Life with Canon EOS 10D Digital SLR

OK, OK, maybe it is not "life" with 10D yet... it was only sa month and a half since I have been using EOS 10D, but I think it is worth sharing my experiences with other photographers who either already have or are thinking about buying this camera.

About this Page...

• dpreview.com
• imaging-resource.com

Additionally, there are also some very good "user experience" reports on the Web, I found the following ones to be really worth checking:

• normankoren.com
• luminous-landscape.com
• digitaloutback.com
• photo.net several articles - especially the discussion of the Depth of Field:
  • Canon EOD 10D First Impressions
  • The New User's Guide to EOS 10D
  • Depth of Field and Digital Cameras
  • EOS 10D Highs and Lows
  • Digital SLRs, Lenses, and Film
  • Focus Testing
  • Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM versus EF 50mm f/1.8 II

Why 10D and Why Now?

The pictures I make fall into one of four categories: landscape, travel, family, and special occasion. For landscape photographs, most of subjects I am interested in look best in larger formats (13x16, 16x20, 20x24, etc), therefore here I use my 6x7 cm Bronica GS-1. For travel, I was using a combination of a film-based Canon EOS and Bronica: EOS most of the time and Bronica when the photograph was to be enlarged beyond 11x14. For family pictures, film-based EOS was doing more than adequate job (for some people point-and-shoot works here, but I was always not satisfied with response and quality one gets from point-and-shoot...). Finally, for special occasions like weddings or baptism among family members or close friends I was using mostly Bronica loaded with a negative film. The main reason for using Bronica here was, again, the ability to easily get enlargements (through scanning or traditional wet darkroom).

In the last couple of years I was thinking more and more about going digital for family pictures. I played with some digicams but was not satisfied with shutter delays and also was worried whether the overall quality of so-so optics combined with small sensor size could result in good-quality 8x10 or 11x14 enlargements when needed. The delays (the total shutter lag time) were especially a problem for me - I personally experienced missing some of the "right moments" (and thus shots) using digicams owned by my friends. However, your case may differ here - if your family pictures are always posed rather than being the catch of the moment, a digicam might work for you...

When EOS 10D was announced, a simple cost analysis moved me towards buying 10D now rather than waiting for a future camera with a lower price. Here is why. If one assumes that prices of digital SLRs will continue to drop at current rate, a year from now 10D or its replacement might be purchasable for around $1000. This would be about $500 less than the current price of 10D. However, $500 is just enough to purchase and develop 50 35mm films, and I usually do more than that in a year. Even for family pictures I prefer taking a lot of shots and then selecting few frames for the family album or to be given to friends/family. With film, that unfortunately means paying for all the shots, while with digital it means paying only for the shots you decide to have printed. Therefore, with very solid features and the price tag of $1500 being quite reasonable, 10D sounds for me like the right deal at the right time. Even if that was not enough, there are other reasons for going digital, like ease of making prints when needed or no problems with archiving and storing negatives and prints (believe me: 50-70 35mm films a year creates a storage problems for the resulting negatives and prints: 2 to 3 more boxes a year - just ask my wife;-).

My hopes around EOS 10D are that it can fully replace film-based 35mm cameras, plus some. If it delivers as expected, I hope I will be able to use it for some situations when I would otherwise reach for Bronica - thanks to very low noise level and acceptable up-sizing results. For most of my landscape, however, I envision using Bronica for a while.

From that perspective, I am not worrying at all that my 10D will become obsolete anytime soon, as it is more than adequate for family and good enough for a significant portion of my travel pictures. One day I may end up buying a higher-resolution digital SLR, when the price/cost can be justified from my perspective. However, that new camera would be a potential replacement of my Bronica, and I would continue to use my 6.2MP EOS 10D for family pictures, as it fits the job well enough. And, anyway, I think I would still prefer to have two cameras for my use anyway, especially considering that 10D should pay for itself in few years thanks to savings on film and development costs.

Therefore, when a new EOS 10D arrived for a price not that much larger than that of a solid digicam, my name ended up on the B&H order list soon after they started taking pre-orders...

First Impressions

The Camera

When my 10D arrived, I have to acknowledge that I got the same feelings as many others who got hold of this camera: it looks and feels very solid and very reliable. Sure, not as solid as 1V or 1Ds, but remember that it costs a fraction of 1Ds. Definitely it feels more solid than D30 and D60.

I will risk stating that if you are used to shooting with EOS cameras (film or digital) and are familiar with digital photography, you should feel right at home with 10D. I had no troubles using the camera and setting its various features from the moment I picked it up for the first time. From time to time one has to consult the manual, for example, to discover that "HP" means AF sensor "Home Position", which in turn means setting what AF sensor should be used when you switch down to using only one AF sensor. In some aspects, it might actually be easier to use than some advanced film-based cameras, as almost all custom functions are self-explanatory thanks to the use of rear LCD panel (see below for my favorite camera settings)..

