Buying a new DSLR Part - 3. Canon 30D vs Nikon D80

My previous post brought down my selection of Digital SLRs to the Canon 30D and the new Nikon D80. In that post I also seemed to lean more towards buying the Nikon D80. Some new information I have gathered is now making me lean towards the Canon 30D.

• I have yet to see any detailed review of the D80. In my previous post I point to some pictures taken from a D80. However these are not done in a controlled environment. In addition I am told the Nikon D80 is identical to the Nikon D200 with regards to its CCD. This would imply very similar pictures between the two. If that is the case then I would prefer a Canon 30D because based on well controlled reviews the Canon 30D takes better pictures than the Nikon D200.
• The Nikon D80 does not time elapsed recording
• Canon D30 has shutter speed going as fast as 1/8000 of a second. The Nikon stops at 1/4000.
• Canon is much better for astrophotography (a feature/need I forgot to mention in my first post.). See http://www.astropix.com/HTML/M_DAP/M009/M009.HTM,
• Canon 30D is 8.2 MP vs the 10 MP for the Nikon D80, however it appears that the Canon 30D takes better pictures. What good are the additional Megapixels if the quality of the image is not good enough.
• The Canon 30D is listed about $300 to $400 more expensive however the price is dropping and is currently available for $1195 which is $200 more than the Nikon. Maybe the price will drop a little more.

Unless new reviews show the Nikon D80 images to be better than Canon 30D images at all ISO sensitivities, I think the Canon may be a better camera.

More as I learn more.

Buying a new DSLR Part - 2

Before getting into too many details let me start by dropping a few cameras off my list.

Canon 20D - No spot metering
Nikon D70 - At just $100 less than the D80 it makes no economic sense to buy this. Plus just 6MP as compared to the 10 MP on the D80.
Pentax - I actually like these cameras but I think they need a new and improved model to catch up with the rest of the brands. I know megapixels are not everything. But now 6 MP just does not cut it. I would not recommend people with 6MP cameras to switch for a 10 MP. But if you have none, then why buy a 6MP?
Nikon D200 - Just too expensive :-)


So this boils down to the Sony A-100, Nikon D80, and the Canon 30D. As much as I hate the idea of buying a Sony product I do have to consider this camera simply because I have Minolta lenses that are useless otherwise.

Sony A100

Next one being eliminated: Sony A100. Why? performance. I looked at the detailed review and the pictures the camera generated on its detailed review at dpreview. I took some of the camparison pictures and showed it to people after removing the labels. I used this method for all the cameras. Most people who saw the A-100 found them inferior to the competition.

Also the A100 has extremely noisy high ISO (800+ ISO) pictures. This means I will have to buy extremely fast, therefore, extremely expensive lenses.

So this comes down to a Canon 30D vs a Nikon D80 decision. So lets look at some differentiating factors.

• 30D costs almost $300 more.
• Nikon D80 is 10 MP vs 8 for the 30D
• Nikon D80 has some neat features like multiple exposures which is extremely rare in DSLRs as they expect you to take two pictures and use photoshop.
• Nikon software sucks. You have to pay an additional $100 to get Nikon's good quality raw image editor. This essentially ups the camera cost by $100. Canon comes with the software.
• The Nikon D80 uses a SD card and not a Compact Flash card. nothing wrong with that except taht I have a 2GB CF card. This adds another $100 to the cost of the Nikon. Making the Nikon cost of ownership approach that of the Canon 30D.

The main battle comes down to image quality. as yet, no proper detailed review of the Nikon D80 is available. A few sample pitcures are available which make the Nikon look far better. However, in my opinion the Canon 30D generated far superior pictures to the Nikon D200, D70, and D50. So compared to other Nikon models the canon does much better.

Then I saw these pictures, not a very well managed comparison, but still a revealing comparison of Canon 30 and the Nikon D80. They seem to reveal that the D80 has reversed the trend. I used my old trick of showing several friends both sets of pictures without telling them why and what camera. Asking them to select the pictures they thought looked better.

In 100% of the cases people selected pictures taken by the Nikon D80 at ISOs ranging from 100 to 3200. I too preferred the Nikon D80 pictures to the Canon 30D pictures. You can see for yourself and make your own opinion.

