2023 Weekly Challenge Week 12: Canon Digital Rebel (Original/300D)

The Canon Digital Rebel wasn't the first DSLR camera (I don't own it and I could not afford to own one of the very first DSLRs) nor was it even Canon's first dedicated DSLR camera.  But it was the first DSLR to bring Digital Photography into the hands of the Hobbyist and casual photographer.  

In 2003 the first Canon Rebel known just as the "Digital Rebel" in US markets or the 300D in Europe/ Digital KISS in Japan was one of the first mass produced cameras that was easy to use for anyone, which made it revolutionary.  Older DSLRs such as the Fujifilm S1 and S2 pro, Nikon D1, and Canon 1D were both very expensive and had an excess number of analog buttons for camera operation that would be difficult for a beginner to photography to use.

The Digital Rebel changed all of this.  It featured the same 6mp CMOS 1.6X APS-C crop sensor that the Canon D60 and Canon 10D used. It added a small number of automatic scene modes and reduced the control dials to one, a feature that would become a staple of future Rebel/KISS/XXXD/XXXXD cameras to come.

 

So how does a 20 year old DSLR camera hold up to this day? Surprisingly really well especially since this was the first more advanced Interchangeable Lens Camera I've reviewed.  Prior to this my challenge has been nothing but pocket cameras and superzooms due to the fact they are easier to conceal and take random photos inside a store or mall when the weather is less then ideal in the winter of the Midwest.

Now that Spring is finally here I can start reviewing some of my more advanced and less discreet cameras.  There are certainly a lot of ways a modern point and shoot still shines over old DSLRs like the original Digital Rebel, namely in the fact that they can't shoot video or even use live view. They were dedicated on taking photos Only where pocket cameras could capture video and offer a live preview from the start.

The Digital Rebel is a good example of why "Megapixels don't equal quality". For still photo quality its much better then the 20mp SX720 and Elph 190 pocket cameras I've reviewed earlier and it decimates the 12mp SX280. And if I compared it to my "48 megapixel phone" it wouldn't even be close.  The 6mp Rebel just looks so much better.

There are two factors that make a 20 year old DSLR produce higher quality images then a pocket camera that's half its age.  The biggest factor is Optics.  Even a cheap "Kit" or Superzoom DSLR lens (in this case most my photos were taken with a Tamron 18-270 super zoom lens) provides a lot more light to the sensor and has far higher quality lens elements then what is found in a pocket camera, phone or even most bridge cameras.

The second factor is sensor size. Many photographers hyper-fixate on this one and its the primary reason a lot of people will "Only Shoot Full-Frame for Professional Quality Photos" when this is often an extreme view.  Anything larger then Micro 43rds (which is a 2x crop from a full frame sensor) is going to produce crisp, clean and highly detailed images.  While many people don't consider an APS-C sensor as a "large sensor" it actually is quite huge especially when you consider the sensor on a smartphone is smaller then the eraser on a pencil.

The Digital Rebel is not without its faults. It has a 2-3 second warm up from turning the camera on to when it can actually shoot.  This includes if the camera goes to sleep.  The EOS logo flashes while the camera boots up.  This means you can easily miss shots if you aren't constantly shooting it.

Additionally it has a very limited buffer.  Shooting in RAW creates a 3-5 second write delay between shots even in single shot mode. This goes upwards to around 10 seconds if the camera is writing more then one photo from buffer to the CF card. 

Shooting in burst mode is also limited to a handful of shots even in JPEG mode before the camera will need to write the buffer to the card.  For this reason, I shot the camera in JPEG mode instead of RAW (which I will likely do with some of the bridge cameras I own for similar delay reasons).

One of the biggest limitations is low-light. The Digital Rebel goes up to ISO 1600 and handles low light situations only marginally better then small sensor pocket cameras for ISO noise. (That said the noise looks more organic and less granular then you'd see on small sensors- making it less distracting) 

Most of the photos I took during the review week were outdoors and turned out really good as I didn't have to shoot any higher then ISO 400. But here is an example of a photo taken at ISO 1600 under non ideal lighting.  It's not terrible for web posting but you can certainly see the noise and loss of color information:

Overall the Canon Digital Rebel was a lot of fun to use. It was also a good reminder of how even old digital cameras can take some great photos if you are patient enough.  This wouldn't be a camera I'd rely on at a major event or any serious photography such as shooting as a Staff photographer for an event; however as a casual camera for street photography it did a really good job given its age. 

2023 Weekly Challenge Week 11 - Canon Powershot SX280

Back in 2018 when I started really getting into Digicam collecting I bought the Canon Powershot SX280 as a stopgap daily carry after my more expensive Panasonic LX100 ran into a firmware issue that was not repairable without sending it in to Panasonic to be re-flashed at a repair depot, since Panasonic had not released a user flashable BIOS update for the camera which would have likely fixed the issue.  