Of course, if you are new to the EOS line and/or digital photography, the story might be very, very different. In such cases, I definitely suggest spending some time with the manual and experimenting with the camera.

If you are really new to EOS and digital, the default camera settings are a good starting point. Also, see below for my favorite camera settings - maybe some of them will work for you, too.

Overall, I find the user interface of 10D to be extremely well designed. The right controls are at the right places, and through custom functions you can easily program some of the buttons to fit your style of picture taking.

When using the camera, it became obvious to me that Canon paid attention even to many small design details, which resulted in producing a camera that is very functional while at the same time very intuitive to use. Let me give you just one example of such a "detail:" dialing the exposure compensation. You take a shot and then immediately look at the rare LCD panel to check the histogram (you do, right?). If the shot is overexposed, then the histogram is "shifted" to the right - to correct for it, you want to "move" the histogram to the left; in 10D, you need to dial a negative exposure compensation (i.e., reduce exposure) by turning the Quick Control Dial (QCD) to the "left" (counter-clockwise). Similarly, an underexposed shot shows up with the histogram shifted to the left - correcting means moving it to the right, which is achieved by turning the Quick Control Dial to the "right" (clockwise) to set the positive exposure compensation (i.e., increase exposure). Once you realize that simple association, correcting exposure becomes as intuitive as it could be - dial QCD left to move the histogram to the left, or right to move the histogram to the right...

Image Quality

Of course, as soon as the camera arrived I was eager to test the image quality, as after all this is what really counts. The camera itself can be well designed and easy to use (relatively speaking ;-), but if it doesn't deliver the promised image quality it is of no use. A week after the camera arrived I went for a trip to Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, taking along new 10D with a couple of lenses as well as my 6x7 Bronica outfit. When I came back home and looked through the pictures taken with 10D, I have to admit I was really impressed. I shot in various conditions, including cloudy and sunny days, late evenings well after sunsets, and even an event at night. I shot in RAW and in JPG, with ISO from 100 to 3200, depending on subject and purpose. In almost all cases, I was well satisfied with the quality I got. I found that one of the most important factors, especially when you shoot in JPG, is the right setting for the White Balance. Even in the first week of April the sun in Yucatan Peninsula is very high on the sky and the color temperature is different than in higher latitudes in US, especially from late morning to late afternoon. With RAW, this is no big issues as you can set the color temperature when processing RAW files, but with JPG you ether need to use Custom White Balance or later do some corrections at home. The former approach is, of course, preferable, so make sure you carry with you a grey card that is white on the other side. In summary, with the correct White Balance set, EOS 10D delivers outstanding image quality.

My Favorite Camera Settings and Modes

Here are my favorite settings: menu, custom functions, and modes. I am going to skip some really obvious ones like date/time... I am also discussing only settings that were changes from default values (with some few exceptions ;-)

Menu Settings

(The items are listed in the order they appear in the menu)

Quality: RAW or Large Fine JPEG

Since I programmed the "Set" button (the one inside the Quick Control Dial on the back of the camera body) to change image quality, I don't have to change this through the menu... See Custom Function C.Fn-01 below.

Color Temperature: 5600K (for my Metz flash, other for other external flashes)

If you have a non-Canon external flash, check what is its the color temperature. For example, Metz 54MZ-3 emits the light with color temperature around 5600K, while standard for Canon flashes is 6000K. If your flash is not a 6000K flash, set the Color Temperature in the menu and then you can dial "K" settings for the color temperature if you shoot with the external flash, and "Flash" settings if you shoot with the internal flash. See below for more about using 10D with Metz.

Parameters: Adobe RGB for Color Space

The default sRGB color space has smaller gamut of colors than Adobe RGB, which is also supported by the camera. However, you should set the color space to Adobe RGB only if you use a profile-aware photo editor, otherwise colors will not look right (the pictures will look flat or washed out). If we use a profile-aware editor, please be aware that with Eos 10D you can't change other post-processing parameters (contrast, sharpness, etc) when shooting in JPG. I don't find this to be a real limitation as the camera applies very modest amounts of sharpening and contrast, and you have much more control in your image editor anyway. Finally, shooting in RAW is safe here anyway, because you can adjust all of the post-processing parameters during RAW conversion.

You may also decide that you want to have all your JPEGs in sRGB color space while TIFFs generated from RAW files in Adobe RGB. In such case, keep the default setting - sRGB - for the color space in the camera but specify the Adobe RGB space in the RAW conversion software.

ISO Expansion: On to Allow ISO 3200

It is true that noise increases with ISO and at ISO 3200 it is quite significant. However, I think enabling ISO expansion simply gives me another possibility and makes me decide whether to use that high ISO value or not. Also sometimes noise can add to the climate of some pictures, similarly to grain on film.

