[Bob K]

that's a good camera. i think it might revolutionize hiking photography and the prosumer camera market in general. canon is smart. still need to solve the bigger tripod (or lack thereof) problem though, before we see a big step up in the quality of hiking photos.

[Backpacker Joe]

[hikermike]

I have an Olympus 3030 and until this year was "satisfied" (not "happy") Now the Pics seem "flatter". Do ccd's wear out? or has my technique gotten lazier. The size of the ccd is very important (not pixel size but measurement size) as it relates to the lens. I.E., if you're interested in telephoto, then, that is better in digital. But for wide angle, if you have a 24 mm lens in 35 mm camera, and use it in your digital camera with the usual 1/3" ccd, that will give you the equivalent of a 38 mm. Hence, if you want an equivalent of a 24 mm wide angle view for your digital, it will take the lens which is the equivalent of maybe a 16 mm lens for your 35 mm camera, i.e., you'll have a very annoying pincusion effect. (no straight lines). That means a so-called fish-eye lens. Also, the lens quality is nowhere as good as with 35 mm cameras.

[Sore Feet]

[Tom]

I've haven't heard of CCDs wearing out (other than a dead or hot pixel here or there). It could be you're using a different monitor? I've noticed that some flat panel LCD monitors tend to oversaturate colors. Re. the magnification effect, on your typical consumer digicam it's around 5x. For example, the Canon G3 has a 7-28mm zoom lens but only the center of the image is captured by the tiny sensor, resulting in a 35-140mm perspective (with huge DOF). As you pointed out, the multiplier on the 10D and 300D is much less due to the significantly larger sensor, i.e. a multiplier of 1.6x meaning a 18mm lens results in a 28mm image. I somewhat disagree on the quality not being as good. The corners of the image are effectively cropped by the sensor so only the "sweet spot" is captured. The MTF charts on the cheapo lens that comes packaged with the 300D are actually quite impressive because of this.

[Larry]

Tom wrote: The MTF charts on the cheapo lens that comes packaged with the 300D are actually quite impressive because of this. Tom, are you talking about the 18~55 that you can add to the 300D -- is that the lens that comes packaged with the camera? Or, is there another cheapo lens that comes standard?

[Tom]

The 18-55mm lens comes packaged with "kit" for $999. It is specifically made for the 300D. You might want to check the review over at dpreview.com for more specifics.

[Backpacker Joe]

The all knowing, all seeing, all researching MA-HA Tommy! Goods links found daily in this site. TB