Counting down my five favorite Canon digital cameras ever. Coming in at #5…..

20D First camera that illustrated what digital was capable of.
1Ds MkI, that was the writing on the wall.
1Ds MkIII, mainstay for 8 years, outrageous price new, ridiculous bargain now, but still more than capable of professional output for most people most of the time.
1DX MkIII, possibly what the 1 series digital should always have been.
M5, best IQ to size ratio of any camera made. Who said you could have any two of IQ, size, or value? The M5 scores way above it’s fighting weight on all three.

"The first lens I had mated to this camera was the EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6, which I thought was fine until I purchased my first L lens, the Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, That first L lens purchase was quickly followed by another L zoom, the Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM. "

I'll contribute to the Slow News Day headline. 350D with same as above lenses, except I erroneously picked the 70-300 f/4-5.6 IS USM as my first tele rather than the 70-200 f/4L. I very quickly upgraded to the 70-200 f/4L IS.The rear LCD was small & sucky, but it was my first "real" camera. Completely agree with PBD about the M5. It's great always and magnificent with the 22 & 32...

Ok, just like the OP....Had that one as well. Was a great gateway into digital ILC. Put a 28-105 on it *shudder*, it wasn't until I slapped on a 70-200 f/4L that I started to see how this could turn me from film. (It hasn't completely)

My first Canons?
EOS 5 V D III (yummy)
EF TSE 24 f3,5 II (super yummy)
EF 100-400 IS II (mega-yummy)
And then, my ruin began...but: no regrets !

brad-man said:

"The first lens I had mated to this camera was the EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6, which I thought was fine until I purchased my first L lens, the Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, That first L lens purchase was quickly followed by another L zoom, the Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM. "

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That 17-40 is on my short list.

No, actually I was thinking of the 16-35 f/4.0. Sorry for the confusion.

SteveC said:

That 17-40 is on my short list.

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Unless price is a super critical factor, I would highly highly recommend the EF 16-35 f/4L IS USM. It is a bit larger and a bit heavier, but it's IQ is much better and it's 1mm wider and it has IS. It is one of the finest lenses Canon has ever produced.

Counting to R5 release?

My first serious Canon camera was a second-hand EOS D30 an upgrade at the time from an Olympus bridge camera I can’t remember its model name, but I remember it having an incredibly slow buffer rate even shooting slow fashion jpg images, I know, hard to believe these days.

After that I moved through the Canon models 10D 20D 30D and 40D before finally moving on to the 1D series mostly for reliability reasons at the time as the shots I was putting through the smaller bodied cameras meant they didn’t usually last very long sadly.

I went from an AE-1 Program to an EOS R lol.

Oh man, my first DSLR was a 30D. That thing kept me going for 10 years before I replaced it with an 80D.

The 300D was also my first DSLR (first SLR was a Russian Zenith, followed by Mamiya, before finally moving to Canon with the incredible A-1). They were running a generous rebate program at the time, so I got the 300D with 17-40L and 70-200 F4L. I didn't get an EF-S lens until the 10-22 a couple of years later. I loved the 300D, with the Russian firmware, but moved on to the 20D after a year, because I wanted the faster shooting speed for sports. When I compare the 300D with my latest camera, the M6II, I'm amazed at the improvements Canon (and every other camera company) has made.

brad-man said:

Unless price is a super critical factor, I would highly highly recommend the EF 16-35 f/4L IS USM. It is a bit larger and a bit heavier, but it's IQ is much better and it's 1mm wider and it has IS. It is one of the finest lenses Canon has ever produced.

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Dang it! Yes, that's actually the one I was thinking of. Sometimes the numbers turn into soup inside my head, especially when they're similar (16 vs 17 mm), same f/ number.

Don't worry, I'll re-verify before I actually order! (But, I will probably order sometime AFTER I get a full frame.)

I still have my 300D. It was a breakthrough.

My favorite Canon camera is still the A1 - light, sturdy, high quality images and a wide range of lenses that you could manually control. Too bad Canon can't make a digital version.

The Digital Rebel/300D was my first DSLR as well. I gave it away to a family member some years ago, but just came across it when I returned home over the winter break. Still works. Still capable of pretty good images for a 15 year old camera. I'm pretty sure for a while I was shooting with the kit lens until I could get a couple Tamron 2.8s that I liked.

I think I used mine for a good 3 to 4 years before upgrading to the Rebel XTi/Kiss Digital X.

Slow news day, I guess.

brad-man said:

Unless price is a super critical factor, I would highly highly recommend the EF 16-35 f/4L IS USM. It is a bit larger and a bit heavier, but it's IQ is much better and it's 1mm wider and it has IS. It is one of the finest lenses Canon has ever produced.

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+1, immeasurably better

AlanF said:

I still have my 300D. It was a breakthrough.

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Thought the same, I used mine from being an early adopter to 2010 when the T2i came out. That too was a huge leap. Not just for a digital body but for myself as a creative person. The next year I got a 60D and the year after a 5D3 and that's my current body. Funny though, my EOS 3 stayed with me the entire time.

300D was definitely breakthrough for Canon and DSLRs, thanks to affordable sub-1000 price tag, not because of IQ and features.

glad i skipped 300D and went for better 350D a bit later.