Auto Power Off: 4 Minutes

Regarding this setting, you will have to play with it and find one that fits you best. Typically, I have it set to 4 minutes, but when making important pictures, and especially when trying to catch the right moment, I extend the auto power off beyond that.

Review: On (info) for Histogram in Post-Exposure Review

Well, this one is a must. The histogram gives you the instant confirmation whether the exposure was good enough or whether it needs to be corrected. In addition, if you enable the histogram display, the camera will also blink the pixels that correspond to pure white - those pixels most likely mean overexposure (they could be just right on the edge, but that would be a rare situation). In general, if you see blinking pixels, you should dial some negative exposure compensation, unless the histogram stretches through the whole range - no "extra space" on the dark (left) side of the histogram - and the overexposed area is really small and less important than the shadow detail you are about to loose. But, still, the overexposed area would have to be really small to be acceptable. Why? Because most of the time large white areas on a photograph look worse than large black areas - although, of course in some special cases it could be the other way. In either case, the histogram will tell you what is going on and will aid you in deciding how to correct the exposure.

Review Time: 8 Seconds of Post-exposure Review

I found that 8 seconds is about the right amount of time to look at the histogram and evaluate the exposure based on it. In many cases less time is needed than 8 second, but for me 4 seconds was sometimes not enough. In any case, the camera has shooting priority so pressing the shutter release button always switches the rear LCD off.

File Numbering: Continues

Unless you have several digital cameras and use the same CF memory card in more than one camera, setting continues numbering seams most logical: your pictures will be always numbered in the time sequence and you should not have collisions (different pictures with same file name) when you upload them to the computer.

On the other hand, if you do have two or more digital cameras that use the same scheme for folder and file names, and you have a tendency to use same memory card in more than one camera, you should then switch to Automatic numbering. This way you will have a guarantee that you will not have collisions on the same memory card. In such case, you need to be careful when you upload your pictures to the computer, as you will need to either place them in separate files corresponding to different memory cards, or use loader like the one from Breeze that lets you rename the files as you upload them. The latter option is better as it will allow you to avoid collisions altogether.

Custom Function Settings

C.Fn-01: "Set" button programmed to change image quality without having to go through menus

If you shoot in JPG as well as in RAW, program the "Set" button (which is in the middle of the rear control dial) so that you can quickly change the image quality without having to go through menus. I find this feature extremely useful thanks to the speed of changing image quality.

C.Fn-06: 1/3-Stop Exposure Increments

The camera will allow you to dial shutter, aperture, and exposure compensation in either half stop or one third stop increments. Although for family and other casual pictures half stop is usually enough, for any more critical work you will benefit from setting the camera to 1/3 exposure increments. This will give you finer exposure control and compensation, especially needed when the dynamic range of the scene is close to or exceeds what the camera sensor can record.

C.Fn-11: Menu always starting at previous selection

This is actually a must because some few frequently used settings happen to be hidden in menus or custom functions. For example, MLU (Mirror Lock Up) Activation is a Custom Function (which actually is a pity, but enabling MLU was always a Custom Function in Canon SLRs as far as I remember) - you need to first navigate to "Custom Function" menu item and then scroll through the custom functions until you get to MLU. But with setting the menu system to remember the last menu item, once you go all the way through menus and custom functions down once (say, to activate MLU), doing it again (say, to de-activate MLU) is just a matter of 2 button pushes (unless, of course, in the meantime you go to another menu or custom function...).

C.Fn-12: Mirror Lock-Up (MLU) when using Tripod

If you are shooting with a tripod, to reduce camera shake to minimum get electronic cable release and activate the Mirror Lock Up (MLU) function. If you happen not to have the cable release with you, a trick is to switch to self-timer. With self-timer and MLU on, you need to press the shutter release only once, the mirror goes up, and then seconds later the shutter is released. Of course, having the cable release is better, as you can control exactly when the shutter should be released. Also, if you are new to using MLU, please remember that the light is measured just before the mirror goes up (with the first press on the shutter release button), so if the light changes before you take a picture you might be in a trouble (but this does not happen that often).

C.Fn-13: Assist Button set to Select Home Position

This function enables me to quickly switch the focus sensor to the "Home Position" whenever auto focus point selection is not what I want. The "Home Position" in my case is the default, center focus point; for me the center one makes most sense because this sensor detects both horizontal and vertical lines. The default value for this Custom Function requires pressing two buttons at the same time, which I find problematic - you have to take the camera off the eye level, grab it well with your left hand, and use two fingers to simultaneously press two buttons.. It is much easier to press just one button using your thumb to select the home position after this Custom Function was set to value 1.

If you don't shoot many photos at once, you may also consider value 2 for this Custom Function, which switches focus point to "Home Position" only when the button is kept pressed down. This way you will not have to remember whether you had "Home Position" activated or not when you shoot last time.