When you browse to these link and are asked to install some fonts, just hot cancel. You may have to do so a few times. Then scroll all the way to the bottom and click on the photographs. Please note these are large files.

Canon 30D

Nikon D80

The pictures have made me lean towards the Nikon D80. I do still intend to wait for some more detailed reviews to be published before I make my final decision. But the Nikon D80 does look promising.

Buying a new DSLR - Part 1

So now that I will be getting my money back from Sony for my Minolta 7D (See previous post) the question is what camera do I buy now. The 7D which I loved is still available at Walmart now for just about $700. A great bargain (I love this camera) but too much of a risk based on my recent experience. Plus why buy a camera with a known problem and a maker that is no longer there.

So then the question is what camera to buy. I hate doing this and I may end up regretting this decision but I am starting by eliminating one brand until I can be convinced otherwise. The brand being Olympus. This is not because I have any reason to believe that they are good or bad cameras. Its just that I cannot seem to find sufficient reviews on them. Also I dont seem to find many vendors that make lenses and accessories for Olympus. If shown otherwise, I will be more than happy to include Olympus cameras.

Therefore, based on preliminary research the current contenders are:

Canon EOS 20D
Canon EOS 30D
Nikon D70
Nikon D80 (just released, no major reviews available as yet)
Nikon D200
Sony DSLR-A100 (unlikely I will buy it)
Pentax DSLR (problem with Pentax is that they have a host of very similar models)

Nikon is about to announce a new 10 MP camera in the $1000 range. I believe we are just a few days from the release of information on that camera. Lets wait and see. As you will see I have added the D80 to the list above. The features of this camera are now avaliable but no major review of it is out as yet. Features are important, but the camera should also be able to perform well.

One of my main sources of information is dpreview. An instant comparison of the models listed above can be found here.

The table listed in this list, however, simply lists features that these cameras have. Not how good they are with respect to these features. Also, just having a lot of features does not make a camera good. What makes it good is whether you need these features. So lets start with features that matter to me.

• Price. This is not the most important feature. I have a range. I am trying not to go above $1500 for the body.
• Quality and customer service. After my fiasco with Sony, I do not want a repeat performance. If I am going to spend so much money on a camera and more on lenses they better give me quality products and good service.
• Compatibility with my existing Minolta lenses. This pretty much narrows down the list to the Sony A-100. Yes despite the horrible service I got from them I will evaluate their camera.
• Spot Metering. Digital cameras measure the amount of light and then adjust exposure to get the best possible picture. In spot metering you get the camera to adjust exposure to the amount of light you are focussing on. This way the light sorrounding this object will not impact the overall exposure of the shot. Imagine taking a picture of thr moon at night. The moon is a very bright object sorrounded by absolute darkness. Without spot metering the camera may try to increase the exposure as a result of the dark sky. This will result in a moon shot without any lunar features. Sometimes you dont want the camera being too smart :-)
• Low noise at high ISOs (800, 1600, 3200). I am not a professional and I do not have very many (infact any) very high speed lens. I found that low noise high ISO functionality allows me to compensate for a slower lens. Many a times while hiking in the back country I have been able to take wildlife pictures under inadequate conditions as I didnt have a fast lens. Just being able to take pictures at 1600 or 3200 ISO is not good enough. There is little value if the pictures are too noisy.
• Availability and variety of accessories and lenses. As I mentioned above buying a DSLR or an SLR should be a long term decision. Therefore one must invest in a camera for which there are plenty of lenses and accessories available.
• How well does the camera perform. It matterws very little as to how many features a camera has. The big issue is how well does it perform. At the end of the day all what matters is the quality of the pictures you get. Most of my decision making making will be based on this criteria.
• Effective Pixels/megapixels. You cannot discuss a digital camera without discussing megapixels. Many have said this is a key factor and many have said this is an overblown factor. To me this is a key factor. I have repeatedly said that there are features and then there is actual camera performance. We are currently listing features that are important to me. I feel the MP of the camera is important. Higher the MPs the larger the printouts I can get without adversely affecting the quality of the image. Also, higher MPs let me select a small section of the image and blow that up. And the end of the day, its all about the math. More the MPs you have, the more you can do with the image.