When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here's how it works. |
I remember this camera, I picked it up from somewhere back when it was great to be wheeling and dealing on eBay and whatnot. I took it out to the park in Scarborough Bluffs and at least 2 of the shots from that day ended up as 20×30 prints on my wall. It's amazing what that little camera could do.
Gordan has written up a review looking back at Canon's first affordable DSLR – and unless my memory is failing me, it was the industry's first affordable DSLR back in 2003. It was so popular that Nikon had to make a development announcement on the D70 to stop the bleeding, as people were jumping ship on mass over to the Canon 300D.
From Gordon's Review;
It’s no exaggeration to describe Canon’s EOS 300D or Digital Rebel as ground-breaking both when it was new in 2003 and looking back two decades later. As the most affordable DSLR to date and crucially one that squeezed-in under a grand including a kit zoom, it was the model many enthusiasts had been waiting for, allowing them to finally graduate from compacts to a proper camera.
At last they had the large sensor they always wanted, the chance to swap lenses, and compose through them using a proper SLR viewfinder. Sure, the cropped sensor may have effectively multiplied all focal lengths by 1.6x, but it was a small price to pay, and besides, dedicated ultra-wide zooms were on their way.
https://www.cameralabs.com/canon-eos-300d-digital-rebel-retro-review/Read the full review from Gordon at Cameralabs here.
The Canon EOS 300D had a neat “feature” that Canon slipped up with. With a small firmware “hack” you could give the 300D the same feature set as the 10D. Canon then learned its lesson after the 300D and didn't repeat the same easy-to-circumvent Canon Cripple Hammer™ ever again.
If you are curious and have an old 300D – here's the firmware update downloadable here. We're not responsible for you using it, of course.
Remember to check out used gear from our friends at B&H Photovideo.
That's one of the cameras I wish I had never sold.
The weird thing is, I remember buying it before a trip we were taking, and we justified to ourselves the cost of film and development would eventually pay off the high price of the camera. I suppose that turned out to be true! I have no idea how many frames we took with it, but our previous trip to Yosemite with a Film Rebel camera we had at least a couple hundred dollars in film and development.
Brian
The 40D changed everything for me, what a camera.
Eventually I sold my 300d after upgrading, but I think I still have a batch of expired slide film somewhere in basement.