Strengths and Weaknesses on Canon 30D

Overall I think this is a pretty great camera. It's my first Digital SLR, before this I had a little point and shoot Minolta that was given to me as a gift, it's about 5 years old. And I have a 35mm Canon Rebel that I got in 2004, and I've used a Canon AE-1. I honestly have never shot with anything this nice.

I think the best strengths so far is (1)exposure compensation, because i like shooting on aperture priority and shutter priority- over manual, because sometimes when i do street photography i like to be able to snap shots really quick and i've lost good shots on full manual, i'm just not quick enough. It's a way to control dpeth of field, or motion without being on full manual. But, the light meter in the camera sets everything to a very dull color and contrast, so i like to be able to over expose a stop or stop and a half. Another thing i like is the (2) 9 point focal point, some reviews rated this as a negative point, but i like it. I think it makes it easier to focus with autofocus on things that arent directly in the center of the shot. Another is not one thing in peticular, but there are a lot of (3) custom controls on it, white balance, exposure compensation, 13 different setting for image quality, color temperature, picture style, picture style controls, it just goes on and on.

Negatives i think are the (1) controls for moving the point focal point. Theres a button you have to push to the right of the camera to aluminate the focal point, then there is a seperate button that swivels to select which focal point you want to use, and it's in a weird spot about an inch and a half away. It should be combined into one button or closer togather. I don't like how the (2) aperture is set on the manual setting. The shutter speed it set on the top using the dial, then you have to stop what are doing set the ON/OFF switch to a little dash mark thats on the bottom right end of the camera, and turn a completely different dial. I think thats too comlicated and far away for soemthing you need to set togather. It's heavy (3), but there's good and bad things about being heavy. When I use a larger lens (and i rarely use a tripod) it can be heavy between the two, but at the same time, it's built better. More solid.