So I sold the LX100 for what I could get for it (about half of what I paid) and used some of that money to pick up the Canon Powershot SX280 as a short term pocket carry that I would still enjoy pulling out and shooting on occasion years after it had been replaced as my every-day carry camera.

This camera was also my backup cam to my street photography project to keep me sane in 2020 and 2021 during the Pandemic especially in areas I didn't want to risk having a more valuable camera on me.

Quality wise this camera was a major downgrade from the LX100 as it was a 1/2.3" sensor (as opposed to a cropped M43 sensor) with a much lower-quality lens.  It also couldn't shoot in RAW.  However that 20x optical zoom came in quite handy for street photography and it was overall still very responsive, quick and easy to shoot and in a very small package.  It became my first real street focused point and shoot camera.

 

Released in 2013 this camera was the last in the SX2X0 series of cameras, which replaced the AA powered SX1X0 series of mid-range Powershot cameras.  The SX2X0 series had a much better construction and had a standard rechargeable Li-Ion battery pack that was shared with several other pocket cameras including my Canon Powershot S90. 

This camera series were mid range superzoom pocket cameras ranging from 12x-20x and all sharing the same 12mp BSI 1/2.3" CMOS sensor that was used on many other non CCD Powershot cameras from this era. 

This line would be replaced with the SX6X0 and SX7X0 series superzooms which split the line. The SX600 line being cheaper lower end and more "fully auto" cameras with no Priority modes with an 18-25x zoom and the SX700 which were closer to the SX280 in features but expanded the zoom range from 30-40x.  Both used newer 16 and 20.1 mp sensors.

After picking up the SX280 and shooting it for a week and remembering how much I shot it in 2018 (and still kept it around past that as a backup to the Sony RX100 and ZS100) I think I was a little too harsh on the SX720 I reviewed earlier and will likely borrow that camera back from my Mom at some point and give it a re-review next year.

I can't explain why I still enjoy shooting the Powershot SX280 even to this day. Like a few of the cameras I've posted (such as the Powershot ELPH 190) "on paper" I should be very unhappy with this camera compared to my "better" alternatives like the Panasonic ZS100 or even the Olympus ZX-1.

This camera is smaller and thinner then the SX720 and the 20x zoom feels like a good reach range without pushing it too far in a pocket camera. Perhaps this is a factor in why I enjoy shooting it more then my initial thoughts on the SX720.  It isn't that much bigger then one of my ultra-compact pocket cameras like the Canon Powershot ELPH 190 or S90 and has a good optical zoom range and better analog controls then an ELPH. 

It was also the first pocket camera I owned that I really used the Wi-Fi feature to transfer photos to my phone (the LX100 had it but I never used that function on that camera) and it quickly became a favorite for this feature as I could shoot, upload and edit a few shots on my phone without waiting till I got home.

The SX280 falls into a very mixed bag with a lot of terrible photos I've taken on it; with some photos that really look great and I have to do a doubletake that they came off of this camera every time I look at them. So it's output is not very consistent, but it has some potential to take some really nice shots.

During the challenge week that I used it I got a few really solid shots with it, and at the end of the day maybe that's all that matters. No photographer will ever be happy with every photo they take nor get a perfect crisp shot every time.  The Canon Powershot SX280 is a very good camera to use to to remind me of this fact.

 

2023 Weekly Challenge Week 10 - Casio Exlim Z850

 Back in the 2000's Casio was well known for making innovative pocket digital cameras.  While Casio never made a DSLR or ICL Mirrorless camera, Casio Digital cameras were well known and popular for simple no-nonsense pocket cameras and a few high end, high speed bridge cameras.  

Casio made several innovations well before their time including a camera with a global shutter that could shoot up to 60fps at full resolution which was something that wouldn't be offered by other manufacturers till over a decade later. They also pioneered in-body charging using a custom docking station years before USB charging would make an appearance on compact cameras.

I only own one Casio digital camera, as they are fairly hard to come by. The brand is often sought out for by collectors for their unique properties. I don't own one of the high-speed cameras but mine does support charging via the docking station which I also own as you can see from the photos below:

On the surface the Exilim Z850 is nothing special. Released in 2006 it has a more premium 8.1mp 1/1.8" CCD sensor though it's ISO performance is limited to ISO 400 in spite of having a larger-then-normal sized sensor.  

It has very basic controls and can be operated in "Aperture Priority" mode with only two selections per focal length: Aperture wide open or stopped down one full stop.  That was it.  So for example at full wide zoom you had a choice between F2.8 or F4, and no other options.

It also has a max shutter speed of 1/1000 of a second and lacks a built in ND filter so there are times when outdoor lighting will exceed the exposure of F4 at 1/1000 of a second ISO 50.  I ran into this mid-day shooting it during late spring last year which meant that in extremely bright situations this camera is just as bad of a choice as it is for low light conditions.

