Don't throw away your 30D!
Did you recently buy your 30D and now you think you made a huge mistake?



If you bought a Canon 30D in the last couple of months you may feel uncomfortable now that's been announced a bigger, better camera for the same price. Well, this is not a new feeling in the digital cameras realm. You will face the same problem with other electronic devices such as iPods, cellular phones, etcetera. The newest computer in the world is announced by the manufacturer in the very moment that you are putting your brand new (well, now old and obsolete) computer in the trunk of your car.

But, wait a minute. There may be a new better gadget. Does that mean that your current iPod, cell phone, computer or 30D (for the matter) is no longer useful?

It is obvious that gadget manufacturer encourage the consumers to buy new things. With technology you will obtain something better for the same price of today. Should you wait for the new gadget? Well, then you will never buy anything.

Let's check the 30D: it is an extremely powerful camera, as it was the 20D. It has 5fps which are more than most people will ever use. 8mpx is a perfect resolution if you are not planning on printing a poster, and even in that case it may print reasonably good or you can enhance a large print with software. It is true: the 40D is better in practically every specification against the 30D. So what? Is your 30D being wrapped and waiting for an e-Bay buyer?

At the moment of writing this article I have both a 30D and a 40D. This new camera feels great, the specs are superb and it is an extremely capable camera. But let me tell you something: My wife gave me a couple of years ago a Rebel XT for my birthday and I took the following pictures.





 I can tell you that this nice little camera is capable of superb photos, and you can see the results here. Would I obtain with the 40D better photos than these? The answer is, of course, yes and no. The new sensor may have a better dynamic range -not to mention a couple of extra mega pixels- so images would be a little (just a little) better. But if I have had a 40D for this particular shooting, the photos would be better but not unbelievable better.

Think a little bit in Lomography. Some guys thought that it was cool to sell cheap camera toys as collectibles and they created a cult for Holgas, Dianas and other plastic lens cameras. There are several books of great photos shot with this camera toys. Now, the thing is that a good photo is a good photo either if you made it with a Holga or with a Hasselblad and a bad photo is a bad photo. Just to think about Lomography: if you want low fi look, why don't you shoot your photographs with the crappy in-camera of your cell phone?

You may shoot great photos and awful photos because the camera is just one of the components in photography. The history of photography shows how painters attacked early photographers saying that the responsible for the final image was the machine, not the man. Such painters reduced the roll of the photographer to a mere technician.

Now, for your 30D, we won't hide it: the 40D is one terrific camera. But the 30D still is a great photographic tool and current owners don't need to rush and sell them. Where's the time when 10 years were the typical camera cycle? You can still buy a brand new Canon EOS 3 that was launched almost 10 years ago. Where are the times when the camera lasted a lifetime?

So, the bare truth is: if you have a brand new 30D, don't suffer. You made the right decision. There will always be a better camera, and that's great because we will have better photographic tools and that's good news (or return to your cell phone camera).

For 30D users: enjoy your camera, use it, shoot as many photos as you can, practice a lot, read a lot and don't worry about the 40D. By the time that you fully master your 30D there will be a 50D. And then a 60D. Your job is to shoot photographs, to become the photographer you can be. Everything else is hardware.

For new 40D users: enjoy your camera, use it, shoot as many photos as you can, practice a lot, read a lot and don't worry about the 60D. By the time that you fully master your 40D there will be a 60D...