New 20D owner (1 Viewer)

While everyone else is (understandably) raving about their new 40D 's and 50D's, I figured I bring back some attention to an old school version. Yeah, the 20's are old bodies. But I've been shooting exclusively with a 350D for two years, and simply desired a faster shooting frame rate, and more accurate auto focusing. When I scored a new one at Adorama for $499 USD the other day, I couldn't turn it down. I've yet to do much with it other than attatch the BG-E2n grip, and fire off some random shots in the backyard with the 150-500 mounted. What I can say is that it has a really nice feel in the hands, much heftier and more solid feeling than the 350. I was also amazed at how well it tracked a blackbird in flight at about 100 feet, with a busy background at that. Besides, going from

"cleek.....cleek.....cleek.....cleek.....cleek...."

to

"clak..clak..clak..clak..clak..clak..clak"

is quite the nice sound. And as we all know, that's the most important reason to make the upgrade. ||


Whatever. I just thought 500 some odd buckaroonies was a great price for a new-in-box upgrade to my old Rebel. Should be fun to go out into the field with the 150-500 on the 20D for birds, and a wide angle on the 350D for landscapes.

Jason, I think the 20D is a great camera, it was my first DSLR and takes great pictures. Think you will be quite pleased.

Wow! That's a pretty steep price for an ancient camera. Maybe if you got it with some bells and whistles.

But no matter: the 20D is a superb camera, clearly the best camera on the market in its day (excluding mega-expensive exotica, naturally) and still more tan capable of delivering wonderful images. I still use mine all the time, and that's despite having newer ones as well. 20D images have a wonderful tonal quality that isn't matched by anything else short of a 1D III, and they still provide plenty of detail.

The lack of a self-cleaning sensor drives me spare, but that aside, the 20D is a near-faultless tool. Enjoy!

I also still have a 20D and find that, apart from the shutter noise, there is nothing wrong with it at all.
Good luck with it. I think you will enjoy it.

I echo the comments made by Tannin and JohnZ. The 20D is a great camera and, in my opinion, is still up there with the later models for ease of use and image quality. I am sure you will be delighted with the results. Enjoy!

Hi Jason,

You have made a shrewd purchase. I only went for a 40D in addition to my 20D as the price of second-hand ones left me speechless and for the extra money I thought I might as well upgrade, otherwise I would be using two 20Ds.

Re the shutter noise - bonus is you can play at being Rambo letting off a few rounds with his machine gun!

Adrian

I have a 20D I bought second-hand last year. It's a great camera and shows what bargains there are to be had in the second-hand market. Yes, the shutter is very loud, compared to my 40D but it's no less capable for that.

Thanks all!

Adrian, funny stuff! So I guess the 20D isn't known for it's stealth operations, but it's a bit quieter than my 350D, to say the least. Considering all the comments regarding shutter noise, the 30D and 40D must be darned quiet.

So far I'm loving it. The focus speed and AI Servo tracking are in a whole new league, compared with my 350. Good stuff. I should be out shooting most of the week, so I hope to gain some quick experience with it over the next few days.

Jason

I almost bought one last week but then found a 30D for not much more so went for that instead. The prices of these older models makes them very tempting, and they are just as good as they were when they were released.

I've got a 3+year old 20D and love it - I'll be keeping it as a second body when I managed to acquire a 40D.

The only reasons for the intended upgrade to the 40D? A slightly quieter shutter (better for horses indoors), a much better RAW buffer 17 vs 6 and possibly the extra 1.5fps will be better for shooting horses jumping.