cf card is probably fine left in.

Sorry but i dont know what you mean about usb 1 or 2. The reader is just slot in the front of the computer that i push the card into.

[tracker]

USB 2 is forty times faster than USB 1. With a maximum transfer rate of 480 mbps, or 60 mb per second. USB, or Universal Serial Bus, is a hardware bus standard that allows users to plug a peripheral device (eg a card reader) into a USB port ( a port/socket situated on your pc tower/desktop case) and have it automatically configured and ready to use........... :)

Psilo, your computer may already be configured to read a CF card through USB via that inbuilt card reader. Contact the supplier for more info.

Tom

[psilo]

oh right thanks for that. I dont use a peripheral device at all. Sadly though the download is very slow. WOuld a faster card help with this?

[tracker]

Yes, a faster CF card helps enormously. I would suggest you consider speeds of say, 40x plus for your cards.

Tom