Mr Hogan reviews the D70 and the dRebel...

Herb's right - I really just go to the public aquarium in Galveston and that's where I get all my pix. Diving is too cold.

Cheers

James

Good tools are important though. My digital photos improved 100% once I change from P&S to DSLR. They would be better again if I has a 1DMk2 or stopped shooting U/W with my camera in a plastic bag!

Digital Rebel is not a bad camera - it's missing some essential features but has otherwise got all the imaging goodies of Canon's higher-end cameras. It's essentially a cheaper built 10D with a few features left off (doh! no FEC! no mirror lockup! no control wheel on the back!)

D70 is a suprisingly strong contender from Nikon, who haven't exactly been setting the world on fire with their high end DSLR's lately. And Nikon's underwater lens selction wins over Canon, I'm sorry to say.

For underwater, Digital Rebel is now quite attractive because of three letters - TTL

Digital Rebel is not a bad camera - it's missing some essential features but has otherwise got all the imaging goodies of Canon's higher-end cameras.  It's essentially a cheaper built 10D with a few features left off (doh! no FEC!  no mirror lockup!  no control wheel on the back!)

Essential? I don't think so. I have played with the FEC download to the DRebel and have seen some improvement with on-board flash (I still don't want to load the hacks), but anyone serious enough about that type of photography will be using an add on flash unit. The good ones have FEC built in, I use a Sigma EF500DG Super. Since I don't TTL UW, it doesn't matter there as well. The mirror lock up is a nit in the overall performance of a camera of this class. The wheel on the back is just another user interface... None of which are essential to either my topside or UW photography. I just don't see the D70 "Head and Shoulders" above the Rebel as all the popular review wants to state

D70 is a suprisingly strong contender from Nikon, who haven't exactly been setting the world on fire with their high  end DSLR's lately.  And Nikon's underwater lens selction wins over Canon, I'm sorry to say.

 

For underwater, Digital Rebel is now quite attractive because of three letters - TTL  

I would agree with it being a strong contender, it looks and feels very nice (Black plastic instead of silver plastic ) and has several features that the Rebel lacks, but I have seen E10D's on the web for sale new at about the same price. IMHO that would be a MUCH better buy... But hey... I like Canon!!

Dave

Despite being a gearjunkie, I have to agree with the above. I do find it amusing how much effort is being put into the comparison of this and that nitty-pricky, but how seldom we see great pictures that photographers were able to take because of the "wheel on the back" or the "black body color" :?

Being a 4th generation photographer (I am an amateur, mom,granny and the great granpa were the real thing) I have inherited pictures that were taken with simple boxes, but are amazing and I would be very lucky to ever be able to create pictures like these with my latest toy of the year...

So... although this board is very gearocentric (and I kind of like that), it is still good to keep in mind that it is the brain behind the glass that decides what the frame is going to be filled with. And that part IMHO determines 99.99% of the quality of the outcome :wink:

Dave, I'm not the right person to argue with you about the Nikon/Canon thing - I hate all things Nikon. Mmmm, Canon

I was just trying to be fair!

Everyone will miss different features on different cameras. As someone who's thinking of swapping a 10D for a 300D because of housing reasons (ie Aquatica TTL), but still uses his camera a lot topside (including with biggish lenses, I use mirror lockup frequently), those features I mentioned are the ones I'll miss.

I've commented on the FEC issue plenty of times recently, but in short TTL requires FEC to make good use of it, and I would only be buying the 300D in the first place for TTL support. The hack sounds promising. BTW, I use the 420EX speedlite with my 10D, which is a commonly used and high quality canon flash - and you need on-camera FEC to adjust it. I was more interested though in the FEC for underwater use, and there's no strobe which has FEC adjustement on it.