The Canon EOS 30D has the perfect price point and features including excellent image quality to become the favorite Digital SLR for a significant number of photographers - amateur and professional alike. An incremental upgrade from the hugely popular Canon EOS 20D, the 30D is destined to capture a great number of our generation's images.

With the Canon EOS 30D, Canon has "Targeted at an increasingly discerning population of serious creative photographers." The Digital SLR market is exploding - by 120% in Western Europe in the last 12 months (according to Canon). Canon owns a signification market share in this rapidly growing sector. “A rapidly expanding population of serious and semi-commercial creative photographers is helping drive EOS growth,” said Mogens Jensen, Head of Canon Consumer Imaging Europe. “As well as putting many high-end pro features into their hands, the EOS 30D becomes a launching pad into the world’s most comprehensive interchangeable lens system and huge range of flash units and accessories.”

7.1 Megapixels. 3x optical zoom. Advanced DIGIC III processor. Face Detection AF/AE/FE. Red-Eye Correction. 3.0"" PureColor LCD. Touch Control Dial. ISO 1600 and Auto ISO Shift. 17 shooting modes and My Colors. VGA movies and Time Lapse Movie.

So - a confession. I have an Ixus APS camera (that's film, kids - ask your parents) - it's the original that Canon based this one on. I bought the Ixus 70 for one reason: my film Ixus still works and looks like new 10 years on. I have had a few digital cameras over the last few years. Why? All of them have broken. All had plastic bodies, flimsy switches, and did not last everyday use - especially now I have young children. All of these cameras were big brands - Olympus, Panasonic, Casio.

Now, you can protect any camera with a case, but you have a compact camera like this so you can slip it in and out of your pocket and take snaps. This shiny metal box slides in and out of the pocket easily, no snagging, and starts up in a fraction of a second. Pictures are always better than I expect (well, it is a Canon - you know, a proper camera company) and video is excellent. It even has some really cutting edge stuff like the face recognition tech that makes sure people are in focus.

It fulfils all of the brief of the original Ixus: Stylish (oh yes - everyone who has seen mine wants one), easy to use and above all BULLETPROOF.