canon 10d vs canon 300/350d

[garethmob]

hey guys

well i know i havent got the world best kit and its not designed for photography i wanna have a go any way and i want to buy a camera for taking astro photos as well as normal

obv i cant affford a brand new dslr so iv come to 3 which i can a 10 d 300d or a 350 d

which would be more suited all i want to do is take pictures maybe a few seconds 30 ish and my ccd camera does ok but i cant use that for everything

thanks for any advice guys

gareth

[garethmob]

any ideas guys? which one would you use?

[MikeWilson]

1000D, bigger sensor, lower noise, live view, lighter, larger screen.... Cheap(er) than the 400/450's.

[russ]

The 10D and 300D both use the same sensor and have the same DiGIC processor. The difference is the 10D is a more professional camera with a lot more features, most of which are no use at all for astronomy. Had both cameras and for astro i would take the 300D because it's a lot lighter than the 10D.

The 350D has an 8mp sensor compared to the 6.3mp of the other two. And a faster processor. In use there's very little difference for astro.

I would just go with the one that comes up at the best deal. I got my 300D (my third one since 2003) for £70 off Ebay a few weeks back. It took me 7 weeks to finally win an auction at that price. There were quite a few Buy it now for £100. The 350D never got that low, almost grabbed one for £90 but it rocketed to £125 in the last 15secs.

Mike's suggestion of the 1000D makes the most sense if you can afford it. In a different league to the old cameras but if the budget is low, that's what you have to stick too. No point stretching yourself, made that mistake too often.

[garethmob]

i cant really afford the 1000d been looking at it quite alot even played with it in pcworld near me (pontypridd) and with the prices of the canon EOS's the older ones being quite cheap compared i can get a decent lens and camera for the same price as the 1000d body

thanks for the help guys one more question whats the max exposure built into these cameras's i no the 1000d and newer ones can be usb controled to extend this limit but the built in on older ones any ideas

thanks

gareth

[russ]

The older ones are no different to the newer ones

All can be controller via PC and all have an unlimited bulb function. The newer ones have less issues with noise and hot pixels. And some fancy bits like Live View but other than that, they are all quite capable. And for optimum performance, all need a filter mod, regardless of model.

A 300D/350D/10D will do you fine

[garethmob]

thanks guys for the help

[RyanParle]

For dedicated astro work i would choose either the 300d or 350d, simply because they are lighter, also i think the 350d can be controlled completely by usb, there is no need to set the camera in bulb and use the shutter release cable for exposures over 30s.

I have the 10d as my only DSLR and i love it even though it is old, but it is quite weighty.

[Psychobilly]

350D is limited to 30s over USB.. but the serial release cables easy to make if you know which end of a soldering iron gets hot...

[RyanParle]

350D is limited to 30s over USB.. but the serial release cables easy to make if you know which end of a soldering iron gets hot...

Ok i must be mistaking it with one of the newer XXXd models, i've only really looked at the XXd range in detail.

like you say a serial release cable is easy enough to make.

[simon84]

I've just aquired a 300D and with the firmware changed you can have mirror lockup on it which is quite handy.

I believe Yodhha is about to add limited support for the 300D and 350D in his Astro Photography Tool which will be quite handy. I have one of those £15 timer remotes that are on ebay and using that can set the exposure to whatever I want.

Its a great camera than can be fairly easily modded for astro use, google Gary Honis and have a look at his walkthrough guide on there.

You wont go wrong with a 300D.

[stevebb]

I would still go for the 10D but it is quite weighty and this must be taken into account in regards to what mount you are using.

Stay away from the 300D completely, the 350D is not too bad, the 1000D a little better than the 350D but the latter two are a lot less weighty.

Steve

[simon84]

Hi Steve, what makes you say that about the 300D, I've only had mine a short time and am quite happy with it but would love to here of any bad experiences.

Mine has had the undutchables firmware put on it but am interested to find out if it is flawed as an astro camera.

[stevebb]

Hi Simon,

Firstly a very Happy Christmas, I guess you could say I have had bad luck on two separate occasions using different 300D camera's and these were both down to focussing problems. The images were very soft indeed. At first, I put it down to a dirty sensor as I had even tried a selection of L lenses but even a professional clean did not cure the softness. I have to admit, in astro work I had only tried prime focus imaging of the moon using both 300D's using a 10" newtonian and I did not try any deep sky or planetary work at all. The results on the moon had detail but required a lot of sharpening. In contrast, I tried a Minolta Minage D7 and a Nikon Coolpix 995 and the results from both these easily outshone the DSLR (and they should not have !) - so at the time I was not happy with the 300D at all (even though both were not mine) !

I did not know of the other firmware, I do not know if it would have helped in this instance but could have been worth a try. I just resigned myself to the "twice burned twice shy" scenario - perhaps a little unfairly in this instance as you are getting good images from your 300D.

Best wishes,

Steve

ps very nice homepage !

[Dangerous-Dave]

I used to own a 300D and my wife currently owns the 10D which I often purloin for astro use. As others have said, the sensor and processor are identical in these cameras, and it is noisy compared to modern DSLRs like the 1000D. I found ISO800 unacceptably noisy for 5 minute + shots. The most useful feature of the 10D is the mirror lock-up, but you can easily install the firmware hack for the 300D which does a timed facsimile which is fine for astro use. The biggest drawback with the 10D is you can not use EOS clip filters or EF-S lenses (nor the Zenitar 16mm fisheye I own).

I would personally go for the 1000D or, of the three you listed, the 350D as it is a more modern camera and I've seen some good stuff taken with it.

[Beyond_Vision]

Just to throw a spanner in the works I would try to look for a 400D secondhand but if you can stretch the budget go for the 1000D. The 300D and 350D are significantly noisier than the 400D and later.

The 450D onwards with 14 bit ADC and liveview are great

Regards