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Canon EOS 30D survey results
 Canon EOS 30D Here's the result of a survey taken over the last few days regarding the new EOS 30D. It's only a reflection of visitors to this website of course, the overwhelming majority of who are already Canon owners and most of which are probably Canon DSLR owners. It's not a cross section of all photographers, nor is it intended to be. Note that not all the numbers will add up to exactly 100% since they have been rounded and some people provided their own "other" answer, not all of which are included in these results. There were around 400 responses, so the statistics should be pretty solid. The answer marked [*] is my answer! 1- Which DSLR do you own?
So about 1/2 the survey respondents own an 8MP DSLR (Rebel XT or EOS 20D). That's not really much of a surprise. In the "other" category people listed film cameras and P&S digicams. 2 - Did you expect the EOS 30D to have more pixels than the EOS 20D?
It's pretty obvious that almost everyone who thought about it expected the EOS 30D to have more pixels than the EOS 20D (including me!). They were all wrong. 3 - Will you upgrade to the EOS 3D within the next few months?
Again, it's pretty obvious that most people do not intend to upgrade. The next question is about what those who will upgrade will be upgrading from. 4 - If you do intend to buy an EOS 30D, which DSLR do you currently own?
It looks like most of the "upgraders" will be upgrading from a 6MP DSLR (10D or Digital Rebel). The rest either own an 8MP DSLR or a digicam of film camera. 5- If the EOS 30D had been 10.5MP rather than 8.2MP would you have bought one, even i fit had been $100 more expensive?
So of the 71% of those who won't be upgrading, almost half of them would have done so if the EOS 30D had been a 10.5MP camera. That's a lot of people! In this case, with 400 replies that's about 125 people. A pretty interesting result, but should be considered in the light of the next question. It looks like those 44% who would have upgraded would only have done so if the high ISO noise was at least as low as that of the EOS 20D, which may well not have been an option. 6 - Would you upgrade to get more pixels if it also meant you'd have higher noise at high ISO setting?
It's pretty clear that most people want low noise more than they want more pixels. Of course it depends a bit on how many more pixels and how much noise (obviously most people would take 5% more noise for 100% more pixels), but it's clear that people do want low noise enough that they don't consider higher noise an option. 7 - Would you buy an EF-S lens?
A little over 1/2 the respondents won't buy an EF-S lens because they expect to eventually upgrade to a full frame camera. This is probably a unique situation for Canon DLSR owners, since Nikon, Pentax and Konica-Minolta owners currently have no expectation of ever having a compatible full frame DSLR available 8- How much would you pay for a 12MP, full frame DSLR?
It's clear that most users are waiting for the price to drop below $2000. I think it's unlikely that he 5D price will fall that low, but maybe in 12 months time (PMA 2007?) it's just possible that we might see something full frame close to the $2000 point. If not then, then maybe fall of 2007? 9 - If you were going to upgrade if the EOS 30D had more pixels and now don't intend to, what will you do with the money you saved?
Remember that most respondents are Canon owners, so you wouldn't expect many to switch to Nikon. If the survey was of people who didn't own any Nikon or Canon gear, the result would be different. 10 - Comments by EOS 20D owners on the EOS 30D and upgrading
User CommentsI've listed several hundred comments on a separate page. You can read them on a separate EOS 30D Comments Page Overall ConclusionsIt seems that most current EOS DSLR users were a little disappointed by the EOS 30D having the same sensor as the EOS 20D. Most wanted and expected more. However most would not have traded more pixels for higher noise levels at high ISO settings. A number of people left comments that they were seriously considering the 10.5 MP Nikon D200, though those people may not realize that (according to recent tests on Dpreview) the Nikon D200 is noisier at high ISO settings than the EOS 20D/30D, so with a D200 they would indeed be trading more pixels for higher noise. Most of those who are considering an EOS 30D currently own a 6MP DSLR (EOS 10D/Digital Rebel), which isn't a surprise since they'd not only be getting a lot more features, but an increase in pixel count (from 6MP to 8.2MP) as well. If Canon had made the 30D 10.5MP they'd probably have sold a lot more cameras as "upgrades", but if the noise at ISO 1600 and ISO 3200 had been higher, there might have been an equal number of disappointed users. In fact, if you believe the answers given to question 6, 77% of users would not have been happy with higher noise and more pixels and only 5% would have been.In the long run, the decision to stay at 8.2MP may turn out be have been the correct one. The image quality from the 20D/30D sensor is excellent, the high ISO noise performance is good and the new features of the EOS 30D make a good camera (20D) even better. Whether it's "worth" upgrading from an EOS 20D is debatable, but an upgrade from an EOS 10D or Digital Rebel will certainly be worthwhile, and for someone coming into the DSLR world from film or a digicam, the EOS 30D may well be the best bang for the buck right now. The Nikon D200 is clearly a competitor (though at a price $300 higher). It has an extra 2MP, but does suffer from a noise penalty at high ISO settings. Further Reading
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