Before the Canon EOS 5D was announced, I wrestled with the idea of “upgrading” from the Canon EOS 20D to an Canon EOS 1Ds II but decided against it. The EOS 20D with its 17-85 IS lens is a brilliant travel camera and lens combination. Wide zoom range and image stabilisation together with the camera’s low noise make for a very flexible but lightweight, compact and unobtrusive combination. An EOS 1Ds and 24-70 f2.8L would take better pictures, but at a significant cost. Compared with the 20D system, the 1Ds II with 24-70 would be about twice the size and weight with about half the zoom range and no IS. Potential street candid subjects would most likely run a mile at the sight of such an obvious “pro” camera.
For me, the 5D and 24-105L combination is better than the 20D and 17-85. No surprise there. Really, the results of my tests are that there are no surprises. The 5D is as good as I expected it to be, and I expected it to be amazing. For my travel purposes, as an all-round compromise, it is better than the chunky EOS 1Ds, making it the best camera currently available, indeed (for my purposes) the best camera ever. But in some respects (ie telephoto shooting) the 20D is still superior, for half the money.
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You can get a new EOS 20D for under $1350 if you shop around and you can now find used ones for quite a bit less if you are lucky. The 5D will start selling in mid-October at $3300. The price may well come down after a few months but my guess is that it will probably stay over $3000 for most of it’s lifetime, so the price difference will be around $2000. That’s not insignificant by any means. Cost will be a factor for most people who are looking at either a 20D or a 5D.
The price difference is $2000 which isn’t insignificant! Though the 5D is a breakthrough in pricing for a full frame camera, it’s still out of the reach of many photographers at $3300. For those doing studio work or landscape and editorial shooting, the 5D will be a great camera and I’m sure it will sell very well indeed. For anyone shooting a lot of action, the slightly more expensive ($3999) EOS 1D MkII N, with it’s 8.5fps frame rate and 48/22 JPEG/RAW buffer will still probably be the camera of choice. For penurious amateur wildlife shooters who never have a lens long enough to capture their subjects, the 20D probably remains the camera of choice due to its higher pixel density and significantly lower price. The 1Ds Mk II will still command the attention of those wealthy enough to buy it and who need the durability of a fully weather sealed camera with the ultimate in full frame image quality. However I’d guess that the 5D might well eat into 1Ds MkII sales as the $4700 price difference is more than a lot of people will be able to justify.
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More compact that the EOS 10D it replaced, the EOS 20D is also lighter. The body is built around a solid stainless steel chassis, covered in a magnesium alloy, and finished in a textured, flat black.
The EOS 20D’s 2-stage shutter button is positioned at the end of a depression shaped for the index finger at the top front of the grip, only one of a number of buttons on the top right side of the camera.
Directly behind the shutter release is the Main Dial, which is used mostly to select shooting-related settings including aperture and shutter speed when the camera is set to one of the advanced modes.
Nearby, to the right in the image shown here, is the lamp used for Red-eye Reduction and the Self-timer.
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The main competition for the Canon EOS-20D is most likely its younger sibling, the new (April 2005) Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT - There are two areas of distinction besides build quality (XT is fine, 20D sturdier) and image quality (very similar). The first, and possibly the most important area, is the functionality of the control buttons, menu navigation, and viewfinder magnification. From reading this review you know I put a high priority on ease of use. For a comparable evaluation of the Digital Rebel XT, see luminous-landscape.com for Michael Reichmann’s “on assignment” report about using the Rebel XT in rapidly changing, uncontrolled conditions.
The Canon EOS 20D is a good cchoiceshoice for any serious photographer ready to step up from a high-end compact digital, 35mm SLR owners who want to make the switch to digital, and it will even serve most professional photographers well.
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Canon EOS 20D is excellent camera with well balanced usability, picture quality and speed. I can heartily recommend it to everyone. Just remember to get some good lens to get the maximum quality out of it. If you’re not willing to spend extra then rather check out Canon Rebel XT / 350D and spend money that is left over from body on quality glass. It will make much more importance in your pictures than the body. And 350D is equally capable camera but more on it a bit later.
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