Mode Settings

Exposure Modes

Aperture Priority (Av)

This is my favorite mode if I use auto exposure. Aperture Priority lets me control the depth of field and the overall sharpness and quality of the picture. When I am serious about the sharpness of the pictures (because I am planning to make enlargements), I set the aperture to around f/8 and let the camera determine the shutter speed (and correcting it after the first shot based on the histogram).

Manual (M)

When shooting multiple pictures in the identical light/subject conditions, Manual is the way to go. First, make few shots until you find the right exposure (from the histogram and the blinking overexposure indicator). Then switch to manual and dial the exposure you just found. Now you can shoot quickly without worrying about results (but you can always just quickly glance at the histogram if in doubt). I also switch to Manual quite often when working with the camera on a tripod. Using a tripod usually means you have time to experiment with exposure settings before you shoot the final picture.

Also, Manual is the way to go when using an external flash as the main light. See below to read more about it.

Metering Mode

For casual/family photos, in most cases I stay with the Evaluative Metering, as this is usually good enough. For more ambitious pictures, I rely more on the histogram and thus the Metering Modes becomes less relevant: I just shoot first and then adjust the exposure based on the histogram (and delete the first shot if it is badly off). From time to time I switch to Partial Metering is some very unusual lighting situations. I would probably do it more often if 10D had real Spot Metering (1-2%) rather than Partial Metering (9%). Actually, when I realized that EOS 10D has Partial instead of Spot Metering, I was disappointed at first. I thought that Spot Metering would be very useful for situations when dynamic range of the scene is much larger than what the sensor can record (which is comparable to the range of typical slide films). However, while using the camera I started to base my exposure more and more on histogram and "blinking" over-exposed areas in the image review.

Memory Cards and Capacities

Please also note that the predicted above counts change with ISO settings. I guess this is because Canon software takes into account that higher ISO settings result in larger noise, and in turn more noise means lower compression ratio.

However, if you look at the above table and tell me that in your case 1 GB is way too much because you are not planning to shoot in RAW format, then be warned - you might be overpaying if you go with 10D, buy a 5MP digicam instead. Sure, 10D's JPG should be better than a JPG coming out from a 5 MP digicam, but would it still be better if you were to compare 10D JPG with a 5 MP RAW file from a digicam? The answer might depend on a digicam (and its lens) and the kind of pictures you are planning to take most of the time with your digital camera.

Another lesson from the above table is that if you know that you are not going to make enlargements and not expecting to do a lot of color editing, switch to JPG and save some space for those soon-coming, high-quality -demanding opportunities...

In summary, if you own or are about to buy 10D, it is most likely because you are interested in higher quality than what you get from a digicam, and that includes shooting in RAW - maybe not always, but frequently. So, don't try to save by purchasing a small memory card. Also, if you really shoot a lot of pictures while away from your home (read: away from your computer), then consider getting a portable, battery-operated storage unit that can copy your pictures from a memory card to its hard drive.

RAW versus JPEG

First, a picture taken in the RAW format takes about 3 times more space than the same picture taken in large fine JPEG format. And because 10D is a 6.2 Megapixel camera, 6 MB vs. 2 MB could make a difference - both on your memory card as well as on your hard drive. From the table above, you see that even 1 GB IBM Microdrive can hold only about 169 pictures in RAW mode (and this is for lowest ISO), while switching to large fine JPEG lets you store about 425 pictures.

Second, processing RAW files on computer is time consuming. Are you sure you will have time to work on converting every family snapshot? For me, I prefer spending that little amount of time I have working on landscape photos (which I shoot, of course, in RAW format ;-).

If most of your family pictures end up stored on a CD with some printed on 4x6 paper, you may find out that JPEG is just fine for such snapshots.

Using 10D with External Flashes (Canon, Metz, ...)

The built-in flash, although better than a flash in a typical point-and-shoot camera (film or digital), is still pretty weak compared to what you can get out of an external flash. If you plan to shoot family photos with Canon 10D, seriously consider getting an external flash. You want have to worry about lack of power or red eyes... For example, you can buy Canon 420EX for about $175, just little more than 10% of the price of the camera body itself. There are also other flashes Canon offers, but make sure you get one from the "EX" series as EOS 10D actually requires E-TTL flash. You can also get a non-Canon flash as long as it supports E-TTL mode. Sunpak and Metz make several flashes that support E-TTL, just make sure that the one you get really works with EOS 10D - or test it well as soon as you get it (at least before your return window closes...).

What Exposure Mode when Using Flash?

Manual is the way to go when using an external flash as the main light. In Aperture or Shutter Priority, the camera will attempt to use the flash as fill-in light source instead of the main one. While this is a good idea for outdoors, indoors it might result in opening the lens aperture all the way up (and shallow depth of field) or in setting longer times (and resulting in sharp foreground exposed with flash but blurred background because of longer exposure). In the Program mode, the camera tends to set smaller aperture values than what I would prefer for needed depth of field. Hence the solution to set exposure mode to Manual, dial shutter speed between 1/125s and 1/200s, and dial aperture small enough (large f-value) to get a decent depth of field but not too small for the distance to subject and the flash you use (the aperture needs to be rather large for the built-in flash, but f/5.6-8 is usually just fine for a solid external flash). Of course, the flash should be in the TTL or in Auto mode, so you will get fine exposure (which might have to be corrected with flash exposure compensation if the post-exposure histogram looks so-so).

