Canon 20D previews

For those of you interested in the new Canon 20D digital SLR, for your
convenience:

http://www.dpreview.com/articles/canoneos20d/
http://luminous-landscape.com/reviews/cameras/20d-part1.shtml
http://www.steves-digicams.com/2004_reviews/20d.html
http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/E20D/E20DA.HTM
http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=7-6458-7153
http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/canon/eos_20d-review/

This looks like a seriously nice camera, perhaps only an incremental upgrade
over the 10D, but those upgrades are significant: instant turn-on time,
8.2MP versus 6.3MP for the 10D, and better signal/noise ratio at higher ISOs
(plus the capability of higher ISO speeds, up to 3200). Check out this shot
taken at 1600 ISO with no noise reduction applied:

http://luminous-landscape.com/1photo-pages/l/luca-rest.shtml

Sweet.

10D owners might be torn over this one, but for this Digital Rebel owner, I
think an upgrade is a no-brainer. When I get one, I'll report back with my
own impressions.

Mike

 

Personally, I am waiting to see how well it works with 3rd party lenses.
Specifically the Sigma line.
Historically, it seems that Canon manages to introduce a new camera that is
not compatable with previous versions of Sigma's Canon mount lenses.
Usually, Sigma will re-chip their lenses to fix the problems, after the new
camera is introduced. I suspect that if that is the case, there will be
quite a waiting list on getting current (and hopefully older) Sigma Lenses
re-chipped to work with the 20D. I want to get a Sigma 50-500 (aka: Bigma)
for my 10D, but, I will not be selling my 10D until, I know how the 20D
does with Sigma lenses.
As for ISO3200, the 10D also supports it. Although, given the info posted on
the 20D, it will have less visible noise than the 10D at ISO3200.
I hope you enjoy your new camera when it arrives.
james

 

Could it be that they're too cheap to buy rights to the mount and have
to reverse engineer it?

 

The 20D will have the EF-S lens mount, so theoretically anything that can
attach to the Digital Rebel should be able to attach to the 20D. If it's a
chip issue, though, who knows?

Yes, I later noticed the 10D also has ISO 3200, but it does seem the noise
reduction on the 20D is much improved. I think the press release is a bit
of hyperbole - i.e. the 20D's ISO 1600 is equivalent to the 10D's ISO 400,
which I won't believe until I see it. But it is encouraging that digital
gets less and less noisy at higher ISOs as the technology marches on.

Looks like I'll be waiting until October, when it's released. Argh - I hate
waiting.

Mike

 

In line:

The EF-S mount on the DRebel and the 20D have nothing to do with wheather or
not current and older Sigma Lenses will work with the 20D. All Electronic
Focus lenses, wheather from Canon, Sigma, Tamron, Tokina or any other
manufacturers, that are designed to work on the EF or EF-S Canon mount
cameras, all have internal electronic components that give the camera
information for focusing as well as allow the camera to change focus of the
lens. Most manufacturers, license the internal software from Canon to make
their lenses compatable with Canon SLR's. Sigma does not. They just reverse
engineer the system and design their own software for their lenses to use.
And because of that , Sigma has had (and probably will have this time too)
compatibility problems. The famous Error 99 problem with Sigma lenses. I
have sent a couple of lenses to Sigma to be re-chipped in the past. And one
they did with no problem , and no cost to me other than shipping. And the
other, after they had already told me they could re-chip it(phone call),
they sent back , after writing me, saying they could not rechip the lens
because it was an older lens and they no longer carried chips for it. Not a
huge loss, as I got the lens pretty cheap and it does work with my older
Canon 35mm film camera.
That is the main reason, (besides I cannot justify spending the money right
now) for me not wanting to jump on the 20D bandwagon just yet. I will let
you first adopters to the checking for me!!

Oh, I have read that the 20D will be available in mid-September. Maybe,
your's will show up about then.
I would hate to wait too. Maybe, by the time all the dust settles and they
have been out for a while, I will know if I even want one or not. I really
think I would rather invest in better lenses for now. But, then again, if I
do that, I can no longer blame my lens for those occaisional bad photos I
take!!!
james

 

Ah, that explains so much. I just stick with the Canon lenses - I know
that costs a premium in comparison, but my business does well enough to
afford it and I figure that in the end, it's worth saving any potential
headaches. Guaranteed compatibility goes a long way towards helping me
enjoy photography instead of worrying about the technical details.

I'll just keep my eyes out and see when they start turning up. I like to
read reviews of production models first, too, but Canon has such a good
track record that I find I have some level of faith in them. Anyway, I
can't wait - I've pretty much mastered the features on my Rebel, and am
ready to take it to the next step. Everyone who says that all photographers
should take a stab at going all manual, at least for a while, are absolutely
right. Going manual and not letting the camera decide for me has been the
most liberating artistic experience I could have asked for, and now I'm
making my camera do stuff for me instead of letting it dictate to me. I
think the 20D will be the perfect tool with which to expand my canvas even
further.

Mike

 

You forgot 5 frames per second. That alone may be make the upgrade
worthwhile for many shooters.

 

And a much larger buffer - yes, I agree that's another significant upgrade.

Mike