Canon EOS 300D

Here’s some exciting news that I’ve been waiting a long time for; a digital SLR camera that sounds as it is going to pretty affordable.I did crack eighteen months ago and get a compact digital camera and I have had a fair bit of fun with it but it just wasn’t any competition for my normal film cameras. I yearned for a digital camera body that I could use with my existing lenses and which wouldn’t cost me an arm and a leg.
Canon recently announced the imminent launch of the 6,3 megapixel Canon EOS 300D camera at $899, body only, and at $999 with an 18-55mm lens which is roughly equivalent to a 28-80mm lens in 35mm camera terms. The launch of the 300D is generating a lot of excitement around the Internet and it has received a Highly Recommended from Digital Photography Review (www.dpreview.com) which is one of the most respected digital photography websites around.
It has also been described as unbelievably good value for money which I can well believe because it offers all the speed and features of a fully-fledged SLR at the price of a good point-and-shoot digital. I expect that other manufacturers are going to have to re-evaluate their pricing strategies in the light of this, and about bloody time say I.
The 300D’s big brother is the 10D which retails for $1499 in the USA but costs close to R25000 here so I don’t for a single minute imagine that the 300D is going to appear locally at anything like the prices quoted above. I’d prefer to buy locally but I won’t pay through the nose for the privilege and I won’t hesitate to order through a reputable overseas dealer if that’s the difference between affording the camera or not.
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And another interesting little titbit which is that Sentech is now offering Internet bandwidth via bi-directional satellite connection direct to the Internet backbone in the UK. The current packages are aimed at corporates and are too pricy for home users but an informant at Sentech tells me that they’ll be launching Internet connection packages in November for smaller users using radio technology. Now wouldn’t that be a great Christmas present?