-
Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.
Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
Canon 5D Replacement For 20D Or Is It? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter John151
- Start date
rogerscoth
Well-known member
John, I hope you are not serious about not asking any more questions in this section. Compa's comments are only one person's opinion, and I'm sure he did not intend to offend you. All of the other comments are opinions also!John151 said:
Roger
John151 said:
John: The posting from compa might seem rude to you, but I doubt it was meant to be offensive. Maybe some think your question silly (and I'm not above posting such questions myself), but you raise an interesting issue.
There is currently a certain amount of 'debate' among photo geeks regarding DSLR's from Canon, Nikon and others, and the various frame formats.
Compa said that "The 5D is the cheap path to full frame for those who need wide angle."
The amusing aspect here is that many owners of Canon full frame DSLR's consider Canon wide angle lenses to be lacking, and instead buy Leica and/or Zeiss lenses which they use with an adaptor.
In fact some people consider Nikon's D2x to be better for wide angle work as there are issues with vignetting with the Canon 1Ds sensor. See Bjorn Rorslett's Nikon D2x and Canon 1Ds comparison on his site for details. Apparently it is hard to make wide angle lenses that work well with a full frame sensor.
The advantage of the Canon 5D is that you can use your existing lenses 'as nature intended' i.e. uncropped.
Leif
compa
Well-known member
John151 said:
John151, I'm very sorry if my comments offended you. They were not about you but rather about the title of the thread. From the info you provided in your initial post, you knew that the cameras were not in the same class. You are definitely not silly. Please try to not take my comments personally.
Once again, I apologize for any bad feelings I may have caused. Please feel free to post whatever, whenever and wherever you wish. In the future I will try to refrain from making comments on others' posts and stick strictly to the facts.
Russ Jones
Well-known member
C'mon people, stop being so sensitive...toughen up 
Anyways, I'm sure the 20D will serve the purpose for most photographers for a long time to come but there is that thing called status that fuels many a camera "upgrade".
I wouln't upgrade to a 5D for the following reasons:
I love the built in flash. I have no idea why some people hate this flash so much but I find it works great as a fill flash and I use it all the time, especially for macro shots with a diffuser.
5 fps. This feature is nice for bird photography.
1.6 crop. This is a godsent! Well it is for wildlife photographers anyways. I would never upgrade to a full-frame sensored camera. I can use my 20D a 1.4x TC and a 300mm lens and get an incredible 672mm f5.6 with virtually no loss of image quaility in a setup that weighs maybe 3 or 4 pounds! I just sold my Canon 500mm because I really did not enjoy carrying it around. In fact I rarely brought it with me because it was too much of a hassle, I'd much rather stalk my subjects and I feel I get far more shots because of this. I will not be upgrading my camera any time soon unless they built one very similar to the 20D that is weatherproof.
Megapixels. Do you really need more than 8 megapixels? Probably not, especially with the incredible interpolation software that is available but it makes a great selling point for canon.
Just my thoughts.
Russ
Anyways, I'm sure the 20D will serve the purpose for most photographers for a long time to come but there is that thing called status that fuels many a camera "upgrade".
I wouln't upgrade to a 5D for the following reasons:
I love the built in flash. I have no idea why some people hate this flash so much but I find it works great as a fill flash and I use it all the time, especially for macro shots with a diffuser.
5 fps. This feature is nice for bird photography.
1.6 crop. This is a godsent! Well it is for wildlife photographers anyways. I would never upgrade to a full-frame sensored camera. I can use my 20D a 1.4x TC and a 300mm lens and get an incredible 672mm f5.6 with virtually no loss of image quaility in a setup that weighs maybe 3 or 4 pounds! I just sold my Canon 500mm because I really did not enjoy carrying it around. In fact I rarely brought it with me because it was too much of a hassle, I'd much rather stalk my subjects and I feel I get far more shots because of this. I will not be upgrading my camera any time soon unless they built one very similar to the 20D that is weatherproof.
Megapixels. Do you really need more than 8 megapixels? Probably not, especially with the incredible interpolation software that is available but it makes a great selling point for canon.
Just my thoughts.
Russ
John151
John
Russ Jones said:C'mon people, stop being so sensitive...toughen up
Anyways, I'm sure the 20D will serve the purpose for most photographers for a long time to come but there is that thing called status that fuels many a camera "upgrade".