To successfully use this approach, it is good to know your flash: its light power expressed as the Guide Number. The Guide Number will help you estimate maximum distance to subject that the flash will illuminate sufficiently. Some more expensive flashes - like Metz 54MZ-3 - will do the calculation for you and display the maximum distance for given aperture, lens focal length, and ISO speed (which the flash reads from the camera).

White Balance for Your External Flash

Different flash manufactures select different color temperatures as standards for their flashes. In particular, color temperature that Canon standardized on is actually different from what Metz selected. Per Metz 54MZ-3 manual, this flash has the color temperature of 5600K. However, Canon's "Flash" settings for the White Balance (per Canon 10D manual) corresponds to the temperature of 6000K.

With Canon 10D, it is very easy to deal with the difference: dial a pre-set color temperature value for White Balance. First, in the menu, you set the color temperature to 5600K (or whatever is the right color temperature for your flash). Then, when using a Canon flash (internal or external), set the White Balance to "Flash," but when using a Metz flash, dial the "K" settings for the White Balance (which results in using the color temperature as set in the menu).

EOS 10D with Metz 54MZ-3 (and other SCA 3002-based flashes)

If you have a Metz Flash with a digital SCA 3002 series adapter, like 54MZ-3 that I personally have, or plan to get one, you might be interested to learn how it works with EOS 10D. Here are my findings regarding using Metz 54MZ-3 with EOS 10D.

Which Metz Adapter?

Metz now has actually two versions of the SCA 3002-series adapter for Canon: 3102 M and 3102 M2. The "M version" was introduced first and works with EOS film bodies. When digital EOS's started to appear, people found out that the original adapter does not fully work with them and Metz released the new version of the adapter: M2.

How do you tell what adapter version you have? Look at the right side of your adapter: you should see either letter "M" or "M2" below the adapter number.

For EOS 10D, both adapters will work, but only M2 offers full functionality. If you have M2 adapter, just mount the flash and all works fine. If you have the original, "M" version, you can still use the flash but not in the E-TTL mode: the flash will work just fine in the Auto mode (and manual, of course).

In the Auto mode with the M adapter, the camera settings (aperture, ISO, lens focal length, etc.) are properly recognized by the flash unit, but in this mode the flash unit uses its own, built-in sensor. Of course, because it is not a Through-The-Lens mode, the exposure will not be as good as it could be with TTL, especially when you have some filters mounted. However, I found the Metz sensor to be a really good one and most shots are properly exposed. Since this is a decent digital camera, checking the histogram right after the shot will help you determine how good the exposure was and how you need to correct it, if needed.

In a studio situation, the adapter version should not matter much, as you would probably be using the flash in the Manual mode together with a flash meter, especially that you are most likely using more than one flash unit, or at least some umbrellas, reflectors, or diffusers...

In summary, if you already have the "M" version of the adapter, do not despair - you will find that in Auto and Manual mode it still works OK with the camera and might give you good enough results. Check it yourself first before you rush and order the new adapter - the one you already have might be just fine for you.

Lenses... Lenses.. Lenses...

Originally, I was not planning to say too much about lenses, as there is plenty of other sites that have good discussions about lenses. However, I keep seeing questions from the "What Lens Should I Get for My 10D" category, so I thought maybe I could add my 2 cents to the lens discussion... although still with mixed feelings...

Canon makes a huge amount of lenses. There is many good choices, but there are some few lenses that should be avoided. Why? Because they were created to satisfy budget of those who buy a Rebel camera and make only 4x6" prints. For them, Canon created several lenses that are affordable in price but not as good as some other Canon lenses. Actually, even those cheap lenses are frequently much better than what you can find in point-and-shoot cameras (film or digital)... So going with a simple Rebel camera and a cheap Canon lens would give such users anyway better photos compared to most point-and-shoot cameras. And please don't blame Canon for designing and manufacturing such lenses - Canon addressed the market needs and helped (together with Nikon, Minolta, Pentax, and other SLR manufactures) people make better pictures. And if at any time somebody realizes the need for a better lens, there is plenty of them to chose from.

Are all cheap lenses bad? Absolutely NOT! There are actually some very fine lenses that cost surprisingly little.

