The Canon EOS 300 – often known as the Insurgent 2000 within the US and the Kiss III in Japan – is low key one of the essential cameras that the corporate has ever made.
Launching in April 1999, the Canon EOS 300 got here at a pivotal time within the trade – insofar because it was the time at which the trade was pivoting away from movie and in the direction of the digital age.
Which can have appeared a wierd time to launch an inexpensive and cheerful movie SLR, which was an instance of plastic implausible even by the requirements of the time. However whereas the Canon EOS 300 could have represented the final hurrah for the price range 35mm SLR, it is a hurrah that has endured to at the present time.
Stroll into any thrift retailer, flea market or second-hand store that sells outdated cameras and there is a very excessive likelihood that you will see an EOS 300 / Insurgent 2000 (or, certainly, Kiss III when you’re in certainly one of Japan’s Aladdin’s cave digital camera shops).
Launching for simply over $500 within the US, it supplied an inexpensive manner into movie images and bought like absolute gangbusters – which accounts for why there are such a lot of of them nonetheless round in the present day.
And the Canon EOS 300 was a surprisingly succesful digital camera, with AF that punched effectively above its weight (extra in keeping with cameras just like the EOS 30, although with out that digital camera’s signature Eye Management), 35-zone evaluative metering (as an alternative of the usual 6-zone system) and even a wi-fi distant.
Right this moment you may discover this digital camera in all places, going filth low-cost – I’ve simply noticed one on eBay for $20, and there is invariably one with a package lens or two at any time when I am looking outdated cameras.
In 2025, because it was from 1999-2002 when this digital camera was new, the Canon EOS 300 marks extremely good worth for cash for anybody seeking to get into 35mm movie taking pictures.
It is not essentially the most superior digital camera on the earth, and nor does it should be – and nor do you want it to be. The following time you see one, I extremely suggest choosing it up and throwing a roll of movie in it – particularly when you’ve by no means shot 35mm earlier than.
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