I wouln't upgrade to a 5D for the following reasons:
I love the built in flash. I have no idea why some people hate this flash so much but I find it works great as a fill flash and I use it all the time, especially for macro shots with a diffuser.
5 fps. This feature is nice for bird photography.
1.6 crop. This is a godsent! Well it is for wildlife photographers anyways. I would never upgrade to a full-frame sensored camera. I can use my 20D a 1.4x TC and a 300mm lens and get an incredible 672mm f5.6 with virtually no loss of image quaility in a setup that weighs maybe 3 or 4 pounds! I just sold my Canon 500mm because I really did not enjoy carrying it around. In fact I rarely brought it with me because it was too much of a hassle, I'd much rather stalk my subjects and I feel I get far more shots because of this. I will not be upgrading my camera any time soon unless they built one very similar to the 20D that is weatherproof.
Megapixels. Do you really need more than 8 megapixels? Probably not, especially with the incredible interpolation software that is available but it makes a great selling point for canon.
Just my thoughts.
Russ
Hello Russ, very informative comments which I find easy to agree with. I will now stick with my 20D even if they do bring out a weather proof version because if I bought the latter I would have no excuse for staying at home during bad weather.
All good wishes,
John
Matthew Busby
New member
Thank You
I hope this works. I am very new to this type of communications, but I want to thank you for presenting this question and getting the responses.
For once I do not have to buy and try to get an valid opinion.
John151 said:
I hope this works. I am very new to this type of communications, but I want to thank you for presenting this question and getting the responses.
For once I do not have to buy and try to get an valid opinion.
The 5D and 20D are definitely in different classes. From what i've seen so far though, the 5D is probably the sharpest camera in Canons Lineup with some of the best color rendition as well. There is a pretty good comparison post on Naturescapes.net in the digital photography section by EJ Peiker regarding a comparison between 5D, 20D, 1DMkIIn, 1DsMkII that you can read here: http://www.naturescapes.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=50481
Keep in mind, yes it is 3FPS, but the 10D was also 3FPS and everyone used that as a bird photography camera. High frame rate is only fast for action photography. For "bird on a stick" photography, one can do just fine with a lower FPS camera. Also keep in mind, even at 3FPS, some people were able to capture flight shots just fine with the 10D. It just required some practice and some alternative approaches to the "point-aim-fire off 8 shots" approach of the 1dMkII.
Cheers,
Keep in mind, yes it is 3FPS, but the 10D was also 3FPS and everyone used that as a bird photography camera. High frame rate is only fast for action photography. For "bird on a stick" photography, one can do just fine with a lower FPS camera. Also keep in mind, even at 3FPS, some people were able to capture flight shots just fine with the 10D. It just required some practice and some alternative approaches to the "point-aim-fire off 8 shots" approach of the 1dMkII.
Cheers,
christineredgate
Winner of the Copeland Wildlife Photographer of th
Comparing the price between the two cams ,there is a big difference.The 20d has some of the best reviews ever.For the extra money needed to buy the 5d a superb lens can be purchased for the 20d.Careful thought needed.
Yes indeed, the 20D (the camera I currently use...still wish I still had my 1dMkII but that is another story) and it is indeed a pretty nice camera. The 1.6x crop factor is quite useful for bird photography as well. If youchristineredgate said:
a) Don't need full frame (i.e. primary focus is landscape photography vs bird photography)
and
b) Have a budget which can't accomodate both, then the 20D is indeed a good camera to have + the extra 2000$ could buy a variety of lenses depending on application, though it still wouldn't come close to getting any of the "big reach" lenses such as 500 f/4, or the like, but it certainly would grab a 400mm f/5.6L and a secondary lens such as a Canon 70-200 f/4 or the like.
I personally would love to have the 5D as a secondary (or tertiary) camera, for select purposes. Primarily i'd use it for landscapes and for hummingbird photography as well as captive wildlife photography. In both the latter instances, the reach isn't necessary, and the improved sharpness/color rendition would be a bonus, as it would be in landscape photography where one wants as much dynamic range as possible.
The 5D is probably Canons best camera under 3500$. The 20D is their best camera under 1500$. The 350XT is a pretty superb little camera for the sub-1000$ crowd. You lose a bit over the 20D, but it definitely is a winner of a camera for the price.
The 1DsMkII is probably their best overall camera, but you are talking 7500$+ for that.
Cheers,
