Canon's 300D (Digital Rebel) vs 10D: Battle of the DSLRs
by Stephen Caston on July 5, 2004 12:23 PM EST- Posted in
- Digital Camera
The Battery
Before reading the results of our battery test, we recommend you read the Testing Procedures of our Digital Camera Review Guide. We chose to use our EF 50mm f2.5 Autofocus Macro lens for both cameras. We were shooting in RAW mode on a 12X 256MB Lexar Type I Compact Flash Card. Each camera was placed on a stationary tripod and was pointed at an object on a wall during testing.| Digital Rebel | 10D | |
| Number of shots on a single battery charge | 1,630 | 1,727 |
As you can see, both the Rebel and the 10D performed extremely well. These numbers are well above what Canon reports (650 shots without the flash and 500 when using the flash 50% of the time). Battery life is very dependent on the type of lens you use and the way you use it. For example, if we were using a lens with IS (Image Stabilization), the battery performance would have been much lower due to the extra power needed. You would also get fewer shots per battery cycle if you were constantly using autofocus to focus near and far between shots. Another factor that can influence how long a battery will last is the frequency in which the camera is used. We did each battery test in approximately 4 hours in one sitting. However, casual shooting over a longer period of time would probably result in less shots than we were able to get.
Both the 10D and the Rebel use the same lithium-ion battery type (BP-511). One of the major reasons why battery life is so outstanding in these cameras is because DSLRs use a mirror to reflect the image onto the camera's image sensor. Because of this process, the mirror actually blocks the scene from the viewfinder during the exposure time (just like in non-digital SLRs). This means that for the Rebel and the 10D, there is no LCD monitor preview for composing the picture - you must look through the viewfinder to compose shots. Because there is no preview capability (given the nature of the mirror to intercept the image), battery life is able to last much longer than point-and-shoot cameras where the preview monitor is in heavy use.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
19 Comments
View All Comments
Mday - Wednesday, July 7, 2004 - link
how the hell are you going to compare these two cameras?This does not compare to what dpreview can offer.
GOSHARKS - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
i agree with shuttleboi, there are many sites out there that already provide excellent reviews from varying viewpoints (dpreview, imaging resource, megapixel.net, steves digicams, dcresource, etc). anandtech should focus on the things that the other large sites dont cover, what shuttleboi listed is a good start.shuttleboi - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
Although your review is nice, I recommend you focus your attention more towards computer issues related to digicams rather than the cameras themselves (which other professional websites already do extremely well). Some other issues might be: (1) There is a 3rd party hack to the 300D firmware that reveals features found in the more expensive 10D. Is this safe? Does it really work? (2) How well do portable storage devices work (that let you dump a memory card to disk)? Relibability? Performance? There is absolutely nothing on the web right now that fully evaluates the products on the market. Here is an expansive list: http://fhoude34.free.fr/PortableHD.htm . (I'm waiting for the Nikon Coolwalker, but only because I don't trust companies whom I've never heard of.) (3) Software that manages/downloads photos. Photoshop Album? Breezebrowser? WTF?opaper - Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - link
And if you go to this digital camera review site you see that they found no diffrence in the resolution tests. I'm not saying that thier test is more valid than yours it's just a second opinion.http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos300d/page2...
jliechty - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
For covering the basic differences between the two cameras, this was a good review. However, to me this was pretty old news, since this particular topic has been covered a gazillion places already in a gazillion different ways.And of course, any camera can be a "professional" camera if you use it to make money, but in the traditional definiton, the 10D comes close to being a pro camera. The Rebel is not. If you want to see some real pro stuff, google the 1Ds. Or if you'd like some real sticker shock, check the price of the Phase One P25 (then add $8K USD more for the medium format autofocus camera system to go with it). ;-)
stephencaston - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
#2, sorry if I didn't make it clear in the article, but on page 3 I did mention that I was using a Canon 50mm Macro lens for all tests. I will add another reference to the lens at the beginning of the image quality tests too.You make a good point though. The quality of the final picture lies in the quality of the lens used. Thats why I decided to use the same 50mm lens for all the tests on both cameras.
DerekWilson - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
I'm not the resident camera expert (hi Stephen), but these cameras are "prosumer" and not professional ... kinda scary isn't it :-)I liked the article too. Maybe I'm a little biased, but I thought it was both very thurough as well as easy to follow (especially not being a camera guy myself).
shuttleboi - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
How can you possibly have tests trying to show detail and colour and not even mention the lenses you use?? As any good photographer knows, the lens is far more important than the camera body, even for digital. Did you use the kit 18-55 EF-S for the 300D? That's a horrible lens. Unless you used the same lens for both cameras, your tests are meaningless.Araemo - Monday, July 5, 2004 - link
Great Article, I was very pleased to see you guys are going to do digital camera reviews, since I'm going to be in the market for a camera soon. I hope to see reviews of more 'prosumer' or 'consumer' level cameras, rather than these $1000 cameras.. though I understand you probably get pretty much what you pay for.