Canon EOS-10D Digital Camera

Although released back in 2003, the Canon EOS 10D is still an extremely well put together semi-professional digital SLR camera by today's standards. Back then, the camera sold for around $1,500.- whereas today it can be found online for less than a fifth of that price -- definitely a steal.

It is solid and fits the hand much better than any three-digit Canon model. In fact, you may do without a battery grip unless you shoot vertical most of the time and/or you have some very heavy lenses. On the other hand, all Digital Rebels *must* be fitted with a grip to make handling comfortable.

The 10D is also easy to operate, and very reliable. Contrary to popular belief, the relatively small pixel count is far from being a disadvantage, as it provides very good sensitivity with low noise. Also, it keeps file size down (a RAW file with an embedded JPEG rarely exceeds 7 MB).

The only disadvantages I can see are:
- the small viewfinder (~115k pixels, 1.8")
- incompatibility with EF-S lenses
- slow writing speed (regardless of the type of CF card used, the camera will write and read back images at ~1.5 MB/sec, which loses time if you're in the practice of zooming in to review each shot after taking it.

However if you are an experienced photographer with many EF lenses in the bag, who knows his shoots, and/or if you shoot in JPEG, none of the above should bother you too much.

All in all, it is an ideal camera for a newcomer to digital photography, or as a second body when there is no time to switch lenses.

I am enjoying my EOS 10D every minute that I have it in my hands.