Canon EOS D10 | $784.95 | |  |
The EOS-10D is the direct successor to the popular EOS-D60 digital SLR, just like the D60 the 10D utilizes a six megapixel 22.7 x 15.1 mm CMOS sensor which is a development of the D60's sensor. Unlike the D60 the 10D now has a magnesium body, orientation sensor, Adobe RGB color space, Kelvin selectable WB, ISO 1600 and 3200, more flexible image parameters and a new 7 area AF sensor (from the EOS-30).
Magnesium alloy body
The EOS-D30/D60 had a metal substructure but a plastic main body. The EOS-10D now has robust magnesium alloy body which is cool to the touch, just like the EOS-1D/1Ds.
Button controls rearranged
The vertical row of three buttons on the top of the camera has been replaced by a horizontal row of four, on the back of the camera the power switch has been moved and improved and other button functions changed (to be far more logical).
Improved playback magnification
The EOS-10D now supports playback magnification up to 10x with full horizontal and vertical panning and browsing while magnified, very useful for checking focus on a series of shots. Note that the magnify controls have now been moved to the AE Lock and AF point buttons.
Orientation sensor
Just like all the new PowerShot digital cameras the EOS-10D now has an orientation sensor which records the orientation of the camera (90 degrees left, landscape, 90 degrees right) in the file header. This data can be used to rotate the images out of the camera and also display them in the correct orientation in playback.
Redesigned LCD status panel
The status panel on the top of the camera has been redesigned to accommodate the horizontal layout of the settings buttons. There's also now a dedicated LCD backlight button.
Supports BG-ED3 battery grip
Despite the re-styling the EOS-10D still supports the BG-ED3 battery grip which provides a vertical grip and controls as well as dual battery slots.
New LCD monitor
Not that the EOS-D60's LCD monitor was all that bad but the new monitor in the EOS-10D is noticeably brighter with five levels of brightness control.
Kelvin selectable White Balance
Just like it's bigger brothers the EOS-1D and EOS-1Ds the EOS-10D has a new 'K' white balance position which can be preset to any color temperature between 2800 K and 10000 K (100 K steps).
White balance bracketing
This is a feature we first saw introduced on the EOS-1D, you can take a series of three shots of up to +/- 3 steps white balance adjustment. One step equals 5 Mired of a color conversion filter.
Improved CMOS sensor manufacturing
As far as we understand it the actual physical structure of the CMOS sensor used in the EOS-10D is identical to the EOS-D60, however Canon are confident that improvements made in the manufacturing process will result in improved image quality.
ISO range extended to ISO 1600, 3200 (H)
The EOS-10D restores the full sensitivity range of the original EOS-D30 providing a range of ISO 100 to 1600. Additionally there is also a 'H' setting which is equivalent to ISO 3200, although it can only be accessed after enabling it through a custom function. Automatic ISO in Auto / Scene modes
In fully automatic shooting mode and scene modes landscape, close-up, night portrait and flash cancel the camera will automatically choose between ISO 100, 200 or 400 depending on available light.
New seven point AF system
At long last the EOS-10D gets a decent AF system, the same seven point AF found in the EOS-30. This provides a wider AF coverage, much faster and more accurate AF which works well at lower light levels. This is a significant and noticeable improvement.
AF assist lamp removed / flash strobes
This decision was probably made due to the improved ability of the camera to focus even in very low light. In the unlikely event you need it you must pop-up the flash unit (automatic in Auto mode) which will strobe briefly to assist the AF system. The small lamp below the 10D label is for red-eye reduction / self-timer indicator.
Registered AF point button
The EOS-10D also gets another feature from the EOS-1D/1Ds, that is the ability to register an AF point and quickly switch back to that point by pressing the dedicated registered AF button (assist button) beside the AE Lock button on the back of the camera.
AI Focus option / Improved AI Servo
In the new AI Focus mode the camera will automatically switch from One Shot AF to AI Servo AF if the focus locked subject begins to move. In addition the EOS-10D has improved AI Servo which can cope with a subject moving at 50 kph (31 mph) just 8 meters (26 ft) away.
New metering algorithm
Canon have tweaked the metering algorithm used in the EOS-10D to provide more consistent exposure results.
Tv / Av Safety Shift
This is a feature also seen on the EOS-1D / 1Ds and when enabled will automatically adjust the selected shutter speed (Tv mode) or aperture (Av mode) if the camera decides that the shot would be badly overexposed. DiGiC processor
Canon made a big noise about their development of the DiGiC processor which first made its way into the PowerShot G3 and S45 at Photokina last year. The same processor is now utilized in the EOS-10D and promises lower power consumption, faster processing and better image quality.
Slightly improved continuous shooting
The EOS-10D maintains the EOS-D60's three frames per second shooting speed but can now buffer nine images in a burst, one more than the D60.
Quieter shutter release / mirror
The EOS-10D shutter release / mirror noise is noticeably less than the EOS-D60, primarily there is a lack of the initial high pitch motor whine which can be heard on the EOS-D60.
Selectable Adobe RGB color space
In addition to the Standard and three programmable parameter sets there is a new 'Adobe RGB' parameter set. Note that you can not adjust parameters in Adobe RGB mode and that images saved don't have embedded profiles (so you'll have to remember which were shot in Adobe RGB or examine the EXIF headers).
Two levels of adjustment on parameters
The EOS-10D now thankfully provides two levels of adjustment (five steps in total) for each image adjustment parameter (contrast, sharpness, saturation, color tone). This provides more flexibility but I still wonder why this couldn't have been expanded even further.
Direct print support
The EOS-10D gets support for direct printing to compatible Canon printers such as the CP-10 and CP-100 Dye-Sub or S530D and S830D Bubble Jet printers.
Official FAT32 support
Because the EOS-10D utilizes the new DiGiC processor it also automatically gets support for Compact Flash cards greater than 2 GB in size which require the use of the FAT32 filesystem.
Sensor cleaning on AC or battery
Unlike the EOS-D60 you can now enter sensor cleaning mode with a freshly charged battery as well as the (now optional) AC adapter Shutter release lag / viewfinder blackout
Canon state the 10D's shutter release lag as just 190 ms (D60 was 240 ms) and viewfinder blackout of 140 ms (D60 was 300 ms). While we can't exactly verify these figures I can report a noticeable improvement of both shutter release LAG and most noticeably viewfinder blackout. Custom function settings visible
The value of all the custom functions are now visible along the bottom of the custom function menu.
Flash Off scene mode
The EOS-10D now has a dedicated flash off scene mode, in this mode the flash is not used (apart from AF assist if required) and sensitivity is automatically adjusted between ISO 100 and 400. Menu system support for 12 languages
From the four languages of the EOS-D30 / D60 the EOS-10D now supports 12 menu languages.
PTP compliant USB
The EOS-10D now has PTP (Picture Transfer Protocol) compliant USB 1.0, this means that instead of needing a dedicated driver the camera is automatically recognized by most modern operating systems. I think it's a little sad that Canon didn't implement USB 2.0 or Firewire on the 10D.
Single battery charger CB-5L
Gone is excellent the two battery charger supplied with the EOS-D30 / D60 now replaced by this much smaller (better for travel at least) single battery charger.
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