INTRODUCTION
The Canon EOS 30 was released to the market in October 2000 as a replacement to its successful Canon Elan II.
I got a chance to use the Canon EOS 30 back in early 2001, when it was just release for a few months in Singapore. It was a very popular choice for the members in my photography club.
BUILD
The Canon EOS 30 has a very strong body. The build of the new Canon EOS 30 is much improved over its predecessors the Canon EOS 50.
Holding it on hand will immediately give you the feeling that you are holding something serious, and unconsciously give you the confident that it will be able to withstand any type of treatment.
The carefully designed shape of the Canon EOS 30 makes it a very comfortable body to hold and use. With its nicely designed handgrip, shooting in any positions with the body proved to be no problem.
FOCUSING
The Canon EOS 30 offers both Auto focus and Manual focus to the user.
In the Manual Focus mode, focusing is done by turning the focusing ring on the lens till the image on the viewfinder look sharp. This operation is normally the same for a lot of camera.
In the Auto Focus Mode, it offers three AF modes, namely,
1) One-Shot AF
2) AI Servo AF
3) AI Focus AF
In the One-Shot AF, the autofocus stops and locks when focus is achieved. For AI Servo AF, it focuses the moving subject continuously up to the start of exposure. When focus is achieved, the in-focus indicator does not light (blinks at 2 Hz only if AF fails) and the beeper does not sound. As for the last AI Focus AF, it Switches automatically between One-Shot AF and AI Servo AF to suit the subject.
It has a AF working range of EV 1 to 18 at ISO 100, which means that in dim lighting situation, the AF might have problem in working.
The Canon EOS 30 comes with a fixed focusing screen, which is a new Laser-matte focusing screen with focusing points
EXPOSURE
The Canon EOS 30 offers 3 types of metering systems, namely,
1) 35-zone evaluative metering
2) Central partial metering
3) Center-weighted average metering
It offers 9 Advance modes, as in
1) Shiftable Program AE
2) Shutter Priority
3) Aperture Priority
4) Metered Manual
5) Auto Depth-of-field AE
6) E-TTL program flash AE
7) A-TTL program flash AE
8) TTL program flash AE
9) Bulb
And also the following 6 program modes, as in
1) Green Zone (Full Auto)
2) Portrait
3) Landscape
4) Close-up
5) Sports
6) Night scene
LENS
The Canon EOS 30 employs the Canon EF Lens Mount.
The Canon EOS 30 will accept the entire range of Canon EF-Mount lens line, but will not accept all the old Canon MF lenses.
Canon original lenses tend to be more expensive, but there are of superb quality and fast speed. There are cheaper third party lenses available from the likes of Sigma, Tamron etc for selection to meet your needs at a very reasonable price. For better picture quality, stick with the canon lens.
QUALITY TEST
Ever since its launch back in late 2000, I have used the Canon EOS 30 numerous time, on different occasions with the members of my photography club. At one period, I used it more often than my personal Nikon F3, as I have to do demonstrations to the members with their own unit.
The most commonly asked question by the members of my photography clubs when it comes to choosing a SLR camera was “Is it easy to use??
Well, this question always popped out, as the price is high, and people tend to expect some sort of sophisticated machine. In fact, the Canon EOS 30 is not really a beast of buttons and knobs. Going through the manual once to know the purpose of the different buttons and the meaning of the symbols is that simple to get yourself started with your new baby.
I have used a Canon EOS 50E before in the past, and with my experience with the Canon EOS 50E, the Canon EOS 30 seems to be very easy to use. From experience, even for beginner, the Canon EOS 30 is considerably easy to understand and operate. This is very much to do with the careful ergonomic design by the Canon team.
The Canon EOS 30 offers a shutter speed range of 1/4000s to 30s, plus Bulb. With this range of speed, you can basically cover nearly all sort of photography opportunities. I have personally never used any speed that is faster than 1/2000s, but if you are a sports or action photographer and need fast speed, the 1/4000s should be more than enough for your application. If a faster speed is required, use a faster ISO films to compensate.
The Autofocus capability of the Canon EOS 30 is excellent. With its 7 points focusing, nothing (by experience) will escape being focused. No matter in One-Shot mode or the other 2 AI mode, focusing is easy, fast and accurate. Even with fast moving objects, it is still able to keep it in focus as it move across the viewfinder. This is one of the best Autofocus SLR I have seen. From the pictures developed, it can be proven with all the sharp and perfectly focused shots.
The 35-zone evaluative metering is definitely one of the best available in the market for SLR camera in this price zone. All the shots taken during the day was conducted in this metering mode. All the shots taken are very well exposed, with no sign of wrong exposure settings. I did not manage to try the Central partial metering and Center-weighted average metering, so I can’t commend much about them.
The build in flash, with an ISO guide number of 13m (at ISO 100ft), which is very weak. But for better flash effects, dedicated Canon EX series flash units will provide better results. The cheap Canon 380EX is a very good choice for better flash capability.
The Canon EOS 30 provides a few special Flash TTL modes. I have no experience with them, but from the manual, it seems that there are very good. You might have to test it out to prove them.
The Canon EOS 30 also provides the capability of Multiple Exposure and Camera Shake Warning. I managed to try both out and both function reasonably well.
SUMMARY
The Canon EOS 30 will definitely rule this market range for SLR. The closest competitor to it is the Nikon F80. But with so much more to offer from the Canon EOS 30, it will emerge easily as the winner.