Summary of Lenses Discussed Below

Prime Lenses

EF 50mm f/1.8

Let's start from the least expensive lens: EF 50mm f/1.8, which you can buy for around $70. Check this lens on the Canon's Web site, see how its Modulation Transfer Function (MTF chart) compares to that of some other lenses. Then also go to photodo site to see that they - in independent tests - rated this lens really quite high. Are you looking for a good portrait lens but don't want to spend too much money? Look no further - order this one (but first think about upgrading to EF 50mm f/1.4 USM or EF 50mm f/2.5 Macro - see below). And don't tell me you can't afford buying a lens that costs only 4% (yes! four percent) of the price of your 10D body. 50mm lens in 10D works like an 80mm lens in 24x36mm camera - quite good for portraits, especially in typical interior situations. I have the first release of this lens, which had the distance scale and the Depth of Field (DOF) scale that are not present on version II of the lens. However, it is still quite good lens for unbelievable price.

EF 28 mm f/2.8

Then let's make a small step up in prices and consider EF 28mm f/2.8, which you can now buy for only around $165. On 10D, this lens has the same angle of view as a 45mm lens on a 24x36mm camera, which makes it a good candidate for a traditional standard lens. Canon also makes EF 28mm f/1.8 USM lens, but it is more expensive and photodo gave it lower rating than 2.8 version (3.2 versus 3.8) from the perspective of sharpness (MTF)

EF 50mm f/2.5 Macro

In the next price range, between 200 and 400 dollars, there is a number of really good prime lenses. If you are into macro photography, consider getting EF 50mm f/2.5 Macro. For a really good price of $240, you are getting one of Canon's best lenses that photodo rated 4.4.

EF 50mm f/1.4 USM

If you don't care much about macro but you find yourself shooting with lenses wide open, consider EF 50mm f/1.4 USM. Yes, it is more expensive than EF 50mm f/1.8 mm, but faster, sharper, and has USM motor, so it is much more quite. It also has a distance scale. Overall, this is a better lens than 50mm f/1.8 II and if you can afford it, you should go for it. On photo.net you will find a good article comparing the two lenses.

Average Zoom Lenses

Out of a large number of average-price zoom lenses that Canon makes, here are three for your consideration if you are planning to use your 10D for casual and family photos and a prime lens would not work for you. If you don't intent to shoot family pictures with10D, skip to the next section on L-Series Zoom lenses...

EF 20-35mm f/3.5-4.5 USM

Let's start from EF  20-35mm f/3.5-4.5 USM lens. On 10D, this lens works like a wide-to-normal zoom with the 35mm-equivalent focal length range of 32-56 mm. With the price of around $370, this lens is a good choice for those who need moderate wide angle but don't want to spend more than twice as much on new EF 17-40mm f/4L USM lens...

EF 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5 USM

EF 24-85mm f/3.5-4.5 USM is decent zoom lens that on 10D has a 35mm-equivalent focal length range of 38-136 mm. For around $310 you get a reasonable zoom that has some of wide angle coverage - 38mm is not that very wide, but the lens overall might be quite acceptable for your family photos. Norman Koren finds this lens quite sharp when stepped down to f/8.

EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

While a quite good "standard extended" zoom lens for film cameras, EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM becomes a good standard-to-telephoto zoom (equivalent to 45-216 mm zoom in 35 mm format) on 10D. Please note that this lens has Image Stabilization, which should be very useful for hand-held telephoto pictures. In addition to having Image Stabilization, this lens is also surprisingly sharp considering its range and price. photodo rated this lens at 3.5, which means at f/8 and beyond it should be sharper than either EF 20-35mm or EF 24-85mm.

Affordable L-Series Zoom Lenses

Canon L-Series lenses are the best of the breed. However, most of them are also quite expensive (above $1000, sometimes even well above $1000). It's easy to understand why: high-quality, fast lenses require a lot of careful design and are hard to manufacture. Many of them use prime glass that is quite expensive to begin with. Additionally, since only pros are interested in such lenses, they are produced in smaller quantities than other, "regular" lenses. The extra design, superior glass elements, and small production all translate into higher cost. Can't go around it.

Fortunately, some of the L-Series lenses are actually not that expensive, for various reasons. If you really don't need very fast lenses, than you might be able to save some money and still get an excellent lens. There are especially two lenses that fit into this category: still L-Series lenses, still excellent quality and price glass, but lower price because of smaller aperture.

EF 17-40mm f/4L USM

Let's start from a new lens just recently release by Canon: EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, available for around $800. This excellent lens is of special value for digital camera owners, as this is the answer to the wide angle problem with digital cameras. Even with 1.6 focal lens multiplier for EOS 10D, this lens has the 35mm-equivalent focal length range of 27-64mm, which means this is a really nice wide-to-standard zoom. Of course it is also an exciting lens for full-frame cameras (film cameras as well as 1Ds) with its super-wide angle range. Michael Reichmann and Norman Koren both find lens really good. The Michael Reichmann's test shows that at wide end this new zoom is even slightly sharper than significantly more expensive (but faster) EF 16-35mm f/2.8 USM lens, while the longest focal lengths the more expensive f/2.8 one has a small edge. His findings agree with MTF charts publish by Canon, which reveal the same. I have just received 17-40 f/4L lens and will eventually put more information here once I collect some experience using it. Few quick warnings:

• If you planning to use this lens for family shots, please be aware that - because of its size - the lens vignettes the built-in flash at focal lengths smaller than 28mm when used without the lens shade, and always if used with the lens shade. This results in lack of full flash coverage. If you insist on shooting family picture with this lens, get an external flash. Or get one of the zoom lenses described above - they should be just fine for family shots. They are also smaller, which should be helpful, too. Not to mention that probably this is not the lens you want to carry around in a party...
• When shooting in Manual Focus, please remember that the focusing ring will let you "rotate" the lens beyond the infinity mark. This is a special feature, documented in the lens manual, to allow for proper focus in very abnormal temperatures. In normal, average conditions, the focus is set at infinity when the scale points to the left "tick" mark.

EF 70-200 f/4L USM

Second lens of similar "nature" is EF 70-200 f/4L USM, costing about $580. This lens was rated 4.1 by photodo, which is really good for this category; photodo found this lens to be of the same quality (same rating of 4.1) as much more expensive EF 70-200 f/2.8 L USM lens. On Canon 10D, the 35mm equivalent focal length range of this lens is 112-320, a nice long telephoto. If you are into wildlife photography but $1000+ costs are beyond your range, this could be the right lens for you.

Lens Links

• Canon Lens Line on Canon's Web site
• Canon lenses on photodo. Photodo is an independent site dedicated to lenses. They measured Modulation Transfer Function (MTF) for over 450 lenses (including most Canon EF lenses) and display the result on their site. For some of the lenses, they also measured distortion. Most links to MTF charts for Canon lenses are broken on their site, so you may want to use the links I provided above to see the charts.

The Craft of RAW Conversion

If you shoot in RAW format, then the next natural step is converting RAW files to TIFF. Currently, there are 3 options for Canon 10D users: Canon File Viewer Utility, Capture One DSLR from Phase One, and Breeze Browser. I have experience with the first two products.

Canon File Viewer Utility

10D comes with, among other software titles, File Viewer Utility. This program lets you browse, copy, and convert images, as well as create index or "contact sheets." Although File Viewer provides quick display and browsing of image thumbnails, it is quite slow when it comes to display images themselves. This actually is one of three biggest issues with the File Viewer: it is very slow to refresh the image after changing any of the conversion parameters. What makes it even worse is that the program hides the image while re-processing the image, which lasts for several seconds. As the result, it is almost impossible to compare the 'before' and 'after' settings.

The second serious issue with the File Viewer Utility is its very partial support for color profiles. The only thing that you can do here is to specify whether your destination profile is sRGB or Adobe RGB. However, the program will not attach the profile to the generated TIFF file, so you will have to remember to do it by hand when you open the image in Photoshop, or your photo editor.

Another serious limitation of File Viewer Utility is also related to profiles: the application itself does not display images using color management. That means that, when you output to Adobe RGB color space, it might be hard to judge the White Balance correctly as the image looks washed out.

Capture One DSLR LE from Phase One

The second RAW converter that started to use very recently is Capture One DSLR Limited Edition from Phase One. I decided to give this one a try after reading good reviews by Michael Reichmann on Luminous Landscape and Outback Photo. This converter provides full support for color management in the areas where Canon's converter falls short (using monitor profile for image display and tagging the generated images with profiles) and in addition it also comes with a profile for Canon EOS 10D.

Capture One is also faster than Canon's File Viewer when it comes to updating image after changing conversion parameters, giving you the almost-instant feedback.

The software has many more advantages, and the biggest one of them is the quality of generated images. However, as with anything, there are some small imperfections. One that makes me worry a little is inconsistency in displaying the color temperature. It happened several times that when I opened an image that was not edited yet (so the color temperature is set to default based on camera settings), changed the color temperature and then reset to the original one, the color temperature was not the same as immediately after opening the image. The difference was small (100K), but makes me wonder what is going on.

Generally, this program is really good and it was designed not only to do the conversion from RAW, but also to produce images that are close to their final form: you can do color corrections with levels and forms, cropping, as well as sharpening. However, I usually don't do much (if at all) color correction in Capture One, deferring this kind of work to Photoshop. And, despite it interesting sharpening tool, I don't do any sharpening at all (in preferences, you can easily disable sharpening on output to final images), as the sharpening strongly depends on the purpose and size of the final image (Web, print, print size, printer resolution, etc.). Therefore I usually work mostly through the first two tabs in Capture One.

I will update this section once I have more experience with Capture One software...

The Ultimate Exposure Meter?

If you use your digital camera to determine exposure for a film-based one, you will need to make careful tests to determine whether there is any difference in exposure between the two for specific film and lenses used. Additionally, remember that digital cameras have the dynamic range comparable to that of slides, while color negatives usually offer larger range.

