Page last updated 2010-02-08.
My camera bodies
On this page:
canon eos 1d mark 3 canon eos 40d canon eos 20d canon eos 300d panasonic lumix dmc-lx3 other vital and non-vital photography stuff the future of dslr bodies
© Heikki Siltala 2004-2010. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Heikki Siltala is an amateur photographer sponsored by nobody.
This page describes the camera bodies I've used and also some photography accessories. There is a separate page for camera lenses. Some deprecated equipment is described on Nytech ND-4020 and Kodak F300 pages.
The camera body summary:
Canon EOS 1D Mark III (aka Canon EOS 1D3) is currently my primary camera body. After the purchase on October 2009 I have been using it actively. My beloved 40D started to show signs of use on the shutter release button and I then checked what was the situation on the market. Just about then the rumours on Canon EOS 1D Mark IV got hotter and somebody started to sell a pile of ex-retailer display Mark IIIs on eBay at a reasonable price. I decided to pick one. And what a wonderful camera it is!
The build quality of Canon EOS 1D Mark III is best you can get. Canon EOS 40D was a well-built body but 1D Mark III feels even better. The battery is huge and so is its capacity. I calculated that a fully charged battery would last for over 4,500 shots in my typical use. The weight of the body is not so bad as I was afraid of. It feels much like 40D with the battery grip but I assume it must be a little heavier.
Image quality wise 1D Mark III is not much different from 40D. In cat show photography there are other things that make more difference to the image quality than the fine details on camera body's image quality. It is easy to see that there are less noise than 40D had. ISO 6400 is perfectly usable and I use it often. The faster frame rate is also an significant improvement over 40D. I was thinking that it wouldn't make much difference to go from 6 and a half fps to 10 fps but I was wrong. It is now easier to get good series of action shots. The best thing Canon EOS 1D Mark III offers compared to Canon EOS 40D is the configurability: all aspects can be configured including AF sensitivity, fps and filename written to the cards. But there are also some things that were better with 40D. The Live View on 40D had the ability to hit AF-ON to flip the mirror and to get autofocus. On 1D Mark III there is not such a feature. Also the shutter release button of 40D had a more accurate feeling. Well, it felt nice but wasn't designed to heavy duty use. My 40D started to show the first signs of use namely on the shutter release button.
There used to be lots of discussion on 1D Mark III's autofocus behavior in AF servo mode. Since then Canon has made firmware changes to fix the issue and offered a free AF mirror readjustment. Since I'm not using AF servo mode I could not care less.
Canon EOS 40DCanon EOS 40D was my primary camera body from October 2007 to October 2009. It was a very good camera for my use. Changing from 20D to 40D was partially an accident. I had a friend who needed a camera body at the same time when I was thinking whether to go with 20D for a year or so or to start looking for an upgrade. When the possiblity opened I decided to sell the 20D and needed a replacement. The most logical choice was to get the new 40D that had just hit the market.
Canon 40D has an image quality and operation logic close to 20D. The minimal difference between 20D and 40D in image quality suggest that the development of DSLR bodies has been getting slower and the improvements have been getting smaller. If this goes on the body makers will have to focus even more on the marketing hype. The rational reasons for a body upgrade are getting marginal. The larger LCD and a quieter operational sound are the first noticable changes from 20D. Some features has been added like in-camera jpeg high ISO noise reduction and the Live View. The autofocus seems to hit somewhat better at low light.
As far I as I can say Canon 40D is a very good camera body for advanced hobbyists. The main point worth mentioning here is the responsiviness: what ever you do the camera is almost as fast as you are. No need to wait for anything. But don't expect the image quality get radically better when you change your 20D, 30D, 350D or 400D to 40D. The improvements on the area of image quality are likely to be marginal.
Canon EOS 20DCanon EOS 20D was my primary camera body from December 2005 to October 2007. It was sold at October 2007 just before the purchase of 40D body. Note that Canon EOS 30D is essentially the 20D boosted with a larger LCD, a new firmware and yet another set of auto focus points. So all that is written here about 20D are likely to match also with 30D.
Canon 20D offers very good image quality and low noise even at ISO 1600 and ISO 3200. Although it is an amateur body it has a pro touch having a solid mechanical structure. I found 20D to be a nice camera for my purposes. Before 20D I used Canon 300D which was fine on image quality but pertty much lacked the speed I needed at cat shows. So moving from 300D to 20D was a small improvement in image quality and a giant leap in speed. Faster shutter rate, faster processor, faster CF write time and it writes the CF when the shutter is half pressed.
My 20D was sent to service station once. In extreme conditions (indoors at high temperature and humidity combined with shooting a lot of photos) it had a habit to get jammed once in a while. All operations suddenly freezed and a reboot or battery removal was needed to restore the normal operation. So just before the warranty expired I sent the body to service station and some electronics was replaced.
Canon EOS 300DCanon EOS 300D (aka Digital Rebel, Digital Kiss) was the first SLR and DSLR body I have ever owned. I used it from September 2004 to December 2005 was very satisfied with it. It was great first DSLR. It had wonderful image quality and low noise to compared to the standards of that date.
Upgrading to Canon 300D from Nytech ND-4020 was a great leap towards better photos. A big improvemenet was the overall handling. But the most significant change was with low light performance: with 300D I was able to take great photos with muhc less light and I could use long exposure times without ruining the photos with noise. A nice feature with 300D was that by installing "the russian firmware" it grew up and became a poor man's Canon 10D including ISO 3200 and mirror lockup function. Eventually I came into conclusing that it lacked the speed I needed at cat shows and so I got Canon 20D. My 300D was repaired once. A part called "sub mirror stopper" was replaced after approximately 40,000 shots while the body was under warranty.
Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3Yes it is true: every DSLR user seems to have a compact camera. So I decided to get mine in January 2009 and went with the exciting Panasonic Lumix LX3. I also have a spare battery and DMW-LW46 wide angle converter. I have been carrying it around on trips and holidays when a DSLR with lenses is too much. I have also tested it a cat shows. Here are some cat show sample photos: cat show shot #1, cat show shot #2, cat show shot #3.
Other vital and non-vital photography stuffThe body and the lenses is not all you need.
In addition to the body and the lenses I have managed to get a pile of other photography stuff.
Here is a non-conclusive list of what I use:
These things I have but I must say I have very little use for them:
One more thing to consider is an insurance. Tt is a nice thing to know that when your equipment gets stolen you will get a full refund. My photography equipment set has a purchase price of many thousands euros so I have decided to have an insurance to ensure that my hobby can go on even after such an unfortunate event.
The future of DSLR bodiesIn my opinnion the DSLR bodies have been designed very conservatively. There is really not much new and innovative in them. The marketing
hype just exaggerates all the minimal improvents. What are the features I would like to see on future DSLR bodies?
I'm think it is not very likely to see the first three wishes to come true. When they have finished adding the HD video modes they'll probably
first add more and more autofocus points and then start developing 3D photography features for selling us twin
bodies and twin lenses for double the price.
I made a public promise to myself that I won't be buying new photography equipment during year 2010. To make this promise come true I did some preparations for this year. I've managed to collect a complete collector's set of a certain type vintage film SLR bodies. What the bodies are and why I have collected them will be revealed at some point in year 2010.
© Heikki Siltala 2004-2010. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Heikki Siltala is an amateur photographer sponsored by nobody.
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