Canon EOS 30D review

Canon EOS 30D Review

Reviewed by: Lori Grunin

Reviewed on: 28 March 2006

There are a few aspects of the 30D that Canon hasn't changed from the 20D, but that could have used an update. The battery didn't last for the length of one of our shooting sessions, or about 250 photos. The lens still casts a shadow when using the onboard flash at wide-angle focal lengths with some lenses. And the viewfinder still shows only 95 per cent of the scene. Nonetheless, it remains the top-notch model that the 20D was.

If you don't need the better continuous-shooting performance, spot metering, or the larger LCD, you might as well save about £200 and buy a 20D while you still can.
 

Shooting speed in seconds  
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Raw shot-to-shot time

Typical shot-to-shot time

Shutter lag (dim light)

Time to first shot

Shutter lag (typical)

Canon EOS 350D

0.4 

0.3 

0.2 

0.2 

0.2 

Canon EOS 30D

0.4 

0.5 

0.6 

0.3 

0.4 

Nikon D70s

1.1 

1.1 

0.6 

0.6 

0.4 

Olympus Evolt E-330

0.8 

0.8 

0.7 

1.7 

0.5 

Nikon D200

0.9 

0.8 

0.3 

0.6 

0.8 

Typical continuous-shooting speed in frames per second  (Longer bars indicate better performance)

Typical continuous-shooting speed

Nikon D200

4.1 

Canon EOS 350D

3.8 

Canon EOS 30D

3.1 

Nikon D70s

2.8 

Olympus Evolt E-330

2.1 

Additional editing by Nick Hide