[byrt_001]

hi

have you seen this?

http://www.canon.co.jp/Imaging/eosdigital2/index.html


uuhmmmm

http://www.pma-show.com/canon/004_digic_...ensor.html


" Canon EOS 350D is capable of taking 600 shots on just a single battery charge"

makes you think?

byeeeeeeeeeee

[shuttertalk]

Hey yeah, I posted new on our front page this morning...

Looks good eh? Apparently the sensor size is still the same and they've increased the number of pixels, but compared to the 300D, the 350D actually has pixels with a larger surface area! And compared to the 20D the size of the individual pixels are identical!

Pretty cool - lots of little enhancements here and there too...

[adam]

Hey yeah, I posted new thread yesterday...

Looks good
lighter! smaller! mm

[slejhamer]

I would guess that 600 shot spec is for small jpeg at ISO 100 with no review on the LCD and certainly no IS lens. Heck, maybe no USM lens, or even auto-focus.

There's no way that wimpy little battery holds up as long as Canon's tried-and-true BP511.

[StudioJ]

Or the way that the higher rated and cheaper after market batteries walk over the wimpy Canon batteries

[slejhamer]

That too! My cheaper generic BP511s are at least as good as the Canon-branded ones.

So maybe Canon used a 3rd-party battery to come up with their spec!

[Peted]

I know this is an old thread but I have to say this.

The Pentax *ist Ds has pretty much all the features of the 350D except the 8MP, some better in fact and it is small and light so why does everyone bag them out so much? And from 4x NiMh AA's I take 600 shots including flash and all at highest jpeg res with some using RAW without using a greay big heavy grip battery holder!!!

I am 6ft and have good sized hands and the thing justs sits in my hand perfectly, you pick it up and you want to take photos.



.

[noisynoodle]

Lots of people seem to think that ONLY Canon will do...The marketing worked!
My main criticism of Pentax is that they don't seem to bother telling people about their DSLRs.......there are those that think Pentax are a maker of pocket sized digitals and that they're newcomers to SLR in general!

When I bought my *istD the direct competition was the Canon 10D (too big) and the 300D (cheaper and you could tell just by looking at it!). Seeing all the complaints about the 300D's restrictions on metering/focussing etc and also Pentax's awesome backwards compatibility with truly great lenses for next to nothing on eBay made it a very simple choice for me.

Once it arrived one of the great things was that it was so like the film SLRs of old that you could take it out of the box and just intuitively use it - no "picture modes" just simple choices of file type, ISO, WB, aperture and shutter speed...three metering modes including a true spot meter (which nothing else had), and a body that is a delight to hold.

If I had to choose again now I'd make the same choice.....just hoping Pentax are going to bring out an *istD MkII sometime soon with more pixels, larger buffer and a larger sensor. As for the rest of the design...I'd be happy to see it stay just the way it is.

--NN

PS - Just spell-checked this and the spellchecker is quite happy with "Canon", but fails to recognise "Pentax" as a valid word!!

[StudioJ]

Is there a decent choice of lenses for the Pentax though? They have made many generations of them but I don't feel the quality is upto par for those coming from Canon. The true battle for image quality doesn't only go as far as the sensor.

My other half still uses a venerable Pentax LX after moving up from an MZ-50 as she still dabbles in film more than I do. I just don't think their glass cuts it. Sigma has bought in a few new lenses but only time will tell if they are going to be competitive, lets hope so.

[Rufus]

You MUST be joking James!! :o

NN has Pentax glass which is years old an at least equal to Canon modern quality, probably better!!!

You youngsters, hah! Admittedly a cheap Pentax lens is no better than a cheap Canon lens, and m-a-y-b-e some Pentax lenses are lemons, but hey, who's perfect?

You realise what you've probably done now, dont you??? You will cause NN to go out and prove you wrong.

Well, as soon as the sunshine appears in the UK, for more than 10 minutes! :x

[StudioJ]

Yeah but who wants old manual glass that you have to focus yourself or wait as long as it takes for the weather to turn sunny in the UK

I don't think Pentax "currently" makes decent glass is what I was getting at, to replace all the old K mount stuff.

I'd be happy to be proved wrong, I'd certainly buy an *ist DS if it had current happiness and I wasn't already slave to an existing amount of hardware.