If put into Auto ISO mode the camera will only choose 50, 100 or 200. To shoot at ISO 400 you need to manually select it from the main menu; there is no quick menu or shortcut to change this setting. Changing the Exposure comp is a quick menu function, so it is pretty easy to adjust for the camera underexposing or overexposing, a feature that is often buried under a menu or several button presses in other point and shoot cameras of this age.

This is another "I like this more then I should" camera. It has a nice metal brushed body, and very responsive buttons. Tacitly it feels premium even with the limits of the camera's aperture control, lack of RAW support and a fairly meh/ standard 3x optical zoom.

The reason I like this camera is for the Sensor and the clean "Film like" look it gets. Provided you don't have too little or too much light it takes really crisp vibrant shots with a similar look to the XZ-1 just a lot more limited to what it can do.  

The ISO may not extend past 400 but there is very little noise at 400 so Casio likely put this limit in so you got clean, quality and consistent looking photos regardless of what ISO the camera was set to.

For those who are looking for a Digital Pocket camera that mirrors the limits and look of a Film point and shoot- this camera is one of your better options.  

The drabness of this long winter we've been having doesn't do justice for how clean and vibrant this sensor is. For the samples gallery I'm going to include two photos I took during my week of shooting with it for the challenge, and two photos I took last year.

2023 Weekly Challenge Week 9- Fujifilm A345

I had originally intended to review my very first digital camera with removable memory (an Olympus D-390) but since the only memory card it could read was corrupted and was beyond repair with formatting that digicam will have to wait another week till I get another small XD card that it will read.

So after wasting the first two days last week trying to get usable photos out of the Olympus D-390 I switched over to the Fujifilm A345 pocket camera.  This was the camera that went to a lot of different travel locations from 2005-2007 including Hawaii, Seattle and San Fransisco and my frustrations about its limitations as a travel camera is what led me to save up for my first DSLR and really get serious about Photography.

The Fuji A345 is one of the few early cameras in my collection that is the original camera and wasn't re-bought later. This is the very same camera that I wanted to chuck into the ocean in Hawaii because I was so frustrated with it. This blog post is a reflection from 17 years after the last time I really used it other then checking to make sure it turned on in 2018.

The Fujifilm A345 was a very minimalistic entry level pocket camera from 2005 with a 4.1 mp 1/2.5" CCD sensor.  I got mine in 2005 as an Open Box display model at one of the local electronics big box stores.

It has a fairly compact albeit thick footprint for digicams of the era especially those which took AA batteries. The Fuji A345 shoots on the proprietary to Olympus and Fuji XD memory which I don't have a reader for but thankfully the camera still has USB drivers for Windows 10.  It's comfortable to hold and shoot but that was perhaps the only thing I liked about this camera.

After shooting this camera for a few days I remember why this camera brought me to rage in my early days of Digital Photography. It's limited 3x optical zoom is extremely janky and not at all smooth, it pauses at three different "zoom levels" and you can't stop in-between.  

If you want to zoom in past the first stop you often have to tap the zoom lever more then once (you can't just hold it). The zoom lever itself is also something I hate- the rocker is stiff and not very responsive and it was this way in 2005 so I can't blame the camera sitting on a shelf for 15 years for this.

It also lacks a 4 way navigation control. To navigate the UI menus you have to use the zoom rocker to go up and down and the two left and right buttons to go left and right. Once you've used any digicam with the standard 4 way d-pad this feels extremely poorly designed and not very well thought out.

The camera does have exposure compensation but when I tried using it the output really didn't seem to change much.  It didn't significantly affect the output of the photo even when set to 1.5 above or below even exposure. While the camera has a fairly solid light meter and doesn't over or under expose that often its very frustrating not to have that control. The exposure comp is also buried in the menu system; there is no quick button or quick menu available to adjust exposure on the fly.

Output wise the photos are very often very cold for a CCD sensor, especially for a Fuji who was otherwise known to have incredible colors in their  CCDs (like with the Fujifilm S2 Pro DSLR).  Without that bump in saturation the photos looked pretty meh and being locked into JPEG shooting there was only so much I could do to change it.

The sensor also isn't the sharpest and has a lot of JPEG artifacting but that is to be expected with a 4mp digicam. This said the CCD in the Fuji A345 is still far better then the "newer" one on the GE RS1400 but that one is a very low bar to clear.

I was hoping that after my new found interest in Digicams I now have which I didn't have in 2005 would have made the Fuji A345 a much more enjoyable experience 17 years later, but honestly it wasn't that much better.  At the end of the day its a camera that can get the digicam "look" and runs off AA batteries but it is very frustrating to shoot. 

For me, how enjoyable and fun the camera is to shoot is often the most important thing when I do these reviews more so then even the results. Is the Fuji A345 the worst camera in my collection?  No.  But its a camera that frustrated me once back in 2005 and still frustrates me to shoot in 2023.

Here are some of the photos I was able to manage to take with the camera for the few days I took it back out. I'm glad I had nothing really exciting going on this week as this camera certainly would have missed a lot of shots with its laggy un-responsive zoom lever and slight shutter lag.