There was a recent item from Camera Lab's Gordan Liang looking at the Canon D30 (no, not the 30D) which was released about 23 years ago. Back in 2019, I was working on course material for a history of photography, in the process of which I was checking out a book by Tom Ang (who actually lives in my area). He had dedicated a double spread in the book to the early days of DSLRs and featured the D30:
Intrigued, I thought it would be great to find one as a prop for my course, so I went on line and found one on eBay for $60 from Japan UNUSED! Further inquiry elicited that the rear LCD was scratched during unpacking, so the camera was dumped in a storeroom until they were clearing out to move. With nothing to lose, I bought it and sure enough it was otherwise immaculate. I found another inoperative body with a good LCD, and got Canon to switch parts to put the two together and got them to check it - sure enough it was unused.
So, I took it out for a spin with the EF 17-40L lens and was amazed at the performance. With such big photosites, the noise was negligible, even in very low light, as this example demonstrates. Taken hand-held in available light in a very dark pumping room.
It was also interesting to see a video by the respected, and late photographer Michael Reichmann, doing a review of the camera. It is intriguing to see how it was seen at the time it was introduced. It is easy to look back in time and judge it in our contemporary context, but at the time it was the proverbial game-changer:
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