Canon EOS 300D

Rarely has a new camera received as much attention as the EOS 300D, released amid a flurry of excitement among photographers and a massive marketing campaign. Why the fuss? Because it's a true 6.3-megapixel digital SLR for under £1,000 including lens. It sounds expensive in the context of the cameras in this month's digital cameras Labs (issue 111), but the previous generation of several models in that test were nudging a grand when they were released.

The 300D is essentially a stripped-down version of the considerably more expensive EOS 10D, the most obvious difference being the plastic rather than magnesium-alloy body. Nonetheless, the 300D is a fairly big and hefty beast, weighing in at 750g including lens and with a body width of 142mm.

The standard kit includes the first of Canon's new EF-S lenses, designed specifically for the 300D. The S stands for short, as in Short Focus Back, so-called because the small reflex mirror allows the rear element to be closer to the sensor, reducing the overall length of the lens. The body will take existing EF series lenses, but because of the APS-C size of the 300D's CMOS sensor the image is effectively cropped, leading to a 1.6x magnification factor over a standard 35mm SLR. The EF-S lens compensates for this with its 18-55mm focal length, giving a range equivalent to a standard 28-90mm model.

If you're used to missing shots because of the slow startup times, slow auto focus and infuriating shutter lag of most digital cameras, the 300D is a revelation. Powering up takes a few seconds, but once it's on, just like a standard SLR you can leave it on. All the information you need is displayed on the numeric LCD status panel, and the fact it's an SLR means the viewfinder shows you exactly what the sensor sees, so there's no need for the battery-draining colour monitor to be active. Auto focus is unbelievably fast, locking in a fraction of a second in most circumstances. Once focus is locked, pressing the shutter produces that satisfying SLR clunk as the mirror flies up and the picture is taken with no discernible shutter lag.

The 300D's shooting modes, selectable in standard fashion via the top-mounted rotary mode dial, are split into two categories: Basic Zone and Creative Zone. Basic Zone encompasses the specific scene modes, with Fully Auto, Portrait, Night portrait, Landscape, Close-up and Sport modes. Creative Zone covers Program AE, aperture and shutter priority and manual modes, as well as an automatic depth-of-field mode that attempts to adjust aperture to keep the whole of the main subject in focus.

The auto focus is flexible as well as quick. The viewfinder shows seven AF points arranged in a wide-aspect cross. You can leave the camera to decide which area of the frame to focus on - the selected point lights up red in the viewfinder to indicate this - or hold down the AF select button and spin the main selector dial to choose a single point without taking your eye from the viewfinder. In fact, everything about the camera's operation is geared to taking pictures: no matter what you're doing, whether it's changing a setting in the menu system or reviewing shots, the shutter just needs to be half-pressed and the 300D instantly returns to shooting mode.

And shooting is what the 300D is all about, offering stunning image quality. Its most obvious asset is its sheer resolving power. With its large sensor and superior optics, the amount of detail it can tease out of a shot compared to a 5-megapixel compact is amazing. What's more, image noise performance blows the competition away - there's no discernible noise at ISO 100 and 200 settings, and very little at 400. It only becomes noticeable at ISO 800, and on a qualitative level the noise even at ISO 1,600 is only about as intense as the grain of an average ISO 800 chemical film.