10D in a Studio Settings - Instant Proofs

It is really pretty simple. Just connect your tripod-mounted 10D to a computer through a USB cable, and run Canon Remote Capture application. In Remote Capture, chose camera settings, take a picture, open it in PhotoShop, print (define an action to size the picture, run some elementary sharpening, and print it), evaluate and discuss with the model/client (and sell your Polaroid back on eBay now hoping that not every pro already read this page ;-). For the proofs, I suggest shooting in JPEG instead of RAW to speed up the proof workflow, and then switch to RAW (or other camera) for the final shot(s). Another possibility to simplify the workflow is to shoot proofs in sRGB color space and print them outside of PhotoShop (remember to set default printer settings for the paper in use and wanted color mode) - but the result will depend on what program you use to do such "quick" prints...

If you use some other camera for the final picture, make sure that you "calibrate" your digital/film combo. Through simple testing, check what is the difference in the exposure, if any, for specific film/lens that you use on your non-digital camera. It is not uncommon to find a difference of a half-stop or so. Also, if you happen to shoot subjects with a large tonal range (weddings?), be aware of different tonal ranges between your digital camera and film - especially if you use a negative film!

Some other digital cameras also offer a kind of direct capture to computer - check what software you have available for you camera.

Complains

A-DEP instead of old-good DEP mode.

Being a Canon user for a long time, this is by far my biggest disappointment. My oldest EOS body (and, if I remember correctly, first EOS model released by Canon), EOS 650, introduced the Depth-of-Field mode (DEP) that was very unique to Canon. Since then, almost all Canon cameras came with this exposure mode, with the exception of few cheap ones that came with A-DEP mode...

In the DEP mode, you first focus on a near point (press the shutter release half way for the first time), then on a far point (press shutter release for the second time), and then (after pressing the shutter release for the third time) the camera sets the focus distance and calculates the aperture, resulting in the depth of field extending from the near to the far points you selected. This is an extremely useful feature as more and more lenses don't have the Depth of Field (DOF) scale, and especially nowadays when we have digital cameras with sensors smaller than the full 24x36 mm frame (resulting in the smaller circle of confusion). Unfortunately. EOS 10D has A-DEP mode instead of the old DEP mode. In this mode, you have to make sure that the near and far points (for the depth of field that you want) are covered by AF sensors at the same time - with a single press of the shutter release button. While this may at first sound simpler compared to three shutter release presses in DEP mode, it is a serious limitation whenever near and far points cannot be covered by AF sensors at the same time, or when you want to control the Depth of Field more precisely.

While we are talking about the Depth-of-Field, it would be really nice if Canon were to enable the user to increase the aperture by a specific value (resulting in using smaller values for the circle of confusion). This could be achieved by setting an aperture increment value in a menu or a custom function, or by letting us use the Main Dial to shift the aperture (the same way as the aperture/shutter speed can be shifted in the Program mode). I always used to set the aperture one or two stops higher than what DEP mode calculated, to get a better depth-of-field (for larger enlargements and/or sharper results). To do this, though, one has to remember what aperture value was calculated, switch to manual focus and to the Aperture Priority mode, and finally dial the wanted aperture. In addition, (a variation on the top of such "DEP Aperture Shift") the camera could be calculating the aperture but setting focal distance always at infinity, and yet another one - assuming that the "far" point is at infinity. (I guess I will keep dreaming... but we are talking here only about not-so-many lines of software code to calculate all of the above, and since Canon engineers have already about 15 years of experience with electronically-controlled DOF, it should not be such a big deal to add this kind of advanced DOF functionality in some future EOS camera... In the meantime, maybe they can figure-out how to do a 10D firmware patch to replace A-DEP mode with real DEP mode... if possible)

Tag JPEG Files with Proper Profile

Neither JPEGs created by the camera nor TIFFs or JPEGs generated by the File Viewer Utility have profiles attached.

Support for Color Profiles in File Viewer

Canon File Viewer Utility is not a profile-aware application, so if you work with Adobe RGB, your images will not be properly displayed in the File Viewer. That makes converting RAW files to TIFF very hard, especially selecting proper White Balance (as well as contrast and saturation if you prefer to change them in File Viewer).

Other Issues and Suggestions

Then there are few really minor things:

• I would like ISO speed to be always displayed on the top LCD panel. Since ISO now became another exposure control variable that can be easily and frequently changed, it would be really helpful to always be aware of the current setting.
Even better, seeing ISO in the viewfinder would be great, but I could live with just seeing ISO setting on the top LCD panel.
• Continue blinking overexposed pixels while zooming in. Currently, the overexposed pixels blink while in the "info" review mode. However, in this mode the picture is quite small (meaning one LCD pixel corresponds to a large number of image pixels) and sometimes it is hard to determine how many real image pixels are overexposed.
• Spot Metering instead of Partial Metering. Although using histogram helps determine the correct exposure, in some cases I would still like to be able to make spot readings..