[Petographer]

I could see a Nikon vs Canon battle here but a Canon vs Pentax? C'mon. I totally agree with J on this. There shouldn't even be an argument.

http://www.shuttertalk.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=2426 :/ Hmmm.

[Kombisaurus]

The Pentax *ist Ds has pretty much all the features of the 350D except the 8MP, some better in fact and it is small and light so why does everyone bag them out so much?

The only "bagging out" of the *ist D I've really heard has been about the camera's name and Pentax's rediculous "official digital camera of the internet" slogan.
Their products seem fine, but their marketing team needs a bullet!
Whether "fine" equates to "better than a 350D" is a subjective question, but regardless of my own thoughts I wouldn't "bag out" the *ist any more than I would the Nikon D70 or Olympus E-300... They are all different cameras that appeal to different people with different needs and perhaps different budgets. None of them are "bad" cameras at all, but some better suit certain people than others.

I agree that the 350D is over-hyped at the moment - anyone would think it will turn you into Ansel Adams, costs under $10, will bring peace to Iraq, and solve the greenhouse problem the way some people seem to be talking.

Having said that, I'm still happy I've got a 350D on order

It seems to suit MY needs and budget better than the others at the moment, and I would prefer to "play it safe" and get locked into a Canon or Nikon lens system. Digital Cameras will continue to evolve and become obsolete quickly (which is one of the reasons I'm not as concerned about build quality as I would be with a film SLR), but I plan to build a lens collection I can keep with me. Even if Pentax lenses are identical quality to both Canon and Nikon (an argument I'm not qualified to have yet), it is a lot easier to buy and sell Canon or Nikon glass 2nd-hand.

And from 4x NiMh AA's I take 600 shots including flash and all at highest jpeg res with some using RAW without using a greay big heavy grip battery holder!!!
I am 6ft and have good sized hands and the thing justs sits in my hand perfectly, you pick it up and you want to take photos.

Yeah, I'm a big fan of AA's in cameras too. That's impressive getting 600 shots from 4xAA's (I get around 300 from 4xAA's in my Oly), but it seems most DSLR's these days seem to aim at getting around 600 shots from a normal battery charge (ie without grip)? Why do we need a million battery formats???? It's crazy!

I also don't quite understand these people that aren't happy unless their 35mm DSLR is as big as an 8x10" view camera! I belive in "smaller is better" with most things, cameras included. Nobody seems to have trouble picking up a lens with no camera attached, so why would a small light camera cause more problems than a big heavy one? Just support the lens not the camera! I remember the first time I picked up a 300D, it felt like a brick! I'm glad the 350D is smaller, but the *ist is is smaller still isn't it?

Is this just me?

Cheers
Adrian

[shuttertalk]

I also don't quite understand these people that aren't happy unless their 35mm DSLR is as big as an 8x10" view camera! I belive in "smaller is better" with most things, cameras included. Nobody seems to have trouble picking up a lens with no camera attached, so why would a small light camera cause more problems than a big heavy one? Just support the lens not the camera! I remember the first time I picked up a 300D, it felt like a brick!

Finally - someone who thinks like I do!

I for one am glad that the 350D is smaller - I would very muc prefer a most compact, and lightweight camera that you can carry around easily, especially if you're going to have it around your neck the whole day (say on a trip).

I too found the 300D a bit chunky the first time I picked it up. I'm used to a EOS 300 film SLR, which is pretty small by film SLR standards. The only thing I had to get used to was the finger grip - I can only fit 3 fingers on the grip... the little one goes under the camera. You get used to it , I guess.

[adam]

Me too! At first, when I heard of the 350D being smaller, I immediately thought about a 'hard to hold' camera, like, my fingers won't wrap around the grip, like on my friend's FZ20
Then I realised that smaller camera = easier and lighter to bring around! and it's still a DSLR it functions as a DSLR, so small size won't matter... in fact, it'll be an advantage, being so small and light, easy to bring around and hold after long times

[adam]

I got the 300D because it was the most affordable one at the time of my purchasing. And this was before the D70 came out

Seems like a good plan:
Offer affordable DSLR, users will buy and become L-addicts, then upgrade body. $$$$ haha

[mic]

Canon glass v Pentax glass? Interesting subject.

At the higher end of the scale and if you have a spare 5K I'm sure the Canon is the winner. But to use a term I hate "Prosumer" lens for both cameras would most likely come from the same optical OEM factory in Japan. The major difference would be pricing. Larger margins on Canon, Nikon branded products.