Spotlight: Digital SLRs

The Olympus E-1 (left) and the Canon EOS Digital Rebel both use lenses that can be swapped out quickly and easily, making the cameras more flexible.

Digital single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras are designed for serious photographers who want more control over how their photos look. They have several advantages over the more conventional point-and-shoot digital cameras: They let you swap out their lenses, and in most instances the lenses and accessories are interchangeable with your existing 35mm film SLR camera if you stick with the same manufacturer. For example, Canon's digital SLRs can use most of the several hundred available Canon EF mount lenses. Some older lenses and the Olympus E-1, which uses lenses specially designed for this camera, are exceptions.

The standout product in this month's spotlight is the Canon EOS Digital Rebel, which at $899 (for the body only) is the cheapest of the models we reviewed. This 6.3-megapixel camera takes beautifully sharp pictures, with accurate, vivid colors, and it is very easy to use. Though not quite as robust or as feature-packed as some of its more professional cousins, it's a great choice for the serious photographer without a pro's budget. Our other favorite is the Olympus E-1; although this model is more expensive, it is also very easy to use and has a number of helpful features, such as an excellent noise reduction mode. The Canon EOS 1-Ds is another outstanding camera: It produced the sharpest, best-looking images in our tests. Though its price of $8000 is way beyond what most people can afford, you'll probably see cameras similar to this one, but costing much less, appear within the next couple of years.

Focal Length

The Nikon D100 (left) is a very flexible camera that gives the photographer lots of control, while the Pentax ist D is the lightest of the cameras we examined.

Although you may be able to use a standard film SLR lens on a digital SLR, there is a price to pay. The image sensors in digital SLRs are almost always smaller than a 35mm film negative, a difference that increases the effective focal length of the lens. This is great for zoom lenses because it increases the magnification; but when you are using a wide-angle lens, it decreases the angle of view.

The exceptions are the Canon EOS 1-Ds and the Olympus E-1. The 1-Ds has a sensor that is the same size as a 35mm negative, while the Olympus uses special lenses that provide the same angle of view as an equivalent film SLR lens.

In Living Color

Color is the heart of any photograph, and all of the cameras that we tested produced images with impressively vivid colors. Overall, the three Canon models took top marks for color accuracy. The Nikon D100 overemphasized the yellow, but we found this flaw easy to correct by using either the supplied Nikon View software or Adobe Photoshop; and once they were corrected, the images looked as good as those produced by the other cameras.

All of the models reviewed here support an uncompressed RAW mode, which saves all of the information captured by the image sensor. But this mode also produces big files--often in excess of 10MB for a single image. It consequently makes viewing pictures in the camera's LCD screen a slow process, but the Canons use an interesting trick: In RAW mode, they also save a JPEG version of the photo that the camera can quickly display.

Noise Annoys

The Canon EOS 1-Ds (right) is a heavyweight professional model with a huge list of features and a price to match, while the Canon EOS 10D is cheaper and significantly lighter.

Noise--speckling or mottling, most often visible in broad planes of color, such as sky--is an inevitable fact of digital photography. We saw noise in photos taken by all of the cameras, although most of the time these blemishes were barely noticeable. The Nikon D100 showed the most noise, but we wouldn't say it has a big problem: The images it produced still looked great when enlarged, with the noise being only just visible at lower ISO settings. The Olympus E-1 has a noise reduction mode in which the camera takes the photo and then takes another with the same settings but with the shutter closed. Finally it subtracts this noise-only image from the first, eliminating much of the noise (see "Noise Reduction," on next page).

Hands On

The downside of the creative control these cameras offer is that they can be much more difficult to use than a conventional point-and-shoot digital camera. The Canon EOS 10D's body, for instance, has a total of 17 buttons, two switches, and three dials, and it takes some time to learn which button does what. The Canon EOS Digital Rebel and the Pentax ist D are the easiest to use: Neither requires a huge amount of button pushing to access its settings. The Olympus E-1 puts controls you'd want to use while looking through the viewfinder (such as exposure lock and the focus point selector) under your right thumb for easy access, while the Nikon D100 offers two dials for shutter speed and aperture near the shutter button.

All of the cameras proved to be quick at focusing in good light, although in low light the Digital Rebel often spent several seconds trying to focus. All of the models also offer several user-selectable focus zones. The Digital Rebel and the Pentax have nine zones, which cover most of the frame, while the Olympus gives you three in the center of the frame. The Canons provide an automatic depth-of-field mode, and this is very useful for getting both a nearby object and a distant one in focus.

The cameras we tested have a variety of metering modes, as you'd expect, including spot, center-weighted, and automatic. The Pentax and Nikon provide a dedicated dial, instead of buttons or a menu, for switching between metering modes.

Photos a la Mode

The cameras all offer modes such as aperture-priority, shutter-priority, full manual, and program, but the Canon Digital Rebel and 10D also include scene modes (such as sports and portrait) that set the camera up for the subject. For instance, the sports mode enables the camera to take photos in quick succession and keep quick-moving subjects in focus.

Most of the models connect to a PC over a USB 1.1 interface, and copying the large files these cameras produce takes a long time. The 1-Ds provides a FireWire interface, while the Olympus E-1 includes both USB 2.0 and FireWire. Both of these faster connections make the process of transferring images much quicker.

While the Digital Rebel is the standout camera of the group, there are several other attractive options. The Olympus E-1 is easy to use and takes great images, but it can't take existing Olympus lenses. The Pentax ist D is the smallest and lightest of the group, but the images were not as sharp as the others. The Nikon D100 is a very flexible camera, but the others have more accurate colors and less noise.

Output Samples

For optimal detail in images, the greater the resolution, the better. The 11.1-megapixel Canon 1-Ds (left) picks up much more fine detail in photos of our test chart than does the 6.1-megapixel Pentax ist D (right).

The Olympus E-1 includes a mode that uses a blank image to remove noise (the red blotches) from an image. Both photos are 4-second exposures; the photo on the right has the noise-removal mode enabled.

Digital SLR Cameras: Loaded but Pricey (chart)

These cameras provide more features and flexibility than their point-and-shoot cousins, but they are also more expensive.