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Canon EOS D30 Digital SLR

Canon's first digital SLR packs 3 megapixels of CMOS sensor into a speedy, compact body! (Smallest/lightest digital SLR as of August, 2000)

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Page 11:Image Storage & Interface

Review First Posted: 8/27/2000

Image Storage and Interface
The EOS D30 utilizes CompactFlash (Type I and II) memory cards as its image storage medium, which should never be removed from the camera while in use. (Removing a card while the camera is still writing to it could cause permanent damage to the card.) A 16MB card comes with the camera, but upgrades are available to 30MB and 48MB from Canon, and as large as 224MB from third parties, or even 1 Gigabyte in the form of the IBM MicroDrive. We shot all our test images with a 340 megabyte MicroDrive, and can't say enough about what a pleasure it made the camera to use. If you're spending the money for a D30, don't skimp on the memory card: Our recommendation is to get a MicroDrive and have done with it. Below are the approximate compression ratios and maximum images for a 16MB card:

Resolution/Quality vs Image Capacity
High Resolution
Normal Resolution
Images
Approx.
Compression
Images
Approx.
Compression
CCD RAW file
3
2.5:1
n/a
n/a
Fine Quality
12
8:1
22
6:1
Normal Quality
22
18:1
40
12:1

The CCD RAW mode listed above deserves some explanation: This is a format that records all the data from the CCD, exactly as it comes from the A/D conversion process. It is losslessly compressed, meaning that the file is reduced to a smaller size, but without losing any data in the process.

The D30 has a USB port for rapid file transfers to the host computer, which we timed at a transfer rate of 257 KBytes/second (10.6 megabytes of data in 41.3 seconds). This is much faster than RS-232 (which the D30 also apparently supports), but is a little slower than average among USB cameras we've tested, and much slower than a dedicated USB card reader. (Dedicated card readers can get pretty close to the theoretical 1 megabyte/second transfer rate of the USB bus itself.)

One of the first things any new digicam owner will need is a larger memory card for their camera: The cards shipped with the units by the manufacturers should really be considered only "starter" cards, you'll definitely want a higher capacity card immediately. - Probably at least a 32 megabyte card for a 1.3 or 2 megapixel camera, 64 megabytes or more for a 3, 4, or 5 megapixel one. (The nice thing about memory cards is you'll be able to use whatever you buy now with your next camera too, whenever you upgrade.) To help you shop for a good deal on memory cards that fit the D30, we've put together a little memory locater, with links to our price-comparison engine: Just click on the "Memory Wizard" button above to go to the Canon memory finder, select your camera model , and click the shopping cart icon next to the card size you're interested in. You'll see a list of matching entries from the price-comparison database. Pick a vendor & order away! (Pretty cool, huh?)

Lost Images? - Download this image-recovery program so you'll have it when you need it...
Since we're talking about memory and image storage, this would be a good time to mention the following: I get a ton of email from readers who've lost photos due to a corrupted memory card. It's tragic when it happens, there are few things more precious than photo memories. Corrupted memory cards can happen with any card type and any camera manufacturer, nobody's immune. "Stuff happens," as they say. A surprising number of "lost" images can be recovered with an inexpensive, easy to use piece of software though. Given the amount of email I've gotten on the topic, I now include this paragraph in all my digicam reviews. The program you need is called PhotoRescue, by DataRescue SA. Read our review of it if you'd like, but download the program now, so you'll have it. It doesn't cost a penny until you need it, and even then it's only $29, with a money back guarantee. So download PhotoRescue for Windows or PhotoRescue for Mac while you're thinking of it. (While you're at it, download the PDF manual and quickstart guide as well.) Stash the file in a safe place and it'll be there when you need it. Trust me, needing this is not a matter of if, but when... PhotoRescue is about the best and easiest tool for recovering digital photos I've seen. (Disclosure: IR gets a small commission from sales of the product, but I'd highly recommend the program even if we didn't.) OK, now back to our regularly scheduled review...

 

 

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